Some Petrol Station Attendants in Ghana Use Dirty Tricks on Customers

As the gas station worker fills your car's tank, do you like conversing on your phone, answering messages, or looking through social media posts?

When purchasing fuel in Ghana, you must exercise extreme caution since certain gas station employees may try to take advantage of you by playing dirty tricks, especially if you are not paying attention. The honest and dishonest sorts of gas station employees are two distinct groups. While the dishonest ones are continually attempting to swindle you, the excellent ones fill your automobile with exactly what you paid for.

Therefore, you should pay closer attention to gas station employees, especially if you have suspicions about the fuel you purchase.

Here are a few filthy techniques that ‘some’ fuel station workers use when they try to cheat customers off:

1. The TIM/CAL technique or recall

An attendant can remember previous transactions thanks to a sticker on gas dispensers. Simply click the "Recall" button to display the previous 10 sales along with the amount in cash if the user wishes to view them.

As a result, the gasoline attendant may sell a quantity of GH₵ 180 and hit the recall button to indicate an earlier transaction of GH₵ 200 if a client wanted to purchase petrol costing perhaps GH₵ 200. This is possible if the person being served by the attendant is not paying attention.

Some of the less honorable employees even go as far as jotting down previous sales on a piece of paper so they can quickly glance at it and remember which number to give out when they notice the customer is distracted.

2. Fudged Nozzle Hanging

The measurements should ideally return to zero while the nozzle is suspended from the dispensing device. However, in order to increase their earnings, the gasoline attendants have discovered a means to exceed this predicted reading of the nozzle.

They hang it so the nozzle won't press, rubbing off the previous sales and returning to zero. Therefore, this phony hanging implies that the last sale of fuel will likewise be covered by the following customer.

The reading then starts with the purchase made by the previous consumer. When there is a gasoline shortage and customers are too busy to notice, several attendants have been caught employing this technique. If the last gasoline sold was only a tiny amount, it is still a helpful technique.

3. Chance for Abobo Yaa and Okada

Customers of commercial motorbikes and tricycles, known as Abobo Yaa and Okada particularly, may have noted that they typically buy fuel in modest amounts, ranging from GH₵ 30.00 to GH₵ 50.00, in order to keep moving until they have enough money to refill their tanks.

This implies that if the gasoline attendant hastily plugs the nozzle into the vehicle without clearing the prior transaction, the next customer may be responsible for paying for the fuel after selling a tiny quantity to the Okada. Both a dishonest gas station employee and a preoccupied consumer are required.

4. The Fill-Your-Tank Technique

Many staff at gas stations are aware that filling up your tank is a perfect method to take advantage of you because the fuel stops flowing into your car when the pump automatically shuts off.

The gasoline is then diverted via the vapor recovery mechanism of the pump and placed back into the station's tank. Paying for something you didn't receive.

There are a number of valid arguments against topping off your tank. Your car urgently needs room in the gasoline tank for the vapors to evaporate.

Your car's carbon filter will be forced into the petrol tank if you overfill it. There are repercussions to this. This error has cost you in terms of poor performance, decreased mileage, and expensive repairs.

5. Using a faulty meter

Just be sure that someone has tampered with the meter if filling up at a certain gas station takes less time. A tampered meter begins to read before fuel has even begun to flow into your car. Don't be fooled by the attendant when they claim that a certain meter is quicker or slower. Depending on how they want the meter to function, they have altered it.

6. Purchasing on the Jerrycan

Have you ever visited a gas station without your automobile to make a purchase? If you have, you must have once fallen prey to this.

Jerrycan

You must be buying fuel at the gas station without your automobile in order for this scam to work on you. This indicates that you are purchasing fuel in a jerrycan.

Let's imagine you want to purchase fuel for GH₵ 300.00. The attendant at the gas station starts selling, but when the meter reaches GH₵ 290.00 or GH₵ 295.00, he or she stops and tries to halt the sale there.

You are informed that you are paying for purchasing inside a jerrycan rather than straight inside your car if you inquire as to why the transaction was halted at GH₵ 290.00 or GH₵ 295.00

While GH₵ 10 might seem like a small sum of money to joke about with, the gas station employee uses this filthy trick on as many people as they can, and many have fallen victim to it.

Imagine utilizing this method on 100 clients in a single day; that is a comfortable GH₵ 1,000.00 going straight into the fuel attendant's pocket.

Therefore, if you insist on getting your full gasoline, they will generally fill it off right away to provide you what you asked for in order to avoid drawing attention to themselves.

The next time a gas station employee attempts to get you to pay for the jerrycan, resist and gently demand to get your full tank of gas.

Final Words on the Dirty Tricks Used among Gas Station Employees

Instead of letting your smartphone or short conversation divert attention at the gas station, concentrate on the procedure. Do not however fall prey; distraction is a very effective tool in the hands of a dishonest gas station operator.