Gas Regulation

I'm not sure if I wrote a blog about this but I do know I mentioned it on Facebook.  Maybe 3 weeks ago I bought gas at a Petro Canada station with a $25 gift card from CAA.  I normally don't pay attention to how accurate the gas pump is but I always have a pretty good idea how much gas I need...I pay with cash so I have to estimate it before paying first.

Anyway, I noted before entering the gas station that I already had  a half tank of gas so I knew it would take the $25 for sure.  I pumped the gas but didn't look at my gas gauge until I was driving away and saw that I'd only received 1/4 tank of gas for my $25!!  Now, I've never complained before about a faulty gas pump but this really bugged me.  I won't go to that station again but how many other people will be cheated if I don't complain?

Somehow I found the government department on the internet that regulates the accuracy of gas pumps and phoned the number they provided.  A very nice lady took my call and promised the gas station would be checked and they would let me know what they found.

This morning I got a call from an inspector who was at the gas station and wanted to verify which pump I had used.  She also was very nice and promised to call me back with the results.  She said that the gas station's records were out of date and the reason she was given was that the station was going to be revamped (new variety store and new pumps) in the near future.  That's no excuse for them to have faulty pumps right now!

I'll be interested to hear from her later but right now I'm kind of amazed that my complaint was followed up on at all.  We tend to think our legitimate complaints to government fall on deaf ears but that didn't happen in this case.  I'm impressed!