HowTo Cheat People while selling petrol at the Petrol Bunk(s)

In the Linux world, it is a fad to write HowTo(s) for everything. Since I am one of the ever so many people wanting to belong to the Linux community, I have titled of this post as what it is instead of "How not to get conned at a Petrol Bunk".

The modus operandi of cheating an unsuspecting customer at a Petrol Bunk is an example of customer service going overboard. Three or four of the attendents will decend on their "victim" at once to distract the customer's attention and in the cycle-gap(see Vivek comedies in Tamil movies for the exact meaning of this term) deprive them of few litres of petrol . Recently I was at the receiving end of such a dastardly act at one of the Indian Oil Corporation Petrol Bunks in Whitefield near ITPL. It was on a Sunday evening (11th May 2008) two weeks ago when I visited this Petrol Bunk to fill petrol. Being that time of the week, when there is almost no traffic to this area of the city, compared to the traffic that heads towards it during the weekdays, I was the only other customer at the Petrol Bunk. I was directed to a petrol filling machine (you know what I mean) where a person on his motorcycle had just finished filling up his tank. After I went and parked being this person, I rolled downed my car windows and was about to get down, when one of the attendent came near the window and asked me for how much I wanted to fill petrol. I told him for Rs.500/- and got down from the car, after unlocking the petrol tank lid. As I was going to the other side of the car, another attendent approached me and asked me whether I would be paying by cash or by card. I told him that I would be paying by cash and turned to the attendent who was actually filling petrol into my car. By then, this guy had already started filling petrol without showing me that the counter was at 000.00. And the petrol counter was already showing around 2 litres. Thats when I realized that I was falling prey to this masterly co-ordinated petrol robbery. I immediately raised this issue with the attendent, for which he told me that the counter will automatically become 000.00 the moment he puts the petrol gun into its holder and takes it back. But I doubted whether he put the petrol gun in the first place after filling petrol for the two-wheeler guy in front of me. I was sure I was being conned, but I had little evidence to prove it. When I asked for a bill, I was given a hand-written one and not a computer generated one (from the petrol filling machine itself). Also the fuel tank indicator of my car is an analogue one, so I couldnt tell how many litres had exactly been filled. So having no other choice, other than to pick up a physical fight (which I didnt want to do, as my wife was with me and I didnt want to get bashed in front of her), I left the petrol bunk feeling quite helpless and angry with myself for having let them get the better of me.

But what I did do was to go visit the Indian Oil Corporation website (www.iocl.com) that night and lodged a complain with their vigilance department (under the section "WRITE TO US"->"Vigilance Queries") and narrated the entire episode. I wasnt expecting any immediate action on their part. But I wanted to bring this incident to their notice, so that in the event of it not being an isolated incident, they can take corrective actions to protect their brand image.

On 22nd May 2008, while I was having lunch in my office, I got a call on my mobile. This person introduced himself as the owner of the petrol bunk where the above incident had happened. I was very suprised indeed. This was heights of customer service and something that I wasnt expecting to be happen at all. The people at Indian Oil Corporation had taken notice of my email and hence this call. The petrol bunk, manager was telling me that he had fired that attendent and that if I visited his petrol bunk again he would fill petrol worth Rs. 500/- for free. He even wanted me to make a note of his mobile number and call him directly in case of any problems in the future at his bunk. I was so pleasantly shocked that all I could say (that too in Kannada, yeah yeah the whole conversation with the manager was in kannada) was "Thank You" and that I will visit his petrol bunk over the weekend.

I am yet to meet this petrol bunk manager (at the time of this writing). I must say I am tempted to take the offer of filling petrol for the whole of Rs.500/- that was offered to me as a token of repentence. But I know it is not right. For one, I feel that I have been deprived of atmost 2 litres of petrol only, so it isnt ethically right for me to get petrol for Rs.500/- again. Secondly, I think that this kind of gift of repentences, which is totally acceptable in countries like U.S of A, would eventually increase the costs of everything as the society becomes more and more ligitative. In my completely subjective view thats one of the reasons why health-care is so exhorbitant in probably the richest, most advanced country in the world. Its ironical that a so called developed and progressive society cant provide health-care to its citizens at a reasonable price.