Ever had this experience, guys?
You drive into a filling station. You tell
the attendant, how much you want to buy. He begins to sell and then
tops at a figure, say N1000 and returns the nozzle to the pump. You then
tell him, “I said N5000.” He says “Sorry, I thought you said N1000.”
You shrug. He removes the pump again from
the pump, and the display is wiped off. He now proceeds to sell to you
the outstanding balance.
It doesn’t matter how loudly you shout the amount you want to buy the first time, they
still
do it. I had always wondered why they do that nonsense until last
Tuesday at Mobil by Otedola Bridge on the Lagos Ibadan Exp Way.
I told the gentleman to fill the tank. He
put the nozzle into my car’s fuel tank and stopped at N1000 and returned
the nozzle to the pump. I was annoyed and it was obvious. I told him I
wasn’t buying again. He panicked and told me to relax and that he hadn’t
sold anything. He now proceeded to sell me exactly the amount I
wanted.
In essence, the N1000 that first appeared
on the display was phony. He panicked because he thought if I decided to
leave at that point when all he had sold to me was hot air, I would
have noticed once I looked at my fuel gauge. And he thought it was
better to confess and have me quietly leave.
Apparently, when they want to play this
trick, they have a way of getting the pump to read to a predetermined
figure without selling anything. When you protest that that is not the
amount you want to buy, they now proceed to sell the balance to you
properly. In essence, you have been shortchanged by the amount they
pretend to have first sold to you.
So guys watch out!
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