Sunday, September 17, 2006

Beware when you fuel your vehicle

One needs to be very careful while fueling your verhicle at the bunks. Most of them con you by not filling the right amount of gas as you pay. Here are some tips that can help you.

  1. Avoid using a bunk you are not familiar with. Keep to the ones that are known to be honest. To help this aspect, one most spread news about honest bunks by word of mouth. For example, the petrol bunk on Koramangala 100ft road (just besides Coffee Day, opposite BlueStar office) is definitely one that belongs to the honest category
  2. If the integrity of the bunk is an unknown entity, you need to be double careful. Do not take your eyes of the petrol meter reading for even a second.
  3. If two people are attending you at one of these unknown entity bunks, it is a sure shot indicator that they are trying to con you. The common modus operandi is that one tries to engage your attention by asking for the payment, while other is filling your tank. In this scenario, insist on making the payment after your vehicle is re-fueled. Revert back to point 2: Eyes on the meter reading.
  4. Another common method employed to con is the following. For example, assume you have asked for petrol for Rs. 200/-. The attendant will just fill your vehicle for Rs. 50/-. Then he will feign innocence that he hasn't heard you properly. You need to be alert at this point. If not, he will just continue filling from there until meter reads Rs. 150/- and argues that he has reset the meter to zero before the second re-fill. I would recommend you either insist before hand that he resets it to zero or just leave the bunk by paying off Rs. 50/-.
  5. I found myself in the above situation yesterday. I forgot to check whether he reset the meter to zero once he stopped at Rs. 50/-. So, I was suspicious when he filled Rs. 150/- and said I had to pay Rs. 200/-. I very convicingly said that I saw that he hadn't reset the meter and he needs to put petrol for another Rs. 50/-. My ploy worked and he filled the remaining petrol. This is not a approach that is bound to succeed every time. So, avoid landing in such a situation.
  6. If there are more than one person travelling in a vehicle, it is very easy to follow tip 2. One of them can always have his eyes on the reading.

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