Ever had this experience?
You drive into a filling station. You tell the attendant,
how much you want to buy. He begins to sell and then stops 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!
