Are Petrol station drive off’s common?

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Fraggle_ninja@reddit

BP allows you to fill up and pay via the app. It looks like you’re driving off without paying.

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Yes, very common. I cannot believe such an easily preventable crime is still a thing. Pre-payment should be mandatory, you'd instantly stop these scumbags getting free fuel and reduce the crime to zero overnight.

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BTZ-25@reddit

Prepayment can be too much walking backwards and forth if you go over. What if you want to fill your tank? Who knows the exact amount. Its not that practical. It often causes a rukus and looses them business. If a petrol station tells me prepayment then I just leave.

Even if its only prepay at the pump it still doesn't stop the crime. These systems only initially authorise for £1 which means all you need is £1 on a visa card to fill your tank. Some people scale this.

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Spanner1993@reddit

Is it not linked up to actually shut the pump off when the cash amount has been reached? You'd say £100 on pump 2 for example and that's all it will dispense

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BTZ-25@reddit

Yes it will shut off but for example if you have only £10 on your debit card there is nothing to stop you going to another 9 pumps. Some people are saying this is not the case for all petrol stations anymore but the gangs who capitalise on this would have surely worked this out.

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bobdebilda@reddit

Using the Yankie ones you authorise a max amount but if you use less than that you only pay for that amount.

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GoatBotherer@reddit

The one pay at pump I do use normally pre authorises for up to £100.

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BTZ-25@reddit

It may allow you up to £100 but is £100 pending on your card? Check your app next time.

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CoffeeIgnoramus@reddit

Isn't that basically what all supermarket ones do with card payments? Take the card and lock the maximum spend in until you finish?

They just don't do it with cash?

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TellMeManyStories@reddit

Pretty sure those have loads of theft too via foreign cards with no pin, stolen cards, etc.

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Frohus@reddit

I mean fuel is not stolen if paid for even with a stolen card

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TellMeManyStories@reddit

It is when the card owner reports fraud and the payment gets reversed.

In these cases, it is the merchant (ie. petrol station) who loses out.

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CoffeeIgnoramus@reddit

Ah interesting. I guess then it's not really possible to stop stolen fuel if it's both change of plates and stolen cards.

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BTZ-25@reddit

No. They pre auth for £1.

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CoffeeIgnoramus@reddit

(I didn't downvote you, I appreciate you answering me)

I will say that the ones we have around here stopped doing the £1 and now pre-authorise £99 (or more even!). And it adjusts the payment after you finish.

But I do remember the £1 ones too.

Maybe it's different in different areas 😄

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BTZ-25@reddit

Fair enough. Its about time they started to apapt. For those who don't know this was the reason why these pumps didn't accept MasterCard debit cards.

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BTZ-25@reddit

I wonder if the aeroplanes have managed to follow suit.

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thewindypops@reddit

If it's pay at pump, the hold is either £99 or £120, depending on the franchise.

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BTZ-25@reddit

You have seen this hold in your app? In pending payments? Or that's what you are allowed to fill?

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thewindypops@reddit

It’s a hold / pending payment, which gets released within 24 hours of you completing the actual purchase

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Cole-Palmer-phd@reddit

I've seen it on my app

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GoatBotherer@reddit

Not sure to be honest, there's not many supermarket ones that I typically use locally. I've only had it once when it was late and night about 20 years ago, the guy insisted I pay first. I was fuming at the time, but now I understand it.

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Madic-Hertz@reddit

Prepay is a great idea. They've been doing it in parts of Europe for absolute ages. I just know all the Facebook Karens will kick off though. Which I'd love to see.

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Remote-Pool7787@reddit

Lots of the supermarkets have unstaffed pre pay pumps

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TellMeManyStories@reddit

They're actually staffed remotely via camera. That's why there is a delay between you putting the nozzle in your car and the pump starting - an operator checks you have the nozzle inserted before starting the pump, to prevent accidents where someone squeezes the nozzle whilst picking it up.

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Cole-Palmer-phd@reddit

I just know all the Facebook Karens will kick off though.

Why would they? It's already a thing for pay at pump

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wedontneednoeduc@reddit

It does seem odd. It's been donkeys years since I was in yankland and they did pre-pay, yet somehow we are helpless here even though pay at the pump is a thing.

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Mediocre-Opinion@reddit

My friend used to work in a petrol station, he said they'd typically get one a day. The police would be called, they'd get an incident number and that would pretty much be as far as it went. He said it wasn't just stereotypical scumbags in cars they were financed up to their eyeballs with either, it was a real cross section of people who'd do it.

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SnooDonuts6494@reddit

About 420 per week, apparently.

https://www.carsupermarket.com/blog/bilking-britain-why-fuel-thieves-are-driving-away-with-55-million

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BeaumarchaisApu@reddit

That maybe doesn’t feel as many as I expected. If my back of an envelope maths is correct that’s about 1 incident every 10 to 11 days in a town about the size of Cheltenham or Burnley.

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ArcTan_Pete@reddit

40 odd years ago, while at Uni, I used to do weekend evening/night shifts at a shell station in east London

We had drive off's at least every couple of weeks.

some were inventive - like the guy who filled up at 3am, and came to the window - very apologetically - claiming that he had been pickpocketed at a nightclub. he gave us a name, address and phone number.

the name was unknown, the address turned out to be a police station in Chelmsford and the phone number was of the chelmsford probation office.

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SyntaxOfTheDamned@reddit

In 30 years I've never ever seen one

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FallowfieldPark@reddit

Same, but then again I don’t drive. And it’s one of those things where right place at the right time. It happens, you just weren’t there to witness it

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BTZ-25@reddit

I be done this by mistake before , it's not always intentional. I've also done this intentionally before. During covid when the queues were 30+ people and none of them were actually paying for fuel. I know the policy so I just came back in the evening when it was empty and paid then.

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AirSorvete@reddit

I have never seen it tbh in my entire motoring career. Even when I did work on forecourts.

But I have heard from others in that job that it is common.

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Bubbly-Weakness-4788@reddit

I used to work in a petrol station and it used to happen at least once a day. Mind you, that was in the 90s when cameras were crap.

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continentaldreams@reddit

Very common - it's built into the prices for most petrol stations.

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hotchy1@reddit

I seen one when I was paying. "Second today" was the conversation they were having.

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NoFewSatan@reddit

I seen one

I saw one*

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