Friday, August 22, 2008

Breaking News - Are you being shorted at the gas pump!

Well it seems that not only high gas prices are sucking up our dollars, now we have to contend with gasoline outlets that are shorting Texas consumers at the pump. Worse yet is the fact that consumer complaints are up a whopping 500 % over last year. Make sure you check the pump or you won't need to check your wallet.

Here is a couple of brief excerpts from the story:

“Inspectors from the Texas Department of Agriculture found 990 of the 1,704 Sunmart fuel pumps were cheating consumers. At some stations, every single pump was coming up short on gas.”

“But Houston-area residents have even worse news to deal with now: Harris County has more gas stations that have been fined for cheating consumers than any other county in Texas.”

Read the full story here:

http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/local_news/KHOUGaspumps.html


"Search any ZIP code in the Houston area or the entire state of Texas and find gas pumps that state inspectors previously took out of service. You can also find details about what state inspectors found and see if you live or work near any of those pumps. "

Check your area here:

http://www.khou.com/gasstations/

Be aware. Be informed. Be prepared.

Riverwalker

1 comment:

Mayberry said...

Also, be aware that all gasolines are not created equal. As a former petroleum inspector I can tell you this first hand. Citgo by far had the worst quality of any refiner, their gas containing the most bottom sediments and water, and barely making the octane rating.

And on that note, be advised that "mid grade", or 89 octane gas doesn't really exist, it is blended at the pump from 87 octane and 92 octane. "Regular" and "super" unleaded. This is another way that gas stations like to short change their customers, by "trimming back" the 92 octane on the mid grade pumps. Sometimes you might be pumping straight 87 octane from a mid grade pump, while paying a 10 cent more per gallon premium..... Buyer beware!

As a final note, Valero fuel had the best quality. This was 10 years ago, but the refineries haven't changed much since then, other than upgrades to boost output. Additionally, MTBE has been phased out as an oxygenator in gasoline since then, so things may have changed a little, but the basic feedstocks remain the same.