New Jersey finds gas station rip-offs

New Jersey finds gas station rip-offs

autos.aol.com

WEST ORANGE, N.J. (AP) - As gas prices continue to set records in the Garden State, state officials have ticketed 350 gas station owners for ripping off motorists.

State weights and measures inspectors discovered pricing discrepancies, inaccurate octane ratings and equipment that was improperly calibrated during a recent three-day sweep of 1,023 gas stations in all 21 counties, according to state Attorney General Anne Milgram.

(visit the link for the full news article)


Related News Links:
www.ripoffreport.com
bobingle.blogspot.com
www.baylinerownersclub.org

Its not bad enough that oil companies are gouging us but our own gas stations are getting their 'piece of the action' as well?

ONE THIRD of those tested were found with problems. I wonder how much this is going on all across the nation.

autos.aol.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

The investigation, Milgram said, was "deeply troubling," because it found that one-third of the inspected stations had violations. A similar crackdown after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 found that a quarter of the inspected stations had violations.

Milgram said the tough enforcement will continue. The state has 3,142 gas stations.

Milgram last week announced charges against a dozen state employees for stealing gasoline from government fill-up stations. She said then that the state would complete a follow-up audit of vehicle and gasoline use by thousands of Children and Families Department workers.

State inspectors found 46 instances where per-gallon prices were different on each side of the pump; 37 instances where the fuel grade was not posted; and 19 instances of inaccurate price totals.

State inspectors also cited 14 stations for changing the price of gas more than once within 24 hours, a violation of state law.

Well at least some state officials need to be applauded

"We have no tolerance for any gas station operator who tries to scam motorists who are already struggling with record gas prices," said state Consumer Affairs Director David Szuchman.

Arco Gas Station Rip Off ..Fed up consumer!

Sone consumers are being ripped off Arco Gas Station on Imperial Hwy in the city of Brea. Recently I stopped for gas and gave the attendant (middle eastern man) $25.00 for pump #1. The pump stopped at $21 and when I went in he said that was all I gave him.

In speaking to other Arco customers I have found that with gas prices up this is becoming a common practice but in speaking to others it happens alot at Arco stations. We as consumers can protect ourselves by using a credit card or asking for a receipt. But what about the poor person or college student that does not have much and can only afford $10.00 gas cash? Does he give the guy 2 five's and get $6 worth to get him through the week? My friend gave the attendant $20.00 and got $10.00 worth.

www.ripoffreport.com...

This one is older but still relevant...

Are You Getting Ripped Off by 'Hot Gas'?

Nine Lawsuits Claim Gas Stations in U.S. Should Control for Outside Temperature to Make Sure Fuel Doesn't Expand
April 9, 2007

Consumers are feeling the pain at the pump, as gas prices have risen for nine straight weeks. Now lawsuits around the country claim drivers are being ripped off in a gas gouge they can't even see.

There are at least nine lawsuits pending that claim some gas stations are padding their profits by selling warm gasoline.

That might sound strange, but think back to high school physics. Liquids expand as they get warmer, so if the gasoline at the pump is overheated, you don't get as much in your tank.

abcnews.go.com...

Hehe I never thought of this one...

Here is more....

Dec. 14, 2006
Hot Fuel Means Big Rip-Off at Gasoline Pumps

We are here today to highlight a practice common in the gasoline retail industry – one that most Americans don’t know about, but through which retailers have been ripping off consumers to the tune of an estimated 2 billion dollars a year. It occurs every day at gas stations throughout the country, but particularly in the summer and in warmer states such as California, Texas and Florida.

For decades, gasoline retailers have been overcharging drivers by selling them “hot fuel” – gasoline or diesel that is warmer than the industry standard of 60 degrees and that provides less energy than the standard gallon. In an exposé in August, the Kansas City Star estimated that retailers are shortchanging drivers 760 million gallons of motor fuel per year.

On Wednesday, consumers of gasoline and diesel fuel in seven states filed a class-action complaint against some of the nation’s largest oil companies and fuel retailers in an attempt to end this ongoing theft. The states, including some of the warmest in the nation, are: California, Arizona, Texas, Florida, North Carolina, New Jersey and Virginia.

www.citizen.org...

More from New Jersey...
NJ Tickets 350 Gas Stations For Ripping Off Buyers
State Investigation Uncovers Variety Of Violations
wcbstv.com...

More from Phoenix
Faulty gas pumps ripping off consumers
More Phoenix Local News 6:07 PM Mountain Standard Time on Tuesday, July 1, 2008

About 9 percent of the gas pumps looked at by the Arizona Department of Weights and Measures since last July failed their inspections.

That means pump operators were shorting customers on gas or overcharging them either by starting the price meter before the gas started to flow or letting the meter continue to run after the flow had stopped.

Stations that fail inspections are fined, but that's not much incentive to fix problem pumps as they are only inspected once every three years.

News Source

Canada is having the same issues...

Gas stations to be fined $10,000 for pumps that rip off consumers: Prentice

The Canadian Press
Mon May 12, 4:36 PM

[ex[The federal government says it will step up inspections at gas stations across Canada this summer and will soon increase fines for inaccurate pumps to $10,000 from $1,000.

Industry Minister Jim Prentice said Measurement Canada has reported that about three per cent of gas pumps tested between 1999 and 2007 have been inaccurate.

"All consumers in the country need to know when they go to gas up their vehicles that the pumps are accurate and they get what they paid for," he said.

Prentice said it will take time to draft changes on how gas stations are monitored, but expects a new regime will be in place by the fall.

ca.news.yahoo.com...

Lately I have notice the smell of my fuel... you can really smell the ethanol mixed in... its very noticeable on these hot days here in Vegas.. So I was wondering why we were not getting a price break with ethanol added to the mix... so I did a little digging...

Didn't like what I found

Ethanol Blended Fuel Hurts Gas Mileage
Last Update: 6/23 6:25 pm

Memphis, TN -- Eyewitness News Everywhere Uncovers drivers losing valuable miles on a tank of gas because of ethanol blended fuel.

You may have noticed a sign at the pump telling you the gas contains up to 10% ethanol, which is an alcohol and biofuel made from corn.

Supporters of ethanol use say it's a cheaper, cleaner burning fuel. They claim the 10% blend has virtually no impact on fuel efficiency, but some mechanics disagree.

"It's about 4-5% based on the numbers," says Mark Block, owner of Block Automotive in Cordova.

Block says it's simple science. He says a car must burn more ethanol to create the same energy as gasoline. So if you remove 10% pure gasoline and replace it with ethanol, the fuel won't burn the same.

According to Block's numbers, the driver of a vehicle that gets 20 miles per gallon would see his fuel efficiency drop to 19 miles per gallon on average.

Block says most gas stations are now selling the ethanol blended fuel because prices have gotten so high. He recommends drivers use 100% gasoline if they can find it.

Eye Witness News

Sunday, May 4, 2008
THE GREAT ETHANOL RIP-OFF

Congress passed an "energy" bill last year which, besides outlawing incandescent light bulbs in a few years, mandated that all private passenger vehicles by 2025 had to be capable of running on a mixture of gasoline and ethanol, with the emphasis on the alcohol. President Bush signed it into law, thus giving the noose around our necks a final tug.

It actually costs more to produce ethanol than it does to produce gasoline, diesel, and other petroleum-based motor fuels. So, there won't be any significant reduction in price. In fact, fuel prices may go even higher, due to transportation costs (see below).

* Ethanol is highly corrosive and cannot be piped to different locations, like gasoline. It dissolves the seals in the pipelines and causes them to leak, so it must be trucked from the processor to the storage facilities and to the fueling stations. This, of course, will result in higher prices, due to transportation costs, as well as more diesel fuel being burned by the trucks that transport it.

Source (Opinion)

Now lets step this up one notch..

Do you KNOW what is in your gas tank?

BP/Amoco Gas Station McConnell South Carolina BAD GAS

In November of 1999, I stopped at a BP gas station in McConnell, South Carolina to buy gas. The stores location is 200 N. Main St. I filled my car up with what I thought was gas. I then drove a mile down the road and the car's engine died. I tried without sucess to start the car.

The next day I phoned the repair shop and the informed me that the liquid that was pumped into my car had caused extensive damage to the cars engine and fuel tank. The mechanic showed me the liquid that was taken out of my car later that same day. He said this doesn't even look like water we don't know what it could be. They told me to repair the car it would cost me over 1,500 dollars.

www.ripoffreport.com...


Over ten years ago back in Toronto.. there was a report of a scam to dump toxic waste by mixing it with gasoline... now this stuff was great for power and gas mileage... not so great for the engine or the environment...

But as this was so many years ago I didn't look into it till now...

What I found was this...

PCBs AND TOXIC WASTE IN YOUR GASOLINE

Next time you pull into a gas station, you could be filling your tank with a deadly mixture of PCBs, toxic waste, solvents, and gasoline.

The General Accounting Office (GAO), Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and the FBI are investigating sophisticated "waste laundering" schemes in which toxic wastes and solvents are mixed with gasoline and diesel and industrial fuel. At least one of the schemes revealed connections to organized crime including personal and business associations with members of La Cosa Nostra families. The practice of mixing waste and fuel apparently started in the 1970s when oil costs began rising. It accelerated when toxic waste disposal costs increased and the number of legal disposal sites decreased.

Since proper disposal of PCBs can cost as much as $1,000 a drum in the U.S., mixing the wastes and fuel can produce enormous profits. The practice also can produce potential health hazards. When the tainted fuels are burned, toxic emissions such as dioxins are produced. Millions of dollars also are lost because of engine failure and heating furnace breakdown.

Cases investigators have uncovered include:

* Several oil transport companies in Buffalo, NY, mixed polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) and solvents with oil and gasoline and sold them to Canadian and U.S. customers.

* At least five million gallons of hazardous waste solvents, including benzene, chloroform, and methylene, were sent by rail from Ontario to Texas and mixed into gasoline.

* In Oklahoma, the FBI investigated toxic wastes that were mixed with crude oil and sold to refineries. One refinery was Sinclair Oil whose senior vice president, C.W. Fink, warned that the problem could be more widespread.

* A Canadian oil firm and its president were charged with 13 criminal counts in Michigan in 1985 for selling fuel mixed with waste solvents; the case has yet to come to court (in early 1990).

Law enforcement efforts have been hampered by the lack of cooperation among agencies to share information. The GAO told Congress that although EPA had received information on a waste firm's suspected organized crime connections, it would not share the information with GAO officials. While four congressmen introduced a bill in May, 1989, to stiffen enforcement efforts, the mass media have yet to discover this story. Rep. Howard Wolpe (D-Mich.), one of the bill's sponsors warned "Our own direct safety and public health may be jeopardized by this practice."

SSU CENSORED RESEARCHER: TIM HILTON

SOURCE: COMMON CAUSE MAGAZINE 2030 M Street, NW, Washington, DC 20036
DATE: July/August 1989
TITLE: "TOXIC FUEL"
AUTHOR: ANDREW PORTERFIELD

COMMENTS: This is a story about a number of "waste laundering" schemes, involving PCBs, toxic waste, and solvents, which happened in Canada as well in the United States. And while the scam apparently crossed the border with ease, the press coverage of it did not. Andrew Porterfield, the investigative journalist who wrote the article for Common Cause, reports that the story appeared in Canadian newspapers from every province and was the lead story in Canadian national news broadcasts on television. However, the press coverage in the United States was significantly different. According to Porterfield, it received only very brief mention deep inside one Saturday issue of The New York Times. "Considering how toxic wastes in fuel oil and gasoline affects every U.S. citizen (as well as Canadians), is, this story deserved far more exposure," Porterfield added.

www.projectcensored.org...


AH Found it gotta love the internet
Published: May 13, 1989
New York Times

Canada Screens Fuel Imports

Canada announced today that it was sharply reducing entry points for fuel tankers coming from the United States and establishing a special police task force to investigate a growing scare over tainted fuel from the United States.

Canada announced today that it was sharply reducing entry points for fuel tankers coming from the United States and establishing a special police task force to investigate a growing scare over tainted fuel from the United States.

Environment Minister Lucien Bouchard, outlining a ''plan of action'' after meeting provincial government ministers, said 125 of the 175 border crossings would be closed to tanker trucks so inspectors could concentrate their resources.

New York Times

I started a thread some time ago on this very subject. I hope you get more traction than I did.

We are being scammed every step of the way. There needs to be a general nationwide strike, no work except emegency services. Maybe a week of complete shutdown would garner some real attention; not just for the rip off practices in fuel, but for the plight of the public in general.

Along with that, if enough people would demand, not ask, that those making obscene profits from the consumer pain be prosecuted as profiteers, and given harsh jail sentences, along with lackadaisical law enforcement at all levels involved, perhaps a dent could be made in the activities of these criminals.

But I'm not holding my breath.

One level higher

The Russian Mafia Connection

In Gas Scheme, Regular Was Sold as Premium, Prosecutors Say
By MICHAEL BRICK
Published: July 12, 2006

Eight men and six companies were charged yesterday with defrauding drivers and gas stations in New York by selling hundreds of thousands of gallons of low-grade gasoline as premium grade, and state prosecutors are seeking to recover $3 million from the operation, court records show.

www.nytimes.com...

Here are a couple quick google search links.. They are books so I didn't clip anything and its older reports

Amazon.com: Red Mafiya: How the Russian Mob Has Invaded America ...
The Russian Mafia In America: Immigration, Culture, and Crime ... is this: following profitable 1980s-era gasoline bootlegging schemes, Mafiya criminals
www.amazon.com...

Brighton Beach Russian Mafia Godfather Marat Balagula to be ...
Sep 24, 2004 ... to pull off an elaborate gasoline distribution scheme that cost the ... Russian Mafia godfather named Evsei Agron, ...

Source


And we thought we could trust our gas pumps





JIHAD ANYONE?

And don't forget that the Saudis pay NO INCOME TAX and Drive Mercedes... all thanks to you and me supporting their economy at 145.00 PER BARREL

Are you angry yet?

WOW this is disgusting and yeah JIHAD is the right words. How much more will the American people take before they wake up. Like I said in another thread I sometimes wish I didnt know what I know I want to be a sheeple so I didnt have to worry about our country going down the tubes. Sad really Sad.

reply to post by NGC2736


What about an organized boycott?

I know Americans are to complacent to do without gasoline... No one can blame you for needing that car to get to work to pay your bills..

BUT

How about boycotting ONE company..

Say Exxon/Mobile...

Do not buy anything from any of their subsidiaries either.... It would be tough and would need someone to spearhead and identify who is who behind the name...

But I think it would send a message.. A few weeks without 'record quarter profits' like Exxon announced right after the 'war' with Iraq started ought to hurt their shareholders

Why Exxon/Mobile? Because they are tied in to Standard Oil, the Bush family and the Rockfellars and have been giving us the shaft since the funding of the NAZI's...

Only problem is that Standard Oil has bought up so much...

Here is a very comprehensive tracking of the various oil companies and how they are tied together

Standard Oil : Today
www.us-highways.com...

I personally would recommend Shell Oil as a 'good guy" even though they are run from the Netherlands (home of the Bilderburgers ) though I have not found any ties to this. But Shell is actively promoting Hydrogen fuel around the world... I did a page on this recently

www.thelivingmoon.com...

When I moved to the USA in 1993 I had a CB radio on driving across the country... There was a big to do about the truckers complaining about a 6 cent hike in diesel fuel (price or tax?) They were talking all across the nation on planning a protest driving their trucks around the whitehouse...

I said "Now THATS the country I want to call home!" You have to realize that at the time Canada had switched to LITERS at the pumps and regularly gas stations increased the price a few cents a liter... and people soon forgot that a few cents a liter is FOUR TIMES that per gallon..

But we had already been conditioned to pay more before the weekend came because more people traveled... If you were smart you filled up on Wednesdays...

So what happened to America that we just go to the pumps... grumble a little... and go on about our business?

APATHY Pure and simple


And now we have to get those lock on the gas caps... because the punks are eying YOUR gas tank for free fill ups

Or even better why not everyone just stop going to work. When monday comes no one shows up. The Tuesday. Then Wednesday. That would wake up the government REAL fast from the vacation they are on. Just quit going to work and something would get done.

Well I live in The Netherlands and I pay 1.70 Euro for a liter.

If you convert that to gallons that's 6.44 Euro for a gallon. that's $10.09

So I hope everybody in the oil business is happy now, as in a few years only the rich will be able to afford to drive a car.

Weird... double posted an hour later WTF????

[edit on 5-7-2008 by zorgon]

reply to post by mybigunit

Well I doubt most will ever do that...

But I will start I promise not to work all week next week..
And will walk to the grocery store and leave my car in the garage

Ethanol is about one of the mindles thigs business has conjured up, at our expense...yes, fact ethanol does hurt mileage...and its corrosive. Much better to find 100% gas, which isnt really around.
I did alot of reading baout gas, and did discover, that at fuel pumps, thiers a micron filter where the pump is, that iss upposed to remove a litle mroe particles, gets more screened, before it(gas) goes into yuor tank...very common, the station owner might just neglect it, becuase its a little pricey to replace them.
And for gas tanks, i never heard of taoxic waste jesus! I was only aware, that some station owners, might not change thier gas tanks every 10 years...water form codnensation can build up water+gas in engine= no good.
Those state employees caught stealing gas... i hope they get tried like you or me... steeling gas is a FEDERAL crime

they should have just converted too gasohol... or even better...plain alcohol... 98% pollution free emissions, but owuld yield a much higher octane rating.

Originally posted by ziggy1706
they should have just converted too gasohol... or even better...plain alcohol... 98% pollution free emissions, but owuld yield a much higher octane rating.

Too bad the alcohol production will mean stripping the Earth bare and converting everything to farm fields.

The trees will be soo happy...

the high oil prices are a result of the speculators playing the markets and making millions of USD in bonuses , and less of how much oil there really is - OPEC have allready shown theres a glut of oil

so blame wall street