How much gas do you get for your money?

B

Bryanell

Bronze
Aug 9, 2005
694
83
48
I received this information from the "software maven" in our corporate IT division, who circulated it to the entire staff. I don't know if it's true, proceed with caution but it's worth checking out.

Usually when we buy fuel for our vehicles we ask either in terms of the amount of money we want to spend, RD$500 or 1,000 or 2,000 depending on our budget, or we say ?Fill it up?.

Next time you go to the gas station, ask the attendant instead for X gallons. You will see that THERE IS A DIFFERENCE - AT LEAST A QUARTER OF A TANK at the worst.

The trap is that when the attendant keys in a quantity in pesos, the central computer is programmed to pump ?gallons? of 800 ? 900 thousandths instead of 1,000 thousandths?so you get considerably less than what you pay for and even the attendant doesn?t know this.

This means that for every RD$1.00 you pay, you get only RD$0.90 of fuel at best, for a RD$2,000 fill-up you get a whole gallon less at today's premium gas prices!! Multiply by the many thousands of pesos drivers pay every day at every gas station??.the sky is the limit!!

HOW TO PREVENT IT? A simple check is to have them fill a 5, 10, or 20 gallon container , see what the pump meter reads?.if you ask for X gallons the software gets a warning in case it might be an official check and it pumps full gallons.

Apparently this is not just a local trick but is "built-in" to the software applications used in gas stations world-wide
 
D

DavidZ

Silver
Aug 29, 2005
3,512
238
63
www.vipcigartours.com
If someone does the "test" I for one would love to hear the results! It sounds like a typical DR-type thing but I doubt this is a world-wide scam...it would never fly in the US for example...
 
S

sweetdbt

Bronze
Sep 17, 2004
1,574
70
0
Looks like a viral email to me, tweaked a bit to make it DR related. Since we are supposedly talking about the DR, the term "gas" would refer to propane, not gasoline. Good luck checking on that!
 
G

granca

Bronze
Aug 20, 2007
1,418
48
0
87
Sweetdbt, in another thread I asked that particular question and was assured by a North American that if one speaks of gas one refers to gasoline(petrol) otherwise one speaks of propane or natural gas. Mid you in the UK one can also buy butane for when the gas is stored indoors.
 
Last edited:
Conchman

Conchman

Silver
Jul 3, 2002
4,586
160
63
57
www.oceanworld.net
I dont think this is possible since gas station pumps have the price automatically programmed with the gallons pumped.

Now, if the price is not programmed with the proper decimals (at RD$160 per gallon instead of RD$159.9 that is advertised for example), then maybe this could happen.

Even in this case, at 10 gallons you would lose 1 peso.
 
B

Bryanell

Bronze
Aug 9, 2005
694
83
48
The gas in this case refers to gasoline

but the same type of pump control software is used for all liquid fuels, gasoline, diesel and LPG.

Of course the gallons and price multiples are linked, but the software apparently allows for the actual quantity pumped per "gallon" to be adjusted by up to 20% according to whether the attendant keys in on the "money" scale or the "gallons" scale.

Incidentally, for the disbelievers among us, the above is preceisely the reason for the recent insistence on LPG stations having weighing machines to verify to the customer the quantity shown on the meter.

It's amazing how things have changed - the old mechanical pump displays were managed by an internal flow meter which drove the numbers, and I still remember very clearly, when the wheel showing the quantity used to turn faster than the wheel showing the cost.

 
S

sush

New member
Mar 9, 2011
204
4
0
not the first time i hear about it

i havent confirm if this is 100% true but i tried a couple of times - now all the time- instead of saying fill it up i started asking the number of gallons that know my car will take. AND YES i wrote down the number of miles and the gallons i got and compare, and it gave me a few extra milles!!! i dont know if this happens in all bombas but it can happen.:ermm:
 
S

sweetdbt

Bronze
Sep 17, 2004
1,574
70
0
At every pump I have been to in the DR, they simply pump until you get the amount you ask for. Nothing is "programmed" to dispense a set amount in either gallons or pesos. I have no doubt that there are vendors whose pumps are deliberately shorting people, but that's an entirely different issue. The idea that you are any better off buying in gallons instead of pesos is just plain silly.
 
B

Bryanell

Bronze
Aug 9, 2005
694
83
48
sweetdbt said:
At every pump I have been to in the DR, they simply pump until you get the amount you ask for. Nothing is "programmed" to dispense a set amount in either gallons or pesos. I have no doubt that there are vendors whose pumps are deliberately shorting people, but that's an entirely different issue. The idea that you are any better off buying in gallons instead of pesos is just plain silly.
Click to expand...

Having checked this with the software guy it seems the software only pumps full gallons when the attendant keys in the quantity of gallons to be dispensed.

When keying in the $$$$ or just opening the pump, the software sends "adjusted" gallon signals to the pump - that's why you don't notice the difference. Modern pumps have the option of keying in gallons or pesos but since almost everybody asks for fuel in pesos or "fill it up" - often the attendant doesn't know how to key in for gallons.....
 
Last edited:
S

sweetdbt

Bronze
Sep 17, 2004
1,574
70
0
The vast majority of gas pumps I have seen in the DR don't even have that capability. Ripoffs are out there no doubt, but they are more likely to be in the form of pumps that are simply calibrated to dispense small "gallons". It won't make a lick of difference if you ask for gallons or pesos. This whole thing smells to high heaven of an internet conspiracy theory.
 
R

rubio_higuey

Gold
Feb 7, 2007
8,005
625
113
What happens if you just pump without entering neither money value (pesos) nor volume (gallons)?

Here in Higuey you say you want 500 pesos or 3 gallons and the attendant just pumps it straight on without entering anything....he stops when the meter shows close to desired amount and then he puts in a bit more and a bit more and a lil bit more until the pump rouhly reads +/- 0.5 pesos from the disered amount or volume... So what happens in those situations?
 
B

Bryanell

Bronze
Aug 9, 2005
694
83
48
rubio_higuey said:
What happens if you just pump without entering neither money value (pesos) nor volume (gallons)?

Here in Higuey you say you want 500 pesos or 3 gallons and the attendant just pumps it straight on without entering anything....he stops when the meter shows close to desired amount and then he puts in a bit more and a bit more and a lil bit more until the pump rouhly reads +/- 0.5 pesos from the disered amount or volume... So what happens in those situations?
Click to expand...

Apparently, if there is no key-in just pumping, the software delivers "reduced size" gallons
 
M

Manzana

Member
Jan 23, 2007
229
20
18
Experiment

Go with a friend to a gas station you suspect of operating this way. Use any digital camera or phone to video the proceedings. Dispense into a gas can using both methods. Show any difference in output.

If it's as big a difference as you suggest it should be easy to objectively measure and document. Since it's not being done by the attendants they won't object.

If it works, you have a video that will go viral and cause a big scandal.
 
B

Bryanell

Bronze
Aug 9, 2005
694
83
48
rubio_higuey said:
What happens if you just pump without entering neither money value (pesos) nor volume (gallons)?

Here in Higuey you say you want 500 pesos or 3 gallons and the attendant just pumps it straight on without entering anything....he stops when the meter shows close to desired amount and then he puts in a bit more and a bit more and a lil bit more until the pump rouhly reads +/- 0.5 pesos from the disered amount or volume... So what happens in those situations?
Click to expand...


I checked with the pump attendant in one of my neighbourhood gas stations this morning.

The keypad has a button marked "$" a button marked "VOL" and one marked "ENT".

If you ask for 2,000 pesos, he keys in 2000 presses the $ button then the ENT button and the pump starts when he squeezes the trigger on the nozzle. If you ask to "fill it up" he just presses ENT and squeezes the trigger.

When I asked him about about the VOL button, whether that was to key in quantity in gallons, he said:
"Yes, but it we don't use it - nobody ever asks to buy in gallons, so it's disabled".

Conspiracy theories???

 
R

rubio_higuey

Gold
Feb 7, 2007
8,005
625
113
Man I just know that in the interior they just fill up... They dont press any keys. But I will make a test, will buy one gallon of bottled water, mark the water level with a marker, then buy XXX pasos (equal to one gallon) of gasoline and see how it compases
 
S

sweetdbt

Bronze
Sep 17, 2004
1,574
70
0
OK, so we have a criminal mastermind who has found a way to rip everyone off at the pump. Would he be so stupid as to do it in a way which is circumvented simply by asking to buy the product by volume? Not likely.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Top Bottom