69 cents gas happened for 3 hours in California

[cyber888]

69 cents gas - it was available for 3 hours

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/guy-accidentally-charged-69-cents-164345904.html

 

[RunningBum]

But the guy is going to make things right because it was his fault and he's owning up to it...by opening a GoFundMe page which so far is covering 3/4 of it.

If the station contacted me or if I just knew the price was wrong and pumped gas anyway, I'd pay the station the difference, but I'm not covering his mistake, honest or not.

I think GoFundMe has become the new emergency fund.

 

[cyber888]

I think GoFundMe has become the new emergency fund.

I agree .. glad they are raising $ for him.

 

[Aerides]

nice

 

[Chuckanut]

This guy actually took responsibility for his mistake. He didn't blame the designers of the gas pumps, the media, Putin or Covid. Amazing.
At times like this I wish I was a multi-millionaire just so I could hire the guy for something.

 

[CardsFan]

What amazes me most about this (or should I say disappoints me the most) is that in order to lose $20,000, 4000 gallons were pumped before the mistake was discovered.

So, unless I am missing something, maybe 200 or more folks pumped gas, got the low price, and never felt the moral obligation to tell anyone.

Pretty sad.

 

[Koolau]

One advantage of being old is that you have a long memory - well, until you don't. I recall 69 cent gas as being expensive.

Yeah, I feel sorry for the guy. Agree with CardsFan that someone should have said something right away. I worry about our collective morals. Another advantage of being old is that I won't have as long to worry about such things as the young'uns here. YMMV

 

[pb4uski]

While I think it is laudable that the employee took responsibility for his mistake, I'm not sure that is fair. Screwups like that are an unfortunate and inherent cost of doing business. Should he be fired... perhaps but it reminds me of the old story of the CEO of IBM after he was asked if he was going to fire an employee who had made a $600,000 mistake:

Thomas Watson built IBM into a behemoth. Once, a subordinate of Watson had made a huge mistake. The mistake cost IBM $600,000. Watson was asked by the board if he would fire this person. And Watson famously replied: “Fire him? I just spent $600,000 training him. Why would I want anyone else to hire his experience?”

 

[Koolau]

I just wonder why there aren't some built in safe-guards against such an error. I would think the pumps are probably smart enough to catch such an error if they were so programmed.

If I want to delete a message, my computer asks me if I'm SURE I want to delete so-and-so message. "Are you sure you want to sell gas today at 69 cents per gallon?" Hello! Is anyone out there?

Credit card companies send folks text messages when their CC gets used. How about the pump sends the owner a text whenever an employee updates a pump price?

 

[pb4uski]

Yeah, while it doesn't do it anymore, the GHIN app for posting golf scores to use to calculate your handicap used to have something where you went to post an unusually high or low score where it would as somethign like... this score is unusual for you, are you sure?

 

[11522914]

What amazes me most about this (or should I say disappoints me the most) is that in order to lose $20,000, 4000 gallons were pumped before the mistake was discovered.



So, unless I am missing something, maybe 200 or more folks pumped gas, got the low price, and never felt the moral obligation to tell anyone.



Pretty sad.

You're not kidding. Really disappointing.

 

[Aerides]

While I think it is laudable that the employee took responsibility for his mistake, I'm not sure that is fair. Screwups like that are an unfortunate and inherent cost of doing business. Should he be fired... perhaps but it reminds me of the old story of the CEO of IBM after he was asked if he was going to fire an employee who had made a $600,000 mistake:

I was responsible for a platform, and one of the developers on it made a mistake (unmonitored job was failing) that cost my employer over $700k.

It sucked and I had to eat some crow, but I was never in jeopardy, so yeah it's not fair.

 

[Koolau]

The more I think about it, the more I come down that in a million transactions, tasks, repetitions, there IS a calculable error rate. Realistically, this error of 69 cent gas SHOULD happen more frequently - and probably does. Instead of 6.49/gal someone hits 6.59/gal or 6.39 or 7.59. The first two wouldn't be noticed and wouldn't affect bottom line until discovered (or changed naturally the next day or two). The second error would likely be caught by the first customer who stopped for gas. No problem!

My point, a wise person or company or industry engineers out most such errors. Most people screw up and is it their fault that an anticipatable error hasn't been, well, anticipated? Engineered out? YMMV

 

[CardsFan]

I was responsible for a platform, and one of the developers on it made a mistake (unmonitored job was failing) that cost my employer over $700k.

It sucked and I had to eat some crow, but I was never in jeopardy, so yeah it's not fair.

I am not sure you can compare corporate job to a gas station manager. I know in my position, I made decisions that cost the company $100k's. I also made decisions that made the company many times more than that. So, in that world you are (or at least should be) judge on you net value to the company.

A gas station manager has no such ability to recoup his error through better decisions in the future.

Should he have been fired? That is up to the independent owner. My guess is firing would be the default unless there were other circumstances warranting retention.

As is usual, we only get one side of the story, as the company really can't discuss personnel matters in public.

 

[CRLLS]

I think the guy should not have ever been fired. It was a mistake. Now if the owner went out of business due to such a mistake, I guess everyone would essentially have been fired. But that is a different case.

My bank app has a quirk. when depositing a check via my app, or paying bills on line, I don't enter the decimal point. The apps just move each number to the left as I enter the next. so to enter $123.00, I enter 1 then 2 then 3 then 0 then 0, no decimal point. I sometimes catch that on entering even dollar amounts, I forget to enter the last 2 zeros. The apps are very happy to just go along as if I meant it. I think if I had to always enter the decimal point and cents, it would have no problem reading 123 as 123.00. I wonder if the gas station uses the same type software entry. If the last digit did not take, then 69 and 9/10 cents would be the result. If it required the decimal point, then ir would have been 6.9 (0) an 9/10ths.

 

[2HOTinPHX]

I have worked for a transportation company since 2005. A few years back I was put on a team of two that set up all the bookings and did the billing for new autos being transported by us. About six months into the new position I discovered between the two of us we missed making changes in our system that were sent to us in a poorly worded email from our Pricing department. We should have been charging a new lower rate to one of our largest customers. The customer continued to pay the old rate we we're billing them at for many months. I think it was about $180,000 in overpayments when I discovered the error and brought it to our higher ups attention. I got a thanks for being honest and we got three months of having to come into the office everyday as punishment for not making the changes in our system. I often wonder what would have happened to us if we had under charged the customer by that much? Also wonder what happened on the other side with nobody noticing they weren't getting their new reduced rates and overpaying us by that amount. Needless to say I never received a thank you from them..lol...

 

[jollystomper]

What amazes me most about this (or should I say disappoints me the most) is that in order to lose $20,000, 4000 gallons were pumped before the mistake was discovered.

So, unless I am missing something, maybe 200 or more folks pumped gas, got the low price, and never felt the moral obligation to tell anyone.

Pretty sad.

+1

One would only hope that some of those people, upon seeing the story, had enough remorse to contribute to the GoFundMe account.

 

[Chuckanut]

One advantage of being old is that you have a long memory - well, until you don't. I recall 69 cent gas as being expensive.

22.9¢ a gallon. The cheapest gas I ever bought. Today, the state gas tax is more than that.

Years ago in my college days, I got a call from a gal I was dating. Her father had to catch a flight at LAX and his car would not start. Could I rush over and take him to the airport? I took him to the airport in my 70 VW bug, and he offered me $5 telling me to 'fill it up'. My reply, "It won't hold that much".

 

[Koolau]

22.9¢ a gallon. The cheapest gas I ever bought. Today, the state gas tax is more than that.

Years ago in my college days, I got a call from a gal I was dating. Her father had to catch a flight at LAX and his car would not start. Could I rush over and take him to the airport? I took him to the airport in my 70 VW bug, and he offered me $5 telling me to 'fill it up'. My reply, "It won't hold that much".

Heh, heh, I fear a Four Yorkshiremen episode, but I watched dad pay 16.9 once during a big oil price war. YMMV

 

[KCGeezer]

I’ll play one of the four parts. I was 12 when I first started cutting lawns in the neighborhood. It was 18 cents a gallon for at least that summer, maybe two. I remember one price war when I walked down to the station and got a gallon of gas for 12 cents and a quart of oil for a nickel. Made 25-50 cents per lawn.

 

[jollystomper]

Followup: the gas station is refusing to accept the GoFundMe money:

https://www.insider.com/company-refused-to-accept-gofundme-money-from-gas-station-manager-2022-6

The company that owns the station said in a letter to Szczecina that they "will not accept" the funds raised by Szczecina's family and friends.

"To be clear, at no time has the Company told you that it intends to seek payment from you to reimburse that Company's losses. Nor does the Company intend to take any legal action against you in connection with the incorrect fuel pricing incident. The Company does not want the money raised and will not accept it," the letter reads, local news outlet KCRA3 reported.

The company also said in the letter that the fundraiser should be shut down with the money returned to donors.

"It is the Company's view that the people who have donated to your GoFunMe fundraising campaign have been misled. The GoFundMe page should be shut down and the people who donated to you should have their money returned to them."