WASHINGTON, Aug. 21, 2008
Is Your Gas Pump Ripping You Off?
CBS News Investigation: Pump Inspection Standards Vary Widely State To State
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Gas Pump Rip-Offs
After a nationwide investigation, many gas pumps were found to deliver less gas than you paid for. Pump inspections vary from state to state, and can be years apart. Armen Keteyian reports.
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Are you getting what you pay for at the gas pump? The Investigative Unit partnered with several of our affiliate stations to find out. See what they've found in your area:
- WFOR Miami: Is Your Pump Shorting You?
- KOVR Sacramento: Get The Gas You Pay For
- KTVT Dallas/Fort Worth: Hundreds Of Pumps Cheating Drivers
- WBZ Boston: State Inspectors Keep Eye On Pump Accuracy
- KDKA Pittsburgh: Complaints Over Gas Pump Calibration
- CBS2 Chicago: The Truth About Illinois Gas Taxes
- KVAL Eugene: Gas Scam Warning
- WCBS New York: Gas Siphoning On The Rise
- WFOR Miami: Bad Gas Causing Big Car Problems
KHOU: Thousands Of Gas Pumps Shortchange Texans Visit WCCO's investigative page KPIX: Is The Gas Pump Ripping You Off?
Related Stories from CBS affiliates:
It's up to each state to make sure you're not getting ripped off at the pump. To see if you are, CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian and the investigative team turned to three reporters at CBS stations to see what they could find.
Mark Greenblatt of KHOU in Houston reports that for the first time ever, the state of Texas is suing a company that runs a chain of gas stations - accusing it of deliberately shorting consumers. The company denies any wrongdoing, but they are not alone. Last year the state found nearly 2,000 pumps at other gas stations that were cheating drivers.
The industry says about 90 percent of pumps pass inspection, and some even deliver a bit more than you pay for.
But a two-month CBS News investigation raises serious questions about whether states even know if drivers are being cheated. CBS News uncovered huge gaps in how pumps are inspected nationwide, including:
As Frank Vascellaro from WCCO-TV in Minneapolis reports, Minnesota doesn't inspect gas pumps annually. There aren't enough inspectors to do it. Of the pumps they were able to inspect this year, 11 percent had problems. The state says stations have to fix them, but only a quarter are ever reinspected. And even though the state can charge operators ripping you off with a crime, that's never happened in Minnesota.
Overall, the investigation uncovered a pattern of inspection that was, literally, all over the map.
Michigan, for example, inspects only after complaints. New Hampshire and Arkansas allow gas stations to hire their own testers, while Tennessee and Florida rely on "statistical sampling."
"Some states are doing very well, others are struggling," said Henry Oppermann, the former head of the Department of Commerce division that sets guidelines for state inspections. "When the inspection period would get beyond, let's say, a year and a half, I think that's really going beyond what regulatory oversight should be."
In fact, CBS News found 17 states allow pumps to go more than a year and a half without inspection.
Among the worst: Arizona, at every three years. Maine's inspections are up to every four years. Same with Texas. One pump CBS News found in Fort Worth, Texas, was last inspected in 2003, when gas was $1.56 a gallon.
Speaking with Oppermann, Keteyian said: "I gotta tell you something, I don't have a great deal of confidence right now ... that I am actually getting what I am paying for."
"When there's a lack of oversight, there's a potential - a greater potential for abuse," Oppermann said.
And even when pumps are regularly inspected, that's no guarantee.
Anna Werner at KPIX in San Francisco found that in California, 94 percent of pumps pass inspection. But consumers can still be cheated. That's because pumps can pass even when they dispense a little less than what the pump says. It's a margin of error the law allows.
So a high-volume station that routinely sells a little less than a gallon could rake in around $50,000 a year extra - for gas you never get.
"Shame on them!" one driver said. "That's all I can say, shame on them."
Is it time for Congress to look at this as a national issue?
"It would be beneficial to have a national coordination of efforts," Oppermann said.
Not likely. When CBS News tried to find out the last time Congress looked into the problem, but came up empty. Fact is: it never has.
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See all 61 CommentsThanks a lot Pelosi!!!!!
here is one "gas addict".
oh by the way..where are we on that ''impeachment''?? no proof? no fact??? no allegations from those people who MADE MILLIONS are solid enough???
i guess liberals ARE INDEED STUPID
My car hold 13.5 gal and if I fill to the top of the nozzle I might get 14. I drove in with just under a quarter tank and put 15 gallons in. I spoke to the manager and he said they have nothing to do with the pump when it came to calibrating them.
I am outraged by high fuel prices in my area (.20-.50 more than anywhere else in the state or neighboring states that I have seen)and think more needs to be done to regulate these higher than usual prices in my area and being gouged by cheating at the pump just burns me more. States say they do not have the funds to pay for inspections. I say they can''t afford to have these pumps allowed to rip us off anymore.
Uh-huh. So tell me, how long have you heard the voices ?
First the article should have explained steps you can take to protect your self. Know your vehicle and your driving habits. Learn to figure how much gas is left by reading the gauge. They are not standard and every car is different. You have to play with it. Then when you go to the station you will know within a quart how much gas your car will take to fill the tank.
Second. Even inspections will not catch dishonest owners. There was a case years ago in L.A. Where the station owner had a Computer expert reprogram the pumps. So that you were always shorted. The program knew how the pump inspection worked and was able to fool the inspectors. No one figured it out until a motorist put 22 gallons in his 16 gallon tank.
My car hold 13.5 gal and if I fill to the top of the nozzle I might get 14. I drove in with just under a quarter tank and put 15 gallons in. I spoke to the manager and he said they have nothing to do with the pump when it came to calibrating them.
I am outraged by high fuel prices in my area (.20-.50 more than anywhere else in the state or neighboring states that I have seen)and think more needs to be done to regulate these higher than usual prices in my area and being gouged by cheating at the pump just burns me more. States say they do not have the funds to pay for inspections. I say they can''t afford to have these pumps allowed to rip us off anymore.
It''s his "experience" that tells him that "tax cuts for the rich" that helps create jobs and helps the "middle class" instead of just cause plain old inflation.
It''s John Mcain''s so called vast "experience" that told us that the "War in Iraq" would pay for itself and cost free instead of just adding to the deficit and force the "middle class" to pay for it through inflationary gas prices.
I think it''s time for a CHANGE from this John McCain''s "experience"; we''ve had enough of it.
Yeah, and so is our "President".
Yeah, and so is our "President".
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Posted by MANDALAY-BAY at 07:48 PM : Aug 21, 2008
+ report abuse
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its either one of those liberal bullsh*t or Liberal DNC and Nancy Pelosi is to stupid to do anything about it..which one is it??
where are we on that impeachment?? you know about the lies..
Total gasoline sales in gallons vs. total gasoline purchased by the station. The gauges on the trucks pumping the gasoline into the station''s tanks are probably fairly accurate compared to those on the pumps that your car is accepting from.
Just pick a few suspect stations and do the math.
Hey, the consumer has been ripped off on the price of gas since the 70s! When the public is financially broke and the economy is close to or collapsed, THEN govt and business leaders will reveal to the public some "NEW" invention that doesn''t run on gas! UH=HUH!
And a NEW rip off sequence will begin!
probably right but by then only the rich will get it.
You and me? we will be cutting their grass remembering the way we used to live.
Methanol (an alcohol "oxygenate") is exactly twice as heavy as Methane (a hydrocarbon fuel); but it has 19% less heat of combustion because it is already partly burned up (oxygenated).
So the EPA makes the oil companies sell you water at the same price as gasoline; and for no good reason.
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Posted by zoe2006
My Gawd that is an ignorant statement.
I think it is quite remarkable that an oil company explores the globe for a source,extracts the oil from hundreds of feet below the ground, transports it halfway around the world, refines it into gasoline, transports it to a fuel depot, then to a gas station, and only charges me $3.90 per gallon.
The subsidised dairy association, milks a cow, sends it less than 200 miles to a prosessing plant to have it put in cartons, and then sends it to a grocery store where they charge me.....drum roll please....about $3.90 a gallon
Which took more effort
I have a neice that works at Starbucks.She told me the average coffee drink that has a total cost of goods and overhead of about .50 is retailed for 4 dollars or more. Where is the outrage of the obcene profits of "Big Coffee"?
Oh thats right Libs love their lattes, and Howard Shultz (COE of Starbucks) is a big contributor to the DNC, and they can''t blame Bush, Cheney, and every conservative that has ever lived.
just 8 short years ago gas sold for under $1 a gallon
In July 2005 when oil was 70 a barrel after Katrina gas sold for $3 a gallon, Now 3 years later we were recently at 141 a barrel and $ a gallon. This pretty much proves Gas companies Set prices across the board and rip us off contrary to what they say. If you are comfortable buying it At 4 a gallon Continue to drive to the most expensive stationfor gas amd marvel at the science. The MAJORITY of us think Gas is TOO high
The subsidised dairy association, milks a cow, sends it less than 200 miles to a prosessing plant to have it put in cartons, and then sends it to a grocery store where they charge me.....drum roll please....about $3.90 a gallon.
Bretster, You are not doing the right wingers any good with your totally ignorant comparison. "Gas and Milk"? Apples and Oranges. Try to understand a single parent, raising two kids, and holding down two jobs. Now that person having to sell the car because the fuel expense. Get up an hour and a half earlier to use public transportation to drop off the kids at day care and make it to their job on time. Try looking beyond your nose when posting your pork wallet opinion.
That whats the matter with neo-cons, they''ve lost the human compassion.
I agree there should be a number posted at the pump, and if a certain percentage of complaints are received, the site should be tested and corrective action taken if found to be out of range. But the technology of testing discovers and corrects it, not the tester%u2019s political party affiliation or lack thereof.
Keep up the good work. At least the people who are struggling in this nation has someone keeping a watchful eye on things. You would think it is the job of the Government, but i''m pretty sure Representatives of the House and Senate are laughing all the way to the bank, just like they are laughing at stories such as this! I wonder when the people elected to represent us, actually will.
Do the math and you can catch them in the act of over charging, I have and was refunded on the spot.
This is nothing more than an article design to stir up the public and to what end? Build another costly federal program and add more federal bureaucrats to suck down tax dollars? This can be easily addressed at the state level where even politcian can be held more accountable.
now how was bush connected to this??
now how was bush connected to this??
Posted by libsluv2spit at 11:17 PM : Aug 21, 2008
Guilty -- through complicity and inaction.
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You can''t water down gasoline.
You know as these thing continue to happen we all become more de-sensitized.
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