Hello all,
I'm not sure where this question should go, sorry!
A few weeks ago I paid for my girlfriend's fuel at a petrol station. She is a nurse and I wanted to do my bit to help her out as costs are rising.
Because I wanted to buy a bottle of wine at the shop I went up to the till (I did not pay at pump) and paid for the wine and her diesel. I paid with a credit card.
Today my girlfriend received a letter from Forecourt Eye telling me I did not pay for my fuel on 4th June at the petrol station in question. They show a photo of me filling the tank, and a separate photo of a till receipt for £65.42 in print, but then handwritten over this was “Paid 55.42. Paid wrong fuel”. In addition they are asking for a £60 admin fee if I pay by 3rd August, or a £30 admin fee if I pay within 14 days.
Note that the letter starts by saying "A gentle reminder to the forgetful amongst us. You appear to have forgotten to pay for your fuel obtained on 04/06/2022."
Clearly I did not forget to pay. There is merely some question about the amount.
But if I paid the wrong amount then this is not my fault. It's the garage's mistake.
If they had written to me and said "note that if you don't pay the £10 difference then we'll have to dock it from the wages of some poor sod who works for minimum wage" then I would would be a lot more inclined to pay. But the fact that they are accusing me of a walk-away non-payment, and asking me to pay an admin fee for their mistake is just infuriating.
OK...so here's where it gets good. I paid by credit card, so I checked the amount, which tells me I paid £66.38.
In other words, according to their till receipt I OVERPAID them by 0.96p !!!
The problem is this is from Forecourt Eye, which I suspect has the same moral values as the private clampers we hear so much about.
Any advice is welcome.
I assume I don't have to pay them anything, but when I call them tomorrow I'll record the call and first establish that they feel it's my obligation to repay the difference (even though it was their mistake), and that it's acceptable to charge an admin fee.
Only then will I tell them that in fact I have proof that they overcharged me, and not only do I expect to be repaid but also to receive an admin fee.
One I have an answer from Forecourt Eye I intend to write to Shell, who operate the petrol side, and to Waitrose who operate the supermarket.
Cheers,
Geoff