Karma and petrol stations

A few weeks ago I moaned on this blog about an Orlen petrol station on the A2 (here) and am happy to report that my insistence on not being ripped off (no matter by only 37gr) has had a positive effect. Well at least that's how I like to see it.

On Saturday I and my wife stopped at a BP petrol station in Łódź. To be honest I didn't really plan to get petrol but we wanted to use the toilets and so I decided to stop at BP as they are always nice and clean (the toilets that is). While my wife went in to use the toilets I started filling up (thankfully no attendants at BP). I noticed that the screen was displaying 48zl and thought that perhaps the pump had not been cleared from the customer before and was not actually giving me petrol. I released my grip on the pump and could feel the pressure difference and then re-squeezed the pump and again felt the difference; therefore I continued filling my car believing that the screen was just broken.

Upon finishing I went into pay and told the women my pump number and that I thought the pump was broken as it had displayed 48zł from start to finish. She told me that the computer showed zero and that pump 3 had not been used. This was odd. For a second I felt that I was a complete idiot and that I had been standing for several minutes next to a car while not actually achieving anything. I said I'd go and check/refill my car. I decided first to check my car's petrol guage and guess what: I had at least three times as much petrol as I had before pulling into BP. This was bizzare.

I returned to the cashdesk and told them that I have petrol and that the machine must be wrong. Here begun the surreal part. For the next ten minutes the cashiers and the manager tried to convince me that I had not taken any petrol and that as far as their systems were concerned everything was fine. I pride my self on being an ethical and honest person and will always alert a waiter if they have undercharged me in a restaurant etc and so told the BP staff several times that I had taken petrol. Alas to no avail. If you have ever watched episodes of Little Britain then the line "the computer says no" will aptly describe this situation.

The manager refused to accept/comprehend the possibility that the computer/pump was broken and just repeated that I/we were wrong/mistaken. In the end I left my card and told her to call me if her accounts do not add up and we left. I estimate that we drove away with around 80-100zł worth of free petrol.

All Saints Chaos

It’s a funny old world! It appears that the outgoing government have recently passed a law that not only does their own ministry which deals with the area of interest not fully agree with, but it could potential cripple the country. The law deals with trading hours for shops and heavily restricts trading on the 12 official public holidays. Unlike in the UK these days have great religious significance and even nominal Catholics adhere to these days. The one that may cause most problems is the upcoming All Saints Day. The Labour Ministry has noticed that the law covers petrol stations as well as the big shops, that most who voted for the law original thought it dealt with exclusively. This means that on Nov 1st, most petrol stations could be closed! Oh deer….. This is this busiest day of the year for Polish Motorists and may have potentially immeasurable implications. On the brighter side it could also save many lives, as this day accounts for the highest number of road accidents in a single day in Poland.