Watch That Gas Pump!
ONEONTA, N.Y. -- The price you see on a gas station's sign may not necessarily be the price you pay after you pump.
That was a new experience - and realization - for customer Freda Weygand last week, according to a report in the Oneonta Daily Star.
Weygand managed to pump her gas as prices were being changed -- and the advertised and actual prices didn't match.
"Right while I was pumping, he upped the price," Weygand told the newspaper. "I've never heard of such a thing."
Weygand, from Mount Vision, N.Y., said she checked the pump and sign before putting gas in her car at an Amerada Hess Station in Oneonta.
When she started to pump, Weygand said, the sign showed regular gas at $2.46 a gallon.
An employee then came around to change the signs while she was fueling her car, and the signs changed to $2.49, she said.
Weygand was charged the $2.49 per gallon, according to a receipt from the store.
"I couldn't believe what they did," Weygand said. "I'll never get over that."
What likely happened, a spokeswoman from Hess said, was that the sign and the price of gas didn't match.
"That's possible, if she had pulled in during one of the price changes," spokeswoman Sandy Salit said of Weygand's experience.
Prices need to be changed on a computer and the sign. Although the prices had been changed on the computer, Salit said, they hadn't yet been changed on the signs, and that was why the employee was changing them.
"I know we do midday price changes," Salit told the Star.
Weygand said she thought they were changing the price in midstream, but Salit said it would be impossible for the store to change prices in the computer while someone was pumping.
The pumps are turned off while the computer is changed, she said.
"I don't know how she could have started and then stopped," Salit said. "It can't happen midstream."
That was a new experience - and realization - for customer Freda Weygand last week, according to a report in the Oneonta Daily Star.
Weygand managed to pump her gas as prices were being changed -- and the advertised and actual prices didn't match.
"Right while I was pumping, he upped the price," Weygand told the newspaper. "I've never heard of such a thing."
Weygand, from Mount Vision, N.Y., said she checked the pump and sign before putting gas in her car at an Amerada Hess Station in Oneonta.
When she started to pump, Weygand said, the sign showed regular gas at $2.46 a gallon.
An employee then came around to change the signs while she was fueling her car, and the signs changed to $2.49, she said.
Weygand was charged the $2.49 per gallon, according to a receipt from the store.
"I couldn't believe what they did," Weygand said. "I'll never get over that."
What likely happened, a spokeswoman from Hess said, was that the sign and the price of gas didn't match.
"That's possible, if she had pulled in during one of the price changes," spokeswoman Sandy Salit said of Weygand's experience.
Prices need to be changed on a computer and the sign. Although the prices had been changed on the computer, Salit said, they hadn't yet been changed on the signs, and that was why the employee was changing them.
"I know we do midday price changes," Salit told the Star.
Weygand said she thought they were changing the price in midstream, but Salit said it would be impossible for the store to change prices in the computer while someone was pumping.
The pumps are turned off while the computer is changed, she said.
"I don't know how she could have started and then stopped," Salit said. "It can't happen midstream."