Letter to Editor
RECENTLY, I went to the petrol station to fill up my car tank which indicated there was 60km of fuel left available for my car to traverse.
I was in a hurry when I was filling up petrol and unfortunately I had forgotten to get the receipt upon filling up my car with petrol. After a few metres drive down the road only I realised that the supposed amount was not poured into my fuel tank. It was short of RM10.
However, I could not confront the petrol kiosk as I did not have a receipt with me. I decided to come back another day to the same petrol kiosk, to fill my fuel tank again and this time around, to take a snapshot of my mileage reading and a receipt.
I payed RM40, got the receipt and walked towards my car. Meanwhile, there was already a worker filling my fuel tank. The amount stopped at RM30. I took a glance at my receipt and it was also totalled RM30.
Moving on, I confronted the worker who filled up my tank, who seemed to be a high ranking supervisor and told him of my predicament.
Immediately, I saw the tension and worry on her face trying to pacify and asking me to approach the counter. The counter person got exposed as there was evidence that he collected RM40 but only keyed in RM30. While expressing the usual apology for being ignorant, he keyed in another RM10 and issued another receipt thus an additional amount of RM10 was filled.
On reflection with the conversation I had when I confronted the person at the counter, it seemed like a well orchestrated process to cheat whilst expressing one’s innocence and error of no intention to cheat.
As the same modus operandi went on a month after I personally experienced the cheating, I concluded that there is a syndicate operating within the petrol kiosk. Put yourself in a position to think of how much they will collect a day, even it means just RM5 per person to boot.
I am not accusing every kiosk of operating in such a way, but there are many other kiosks which I believe are operating carrying out this modus operandi by way of cheating the naive and innocent public.
I hope our kiosks operators are aware of such unethical practices being carried out in their respective kiosks. I urge them to check and give proper ethical training to the staffs who are manning the stations not to cheat, while the public must become aware of such cheating that is taking place without them being aware of.
At all times, when filling your tank, please take your receipt and double-check the reading after filling your car with petrol.
Petrol corporations should take the necessary steps so their brand image will not be tarnished if it is exposed. People might lose confidence in the company leading to huge losses. — Oct 19, 2022
K.Tamil Maran
Taman Temiang Jaya, Seremban
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
