'Meter Creep' Leaves Customers Paying For Gas That Was Never Pumped

By Kelly Ryan

RIO LINDA (CBS13) — A CBS13 viewer says he paid for gas that he pumped, but never received.

Jon Westerman of Rio Linda posted a video on Facebook after a recent trip to the pump to get gas for his boat left him charged up.

"By the time I got my gas cap off the boat, the pump said It had already pumped 15-20 cents of gas," he said.

But he says he hadn't touched the handle to pump yet.

"It kept going up by itself and continued to count off gallons and cash that I wasn't pumping into my vehicle," he said.

He couldn't believe it so he went in to notify station management.

"He followed me out to the gas pump and said that it's not his problem and he's not ripping anyone off and that's as far as I got with him," he said.

So he turned to social media and then the county department of weights and measures.
Inspectors like Vince Nyvall are familiar with this kind of complaint.

"We have it all the time and it's one of the most common complaints we get," he said.

Nyvall says in cases like this one it's often a leak or an old pump.

"What happens sometimes is the inner hose will get a pin hole leak in it and it's enough that the meter detects volume flowing but it's not enough to come out the nozzle," he said.

It's called meter creep and it there have been a lot of complaints in California and throughout the country but it's not always easy to catch, even when it's suspected.

"When we go out we don't find what the customer has complained about," he said.

In this case creep was found and a report given to station management who later came out to apologize to Westerman and say service repair has been called and it will be fixed.

Westerman says he's happy with the outcome but says it wasn't until he took to social media that he got an explanation and apology. He admits 5 or ten cents may not seem like a big overcharge but he's glad he spoke out.

"A few cents out of everyone's pocket adds up," he said.