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Five gas stations cheat customers

Five gas stations cheat customers

Thursday, October 11, 2012, 11:08 GMT+7

Four filling stations in Ho Chi Minh City and another in Dong Nai have cheated customers by manipulating the money indicators while serving drivers in order to appropriate money from them, a Tuoi Tre investigation has found. The fraudulent stations in HCMC were Ba Diem 1 Station, at 66/7 National Highway 22, Ba Diem Commune, Hoc Mon District; 27/7 Station, at 624 Kha Van Can Street, Linh Dong Ward, Thu Duc District; Thien Ngoc Station, at 49 To Ky, Than Chanh Hiep Ward, District 12; and Nam Son Thanh Dat Station, at 102 Pho Quang, Ward 2, Tan Binh District. Each of these stations employs the same trick: when a staff members begins to fill a vehicle, another worker adjusts a button on the side of the gas cylinder (see photo) to adjust the money indicator to show an amount that is higher than their actual charge based on the actual volume of petrol that had been pumped into the vehicle’s tank. On September 27 at Ba Diem 1, an employee named Man was pumping and receiving money from customers while another staffer was in charge of the money indicator.

A customer stopped at the station and asked for VND50,000 (US$2.4) worth of A92 gasoline, or 2.11 liters, since a liter costs VND23,650. Man began filling the vehicle’s tank and when the money indicator displayed VND36,894, the other staff member pressed the “stop” button and then pressed VND50,000. The trick took less than 2 seconds and the driver lost VND13,000. The same fraud was seen at the 27/7 Gas Station on September 16, when an employee colluded with Bui Tan Hieu, a guard at a café located next to the station, to “pocket” money from drivers who came to fill their vehicles. Two day later, a woman who came to the station discovered the trick and after she complained the station attendants had to pump more petrol into her vehicle’s tank. At the Thien Ngoc Station, at least two staffers were assigned to trick customers. Within just 25 minutes of observing the fraudulent filling station, Tuoi Tre saw more than 15 similar cases and recorded the acts with a camera. One day later, Tuoi Tre discovered 37 similar cases at the station. At Nam Son Thanh Dat, three people took part in the fraud and they appropriated more than VND10,000 per customer on average. They included Nguyen Van Thai and Nguyen Van Thanh – the station’s employees, and another young man who was in casual clothes. At Song Da Station in Tan Hiep Ward, Bien Hoa City, Dong Nai Province, Tuoi Tre witnessed Hoang Cong Duc, a station attendant who was in charge of deceiving customers by manipulating the money indicator. Hundreds of customers were easily cheated by Duc between 8 pm and 10 pm on October 1, and Duc’s tricks were caught on camera. The next day, nearly every driver who stopped at the station were hustled by Duc at a rate of more than VND10,000 per victim. In talking with Tuoi Tre yesterday about the fraud, Le Duc Hai, deputy director of the Song Ga Gas Station, said he had not known about the station cheating customers. However, he admitted that it was wrong for two employees to work together at the same gas cylinder while serving drivers. Under the station’s regulation, every gas cylinder is operated by only a staffer, Hai said. He also said that the company has received complaints from customers who accused some employees of cheating them while filling vehicles, and the company has held meetings in which workers were banned from committing fraudulent acts.

Tuoi Tre

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