Gas Price Error

An LA gas station accidentally sold gas for $1.10 a gallon for a few hours

article

The owner says it was a computer glitch, not a promo. He hopes people will return and pay the right price.

If you got the gas at the heavily discounted price, would you go back to pay the fair price?

What is the fair price? 3.95? 4.13? What if you go back and the owner says the 'fair price is 5.25, because of all the others who are not coming back? I would assume the 'computer company' would be responsible to make restitution to the owner. But...... if i noticed it before I left the station I would have alerted the owner. I consider a gas station owner, generally a small businessman, different from a casino........

.....

A few weeks ago, I went to Target to buy some things. After paying, I looked over my receipt (I always do) and noticed that the cashier hadn't charged me for one of the two birthday cards I had bought. I mentioned it to the cashier, so she could charge me for the birthday card. The man behind me in line made a comment to me about how "refreshing" it was to find someone honest.

My feeling on the matter was that if someone looked over their receipt, and noticed they got OVERcharged, it's very likely they would return and ask for their money back. On the other hand, if someone is UNDERcharged, they might not feel the need to go back and pay for the item. What is it about human nature that makes us feel compelled to make sure we get our money back if we're wronged, but not necessarily give the money back to other people when they are wronged?

It's probably easier to think of large corporations, such as Target, or Texaco, and think, well, they make lots of money, so my getting something from them without paying for it isn't a big deal, because they have lots of money to cover the loss. But if the person is a small business owner, would we feel differently? What if the small business owner is a friend of ours? Or a family member?

On the other hand, I could say that when I went to Target, and picked out a birthday card, I was tacitly agreeing to pay for said business card. There are not signs at Target that say, "You will be charged for whatever you want to remove from the store, unless you are able to get it out the doors without us noticing it." So, if the gas pump says that the gas is $1.10 a gallon, and you pay for it, pump it, and drive away, you agreed to pay $1.10 a gallon for the gas, and thus you did what you agreed to do. It would not necessarily be your fault that the price isn't what other stations are charging. Of course, if the gas station sign says the gas is $3.50 a gallon, and the pump says $1.10 a gallon, what do you do? The similarity would be something on the shelf at Target with a sign that says it costs $10, but when it rings up at the cash register, it's only $2. Which is right?

Near my house, a new gas station opened up a couple of months ago, and their gas price on opening day was around 25 cents cheaper per gallon than the established station across the street. Naturally, the new place was jammed up with people getting gas. I even got gas, and called friends of mine, who don't even live nearby, and told them about the cheap available gas. Is that wrong? I mean, maybe the cheaper gas is only intended for people who live in the neighborhood.

If a slot machine malfunctions, the jackpot isn't paid. But if the computer system on the pricing of the gas pump malfunctioned, how do you take back the gasoline that's already been pumped? If people were smart, they hopefully paid cash for their gas, because if they used a credit card, it wouldn't be hard to trace down the people who pumped gas, how many gallons they pumped, how much they paid, and ask / demand that they pay the difference. In the first case, if people paid cash, someone, whether the owner or the cashier, should have been aware enough to realize that all of a sudden they are getting a HUGE volume of customers where normally they wouldn't. Do some investigation, and they would have stopped the problem a lot sooner.

On the other hand, if they could successfully track down the people who used their credit card, and ask/demand for the difference, what's to stop any other gas station / store / casino / anybody from doing this in the future?

"Hi, you pumped gas yesterday, and paid $3.65 a gallon. You really should have paid $3.66 a gallon, so we're going to require that you come pay us the difference."

"Hi, you were in our store yesterday, and bought a flat screen television on sale for $699. Well, the sale actually ended at 3:00pm, and you bought the tv at 3:01pm, but our computer system hadn't updated the price. So, the actualy price is $899. We've gone ahead and charged you the additional money as we're legally allowed to do per the case of Target v. Hamilton."

.....

I don't know if this was brought up here when the snippet came out, but we often talk about Casino Errors and our obligations; the NYTimes official "ethicist" weighed in on the issue in this link (skip past the Sex Offender question and save yourself the twisted logic):
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/08/magazine/mag-08Ethicist-t.html?_r=1&ref=theethicist

Yes, I would have. However, the Target isn't that far from my house, and since I seem to be there every week anyway, I probably would have just waited until my next trip to Target, gone in, paid for the card, and then be done with it. Also, since I check my receipt prior to leaving any store, I would have found any errors before getting home, but that's besides the point.

The people who would say they wouldn't drive all the way back to pay a couple of bucks, I also wonder if they would drive all the way back if they found out they had been OVERcharged by a couple of bucks. If they wouldn't, then I'm ok with that answer.

At a Boston Market near my store, I'm known as the "penny guy". One time a while back, I was in there, and I was short one penny for the cost of my meal. The cashier, of course, laughed it off and said don't worry about it. I told her I'd pay her the penny next time I came in. She joking said she would make sure I did. The next time I went in there, I gave her the penny. She, of course, had forgotten about it, but remembered when I brought it up. She laughed about it. Now they call me the penny guy.

The point being that I know I'm unusual in the sense of doing these types of things, and I don't expect anybody else to be as "anal" about as I am. My issue is only with people who would drive ALL the way back to the store because they were OVERcharged by $5, but wouldn't make the same effort if they were UNDERcharged by $5.

I have a story from college, I was in the bookstore buying books for the next semester and when I get to the cashier to get rung up she only rings up 3 of the 4 books, not ringing up the most expensive one. She bags them and asks for the amount. I tell her she missed one and she says "don't worry about it". I won't say I have always held myself to the highest morals throughout college, but I tried to do the "right" thing most of the time. Anyways, I know this girl, she isn't a good friend but an acquaintance that I have hung out with and partied with before (also shared the same class that the book was for). Not wanting to make a fuss in front of other customers and possibly other co-workers or her boss, I said "thanks, I'll see you later" and left with the books.

I wanted to forget about it, and the extra $200 in my pocket was nice, but I couldn't. I waited til the first day of class talked to her found out when she wasn't working next in casual conversation, and went in with that book making it look like I was just walking in reading it. I proceeded to browse for awhile then went to the register and paid for it, like I should have in the first place. I didn't rat her out or anything and never talked to her about it, but it was eating away at me and ethically I couldn't keep the book unpaid for. Was this a case of Altruism or Egoism on my part? Who knows probably the latter, but I was much more fulfilled having done that rather than taking the book for free. That being said, if I bought the gas for $1.10 I wouldn't go back and pay, but unfortunately I recently realized I have not held myself to the same standards I used to. That's for another story, but I am working on it.

Quote: Knuckleball3

I wanted to forget about it, and the extra $200 in my pocket was nice, but I couldn't. I waited til the first day of class talked to her found out when she wasn't working next in casual conversation, and went in with that book making it look like I was just walking in reading it. I proceeded to browse for awhile then went to the register and paid for it, like I should have in the first place.

Wow! First time I've heard of anyone shop-lifting a book into the store! I don't know what I would have done in a similar case

I think with the gas example it's easy. Most stations in similar locations (so not the only station in a remote area or some such thing) charge the same price. If I got super-discounted gas from one station I'd make an effort to use that station more in the future, since it's more or less all the same to me.

Now if I'm being asked to just hand them cash...I'd want to at least know a lot more information about whether they plan to seek compensation from their hardware suppliers first.

I voted that I would go back if nearby. If I still had to go out of my way I might deduct something for my trouble.

I would set the line at the percentage of people to do come back at about 5%.

The posted price is the posted price. I might ask if it's correct, but then again I might not.

Some years ago the local Sam's Club had bite-sized Hershey miniatures at a ridiculously low price. I don't recall how much it was, but really it looked like it was below cost. I did ask an employee, and he said that was the price. I bought a 3 pound bag. I told my brother, and he bought several bags. Next day we checked and the price was up to something reasonable. All purchases at Sam's are tracked because you present a membership card for every transaction. I never heard from them about a price adjustment.

This reminds of a case where a kid bought a very rare baseball card at a sports card store because the clerk was new and misunderstood the correct price. So he got a card worth $50,000 for $50, or something like that. When the owner got wind of it he asked the kid to return the card for his money back, but the kid and his parents declined. It got a fair amount of publicity. In the end, they agreed to sell the card at auction and donate the proceeds to charity.