# got more gas then i paid for, what do ? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 3, 2014, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-more-gas-then-i-paid-for-what-do/703536 "2014-11-03T18:04:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![SmellMyWort](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ea5d25/32.png) [@SmellMyWort](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SmellMyWort)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2014, 5:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-more-gas-then-i-paid-for-what-do/703536/61 "2014-11-05T17:19:11Z")
> [@SpeedwayRyan](#): > > If the pump doesn’t shut off at the amount requested, there’s no point of having to PRE-pay. Pre-pay means I give the guy a fiver and the pump automatically slows down and shuts off at the $5 mark. If it doesn’t, people can pay $5 and fill their 20-gallon tank…and if people can do that, you might as well just have them pay after they pump, because dishonest people can easily drive off with gas they didn’t pay for. > > This was the fault of the gas station. The OP is not a thief, he’s the victim of someone else’s mistake…and as a result, he’s now in the bad position of having to either come up with cash for gas he didn’t want to purchase, or living with it. > > The best answer might be to go in, ask for the manager, tell him or her what happened, hand over your information, and offer to pay the difference when you can. That way they get their money, and you don’t have to scrounge up cash before you planned to do so. Putting in an extra dollar or two before noticing it didn’t turn off would have made him a victim of someone else’s mistake (which he should still go back in and explain to the attendant). Putting in $31 makes him a thief. Errors happen and the OP had a duty to mitigate the damage. I guess some of us learn this lesson earlier than others. I remember one time when I was about 5 and asked my Mom for a penny so I could get a gumball. I turned the crank and got one and then realized that the mechanism was broken and I could keep turning the crank around and it would dispense gum without needing a coin. I got two or three more, thinking I won the kid lottery. Mom noticed and I had to go tell the store owner that the machine was broken and give him a few cents for the gum I took. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2014, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-more-gas-then-i-paid-for-what-do/703536/62 "2014-11-05T17:29:06Z")
> [@Sneakyguydavid](#): > > **TL;DR; OP did the right thing** Maybe a name change to **Honorableguydavid** would be in order.😉 ---
**Author:** ![cochrane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cochrane/32/10441_2.png) [@cochrane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cochrane)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2014, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-more-gas-then-i-paid-for-what-do/703536/63 "2014-11-05T17:51:19Z")
> [@aceplace57](#): > > Anyone put 3 quarters in a Coke machine and get two sodas? Same idea. You prepaid and extra product got dispensed. Same thing happened at the gas pump except its a clerk’s error and much more money. Wow, where’s this Coke machine located? All the machines near me charge $1.25. ---
**Author:** ![SpeedwayRyan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@SpeedwayRyan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpeedwayRyan)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2014, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-more-gas-then-i-paid-for-what-do/703536/64 "2014-11-05T19:03:56Z")
> [@Tread](#): > > He’s a victim??? He saw that it went past the 3.10, and kept pumping until it quit at 31.00. The pump finally quit or he would still be pumping. He watched it go from 3.11 all the way to 31.00 He also knew at 2.80 that it was not slowing down to stop on it’s own. > > He knew had had not paid for that much gas but kept pumping. Either the station or the attendant is out 27.90, and the person who got all the extra gas is a victim. WOW! > > Victim… I do not think it means what you think it means. I may be very wrong, but I am assuming that he turned on the pump, started cleaning his windshield or throwing away trash or looking at his phone, and expected it to stop at $3.10. It did not, and all of the sudden he’s on the hook. If he stood there watching the pump roll to ten times what he paid for, I’m with you. ---
**Author:** ![Tread](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/53a042/32.png) [@Tread](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tread)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2014, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-more-gas-then-i-paid-for-what-do/703536/65 "2014-11-05T19:25:58Z")
> [@SpeedwayRyan](#): > > I may be very wrong, but I am assuming that he turned on the pump, started cleaning his windshield or throwing away trash or looking at his phone, and expected it to stop at $3.10. It did not, and all of the sudden he’s on the hook. If he stood there watching the pump roll to ten times what he paid for, I’m with you. OP states: The pump kept going past $3.10 and i looked around in shock but kept pumping the gas, eventually stopped at $31.00 So yep, he stood there watching ---
**Author:** ![Omar\_Little](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/omar_little/32/269_2.png) [@Omar\_Little](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Omar_Little)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2014, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-more-gas-then-i-paid-for-what-do/703536/66 "2014-11-05T19:31:36Z")
good on the OP ---
**Author:** ![Lukeinva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lukeinva/32/17872_2.png) [@Lukeinva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lukeinva)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2014, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-more-gas-then-i-paid-for-what-do/703536/67 "2014-11-05T20:55:40Z")
Good username for this. ---
**Author:** ![SpeedwayRyan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ce7236/32.png) [@SpeedwayRyan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpeedwayRyan)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2014, 10:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-more-gas-then-i-paid-for-what-do/703536/68 "2014-11-05T22:16:20Z")
> [@Tread](#): > > OP states: > The pump kept going past $3.10 and i looked around in shock but kept pumping the gas, eventually stopped at $31.00 > > So yep, he stood there watching Point taken, I missed that. I don’t know why it would take that long to figure out what was happening or why you would be stunned afterward if you watched it happen. Regardless, glad he did the right thing in the end. ---
**Author:** ![JesterX](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/439d5e/32.png) [@JesterX](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JesterX)\ **Post date:** [November 5, 2014, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-more-gas-then-i-paid-for-what-do/703536/69 "2014-11-05T23:03:34Z")
I’m inclined to say take them for all you can get. A lot of those gas station owners are flat crooks anyway. I bought this gas gauge that measures my car tank in percentages instead of the standard “E H F”. Then my friend showed me how to convert the percentage to gallons for my particular gas tank. I found two instances where I got LESS gas than it read on the pump. The first time I made a big stink about it and when the cops came, they said since it wasn’t a direct gallon to gallon gauge, I couldn’t prove I was being cheated. The second time I just said “hell with it”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/got-more-gas-then-i-paid-for-what-do/703536.md?page=3)