Nagging feeling petrol station attendant just put diesel in my car

[190]

I pay using the Shell app, it’s great. Quick to use, and during these times of COVID-19 it removes a potential transmission route, ie paying at the kiosk or pay at pump.

Can’t understand the Shell thing, what’s the ‘need’ for such an app? Looks to be a bit long-winded to me, quicker just to use ‘pay at the pump’, you’ve got to get out of the car anyway.

I prefer paying at the pump. From what I've seen there is precious little chance of paying at the pump anymore in a Shell garage. All of the ones I've used recently have removed paying at the pump, so it's the phone app or a trip into the shop. I'm not a big mobile phone user and don't always carry it with me so Shell have made a backward step in some respects effectively saying you will do it our way and to hell with customer convenience. As a result I'll avoid Shell garages unless there is no option.

 

[BTB 500]

You can't use your phone outside of your car, your car is the Faraday pouch.
I've not looked but I'm sure it will say that in the t&c of the app....obviously there will be an issue with motorbikes!

And convertibles

 

[Deleted member 150136]

And convertibles

I got shouted at in mine at a petrol station before

 

[GDAWG10]

It's just bad manners to be on the phone while you're being served

Are you being serious? I won't mention anything about Cyprus or manners etc. Being a British Cypriot with a different upbringing and experiences , I'm not sure customer service or manners even exists here a lot of the time but regardless not that I have to explain myself but pulling into a petrol station whilst on the phone on bluetooth, as the guy is approaching my car whilst shouting something back to his colleague about football across the forecourt, I can't roll the window down and say "petrol please" and continue my phone conversation.

To often on this forum it seems that a lot of threads get derailed by posters picking up on such minor insignificant details and trying to lecture other posters or get the moral high-ground without reading the details properly or jumping to their own conclusions.

 

[ernie]

Any way you can elaborate on that anti-misfuel device and how it works for those of us who were unaware such a thing existed pre-fitted in newer cars? Can't say I've ever heard of it.

Edit: Ah, from YouTube it looks like it's something on the opening to basically block the wrong pump going in.

Just to be clear...I was only speaking about later MB cars which I know have anti-misfuelling devices fitted. I believe (some) Fords have too, but can't speak for any other makes.

Ernie

 

[kianok]

To often on this forum it seems that a lot of threads get derailed by posters picking up on such minor insignificant details and trying to lecture other posters or get the moral high-ground without reading the details properly or jumping to their own conclusions.

Couldn’t agree more.

 

[Deleted member 150136]

Are you being serious? I won't mention anything about Cyprus or manners etc. Being a British Cypriot with a different upbringing and experiences , I'm not sure customer service or manners even exists here a lot of the time but regardless not that I have to explain myself but pulling into a petrol station whilst on the phone on bluetooth, as the guy is approaching my car whilst shouting something back to his colleague about football across the forecourt, I can't roll the window down and say "petrol please" and continue my phone conversation.

To often on this forum it seems that a lot of threads get derailed by posters picking up on such minor insignificant details and trying to lecture other posters or get the moral high-ground without reading the details properly or jumping to their own conclusions.

Just out of interest, if you're a British Cypriot with a different upbringing....which I'm guessing means you were brought up over there and live there(1½mile away).... can you not speak the language? Saving on the fuel confusion.

Not trying to be awkward, a genuine question.

 

[E55BOF]

You can't use your phone outside of your car, your car is the Faraday pouch.

I don't think that's quite accurate, otherwise you wouldn't be able to use your phone in the car if you didn't have Bluetooth, and I've used my phone before in a car without it.

 

[Deleted member 150136]

I don't think that's quite accurate, otherwise you wouldn't be able to use your phone in the car if you didn't have Bluetooth, and I've used my phone before in a car without it.

It's the device not the signal, the device is in the car, Bluetooth is irrelevant, the device is protected from the fumes by the car.

 

[whitenemesis]

Myths Debunked - Mobile Phones At Petrol Stations | PYG

Find out if and why mobile phones are banned at petrol stations with Myths Debunked from Protect Your Gadget. Can they really cause a huge fireball or is it one giant myth?!

www.protectyourgadget.com

Mobile phones 'no threat' in petrol stations

Cutting off a phone call in mid-conversation as you pull in to buy petrol may not only be rude but also unnecessary, according to research.

www.theguardian.com

"Richard Coates, British Petroleum's fire safety officer, has investigated many of the 243 fires that over an 11-year period were attributed to mobiles. 'Mobile phones pose no petrol station hazard,' he said. 'There is nothing to worry about.'"

 

[GDAWG10]

Just out of interest, if you're a British Cypriot with a different upbringing....which I'm guessing means you were brought up over there and live there(1½mile away).... can you not speak the language? Saving on the fuel confusion.

Not trying to be awkward, a genuine question.

I was brought up in the UK. I can speak the language, but you would always say "95, petrol" it's the same thing really. The issue wasn't really the language barrier in the main, it was more the fact I didn't see where he pulled the pump from because even if you tell them, you usually need to keep an eye on them incase they reach for the wrong pump.

 

[Deleted member 126969]

I’m certainly not buying the Faraday cage argument. If the car was an effective barrier to RF at the frequencies used by a mobile, you’d not be able to make calls in the car.

A car would make a reasonably effective Faraday cage as far as protecting the occupants from a lightning strike, but that’s an entirely different thing.

I’ve never had a valid explanation for the ban on mobiles in petrol stations. Lots of myths and ideas, but never something that is demonstrably valid IMO.

My personal theory is that it’s a hangover from when early electronic pump metering systems could be reset by an RF spike.....but it’s just that, my own daft idea.

The fact that phones are now an acceptable form of payment puts paid to the idea they are a danger in and of themselves. Behaviour of people when using them is another matter of course.

 

[Deleted member 150136]

Mobile phones are not Intrinsically safe, meaning there is a potential for them to get hot enough to inadvertently light the fumes from the petrol vapour(this is a fact, however likely it may be, as all the studies show, it is very highly unlikely), the car stops the fumes getting to the source of the ignition(the Faraday pouch may have been a poor example).
You can get Intrinsically safe mobiles so you can use them in petrochemical plants(as mobiles aren't allowed in there either).

This is why the signs 'were' put there, whether in this day and age after all the research shows it is unnecessary I don't know.
It maybe the 1/10000000 chance it does happen to start a fire and cause a catastrophe killing 10s of people, that the oil companies feel the risk of it outweighs the need for a phone call.

No one thinks it will happen until it happens.

 

[BPD07]

I’ve never had a valid explanation for the ban on mobiles in petrol stations. Lots of myths and ideas, but never something that is demonstrably valid IMO.

I’d hazard, that if you look back 20 years to when a Nokia 6310i was new, most phones had detachable batteries with copper contacts. If dropped, the batteries would normally come away and there is a chance of a spark. Probably an irrelevant concern now.

apart from me and Giffgaff tormentor (no I don’t want your data sales package).

 

[BTB 500]

I’d hazard, that if you look back 20 years to when a Nokia 6310i was new, most phones had detachable batteries with copper contacts. If dropped, the batteries would normally come away and there is a chance of a spark.

AFAIK the Nokias had internal batteries which were removable, but only with the back of the phone taken off first. Going back a generation or two though the battery *was* the back of the phone, and probably did have a fair chance of coming away if dropped onto tarmac. The Ericsson 388 I had, for example

 

[Martin 1]

Great news GK, very pleased to hear it. Did it once with a BMW and realised straight away, it took me ages to syphon out £20 worth.

 

[HB]

WTF you doing on the phone while refuelling your car?
No suggestions and no sympathy.

When’s the last time you were in the Middle East ,Asia, Turkey, Eastern Europe ? I’ve seen plenty of people doing it here in the uk too.

 

[merc estate]

Well if you think i'm going all the way to cyprus to talk on my phone, so someone can put the wrong petrol in, i don't think i will bother. And as for the other lot sitting on the sofa outside the shop, one should be checking the tyres and the other cleaning the screen, so if they don't jump to it i'm not going there for sure.

 

[Deleted member 159894]

At least no one was smoking at the filling station.

When we are all electric we can smoke and chat on the phone during the lengthy filling times.

 

[Deleted member 126251]

Yet all the major oil companies have phone apps intended to be used on the forecourt:

.....................

Yet every oil company I have worked for (a few) will not allow a normal mobile on their productions sites.......IIRC, my app says to stay the car to do the transaction.