I thought let’s see who’s the first to review this wanted ad by Paulose!;) And at the same time pocket a review under my belt!
On the topic, let’s understand the market and the dealers, the companies and their assorted means of manipulation.
The companies in India dealing in fuel distribution are Reliance, Indian oil, BP, HP, IBP, Shell and a few others. Among these, a few also import crude and fractionate the products.(Most of the ones mentioned above) You will wonder why I am informing you about the companies when the review is about the respective dealers. To remind you off the fact that all the companies are in the Fortune 500 list of companies! Yup, petroleum is one of the most lucrative businesses in the world. However we are lucky to have most of our companies with Central Equity. Hell, otherwise, there would have been no subsidy! I recommend buying from the state or Central government companies or its dealers for more reasons. Firstly the subsidy effects. And the other is the products such as engine oils from which they earn the most. You could say this is an ad for mineral based engine oils manufactured by the state government companies, since they need to profit more!
Coming to the transportation, understand what happens before it reaches the dealer. About 30 -50% of the fuel is tampered. (More on central government oil providers) There are various means of corrupting the fuel. For ex., there is a ash type powder which is mixed in fuels. What they do is pilfer some of the fuel before putting in the ash type substance.(Well, I don’t know what it is, but I have seen it increase the fuel) It’s like what happens when you add water to ENO(Stomach antacid). The fuel froths and the petrol quantity increases by that much(though adulterated) (My personal experience when I attended my friend’s marriage in Vaishali district, Bihar)
If you have read of the death of a government executive who tried to prevent such adulteration, then you would understand how dangerous it is in some places. In fact there are very few takers for some regions. It’s a dangerous job.
Then we have some of our dealers who adulterate even before checks are carried out. At the dealer level, they do it in various forms.
A few dealers mix the substance mentioned earlier. They do it if the demand is more and have a field day during that period. So even if any random checks are made, the fuel would be out of stock by the time they are checked! This can occur during strikes or just before fuel hikes when people tend to stock. There is nothing much you can do, except at such times, it is recommended to visit a private dealer like Shell or Reliance.(And hope it doesn’t happen!)
Also if you go to the mechanical pumps or hand pumps, you would notice that the fuel quantity is lesser due to air. The air pushes the meter to read more quantity. Even otherwise you would only notice it after the fuel is complete in most cases! Avoid Hand pumps or mechanical pumps. Go in for the new pumps where they have the digital meters. The fault tolerance is high and in most cases they are tamper proof. And ensure(For mechanical pumps) that he does not half press the tap, otherwise it’s just more air than fuel.
I have noticed that the Shell is currently the best at servicing customers, though I don’t know how a smile and a greeting can assure you the quality of the fuel.
Be observant when refueling. Sometimes the fuel attendant may not set the meter to Zero and you might end up in a tiff for that extra litre!
But there is another bigger scam going more than the fuel. It’s the money when you use the plastic cards – whether debit or credit.
Most times it is only during the introductory offer, a few card companies offer a reversal or no charges. Once they have a minimum base of users, they start charging. The other day, I was using my ICICI debit card for refueling for 150. In the end I was charged 160. Of course this fact came to light due to infinity(Online banking portal- I rarely bother to see the debit card statements.) A charge of 10 bucks? Of course this is the transaction charges, but don’t you feel it’s huge for a 150 bucks worth of fuel? And especially since I am paying for it with my money, not using the credit card? I have since stopped using cards at petrol pumps. Keep the cash ready and in hand. It also saves you time. (The charges are true for all debit cards and most credit cards)
Take care,