BP's chapter of mistakes

[Rodge]

This really happened to me today and is totally bizarre.

For a while I've been running my daily on Shell 95 because I get a small discount with a fuel card I have. Hosted a
BBQ recently and because I spent over $200 at the local supermarket I got a 25 cents a litre discount to the BP
service station as part of a promotion they were running, so I thought that's great I'll try a tank of BP98 Ultimate and
see if my car goes better on that.

So on 23 November when the tank was nearly empty I went and put just over 60 litres of BP98 in the SC beast, (it
was actually exactly 61 litres now that I've been given the right information), went in and paid by normal signed
credit card and claimed the discount. The attendant remarked that I'd saved over $15. Went and pumped up my tyres
afterwards and washed my hands due to the brake dust. All told I was probably on the forecourt for over 10 minutes,
counting waiting in their queue.

Nothing surprising there right, well today I got a letter from the petrol, station which read as follows
Dear Roger,
I am writing to apologise for a mistake that was made at BP Connect Junction on 23 November. Unfortunately the
staff member that served you declined approval of your credit card signature accidentally when you made you credit
card payment. We are extremly sorry for this error.

Our records show that you received 65.76 litres of Unleaded 91 at a total of $134.75. We still require payment for
this fuel e.t.c. e.t.c....bank account details for where to send funds were included in the letter.
I know there now way in the wide world I would have put 91 Octane in my SC car let alone run it so close to empty,
as we all know they only hold 68 litres and I know I'm always disinclined to run the car on fumes so it didn't look
right at all.

So I wasted nearly an hour looking for the receipt, in my wallet, the car, in my office...to no avail.
So then I thought, this isn't right, the octane isn't right, the fuel quantity isn't right, there's no mention of the discount
coupon e.t.c. So after wasting an hour I wasted even more time and sent them off an e.mail asking basically WTF's
going on ?

Less than an hour later I get an e mail back with the correct fuel quantity, the correct octane, the correct fuel
discount, everything is right asking for $115 something now, sorry can't remember the cents.
Questions remain, how could a company send out a written communication that was so fundamentally wrong in so
many respects when they clearly had all the correct information so readily available in their system ? I smell a rat, is
this a deliberate attempt to extract more money than they're due to receive ?

So I fired them back another e.mail, please explain. A while later the store manager phones me, this staff member
was new, the acting manager was new, this that and the other excuse for their fiasco of errors. Why didn't your
customer service staff member fix up the inadvertent error while I was on the forecourt, he had a reasonable
explanation for that, how could a letter that was wrong in so many respects have been sent out, he had no reasonable
explanation for that. Is this a deliberate attempt to extract more funds than you're due, oh no sir, we wouldn't do that,
really, I wouldn't put it past them especially with the track record of BP who lets face it from an environmental point
of view haven't exactly covered themselves in glory around the world, in fact anything but, much of it motivated by
maximising profit at the expense of the environment I would suggest...but I digress.

So I've explained to him how much time of mine's he's wasted and he apologises again.
BUT is a simple apology good enough in the circumstances. Should I get some compensation for all the time their
repeated errors have cost me ? The moral of the story is just because a company writes to you saying you owe them
money doesn't necessarily mean they're right.