🚀 go-pugleaf

To anyone that has an idea,

Has anyone else noticed that sometimes the price on the
gas pump is different than the price on the credit card
receipt while the total is still correct?  This just 
happened to me again and I made a note of what the pump
said so I could ask around and maybe find out why they are
doing it.

This is from a Texaco station here in Austin, Texas
earlier this month (diesel fuel):

The actual pump readings were:

     13.83 Gallons @ $1.239 per gallon for a total of $17.14

The credit card receipt reads:

     13.194 Gallons @ $1.299 per gallon for a total of $17.14

My first thought was that they had a leaky tank and were
adjusting the books to cover it up to avoid the cost of
replacing it.  Unfortunately the "error" is in the wrong
direction for that.

Maybe they are boosting their average price that appears on
their books so that they can charge more in the event of
possible price controls.

I cannot believe that this is an honest mistake.  The pumps
are certified as to how accurate they report the amount of
gas delivered.  Somehow they must be getting the total 
from the pump, picking whatever they want as a price per
gallon and then calculating the amount of gas that appears
on the credit card receipt.  Now why would anyone do that?

Any ideas?  Should I report it to some agency?  

You can reply to me at d.stewart@utexas.edu or post to
the newsgroup if you have something that others may be
interested in knowing.

Dave Stewart