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Drove away with gas pump in car

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cliffy

Junior Member
California.

Was at the Chevron during long 6hr drive from san fran to long beach. Started pumping and some guy started trying to sell me some car wax spray. Was taking me around the car with his salesman spiel about how great it was and showing me on various parts of the car.

Anyway, my wife came out of the shop and said she'd take the dog and meet me at burger king. So I told the guy I wasnt' interested, got in the car, and drove off then all of a sudden "THUNK".

"OMG DID I ACTUALLY JUST DO THAT" were the words that initially jumped into my head. So I got out of the car to see the gun still in my car with half the hose hanging off. I parked my car up (i think people thought i was trying to get away) and went to look at the damage. It looked like there was a socket for the hose to reattach to - like it had just come disconnected. so I put the hose down and went to talk to the attendants - they said I need to give them my insurance details, but they were quite reassuring, saying they never usually make claims and it happens all the time. They said that a technician would need to look at it first and it would be a few days.

So I get back in the car, and drive off (after getting the aforementioned burger, of course) and I get a call from my insurance provider saying that they've already called to make a claim and that I needed to make a statement.

Gross.

So yeah, according to my insurance provider, they haven't submitted an actual bill yet but they'll call me when they do.

Is there any way in hell I can blame the salesmen? They were apparently supposed to be there so they must have been paying chevron to allow them to approach their customers.

Is it worth trying to pay for damages myself?

Any other suggestions?

Although this was totally moronic on my part, I don't feel like it was entirely my fault and I don't want to be paying an extra $1k or something per year if my premium goes up.

Thanks in advance.
 


Zigner

Senior Member, Non-Attorney
This is totally your fault. If you were so distracted that you couldn't drive safely, then you shouldn't have been driving.

And those salespeople are NOT employed by the gas station, nor are the welcomed by the gas station. Unfortunately, our great state has decided that they have some sort of constitutional right to hawk their wares in such locations.


California.

Was at the Chevron during long 6hr drive from san fran to long beach. Started pumping and some guy started trying to sell me some car wax spray. Was taking me around the car with his salesman spiel about how great it was and showing me on various parts of the car.

Anyway, my wife came out of the shop and said she'd take the dog and meet me at burger king. So I told the guy I wasnt' interested, got in the car, and drove off then all of a sudden "THUNK".

"OMG DID I ACTUALLY JUST DO THAT" were the words that initially jumped into my head. So I got out of the car to see the gun still in my car with half the hose hanging off. I parked my car up (i think people thought i was trying to get away) and went to look at the damage. It looked like there was a socket for the hose to reattach to - like it had just come disconnected. so I put the hose down and went to talk to the attendants - they said I need to give them my insurance details, but they were quite reassuring, saying they never usually make claims and it happens all the time. They said that a technician would need to look at it first and it would be a few days.

So I get back in the car, and drive off (after getting the aforementioned burger, of course) and I get a call from my insurance provider saying that they've already called to make a claim and that I needed to make a statement.

Gross.

So yeah, according to my insurance provider, they haven't submitted an actual bill yet but they'll call me when they do.

Is there any way in hell I can blame the salesmen? They were apparently supposed to be there so they must have been paying chevron to allow them to approach their customers.

Is it worth trying to pay for damages myself?

Any other suggestions?

Although this was totally moronic on my part, I don't feel like it was entirely my fault and I don't want to be paying an extra $1k or something per year if my premium goes up.

Thanks in advance.
 

davew128

Senior Member
Is there any way in hell I can blame the salesmen?
Sure. You can blame me too. In the end though, you were the idiot who drove off with the gas nozzle still in his car.

They were apparently supposed to be there so they must have been paying chevron to allow them to approach their customers.
I'm sure both the salesmen and Chevron stated this. :rolleyes:

Is it worth trying to pay for damages myself?
Kind of defeats the purpose of having insurance.

Any other suggestions?
Don't let the dog eat at Burger King.

Although this was totally moronic on my part, I don't feel like it was entirely my fault and I don't want to be paying an extra $1k or something per year if my premium goes up.
Ok, now you can blame the evil gas nozzle gremlins. :p
 

ecmst12

Senior Member
Your insurance already knows about it, so you're going to take the hit no matter what. And it will probably be more the $100.
 

justalayman

Senior Member
it may not be more than a couple hundred bucks. Apparently this happens so often (gee, what does that say about our citizens) that they use a breakaway connection to prevent much damage.

A one time use breakaway costs less than $50 for parts and one designed simply to be reconnected is about $100-$200 but of course, unless it was actually damaged, all that would be needed was to put it back together.

so, toss some labor on that and you $200-$300 dollars.

Of course, that is if nothing else was damaged.
 

cyjeff

Senior Member
it may not be more than a couple hundred bucks. Apparently this happens so often (gee, what does that say about our citizens) that they use a breakaway connection to prevent much damage.
Agreed.

It also makes sure that the flow of gasoline stops.

Takes about 10 minutes to put it back together unless you ran over the end or something.

A one time use breakaway costs less than $50 for parts and one designed simply to be reconnected is about $100-$200 but of course, unless it was actually damaged, all that would be needed was to put it back together.
Yup.

so, toss some labor on that and you $200-$300 dollars.

Of course, that is if nothing else was damaged.
Actually, they also tack on a "dumbass" fee for the loss of revenue on the pump and the time of the attendant.

But, yeah, that's about the right amount.
 
Once upon a time when I was working at a name brand oil/gas company in their maintenance dispatch department, I used to field calls from stations whose gas nozzles were disconnected by drivers driving off with them still in their tanks. Happens very frequently. Repair companies used to charge roughly $300 per reconnect. Of course, that was in 1998. I'm sure it's gone up some since then but back then that's all the repair companies charged.
 

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