Tesco lies about 'petrol mix-up' fuel driver anger
The Northern Echo report that Tesco is facing legal action from motorists who say a fuel pump mix-up has cost them a fortune in engine repairs. Tesco has denied claims that a diesel fuel pump at its filling station in Newton Aycliffe was dispensing petrol. But drivers who filled up say their vehicles have been damaged by contaminated fuel.
In one case, a motorist says he has been left facing a bill for £1,500 to get his Mercedes back on the road. Derek Wood, 61, said his car ground to a halt within 25 miles of filling up. His insurer, NFU Mutual, is seeking to claim the cost of the engine damage back from Tesco, but the supermarket maintains it is not to blame.
Officials say that if the pump had been dispensing petrol instead of diesel many more drivers would have complained.
However, other motorists have come forward to say their vehicles suffered a similar fate, and the store chain now faces the prospect of court action. Sharon Heathcote, 30, a community nurse from School Aycliffe, said her Nissan Micra diesel had fuel problems after a visit to the petrol station. Her car broke down a few miles after filling up and her garage told her the car had petrol, rather than diesel, in the tank. It required a new fuel injection system, costing more than £3,000. She told the supermarket in a letter that she was prepared to take the matter to court.
Tesco told her no one else had complained.
When Mr Wood's insurers wrote to the supermarket they received the same response.
Mr Wood said last night: "We are quite prepared to take it to court."
Tesco replied, again saying that no one else had complained.
Miss Heathcote said: "It has cost us nearly £4,000 to fix the car, including hiring another one while ours was repaired. "We have three small children and have just moved house and for us, financially, this is a big thing."
A local paper has also published an open letter from another driver claiming to suffer the same problem.
Tesco finally admitted last night that it had really received "four or five" complaints but maintained there was no problem with the pump. A spokeswoman said: "These four or five complaints have been spread over the past six months.
"Trading standards checked our fuel in July after the first complaint was received and it was found to be clear. "They came in again last week following the latest complaint, and we are awaiting the results. "However, this is an extremely busy petrol station and if there was a real problem we would expect to have received many more complaints."
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It is not possible for there to be any mix up in fuel type. The couplings for each fuel tank where the tanker connects to are all different sizes.
Do you not think that this would have been thought of! Precuations are put in place to avoid human error..... I think it is more likely that customers put the wrong fuel into their cars despite the nozzles are also a differnt size.
Research shows that 7,000 drivers a year make this mistake. So stop blaming Tesco yet again for your own mistakes!!!
Here is a link to an article about how easy it is for diesel owners to put the wrong fuel in their cars....(then blame Tesco as their insurance does not cover their own mistake HAHA!)
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/motoring/main.jhtml?xml=/motoring/2005/08/27/mfdies27.xml&page=1
Customers fault, not tesco, otherwise they would have a lot more complaints than 5, would of been hundreds.
Yep, as has been said, even a quiet petrol station would have hundreds of people using that pump. If petrol was in the diesel tank then Tesco would have received hundreds of complaints, not "four or five".
Those complaints were also spread over the previous six months. The tank would have been re-filled several times in that space of time.
Hmm, This blog boldly claims Tesco has lied.
Perhaps this blog is the lie then!
tesco are gay and should put proper fuel in their tanks not crap petrol in diesel tanks i cant bleev this
lol at last comment, kid get back to your homework.
Check your receipts peeps, it says whether you put diesel or petrol in so you can spot your own mistakes. Also we have about 2 or 3 people a month that put the wrong fuel in thier tanks at our garage
At the end of the day you can complain and whinge as much as you like. If trading standards have checked and cleared the pumps then either you have made a mistake (which happens regularly especially early mornings) or your car had a fault. If the garage claimed it was petrol not deisel you should have obtained a sample of this fuel, then with your reciept for deisel (if its was and not petrol) presented this to trading standards who will investigate this complaint on your behalf.
If found in your favour Tesco would payout for repairs. If not then you made the mistake and just accept it don't make yourself look stupid by claiming different.
By the way don't think you can just get a sample of deisel and add some petrol and try persuing this claim as Trading standards will check records of complaints, ad will analise fuel from tank to see if at anytime fuels were mixed in tank. . They have means to track what fuel was delivered to what tank and Tesco can also prove what fuel you purchased. So if you got petrol and claim it was deisel they can prove you wrong.
This is a confusing case; it seems peculiar that so many people would make a complaint against the same pump, however you would expect more people to come forward and complain, over a shorter period of time. Perhaps for some reason, people are placing petrol pumps back in diesel seats, or something odd like that, and the majority of people are "cottoning on" but some are just failing to notice.
HaHa i think its funny i hope there fookin cars blow up, tossers for not realising!
;) tm!
no mate TESCO ARE WANKERS for contaminating the fuel now FUCK OFF
It is NOT possible for the fuel to get mixed!! The couplings where the tanker fills up are different sizes. THEREFORE PHYSICALLY IMPOSSIBLE! Are you all completly thick.
"no mate TESCO ARE WANKERS for contaminating the fuel now FUCK OFF" I wrote this
We currently have an ongoing complaint against Tesco fueling. We filled up using the diesel pump, we have the receipt and CCTV to prove this, then approx 40 miles later our diesel seized up!! Tesco say they've done nothing wrong, yet the garage we are having the vehicle repaired at say its not diesel in our tank!!! Our insurance company are having the fuel analysed and are awaiting the results with baited breath!!! We will keep you up to date with the results we receive!!!!!!!!
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