Central Texas Weather and News Authority
Home  ·   News  ·   Weather  ·   Sports  ·   Politics  ·   Job Board TV  ·   CarSoup  ·   Food  ·   Calendar  ·   TV  ·   Contact Us  ·   10 Cares  ·   Our Town Texas
National News · Health · Golden Apple · Money · Entertainment · Soldier Stories · OffBeat News · Religion · Gas Prices · Lottery · Blogs · Fun & Games · News Tips
KWTX Gift Shoppe - Shop Now!
Poll Question
There are currently no active polls at this time.
Click here to view other polls on our site and past poll results.
Health Features
Buddy Check
Drivers Probably Shortchanged At Hundreds Of Texas Stations Save Email Print
19 comments
A | A | A

(July 22, 2008)—Drivers who recently bought gasoline at hundreds of Sumart stations around the state including four in Central Texas were probably shortchanged, state Department of Agriculture investigators said Tuesday.

A weekend investigation found 990 Sunmart pumps were rigged to favor the company by as much as one-tenth of a gallon for every five gallons sold.

Texas Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples says he "strongly suspects this was an intentional act."

Investigators found all the pumps out of compliance at the Sunmart No. 113 at 10269 Highway 84 in Prairie Hill, the Sunmart No. 115 at 2431 Commerce W. in Buffalo, the Sunmart No. 168 on Interstate 35 in Georgetown and the Sunmart No. 169 at Interstate 35 and FM 1304 in Abbott.

State inspectors immediately shut down pumps found to be in violation.

Full List Of Stations

Sunmart, the operating name for Petroleum Wholesale, didn't immediately return calls seeking comment.

Staples says his office began investigating Friday, after noticing a spike in violations.

The statewide investigation found that 990 of Sunmart's 1,704 fuel pumps were found to be cheating consumers.

"At a time when families are struggling to purchase fuel, I am sure all Texans would agree with me that despicable violations such as these are repulsive and must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," Staples said.

"Given the strong indication this company has intentionally cheated consumers, I have passed along the results of ‘Operation Spotlight' to Attorney General Abbott and his office has opened an investigation into the matter."

Staples says the company could be fined as much as $100,000.

Texas Department Of Agriculture
More Stories
Former Texas Inmate Denied Bond In Murders Of Daughter, Friend

Missing Central Texas Alzheimer’s Patient Found

Second Man Pleads Guilty In Pot-Smoking-Toddlers Case

Central Texas Man Pleads Guilty To Bigamy Charge

 Nearly 900 Pounds Of Pot Found During Interstate Traffic Stop

Police Officer Hit By Patrol Car Dies

Texas Teen With Bullet In Head Accepts Plea Deal

Fire Guts Vacant Central Texas House Tuesday
Post Your Comments
First Name:
Location:
Enter Comments: characters left
Email (optional):
Email will not be displayed on site. For station contact purpose only.
Read Comments
Comments are posted from viewers like you and do not always reflect the views of this station.
Posted by: Rusty Location: Gatesville on Jul 23, 2008 at 07:36 PM
Based on some of the calculations I have seen, this seems like Grand-Theft, and at the amoutns, we are talking a felony. With that in mind, a $100,000 fine? Maybe the judge is due for election and needs some campaign money from the oil companies. Or maybe they are friends with Gov Perry. Not sure, but it sould like punishment for a bad joke. fuel costs are hurting our lower income families and truckers and we talk about a fine for possibly stealing ten times that in clear profit?
Posted by: anonymous Location: Austin on Jul 23, 2008 at 04:21 PM
Fine them big time or better yet, shut them down. To steal from people like this is a big crime. I wonder how many more are doing the same thing. If you pay with cash, the operator sets the pump to slow down and it seems like nothing is coming out those last few seconds except air. Let us know everyone doing this.
Posted by: needingasmoney Location: Ft Hood on Jul 23, 2008 at 01:52 PM
I want my money back!!!!!!!!!!!
Posted by: Anonymous on Jul 23, 2008 at 01:13 PM
give the owner the DEATH penalty!!!!!!!
Posted by: terry Location: lampasas on Jul 23, 2008 at 12:19 PM
Fining sunsmart 100,000 as a fine is not enough. they made more then that and would laugh at the court system. They need to arrest the ceo of the company and any others that were involved and lock them up for 6 months to a year each and fine them all the 100,000. Theft is theft so it should be treated as such. Better yet makethe company open there pumps up for free gas for a hole week so they lose all the extra money they took from us.
Posted by: Diesel on Jul 23, 2008 at 11:19 AM
Hey Kendra you know that 1/10 your talking about not being our biggest problem, well try filling up a big truck with diesel and then see how much you worry about it. It takes a $1,000 or more to fill one now days and when you are an owner/operator like us that's money out of our pocket. My husband fuels at Buffalo Sunmart all the time. People will do anything now days to cheat people. So by the time we pay high dollars for fuel and haul cheap freight down the highway and keep maintenance up on our rig,mmmm less see, we do good to break even. So yea I guess you're right that 1/10 really doesn't matter.
Posted by: Desperate on Jul 23, 2008 at 08:29 AM
It's called desperation. Very low profit for the station on gas, coupled with a decline in sales in their convenience store sales. Desperation leads to theft
Posted by: LN Location: Robinson on Jul 23, 2008 at 08:20 AM
Pumps are calibrated at the factory and checked periodically by outside firms that go around and do it for a living. Some questions I have is why so many pumps with this one company? Is it the same model pump? And do they contract with the same calibration company. Are that companies meters calibrated? If you look on a pump it has a TX Dept. of Ag. sticker on it showing its last check date. If checked by them and ok then, how come it is now not ok? I know in my business I have to have my equipment checked once a year, by law, to insure that it is in calibration and working properly. I would assume that applies to the calibration company as well as the ag dept.? Yes, over time that would add up to a lot of money and fuel. Would their records not reflect they sell more than they bought? This could go either way in that the company had their pumps checked and they were set wrong by the company, or they knew it and did nothing. Time will tell.
Posted by: CAPT FRED Location: WACO on Jul 23, 2008 at 07:42 AM
In fairness to the managers and employees, those types of settings are internal and they can’t adjust them. I used to work for a company in Wyoming that when they got a pump red tagged by the state they just laughed at them and waited a week before fixing it, just before the inspector came back to recheck it. And the inspector couldn’t do anything about it. I refused to sell the gas with the red tag on the pump and so they told me to leave and then I was fired for “failing to follow instructions”! I sued them and lost, if you can believe that. The good thing was that because of the lawsuit, the State of Wyoming can now disable the pump until it is recalibrated, they couldn’t do that before. That is what should happen here. I don’t know if is or not, but if a pump is wrong, it should be immediately shut down. At least nobody else would be cheated by that pump.
Posted by: Anonymous on Jul 23, 2008 at 01:17 AM
Thay should be forced to drop the price of their fuel to $1.50 per gallon for 3 months with a tanker pulling in every hour to keep up with supply and demand.
Posted by: CAPT FRED Location: WACO on Jul 22, 2008 at 07:15 PM
That station would have cheated the customers out of $92.80 per day. If you opened the link to the “Full List of Stations” it shows 47 stations that were 60% or GREATER NON-COMPLIANT. Of the 47 stations, 38 of them were 75% non-compliant. That means 3 out of 4 of just those stations were rigged to steal your money. And that isn’t all of their stations. Sunmart has 86 stations, according to the Department of Agriculture, so my best guess is that Sunmart made off with somewhere around $4600.00 per day, or more, (86 stations times 58% times $92.80 per day – rounded off). So, if Sunmart has been running this scam for 22 days or longer, and they don’t fight this in court, they could pay the $100,000 fine and the rest is clear profit. Of course, this is all a bunch of guesses, because the only one who really knows for sure is Sunmart, and you can bet they do know what the really number is, but they won’t tell anybody.
Posted by: CAPT FRED Location: WACO on Jul 22, 2008 at 07:14 PM
You know, when you first hear about this you naturally think something like “Those JERKS! How dare they do that!” Then maybe you stop and think “Well, 1/10th of a gallon in 5 gallons, that isn’t really that much. It is only a couple of pennies.” But, if you calculate the math, you’re REALLY going to be surprised! 1/10th of 5 gallons is 0.02 gallons. At $4.00 per gallon (for round numbers), that is $.08 per gallon. That’s not too bad. If the average customer fills their vehicle with 20 gallons, they got ripped off a total of $1.60 per tank. Still not too bad. The article said that there were 990 pumps out of 1704 total pumps at all of their stations, that amounts to about 58% of their pumps. Assume EACH Sunmart station sells about 2,000 gallons of gas each day, and that’s not unrealistic, and 58% of EACH STATION’S PUMPS were over priced, that is about 1160 gallons PER STATION.
Posted by: Taxpayer Location: Gatesville on Jul 22, 2008 at 05:50 PM
$10,000 fine? That's only 2,500 gallons!!! They probably sell that in an hour!
Posted by: Kendra Location: Buffalo, TX on Jul 22, 2008 at 05:00 PM
Let's do the math. 9/10 of a gallon is the norm. 1/10 of 5 gals. X 9/10 = 45/50 (5 gals.) minus 1/10 = 44/50. This 1/10 is not our biggest problem. It probably cost tax payers more to pay Todd Staples to go test the pumps. With it being one brand of station looks like they probably come set out of the "Sunmart factory" callibrated that way. I don't see 990 store owners going out and messing with their pumps. Or did an "email" go out to them saying "hey you can make an extra penny per sale."
Posted by: Lynn Location: Temple on Jul 22, 2008 at 04:38 PM
We need to be checking more than just the Sunmarts!!!!
Posted by: Melissa Location: Prairie Hill on Jul 22, 2008 at 04:31 PM
I am appalled!! I have been buying my gas from the Prairie Hill Sunmart for over 10 years...How do I find out how to get some of my money back...this is outrageous!!!! The managers and employees also need to be held accountable because they change the pumps when the price goes up or down...You bet your bottom dollar I will have words to exchange with Mrs. Arnold at the Sunmart in Prairie Hill!!!!!
Posted by: Anonymous on Jul 22, 2008 at 03:48 PM
Make a new law for Pete's sake! There is no excuse for greed or this despicable behavior! Maybe that law needs to be considerate of the recent inflation for our gasoline.
Posted by: Gas Guzzler Location: Waco on Jul 22, 2008 at 03:47 PM
"Staples says the company could be fined as much as $100,000." LOL!!! What a joke. That's just a slap on the wrist for a petroleum wholesaler. With 990 pumps in violation, they probably netted more than the potential fine. They'll laugh all the way to the bank!
Posted by: OMG Location: Killeen on Jul 22, 2008 at 03:26 PM
Like we arn't getting ripped off enough! I am glad we don't have any here in this area. They need to be fined what they cost everyone buying from these pumps. Imagine if this is where you got your gas for years.
Latest News Video
News Video
Job of the Week
Click now to see hundreds of other jobs on Job Board TV!

Part-Time Registered Nurse Labor and Delivery Dept. (7P - 7A) - Qualified candidates must possess a Texas license with two (2) years of experience preferred. Minimum requirement of Associate Degree Nursing (ADN).



Also, take a look at the most recent jobs posted to Job Board TV at KWTX.com:
 View More Jobs.
AP Video
KWTX.com Features
Double Dollar Deals
Half Price Deals at Central Texas restaurants and businesses. A new deal every Thursday at 7:00am.
KWTX Half Price Gift Shoppe
Holiday shopping on a budget! Check out the Holiday Half-Off Gift Shoppe at KWTX.com, where you will find $50 gift certificates for only $25, beginning November 10th.
Golden Apple
Your chance to nominate an outstanding teacher. Find out how they are making a difference in classrooms.
Emily Wants to Know
Emily Matthews' inquisitive look at life in Central Texas.
10 On Your Side
Answers from our experts on topics that affect YOU.
Soldier Stories
Stories about what the men and women deployed overseas are doing to make a difference.
Chef Walter
Need a fresh idea for dinner? Check out thousands of FREE recipes
 
Home - News - Weather - Sports - Politics - Job Board TV - CarSoup - Food - Calendar - TV - Contact Us - 10 Cares - Our Town Texas -
Dot Com Daily - KWTX To Go - Desktop Alert - Fun & Games - Green Page - Soldier Greetings -
Terms of Use - Privacy Policy - EEO Statement - FCC Form 388
Gray Television, Inc. - Copyright © 2002-2008 - Designed and Powered by Clickability