We live right on the border of Lake Mary and Sanford, Florida. I drive a Mercedes, and usually fill up and the local Save-a-Ton / Citgo on Country Club Road and Lake Mary (also a food mart).
I gassed up, using premium gas like I usually do, last Friday March 25 around 7:00 pm. I needed over of a tank of gas, which I charged on my credit card. It came out to be roughly $ 28.00 worth of gas.
The car had been running fine and had recently had a large routine service and checked out great. But after I gassed up I barely made the 3 miles to my house. The engine starting shaking, and it almost died a couple of times. I thought it was some sort of mechanical issue with the engine that was overlooked during the recent service.
Well, I left the car in the driveway all weekend, and had it towed to my mechanic on Monday.
Turns out, severely adulterated gas in the gas tank! My mechanic said whatever this thing is, it smells bad, and it isn't gas. It is very fortunate I only needed to drive 3 miles, he said, or the engine of the Mercedes could have been totaled (it requires premium gas to run properly). My mechanics are honest and reliable, and have saved samples of whatever it is that was in my gas tank.
I called the Save-a-Ton, thinking perhaps he didn't know about it. A guy named Mike answered, who I found out later was the owner. When I told him I had bad gas, he refused to give me his full name. I asked to talk to the owner. He replied, there is no owner and told me don't call here again. Then he hung up on me.
I reported it to the police, the local mayor, and the Department of Agriculture. The latter, who investigated only today (Wednesday) 5 days after I originally pumped the bad gas of course found nothing amiss.
I contacted Citgo, who referred me to Gate Petroleum, the distributor for Save-a-Ton. Gate Petroleum is trying to facilitate between me and Mike but we are all not holding out too much hope.
In the meantime, I'm out
$ 1300 repairs
$ 90 tow
$ 260 car rental while my car has been in the shop
$ 28 for the so-called premium gas
Now, I have a credit card receipt that proves I filled up my car at Save-A-Ton last Friday. I have samples of adulterated gas taken from my disabled, towed car on Monday. Unless I magically filled an already brimming gas tank in the few minutes between leaving Save-a-Ton and almost being disabled on the road, there is no other conclusion than I've been the victim of fraud. Yet, it appears that my samples are not actionable by the Department of Agriculture, and this swindler can stay in business with impunity.
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