Pearl Street Auto Sales
Desantis Pearl Street Auto Sales Fraudulent/False Advertising — Failure to Advertise Cash/Credit Price Difference — No Notification Until Time to Pay

Among other things, this is a service station in Somerville, MA. "Desantis Pearl Street Aut[truncated]"* is the vendor name that appeared on my credit card statement. From my experience, it would appear that this station thrives on false advertising.

When I stopped there, the station was advertising only one set of gasoline prices without any note, asterisk, or other annotation on its sign. The advertised regular gasoline price was the lowest I saw in the area. The station offers only full-service.

I simply paid with a credit card and then noticed that the digital price on the pump that the attendant was using to fill-up my car was six cents per gallon higher than the advertised price, which, it turned out, was the cash price.

I complained to the attendant, and he pointed out that he just worked there, which, I imagine, was quite true. He was somewhat apologetic. I understand why a business would charge a higher credit card price, but failing to advertise that fact is fraudulent, particularly at an all full-service station without an easy opportunity for the customer to notice that he or she is not being charged the advertised price. I was given no opportunity to make an informed [as to the price difference] decision as to whether to pay cash.

When I was at the station, it was the busiest around, and other stations were advertising prices between Desantis's cash price and unadvertised credit card price. Those stations were clearly getting less business. The difference between the levels of patronage at Desantis and its competitors disturbed me because Desantis is clearly benefiting a lot from its false advertising.

*I am certain that I am complaining about the correct business. I checked the Google street view of Pearl Street Auto Sales against my memory of the appearance of the station where I stopped. As noted above, I found the name of the business on my credit card statement.

Company: Pearl Street Auto Sales
Country: USA
State: Massachusetts
City: Somerville
Address: 178 Pearl Street
Phone: 6176233580

  <     >