So yesterday I go to pick up my work truck to start my work day. I start my truck like usual drive half a km down the road and it startg chugging and puffing smoke then stalls and wont start. I get my truck towed to my local diesel mechanic and they run all sorts of tests on it etc. Turns out i had a half a gas tank full of water!!! So my mechanic drained both tanks, changed the fuel filter twice, added diesel fuel and conditioner.

My truck is now running like **** but at least its "running" My mechanic said to fill it right up again with a good diesel and hopefull it will clear itself up.

This cost me 800.00 and the gas station that gave me this "water" was a shell station. There are 2 grades of diesel fuel and I always put the good stuff in.

My question is....how can I go after the gas station for a bad tank of fuel? I shouldnt have to suck up this 800.00 bill and miss 2 days of works.


Any thoughts suggestions?

 

could someone have dumped Water into your tank?(after siphoning off some out of the tank,To make it look like the tank was never touched?).
I'd find out if anyone else has gone to the same Station and it resulted in Bad gas.It would be "known" pretty quick to the Station..especially People that just got Gas..
If that is the case then I'd get some "claim" going.
I'm sure one of the "rotary Lawyers" here would Help ya in the Fight for Justice.(Scrappy?you a lawyer?).

 

Firstly, I am just a puppy with attitude.

You will not be the only one that suffered the fate you described if it was as a result of bad diesel. I remember a similar experience when I was in the transportation industry. It wasn't one of my trucks but rather a friend's truck. I believe it was Shell as well. Well anyway the service station in question accepted full responsibility and paid for all the repairs without the need for legal action.

You should make them aware of what happened asap. If the individual franchisee will not assist you then call head office. If there is no response send a written demand letter.

Failing the above you can proceed with a small claims action. Hopefully you will be successful without having to resort to court action. Good luck.

 

May I ask what kind of a truck this happened on. I know on alot of diesels with mechanical injection pumps, the diesel fuel lubricates the fuel injection components. Hopefully the water didn't do any major damage. I thought I'd ask seeing as you said it was still running like crap even after the repairs. Hopefully you can find some justice out of this.

 

The truck is a 96 Ford F450 with 7.3 powerstroke. And I just picked up my truck today. Runs rough and is serverely down on power and the check engine light is on because of the injectors not working properly. It cost me 800.00 to replace 2 fuel filters and get all the water pumped out along with some diesel conditioner and a few other odds and ends. Injectors however are a big job...there about 350-400 each X 8 and the labour. Not cheap.

I contacted head office before even the gas station itself and told me they do an "internal investigation" to see if there was any water in the tanks etc. but the guy who does it isnt here this week...back on monday because he is on some training course. The guy on the phone told me that he would be the one contacting me with the result but they may investigate it this week before he gets back to work. I told them I wanted and unbiased person who DOESNT work for Shell doing it. How I do know they wont just find something and just lie about it?

Scrappy what course of action would you take if you were me now? Still contact the actual station itself (but who is there besides some 8.00/hr attendant anyways).

Thanks for your help guys

 

Put your experience down in writing in nauseating detail. Eg.

Attended gas station x on x at x with x.
Immediately after leaving x I noticed x and attended at garage x.
Garage x informed me of x, which you can see in their report/bill etc.

I think you get the point. You want to politely inform them that there is no option other than it being their fault.

I would be asking them when the tank was filled last and when it is scheduled to be filled next. The consistency of what is in the tank will obviously change if they add better diesel to it.

The benefit of going to the store is to find out some of the above and whether there have been any others that have compained about receiving bad diesel from the same tank.

Each gas station has a manager or franchisee, which is the person you want to speak to.