Inspections Show Gas Pumps Robbing Customers

CONYERS,None — Drivers paying nearly $4 dollars per gallon for gas expect to get what they pay for, but gas complaints prompted state inspections, which confirm you don't always get your money's worth.

Twenty inspectors surveyed pumps around the state. Channel 2's John Bachman dug through hundreds of reports and learned some pumps give more than others.

Bachman found a Conyers Chevron station on Highway 212, where the state found several pumps not giving enough gas. In March, the state found some pumps were shorting customers 25 cubic inches for every five gallons of gas, which means if you paid for 20 gallons of gas, you'd get about 19.5 gallons. But the owner, Jason Shuman, said alternately, some years, inspections show his older pumps give away too much gas.

"We're not giving away gas on purpose either, so it works both ways," Shuman told Bachman.

Since the March test, the state has returned and retested, showing the pumps are operating correctly. Shuman showed Bachman a state-certified tank he uses to show complaining customers that his pumps are back on track.

"That's the proof," Shuman said.

That proof is important to customers, such as Renuka Rajas.

"It is my hard-earned money," Rajas said.

It will take the 20 inspectors almost two years to inspect every gas station, but when a customer complains, that station goes to the top of the list.

WSBTV