Stickers
Senior Nomad
Posts: 571
Registered: 4-12-2006
Location: SoCal
Member Is Offline
|
|
Pemex stations investigated
There is a big article in the LA Times today about Pemex dealers being investigated. The article states they have found 9 out of 10 stations cheat
customers on quantity and are in the process of cracking down on them.
|
|
|
Bob and Susan
Elite Nomad
Posts: 8802
Registered: 8-20-2003
Location: Mulege BCS on the BAY
Member Is Offline
Mood: Full Time Residents
|
|
Not Quite Measuring Up at Mexico's Gas Pumps
Most stations have rigged their equipment to cheat motorists, a consumer agency says.
By Marla Dickerson and Carlos Martinez, Times Staff Writers
June 13, 2006
MEXICO CITY ? If you think paying $3.50 for a gallon of gasoline in the U.S. is a hardship, consider Mexico, where motorists are really getting
stiffed.
Nine in 10 gasoline stations in Mexico have rigged their pumps to dispense less than what their meters promise, according to federal authorities, who
calculated that purloined petrol cost consumers at least $1 billion last year.
Random checks have revealed that the average retailer, known here as a gasolinero, skims a little more than a liter of gasoline for every 20 sold.
But the most audacious stations would make Al Capone blush.
One in the tourist haven of Acapulco was recently caught shorting its customers by nearly half the volume displayed on the pump.
The station was busted by Profeco, the nation's chief consumer watchdog, which has launched a nationwide crackdown on dishonest owners.
The agency has mounted surprise inspections, gathering evidence with the help of undercover agents armed with video cameras and vehicles outfitted
with special gas tanks that can be removed for lab analysis.
About 1,100 stations, nearly 15% of the country's total, have been caught in the dragnet this year.
Profeco, or the Procuraduria Federal del Consumidor, is closing stations and fining owners to force them to clean up their acts.
It plans to post inspection results on the Internet to expose swindlers. And it has launched a public relations campaign to urge motorists to report
gasoline cheats.
It's no easy task in Mexico, which is dominated by powerful business interests and which has never been friendly to consumers.
Decades of corruption at the government petroleum monopoly have conditioned Mexicans to expect a soaking at the pumps.
"To be a gasolinero is synonymous with being corrupt," said Roberto Karam Ahuad, head of fuel verification for Profeco.
"It's like Chicago in the 1930s."
The big difference is that even Windy City mobsters had competition.
Mexico's 7,400 retail stations are all franchises of state-owned company Petroleos Mexicanos, or Pemex, which has a lock on production and sales.
Because the Mexican government sets the price of gasoline ? currently the equivalent of $2.18 a gallon for regular unleaded in most of Mexico ?
consumers can't shop for the best deal.
Most station owners don't even bother posting prices.
They just switch on the pumps and wait for customers to arrive, a process that critics liken to inviting sheep to the shearing.
Many of the attendants bustling around the pumps in jumpsuits emblazoned with the official Pemex logo are actually unpaid freelancers angling for tips
? and a chance to shortchange distracted customers.
Cab driver Guillermo Tinoco had his game face on as he pulled his green-and-white Volkswagen Beetle into a gas station here recently.
He handed a 100-peso note to the attendant and trained an eye on the spinning fuel meter to make sure there was no funny business.
"I don't know this place, so I'm only buying a little out of necessity," he said of his $8.82 purchase.
"I try to go where they rob me the least."
Station owners have been known to dilute their fuel with additives to stretch their profits, causing engine damage to clients down the road.
"It's hard to know" what you're getting, said Carlos Ivan, 20, a student and part-time taxi driver who said he dreaded his twice-weekly trips to the
filling station.
Mexico's tax collectors aren't too happy either.
Gasoline is a popular deduction for taxpayers here.
Slip some Pemex pump jockeys a few pesos and they will whip up an official sales receipt for any amount you like.
It's a practice that officials say is costing the nation millions in lost tax revenue.
Authorities tried last year to close that loophole with legislation requiring taxpayers who want to claim a fuel deduction to pay for their gasoline
with a credit card or check, because those sales are harder to falsify than cash purchases.
The measure was defeated after stiff lobbying from the nation's gasolineros.
"Many of these cash transactions are susceptible to fraud," Jose Maria Zubiria, head of Mexico's version of the Internal Revenue Service, said in a
statement.
"The documentation ? is very weak."
Jose Angel Garcia Hernandez, president of a trade group that represents 80% of the Mexico's service stations, said he supported a crackdown on
scofflaws.
But he denied Profeco's assertions that cheating was rampant or that his members were getting rich on ill-gotten gains.
|
|
|
surfer jim
Super Nomad
Posts: 1891
Registered: 8-29-2003
Location: high desert
Member Is Offline
|
|
This in nothing....(think about GEORGE BUSH cheating seniors on their social security benefits)....
Watch out for ....banditos....potholes.....police..... "touristas".....driving at night....drunks....speedbumps.....taxicabs with no door
handles....gas pumps......
I need to go to BAJA and relax so I won't think of all these problems.... ....and
will be watching those pumps......(bring back the "glass containers" at the pumps !)
And the guys testing the pumps are needing a little "mordida" for summer vacation themselves.....
|
|
|
thebajarunner
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 3687
Registered: 9-8-2003
Location: Arizona....."Free at last from crumbling Cali
Member Is Offline
Mood: muy amable
|
|
http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthread.php?tid=17745
this has been around Nomad all day...
|
|
|
Bob H
Elite Nomad
Posts: 5867
Registered: 8-19-2003
Location: San Diego
Member Is Offline
|
|
But, NOT at Baja Catus station in El Rosario! That's for SURE.
Bob H
|
|
|
David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64478
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline
Mood: Have Baja Fever
|
|
| Quote: | Originally posted by surfer jim
This in nothing....(think about GEORGE BUSH cheating seniors on their social security benefits)....
Watch out for ....banditos....potholes.....police..... "touristas".....driving at night....drunks....speedbumps.....taxicabs with no door
handles....gas pumps......
I need to go to BAJA and relax so I won't think of all these problems........and
will be watching those pumps......(bring back the "glass containers" at the pumps !)
And the guys testing the pumps are needing a little "mordida" for summer vacation themselves..... |
Jim, it was Bill Clinton and Al Gore who ok'ed taxing seniors' SSI income... shame shame. Let's keep politics off this forum please.
Anyway, this topic was already in discussion yesterday, in another thread: http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthread.php?tid=17745
[Edited on 6-14-2006 by David K]
|
|
|
Roberto
Banned
Posts: 2162
Registered: 9-5-2003
Member Is Offline
|
|
David, something I can agree with you on - "keep politics off this forum".
You should give an example and not slip in a political comment when you make statements like that. It doesn't help.
|
|
|
Bajaboy
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 4375
Registered: 10-9-2003
Location: Bahia Asuncion, BCS, Mexico
Member Is Offline
|
|
| Quote: | Originally posted by David K
| Quote: | Originally posted by surfer jim
This in nothing....(think about GEORGE BUSH cheating seniors on their social security benefits)....
Watch out for ....banditos....potholes.....police..... "touristas".....driving at night....drunks....speedbumps.....taxicabs with no door
handles....gas pumps......
I need to go to BAJA and relax so I won't think of all these problems........and
will be watching those pumps......(bring back the "glass containers" at the pumps !)
And the guys testing the pumps are needing a little "mordida" for summer vacation themselves..... |
Jim, let's keep politics off this forum please.
Anyway, this topic was already in discussion yesterday, in another thread: http://forums.bajanomad.com/viewthread.php?tid=17745
[Edited on 6-14-2006 by David K] |
DK- I edited your reply for you.
Hope you don't mind.
Zac
|
|
|
David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64478
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline
Mood: Have Baja Fever
|
|
How about editing Jim's political remark first, since that is the ONLY reason I said what I did (for balance)?
Funny how the Libs feel anything they say must remain, unchecked, but opposition or balance must be eliminated... Like in the old Soviet Union...  
|
|
|
Dave
Elite Nomad
Posts: 6005
Registered: 11-5-2002
Member Is Offline
|
|
Joke of the month
| Quote: | Originally posted by Stickers
There is a big article in the LA Times today about Pemex dealers being investigated. The article states they have found 9 out of 10 stations cheat
customers on quantity and are in the process of cracking down on them. |
|
|
|
beercan
Senior Nomad
Posts: 670
Registered: 4-3-2005
Location: North of da Bear
Member Is Offline
Mood: happy to be in Baja
|
|
Pemex is moving ????
They are doing "sumting" ----The Pemex in Puertecitos cannot open because it has the wrong style "cheater" pumps installed !!!!!!!!!!!!! 
* libs, all about choice until you choose different
* B. Hussein Obama - an Empty Suit for Empty Minds.
* Annoy a liberal - Work hard and be happy!
* Arguing facts & truth to libs is like bringing a warm smile to a gun fight.
* Lets win the War on Terror
|
|
|
Bruce R Leech
Elite Nomad
Posts: 6796
Registered: 9-20-2004
Location: Ensenada formerly Mulege
Member Is Offline
Mood: A lot cooler than Mulege
|
|
| Quote: | Originally posted by Roberto
David, something I can agree with you on - "keep politics off this forum".
You should give an example and not slip in a political comment when you make statements like that. It doesn't help. |
How can you talk about Pemex and not talk about politics?
Bruce R Leech
Ensenada
 |
|
|
David K
Honored Nomad
Posts: 64478
Registered: 8-30-2002
Location: San Diego County
Member Is Offline
Mood: Have Baja Fever
|
|
Unless you want to also blame Bush for the Pemex corruption, then let's leave him out of this discussion...
American politics should remain in off topic so we don't fight with each other about it on the BAJA forums.
Because I offered some balance, don't think I want to start a debate or arguement.
I do not think only the left side should remain, and I find it strange that the members of the party of 'openess and free speech' gets so upset when
members of the other party says anything to counter them....
So Bruce, politics and Pemex do go together, but Mexican politics only por favor!
|
|
|
Roberto
Banned
Posts: 2162
Registered: 9-5-2003
Member Is Offline
|
|
There you go injecting politics into the discussion again. How do you expect to end a discussion you keep participating in?
|
|
|
comitan
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 4177
Registered: 3-27-2004
Location: La Paz
Member Is Offline
Mood: mellow
|
|
Strive For The Ideal, But Deal With What\'s Real.
Every day is a new day, better than the day before.(from some song)
Lord, Keep your arm around my shoulder and your hand over my mouth.
“The sincere pursuit of truth requires you to entertain the possibility that everything you believe to be true may in fact be false”
|
|
|
rpleger
Super Nomad
Posts: 1087
Registered: 3-12-2005
Location: H. Mulegé, BCS
Member Is Offline
Mood: Was good.
|
|
Richard on the Hill
*ABROAD*, adj. At war with savages and idiots. To be a Frenchman abroad is to
be miserable; to be an American abroad is to make others miserable.
-- Ambrose Bierce, _The Enlarged Devil\'s Dictionary_
|
|
|
![[*]](images/xmbforum/default_icon.gif){kind=icon}
