dlr (02/28/83)
I recently had an experience with the Cities Service Company (CITGO) that may be of interest to fellow net.auto readers. In January of this year, I experienced car trouble with a new (1982, less than 8K miles on the clock) Sentra. It died while on the road. Since it was still under warranty, I had it towed to the nearest dealer. The service dept. determined that the fuel had been very badly contaminated, blown away the gas filter, and generally hosed the carburetor. A minor overhaul/cleanup cost just under $72 (seventy two dollars for those systems that eat dollar signs). I have only bought gas for the car at one station, just down the street from where I live. This was the only place that I had used since I took possession of the car (with about 3 miles on the clock). I decided to seek compensation from the station. I wrote a note to the manager, enclosed copies of the repair and towing bills, and left it at the station. After a few weeks of waiting without word, I almost posted a nasty note to the net about the station. On Feb. 14, a representative, Bob Heilmann called to ask which product (regular no-lead) I used, and to verify my address. Then I waited again. Last week, a letter from Mr. Heilmann arrived, and enclosed with it, a check for the repair and towing. I will greatly summarize the text of the letter. They assured me that dirty gas did not come from the station I indicated. No other complaints had been registered against that outlet. Their pumps have filters that prevent sediment and dirt from entering the car. They respectfully suggest I determine the "true" source of the contamination (vandalism, gas from a container, purchase on vacation, etc). But, in the interest of goodwill to a regular customer, they sent a check for the amount the trouble cost me. Although I am satisfied by the check, I am unconvinced that the problem occurred elsewhere. I haven't had a vacation, the only container I store gas in is the tank on the car, and the car has a locking gas filler door. I suspect that I had the misfortune of buying gas (possibly on several sequential fill-ups) within a few hours of when the station received a delivery. Thus, I may have been affected (due to multiple tanks on delivery days since fill-ups generally took place the same day of week and time of day) while other customers may not have been affected. This does not mean that I am condemning the station or CITGO, in fact, I am very pleased to see that an oil company does pay attention to customer problems. Word of mouth is a very strong form of advertising. Especially on a network as large as this one. Their contentions are very reasonable, if I were in their place I would probably have come to the same conclusion(s). Thus, I now favor this oil company. They have shown that they value my business, and, that they are doing their best to "keep the customer satisfied". What would I like to see? Gas stations that post the time and date of their last delivery. This would allow the consumer to decide if they should risk filling up and possibly getting some sediment from the storage tank. This has gotten long enough, thanks for reading, Dave Rosik Bell Labs - Naperville ihnss!ihuxr!dlr