Motorists: Unusual gas scheme is hustle

NORTH PLATTE (AP) - Weary motorists seeking to gas up in this town along Interstate 80 instead say they've been lured into a gas-price hustle.

Several BP and Conoco stations here and in the nearby towns of Lexington and Ogallala advertise gas at a low price - less than $3 a gallon - even though only a couple pumps deliver the cheap gas, an unleaded blend that is 10 percent ethanol.

Most of the pumps offer regular unleaded gas at higher, unadvertised prices.

Angry customers aren't shy about criticizing the practice to station workers, and some have sped off with pump nozzles still implanted in their tanks, ripping hoses off the pumps.

“Clerks behind the desk are called every name in the book,” said Sue Keith, who manages the Lexington Conoco station.

She said she once called the police on a woman who paid more than she expected for gas and stood near the entrance of the station telling drivers they should leave.

Rick Auten said he was drawn to the BP station by a sign advertising gas at $2.89 per gallon. Like many other motorists, he didn't notice that the price was only for an ethanol blend, which he doesn't use in his pickup, and the cheaper blend was only offered at two of eight pumps.

Auten ended up paying $3.39 per gallon instead for regular unleaded - 30 cents higher than he would have paid at a station a block away that didn't use the marketing scheme.

“We'd have gone on to Kansas, we wouldn't have stopped in Nebraska,” he said. “Of course it's misleading.”

“Unbelievable, isn't it?” said Nebraska Attorney General Jon Bruning. “(Station owners) ought to be embarrassed.”

Though Nebraska has no law aimed at preventing gas-price gouging, Bruning has vowed to go after owners of the stations for possibly breaking a state law that bars deceptive trade practices.

“They've not only given North Platte, Lexington and Ogallala a bad name, they've given Nebraska a bad name,” Bruning said.

Roy Wagner, a North Platte-native who owns the BP station, said he was confused about why people deemed the practice misleading and fraudulent.

“It wasn't a bait and switch, because the only place you could buy E10 was the pumps where it was available,” Wagner said. “The E10 was only available at one island, and the signs clearly said the low price we advertised was for the E10 product.

“Where does my responsibility end and the consumer's begin? I don't think its deceptive, or illegal.”

Mark Wilkinson, owner of the Conoco stations, said he's done using the ad scheme.

“I've given up trying to say we're right. We're wrong,” Wilkinson said. “I guess I have to get it out of my thick head.”

Along with the E10 prices, Wilkinson had advertised on his signs which pumps had the E10. The signs now just advertise diesel.

Wilkinson pointed out that diesel, like the E10, is not offered on all pumps.

“So how's that different?” he said.

A spokesman for the National Association of Convenience Stores said it was the first he'd heard of the practice.

While it may garner more gas purchases short-term, the practice could burn the bridge between retailers and consumers that is already shaky because of high gas prices, said Jeff Lenard, the association's spokesman.

“You don't want to have consumers any more irate than they already are,” Lenard said.

The plan used in Nebraska illustrates how stations across the country are trying creative ways to entice increasingly attentive gas buyers.

Some stations in Texas discourage credit-card buys that reduce profits for stations by offering discounts to drivers who buy gas with their licenses, which are linked to debit cards, Lenard said.

In the St. Louis area, he said, some retailers spin a wheel blazoned with price discounts for customers that belong to a loyalty program. If the needle lands on 20 cents, for example, that's the discount they get.

“What it all comes down to is everyone is trying to solve how to attract the increasingly price-conscious buyer,” Lenard said.