Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Are you getting every penny of gas you pay for at the pump? Authorities in Texas found that customers who filled up at stations that operate under the name Sunmart were not. The same company sells gas in Utah.
A representative with the Utah Department of Agriculture told KSL none of the regular inspections of Sunmart's 58 stations in Utah have turned up a problem, but since learning of the investigation in Texas, the state plans on taking a closer look.
The three-day investigation in Texas found 990 of Sunmart's 1,704 gas pumps gave less gas than showed up on the pump. Todd Staples, with the Texas Department of Agriculture, said, "Based on our results from a targeted investigation, I strongly suspect this was an intentional act."
At 15 of the Sunmart stations, every pump was ripping off drivers. "I believe the facts would have been even more incriminating had the company not dispatched a band of technicians scurrying to get ahead of my team of inspectors in order to re-calibrate faulty fuel pumps," Staples said.
The faulty pumps have been shut down, and the Texas Department of Agriculture's investigation is just beginning.
The Utah Department of Agriculture says there are occasional failures here. About 7-percent of gas stations have at least one pump either giving too much gas or too little. The pumps are checked every 12 to 18 months. If the pump passes, a sticker is placed on the pump to show consumers when the device was last tested and approved.
However, when we visited this Sunmart station in West Valley today, there were no stickers. A clerk inside the store and the Department of Agriculture didn't know why that was the case. Larry Lewis, a representative for the Utah Department of Agriculture, told us there are no red flags that suggest pumps at any of the 58 Sunmart stations in Utah are shortchanging customers. "We're feeling good that there's not a bad situation out there, we've seen no major problems in the past at those stations," he said.
We had no luck contacting the corporate offices of Sunmart in Texas, St. George, or Salt Lake. We were also unable to reach the owner of the Sunmart station in West Valley.
State inspectors did say, with 12,000 pumps in Utah to check and only eight inspectors, it can take some time to get to them all.
E-mail: corton@ksl.com
