Owner Loses $21,000 After Gas Price Glitch Offered $1.10 Per Gallon
LONG BEACH (CBS/AP) — It was an April Fool's Day repeat for drivers already weary of high prices weeks before the summer even kicks in — but this time the joke was on the business owner.
Long lines formed at the Valero gas station in Wilmington on Sunday after word spread that the station was selling premium unleaded for $1.10-a-gallon, but it turns out it was all a computer glitch.
Station owner Kenny Nguyen says the too-good-to-be-true price ended up costing him $21,000, and he hopes honest drivers will come back and pay the full price.
Nguyen says the attendant on duty was busy staffing the convenience store and register.
He says a price change didn't take, so the system defaulted to the $1.10 price — a cut of more than $3 a gallon.
The Torrance Daily Breeze reports that within four hours, about 7,000 gallons of premium were pumped at the discounted rate.
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