STATESVILLE, N.C. — Johnnika Smyre called the gas station on Wilkesboro Highway in Statesville her “go-to” gas station, but the other day, she noticed the price going up on her pump with no gas coming out.
“We’re here just about every day,” she said.
She says her husband went inside, paid for gas, came out, and noticed the price was still ticking upward. But no gas was pumping.
Police confirmed the “pump was measuring that gas was running, but it was not.” She says they bought $10 in gas, but that they didn’t get $10 in gas.
“In my 32 years of living, I’ve never seen anything like this,” she told Action 9 investigator Jason Stoogenke.
Smyre says she complained to the store to get her money back, but got the runaround.
“I’m angry,” she said.
A man who said he was the owner of the business acknowledged the pump was acting up and blamed a computer bug.
“That is a computer problem,” he said. “So we can’t fix it.”
He said they call people to fix the problem.
Stoogenke asked, “Are you able to give her any kind of refund for the gas?”
The man replied, " Yeah. Sure.”
Smyre asked, “So why has no one called me to rectify the situation?”
She feels the answer was Action 9 getting involved.
The state agency that inspects gas stations, the N.C. Department of Agriculture, told Stoogenke it was going to send an inspector to the gas station. It says many things can cause a pump to malfunction, that they wouldn’t know for sure until the inspector checked. But, based on what happened, one guess is the system was losing pressure, possibly a leak, causing the price and gallons to slowly climb on their own.
“It don’t matter how much it was. It was my money,” she said. “Money is money to me. I work hard for my money just like he would.”
If you have a problem with a gas station, contact the Dept. of Agriculture’s Standards Division at this link. You can reach out about any gas station for any reason -- water in the gas is a complaint that Action 9 hears a fair amount.
Inspectors try to check every station in the state at least once each year.
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