Students who use their Bigfoot cards to fill up their cars will be faced with a new fee even if they run their card as credit.
As of July Safeway fuel stations have added a ten cent fee when using a credit card. Customers can avoid the fee if they pay with cash or use their debit card. In addition to the ten cent fee last Summer Safeway also got rid of their three cent program for being a club member.
Safeway also still offers there ten cent discount program allowing customers who shop at Safeway to be able to save up to one dollar off per gallon up to 25 gallons.
Lori Belnap, the NW Blvd. Safeway Fuel Manager, has noticed a dramatic decrease in sales due to the fee.
“We’ve gone down 18% in gas sales,” Belnap said. “We use to sell around 78,000 gallons a week and now we may sell about 65,000 gallons.”
Safeway also still offers there ten cent discount program allowing customers who shop at Safeway to be able to save up to one dollar off per gallon up to 25 gallons. However the ten cent discount program is what prompted the credit card companies to make Safeway add the new fee.
“We (Safeway) had to ask the credit card companies to use their cards,” Belnap said. “We get charged fees to use them, and the discounts on gas were costing us too much with them.”
Belnap claim to have received mostly negative reactions to the new fee.
“Most of them say we are liars and that we don’t advertise it well,” Belnap said.
Fuel station clerk Chris Larson has experienced a variety of angry customers and has grown numb to the yelling.
“I can usually just shake it off and move on,” Larson said. “One guy called me a skin head back when I was bald.”
Safeway is not alone when it comes to unpleasant experiences at the pump. Chevron and ARCO have a ‘fun’ rule that has been driving customers mad. The only difference between them and Safeway is you don’t lose an extra 10 cents per gallon.
According to ABC 10 news as soon as you swipe your card at the gas pump, extra money is charged to your credit or debit card. In some cases, the extra money is released when you finish pumping the gas. In other cases, the additional money is held and it ranges from one dollar to $100.
ABC 10 also received a statement from Chevron and ARCO claiming that it is not either of the companies that set the hold but the customers banks that set the hold.
When asked about the holding fee the Manager at the Wellesley St. Chevron refused to comment about it.