By Mitchell Clarke
While there is evident pain across the petrol pumps in Cardinia, a brand new Liberty petrol station on Racecourse Road has seen motorists taking advantage of cheap opening prices.
But the relief on the pocket hasn’t come without controversy, with one woman sharing her personal ordeal with the Pakenham Gazette about her experience with the petrol station on opening night.
Christine McSweeney went to fill up her car on the evening of Thursday 16 May when she noticed the nozzles were too wide for her fuel tank.
“There were a number of customers all experiencing the same sort of troubles,” she said. “I think they were fitted with diesel nozzles.”
When Ms McSweeney addressed the issue with staff, the response she received was that her car was simply “too old”.
“When I was told my car was too old, and queried that, he said they were the new nozzles and it was company policy to have them,” she said.
“He also told me that I would have to go elsewhere to fill up.
“It’s just disgraceful that people with vehicles of my age can’t access the petrol station and purchase fuel.
“They told me not to speak anyone, be quiet and to move on,” she said. “Instead of showing concern for the problem, they just wanted me to get out of there. “They were deliberately preventing me from talking to customers.”
The Gazette made contact with the Liberty petrol station who acknowledged there was a problem with the size of the nozzles but it was fixed on the same night.
“That was last week when we opened, there were a range of complaints from customers that the pumps didn’t fit,” a company representative said.
“We complained to the company and the pumps have since been fixed.”
He wasn’t aware of the incident with Ms McSweeney and therefore couldn’t comment further.
