Ile-Epo
When I started driving, I had three guiding
principles –
1. Top up my fuel at half tank
2. Always buy full tank when I drive into a
fueling station
3. When broke, buy fuel - at least I can still
move around.
Topping up my car at half tank made it easy
to mentally calculate the true value of the fuel I bought😁 (Yeah, I sometimes use excel but I have to
know at the pump)
One day on my way out, I decided to top up my
fuel which was a little above half tank but something weird happened. The cost
was over my usual spend and my tank was far from full. I told the station
attendant to stop when it was a ₦1,000
above my average spend then challenged him. “Madam your gauge might be bad o,
“he said. While driving out, I told him he just lost a customer.
I wasn’t paying any attention to the fuel
meter because I was trying to get out the keg I use to fuel my generator. “Your
money is ₦5,000 she said, this one is ₦1,500 and the one I sold into the car is
3500” The station attendant said. But why did you clear off the previous one
before showing me?” I questioned. As we were going back and forth, my colleague
emerged from the car and said, "no, I saw everything, you sold ₦2,650 into the car". Then the station
attendant began to stammer. While giving her ₦5,000
I told her she just lost a customer. Trust my colleague to collect my change on
my behalf.
I started defaulting on my first guiding
principle because I had to buy fuel from a tested and trusted fueling station
Over the years, I have marked a couple of
fueling stations never to return to because of dubious transactions. I also
have my regular petrol stations.
One day, I went to one of my regular fueling
stations but the bill for a full tank did not make any sense. At a similar fuel
level with my previous purchases, it was about three thousand Naira above my
usual spend. I kept going back to the station and switched attendants then
realized it was a particular one. Without concrete evidence, I couldn’t report him,
but I challenged him and told him I wasn’t going to buy from him again. It was
at that point I said to myself “Maybe it is not the fueling station, maybe it
is the attendant”
Last year, I decided to return to the ₦5,000 fueling station, it is one of my best
budget decisions
Do you have an ‘Ile-Epo” story to share? We
would love to hear from you.
Ile - means "house" in Yoruba
Epo - means "petrol" or "palm
oil" in Yoruba
Ile-Epo is also the name of a market in Lagos
state, Nigeria
This post was edited by Dolapo Ajayi
Omg I have one, I once bought fuel from my regular filling station just after I drove off I observed that my Engine Check light came on. I was so scared so I decided to branch by my mechanic he said they can only know the problem when they do a scan. I did the scan at the cost of 10k only for the scan to give a code. Upon interpretation of the code by the mechanic they found out it was because the fuel tank was not properly closed. I was sad and happy at the same time. Sad that I wasted 10k due to negligence of the attendant and happy it was nothing serious that would cost me something much more. Funny thing is I went back to the station and I had forgotten my experience and the lady attended to me and was asking for something for something for the weekend I told her how much my last fueling cost me and she apologized.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful, I had one Ile Epo experience years ago, 2002, I think. The attendant apparently didn't dispense fuel. I drove off n my tank was still indicating red. I went back n insisted he dispenses the fuel I paid for. The manager heard our arguments, came out, shut down that particular pump. N calculated the sales Vs cash from the pump since d guy took over shift. It was discovered he didn't dispense fuel to me. I got my fuel n tonnes of apologies ��, but of course, I NEVER went to that ile Epo again ������
ReplyDelete