Tom Thumb Gas Rewards - Not so much..

I just thought I'd pass this along, as one consumer to another. If you shop at Tom Thumb, and save up your points to save on gasoline at the Tom Thumb gas station, you may want to hold off on buying gas at the station on FM 3040 @ Valley Parkway in Lewisville. The pumps there are not subtracting the discount correctly.

Here's the price I saw when I pulled up to fill up today (6:03 p.m. 2/11/2012):


The price for Regular unleaded was listed on the pump at the same price, $3.46. I had 5 gas rewards, entitling me to a 50 cent per gallon discount. Yet, after I entered my Rewards card info, and swiped my debit card, the price on the pump lowered to $3.22, a savings of only 24 cents, that the display on the pump proudly proclaimed was 50 cents. Well now, it seems like we have a little arithmetic problem. Here are the receipts:


As you can see, the numbers don't add up, and it basically charged me $3.22 instead of $2.96, and my total should have been $27.73 instead of $30.12. So, they got me for $2.39 worth of discount, which is not a huge amount, but when you consider that a lot of people use the discount, and the station is always busy, it makes you wonder just how much money they get from faulty arithmetic.

For what it's worth, I've had even less luck with Shell stations honoring the Kroger fuel discounts. One station I went to in Lewisville at the corner of I-35 and Fox Avenue gladly accepted my discount at the pump, then proceeded to only let me pump 1 cent worth of gas. Voila, discount gone. Promo fail.

You've got to keep an eye on them.

So anyhow, once I noticed the problem at Tom Thumb, and my 11 year old confirmed that the math was FUBAR, I took my receipt to the attendant, who looked at it, punched a few things into a calculator, then admitted that it made no sense. Fortunately, he had a STACK of pre-printed flyers, which he was kind enough to give me one of. The solution, it seemed was not for him to open the register and pay me back the difference. Nope, the solution was to hand me this flyer directing me to call Tom Thumb's call center in Phoenix, AZ. After only 10 - 15 minutes on hold, and explaining the problem a couple of different ways, the rep admitted he didn't know what was going on, and credited my reward account with 3 rewards - or a 30 cent savings on a future fill-up. I didn't feel like fighting, but I stressed the importance of fixing the actual problem.

If you've had a problem with a fuel discount at a Tom Thumb station, call the Safeway Customer Care Department at 1-877-723-3929. (And leave a comment here too. I'm curious to know if this happens often)