Wrong fuel or not?

[Zaros]

On Saturday I filled up with fuel at a Shell garage in Southampton, since then I've driven around 150 miles and all has been ok. Today I noticed that the receipt I was given shows £1.889/l whilst the sign at the garage stated £1.489 for unleaded. The receipt shows Pump 6 'V-Power DSL' which I assume is diesel. The receipt also shows 30.58 litres of fuel which is correct as I remember it being almost half of 62 litres which is what I thought the tank capacity is (it isn't, I've checked, its 66l). Anyway, have I filled up with diesel or has the garage mixed me up with someone else at the forecourt or have I been conned? Having a look at the forecourt of Streetview I notice that I was at pump 5 (not pump 6 as the receipt shows) and definitely used the unleaded nozzle as I remember not going for E5 but going for E10. The only thing I can assume is that the nozzles have been switched and I filled with E5 and not E10 but this doesn't correlate with the 'DSL' on the receipt, this may explain a very high £/l charge (although £1.889 doesn't correlate to what superunleaded should cost).

If I have filled up with half a tank of diesel I would have expected the car to have noticed and also let me know either by lots of dashboard lights, poor running, large amounts of smoke or breaking down. I remember a TV program once filled several petrol cars with diesel and only the really old ones could take it, I doubt if thats true for a 2018 GS Hybrid.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

As an aside, I usually don't use Shell garages as once they charged my credit card a second time (in my absence) after they charged me for the wrong pump. Maybe this is what has happened this time.

[NemesisUK]

If you had filled with diesel the car would have complained after a couple of miles. I think it's a simple invoicing mistake

[johnatg]

I reckon you've been charged for someone else's fuel. £1.89 is about right for v-power diesel. I guess you would have paid about £1.60 for v-power petrol but you got E10.

I always triple check - I ask myself is this petrol? Is it the green handle pump? Is it E5? (I always use E5) And note the pump number. It's easy to do the whole thing on autopilot! And get it wrong!

Have a sniff in the fuel filler - you will be able to tell if it's diesel.

[Zaros]

I've had a sniff and its definitely petrol. I'm generally quite paranoid about filling with petrol (see photo) as I've used diesel vehicles for the last 20 years.

As you say, probably an invoicing error, especially as I followed someone in who then dithered at the Costa machine, I expect he was pump 6 and the attendant had already punched the details into the till.

Thanks all.

[steveledzep]

As far as I know, a diesel gun is too wide a diameter to fit into a petrol tank filler.

[Zaros]

Yes, I think you're right about that, steveledzep.

 https://www.theaa.com/breakdown-cover/advice/wrong-fuel-advice#:~:text=The diesel pump nozzle is,usually not as much damage.

[Linas.P]

17 hours ago, steveledzep said:

As far as I know, a diesel gun is too wide a diameter to fit into a petrol tank filler.

That would be my assumption - putting petrol in diesel car is possible, diesel in petrol car is unlikely although people sometimes manages even that. That said I would raise it with petrol station just on principle if they overcharged you... may be just honest mistake, like cashier s selected diesel over petrol, not exactly sure how their system works (I assume it should be automatic, but who knows). 

[Sherra]

A pal of mine had the similar situation, when he went to pay, the cashier told him the pump he declared and used had been paid by the previous customer. He asked what were they going to do about it and they said to pay for the pump the previous customer had used. Fortunately for him it was £20 less than his pump.