the passionate ailurophile

I had an oil delivery today.  They filled the tank with 200.3 gallons of oil, at a price of $2.30 a gallon.  I guess it wasn’t as empty as I’d thought, as the tank holds 275 gallons.  If you do C.O.D., rather than having credit with the company, they give you the cheapest possible price.  Anyway, that adds up to $460.69.  You can click this image to see it bigger.

So, after they filled the tank, the guy came to the door with the bill, which I paid using the debit MasterCard attached to our checking account.  He had one of those wireless card-swiper machines, and he told me that the amount was $406.69, which is what he charged me.  I only looked at the white receipt, not the yellow one underneath.  I’m so damned blind, that I didn’t even notice that the yellow one was the correct amount, and that the guy screwed up when entering the numbers into his little swiper machine.  So basically, we were undercharged by $54.

But Mike noticed it tonight when he was writing stuph into the checkbook.  I felt kind of stupid, because what if it had been the other way around, and I was OVERCHARGED by $54?  I really need to go and get my eyes examined already.

For all I know, they have some way to go and take the $54 from our account once the bookkeeping people notice this error.  Or perhaps they will just send me a bill in the mail.  In any case, the right thing to do is to call them tomorrow, tell them that their guy made an honest mistake, and tell them that I will send them a check for the $54.  I really don’t want to give my card # over the phone if I can avoid it.

I think it’s good karma to let them know about the error ASAP.  Theor office is closed now, so it will have to be done tomorrow.