Costly Gas Station Gaffe: Drivers Drove Off For 69 Cents a Gallon

Tags: Currents Media

Currents News Staff

John Susina is the gas station manager making a mea culpa after giving hundreds of drivers an opportunity to save thousands of dollars on premium grade gasoline.

“And I put all three prices on except the diesel,” John said, “but the last one kind of didn’t go, you know, right.”

John accidentally put a decimal in the wrong spot and began selling the $6.99 cent gas for just $0.69 cents.

People started posting the low price on social media and calling friends and family – the lines formed fast to guzzle it up.

“Well, I would’ve done the same thing,” said John.

John was fired Monday after the decimal point debacle. Now his family has started a GoFundMe for him with the goal of raising $16,000 – the cost of what the gas station lost in revenue – so he can pay it back. They’re worried that besides being terminated, he could be sued.

Craig Zimmerman is a business attorney who says employees are protected from liability in cases like this, where they make mistakes, performing normal job duties. 

“The only way he would be responsible, absent a written agreement, is if he was acting outside the scope of his employment,” Craig said. “For instance, if his boss said whatever you do, don’t ever set the price on that gas pump.”

A gas station glitch turned into a gift for drivers and a goodbye for this station manager now seeking a new job.

“So I just took responsibility for it,” the manager said. “And I said, yeah, it’s my fault.”