Check your bank statement if you filled up at Shell

 If you filled up at a Shell station lately and paid by debit, you might want to check your bank statement.

CHBC News has learned that the debit card system on many of its gas pumps across the country were malfunctioning last week, potentially overcharging customers.

The issue came to light following a complaint from Brad Heinzman of Kelowna after he bought $60 worth of gas with his debit card at the Kelowna Shell last Friday but was charged a lot more than that.

“I looked at my online bank statement and they had charged me $100 dollars for a $60 fuel purchase.”

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The Kelowna man went back to the Springfield Road gas station, demanding answers but was told he needs to call Shell. So he did.

“They told me it was a very large problem and that I wasn’t the only one with the problem and that I needed to call my bank to get the payments reversed,” says Heinzman.

Shell Canada says it uses what’s called pre-authorization to ensure there is adequate credit or funds on a customer’s card. Once the fueling transaction is completed, Shell receives payment for the purchased amount and the unused money is released back to the customer. Shell Canada admits there was a breakdown.

Here is the official statement: “Shell experienced an issue with the pre-pay point of sale (POS) card transaction system last week at a number of our retail stations. On November 29th and 30th certain transactions were debited the full pre-paid amount rather than the actual amount for liters of fuel purchased. Shell was notified of the issue on November 30th and took immediate steps to prevent further errors and investigate the problem. Since then, we’ve worked directly with Moneris, the payment processor, to correct the issue by ensuring that all debit transaction discrepancies during the stated period are rectified. Moneries has already started moving money back into customers’ accounts and expects all of these transactions to be completed by the end of the week.”

Shell says it apologizes for the error and that it takes these types of incidents very seriously.