Got a "Ticket" for not paying for gasoline

Upvote:7

You might be guilty of theft or fraud by taking the gas without paying. The station could have filed criminal charges and you would get a chance to argue your viewpoint that it is all their fault in court. (Or you could have ignored the summons. Could be trouble on your next visit ...)

Instead they decided to send you an invoice for the debt, with collection fees and possibly late payment fees added to the amount.

Take a guess, how many hours would their lawyers and clerks need to determine that it was you who left without paying for the gas and not some other customer, and where you live, and to prepare the letters? One hour, two, three? Guess what their hourly rate would be, and add taxes and overhead. While some debt collection agencies try to charge excessive fees, in a case like this the amount isn't outrageous.

You can try to pay the principal claim only, and ignore the fees. The gas station might then decide not to try and collect the remainder. But they might also decide to follow it, and add more fees with each attempt to collect.

Let me note that yes, gas is that expensive in Germany, and prices are posted at each gas station. Mixing the two complaints won't get you any sympathy from the gas station or in court.

Upvote:9

63€ for gasoline seems right in this part of the world, and for 63€ to become an unnoticeable difference, you would have had to buy snakcs for several hundred €'s, that's a lot, so you really should have noticed, so for all practical purposes you did commit a crime.

I don't know the German level for typical fines, but I think 100€ sounds cheap.

So you really should just pay the 163€, and if your bank charges you too much for that, well that's something you'll have to discuss with them, it really doesn't concern the case.

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