Fuel Prices - Research help please

Andy_P · Last edited by Andy_P on Fri Jan 29, 2010 11:41 pm; edited 1 time in total

I've got a support ticket in with TomTom customer services at the moment about the inaccuracy (OK... total uselessness) of the UK fuel prices on LIVE.

They have notched it up to level 2, but as usual have asked ME to do the research and provide them with some more examples (all within 3 days or they shut the case!).

The trouble is... due to Xmas/snow/family problems, I haven't been out and about as much as usual.

So if anyone has some recent examples of incorrect prices (the sillier the better, look for those 95p bargains!) and especially of "phantom" results from petrol stations that don't exist or have closed down, could you please PM me with the details?

They will want locations, price according to LIVE and the real price.

Thanks!

falkirk81 · Posted: Tue Jan 12, 2010 12:05 pm Post subject:

Andy, you have a PM

Steven
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Tomtom GO 1005 LIVE

iPhone 12

Andy_P · Posted: Tue Jan 12, 2010 12:10 pm Post subject:

Thanks Steven!

Anyone got any more please?

Seamaster · Frequent Visitor Joined: Jun 05, 2006 Posts: 331

PM sent.

I'm off to fill up at 86p now. Rolling Eyes

DennisN · Posted: Tue Jan 12, 2010 10:08 pm Post subject:

Sorry, the nine Diesel "Near Me" and the three "On Route" all show accurate as at yesterday when I fuelled up.

I never use the feature, but last time I experimented, it also was accurate enough.
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Dennis

If it tastes good - it's fattening.

Two of them are obesiting!!

Andy_P · Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 12:53 am Post subject:

Thanks seamaster and falkirk81 again, I've sent off those examples.
TT wanted Lat/Long, date/time, actual price shown on pump and mother's inside leg measurement, but I politely told them that it should be their job to do the research once we've pointed out the glaring errors!

Dennis, I'm surprised... I nearly always have a couple of ~95p entries in the "cheapest nearby" and "cheapest in area" boxes

DennisN · Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 1:30 am Post subject:

I'm a very regular filler-upper-er at my local Esso station and I take note of two other prices all the time (ASDA and BP on my route home sometimes). I filled up there on 7th, 10th and 11th January for 109.9p and Tuesday it had gone up again to 110.9p. Price given on XL Live tonight was 110p - seems accurate enough to me. Cheapest nearby says ASDA nearly three miles away at 108. But as I said in another discussion, the price isn't relevant for me, just the availability of fuel without diverting off route.
_________________
Dennis

If it tastes good - it's fattening.

Two of them are obesiting!!

AndyVaughan · Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 10:26 pm Post subject:

It seems to be unleaded that is mostly affected - I use LPG and it is pretty accurate.

If I change fuel type to unleaded (on a 3.2L V6 I try not to!) then there are always spurious results of extremely low prices.

I will try and get an example for you.

falkirk81 · Posted: Wed Jan 13, 2010 11:19 pm Post subject:

I am not sure if people know 'how' Tomtom get their data. But, in its most basic explanation, it is derived from fuel card users' data from filling up. They get the total paid and the amount of litres and work out the price from there.

This is the same model that www.petrolprices.com use. Not sure quite why the TT data is as far out though. I am told that a garage near me is selling Diesel at 96p a litre! Although too far for me to drive and check, that's a whole 13p a litre cheaper than the Tesco I work at where I fill up with a pump price of 109.9p per litre!
_________________
Tomtom GO 1005 LIVE

iPhone 12

falkirk81 · Posted: Sat Jan 16, 2010 12:45 am Post subject:

Andy, I hope i'm not too late with this for your support ticket!

I passed by a petrol station that was, according to Tomtom, selling diesel for £1.019 (£1.02 displayed on unit). Now the actual price at the garage was £1.099 (£1.10 as the Tomtom would display).

It is a Shell garage, but for some reason, it was labelled as 'Miscellaneous'.

Got a screen shot for you too if that helps!

Location of said garage is N 55.055709, W 1.577889. Time of observation was around 10pm tonight.

_________________
Tomtom GO 1005 LIVE

iPhone 12

Andy_P · Posted: Sat Jan 16, 2010 4:05 am Post subject:

I sent the first batch off, but as I said, I didn't have Lat/Long coordinates, actual price at the pump, and inside leg measurements - I just told them that prices like 85p MUST be wrong.

But if they ask for any more I've got a couple more of my own and now yours to add to the pile.
Thanks!

Seamaster · Frequent Visitor Joined: Jun 05, 2006 Posts: 331

Any joy, Andy?

Andy_P · Posted: Fri Jan 29, 2010 11:37 pm Post subject:

The point I was trying to make to them was that if I could see dozens of locations with a price under £1 per litre, all over the country, then there was something BADLY wrong with the whole system, not just a few rogue places.

But as usual TT "2nd line" insisted on specific examples, even though I said that should be THEIR job!

So as I have nothing better to do with my time at the moment, I spent an afternoon visiting a completely different set of petrol stations in my own area with daft prices and made copious notes, then wrote it all up for TomTom and provided them with Google Earth or StreetView pictures as well.

The locations I looked at included:

1. a Shell service station on the North Circular Road which turned out to be a Tyre yard and HSS Hire shop

2. another Shell service station in Stonebridge Park which was a Mechanical engineers and auto electricians.

3. an Asda superstore that sold petrol in Barnet, which was a private house in a completely residential area

4. a BP station in Yeading which was another private house BUT only 200yds from a real BP station, ALSO on their list (showing no prices currently) but with the same phone number (confusing eh?)

5. another BP station in Wandsworth, that WAS a petrol station about two years ago, but I remember it being bulldozed to make way for a block of new flats. (it was on my route from work to my mother's house so I remember it well).

If that wasn't enough for them, I also took some of Falkirk and Seamaster's examples (which we hadn't actually visited) and put those locations into Google aerial views (or MS Bing) and LOOKED for petrol stations.
Several of them were supermarkets like Somerfield or Tescos, so I could also look on their company websites to see if the stores in those towns had petrol stations attached.

Basically, NONE of the places with petrol prices under £1 existed, but they were often places CONNECTED with the motor industry, such as a car repairers, a tyre yard, a motorcycle sales and repair company.

None of this explains why the prices from these "phantom" petrol stations were still being endlessly recycled, but at least we have some solid proof of some specific examples that don't exist, and I was at pains to point out these are NOT isolated examples and that they should take a hard look at ALL the places that say unleaded is under £1.10.

I got a very nice email back from my TomTom contact saying how impressed with my results he was, and that he was passing it to level 2............................
Nothing heard back so far.

If either of you two want a copy of the Word doc I sent them, complete with pictures, I can email the first few pages (it's about 5MB, but my ISP just lets it through) if you send me a PM with your address.

Seamaster · Frequent Visitor Joined: Jun 05, 2006 Posts: 331

Andy, thanks for your hard work and tenacity with this one, which I appreciate.

I hope it pays off.

IanS100 · Posted: Sat Jan 30, 2010 5:31 am Post subject:

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