Can't get anyone at GasBuddy to care about someone posting fake prices, for weeks now...

[mrsilv04]

I'm a bit confused about this one. A couple weeks back, I reported to GasBuddy that there's someone who for some unknown reason, is posting fake gas prices.

I walk by a gas station on my daily pre-dawn walk, so this is an easy one for me. Make a mental note of the price, then post it once I get back home. After about a couple of weeks, it became very clear that there was the same person, day after day... who had started posting an incorrect price between 30 minutes to an hour before me, every day.

And it is not off by just a few cents. Usually off by 20 cents a gallon, or more. For example, I drove by the station last night, after dark. Posted price was $3.55. Price at 6am this morning, $3.55. This clown posted it at a few minutes after 5am, at $3.31. Unfortunately, this is typical.

I reported this behavior to GasBuddy 2 weeks ago, after I'd already noticed that there was a pattern of fake prices with this same person. I've been waiting for a response ever since. And this clown continues to post incorrect prices, for almost a month now. I've continued to update them every third day in the same email thread, that the issue is continuing, with examples (which I'm sure that they can verify)... and nothing.

Apparently, the lights are on at GasBuddy... but no one is home, and no one cares. I guess that they figure that these fake postings will get overwritten soon enough anyway. You'd think that they'd be a little more concerned when an issue such as this is reported to them, where someone is intentionally trying to undermine a service that they are providing. Or not.

 

[loneryder]

I quit using Waze because there was so much misinformation on it.

 

[Hall]

No one at GasBuddy will care about this. They sold out quite heavily a number of years ago to advertisers so every time you, a fake-price-poster, or others open the app, they get ad views and $$$. In the past, their system would detect the same person posting incorrect prices which were soon "corrected" and confirmed by others. They don't care anymore though....

 

[MNgopher]

Like Hall said - several years ago this would have been taken care of. Since the site sold to new owners, they don't care. Been that way for several years now.

I once was active on that site, and there was a forum for local users, etc... and it worked well. Now there is a lot of spam on it and its not as useful..

 

[Silver]

Call the corporate office of the station and tell them you 'suspect' false information being posted by the store. I can't imagine anyone doing this consistently that doesn't have a stake in it.

 

[el Nuke]

Any other gas stations within site of the one having its prices falsely reported? My first suspect would be that station's proprietor.

 

[PandaBear]

You will by experience know who is posting fake prices and avoid them after a few times right?

 

[wpod]

It is the internet.

 

[PF52]

And thus was created an entire industry known as Fake News.

 

[Lyman]

There is only one person that would benefit by doing that. The station owner.

 

[mk378]

If it's the station owner, he's doing it wrong. It would work better to post fake high prices on the competitiors. Posting a fake low price for his station would only have people not buying when they come to the station and see the real price.

 

[PF52]

If it's the station owner, he's doing it wrong. It would work better to post fake high prices on the competitiors. Posting a fake low price for his station would only have people not buying when they come to the station and see the real price.

Could be that the guy isn't very bright.

 

[PandaBear]

If it's the station owner, he's doing it wrong. It would work better to post fake high prices on the competitiors. Posting a fake low price for his station would only have people not buying when they come to the station and see the real price.

Until every other station owners know what is going on and do the same to yours. Seriously these kind of fake prices on yourself or others are not going to work in the long term.

 

[IcarusLSC]

The prices around here on GasBuddy.com are consistently wrong from many posters. I dunno where they get the info from

 

[Hermann]

If it's the station owner, he's doing it wrong. It would work better to post fake high prices on the competitiors. Posting a fake low price for his station would only have people not buying when they come to the station and see the real price.

Seen the latter at a couple of MInut Mart Phillips 66 C-stores. Published prices on Gas Buddy were not what the pumps said by about 15¢.

 

[Dave Hess]

Thats why I won’t look at Gas Buddy to hopefully save money.

If i want cheap gas then I pull into a RaceTrac gas station.

 

[stranger706]

It’s the station owners it’s not uncommon

 

[NormanBuntz]

Is the gas station in Springfield and is it run by Apu from the Simpson's. That could explain it.

 

[mrsilv04]

Discovered the hard way, that the way to get the attention of anyone at GasBuddy, is to contact them through Facebook/Twitter. Apparently, they do have someone who monitors their social media accounts. But they apparently don't monitor their own email account. Priorities, I guess...

From the response that I received, it would appear that the person who was posting the fake prices, was not local to this area... as it was mentioned that they have applied a "distance ban" to that person's account. And no fake posts this morning at my local station, or at any of the other 2-3 local stations that prices were regularly posted on by this person.