Gas buddy become a useless app ?
- Thread starter CarLuver
- Start date
GasBuddy works great when people participate. Too many people use it and never update what they see. GasBuddy does not have a staff roving around the nation updating prices. Its user powered, and too many won't help others out. We update all we can.
Gas Buddy relies on people like you to feedback accurate gas prices as you drive around.
The data is only as good as the people who enter it. I find it to be accurate the vast majority of the time but there are some people in my area who just enter guesses as opposed to actual observed prices.
If you have an active number of people in your area populating pricing, then its a useful app. If nobody in your area updates it, including you, then it is not useful.
I used to be very active on that site updating prices. There are enough people actively populating prices here that I stopped being an active participant, but still benefit from the info.
I used to be very active on that site updating prices. There are enough people actively populating prices here that I stopped being an active participant, but still benefit from the info.
Have you signed up for their new card? They are closing down the old ones and there is more stations and uses Mastercard instead of the weird WEBEX system.
I will say they started to push their payment plans which may work for some that travel lots of miles but I don't care to pay for it. I do use their card and have had it for many years now and still saves me at the pump but I understand if the discount isn't worth the hassle.
Patman
Staff member
I have been a member for over 20 years and it has always had a lot of people posting fake prices. And now they have these gas buddy bots posting prices and I don’t know where they are generating their information but it’s wrong more often than it’s right 
I just got home from a cross country road trip. Being unfamiliar with what gas companies in different parts of the country are Top Tier, I opened the Gas Buddy app on my phone, for the first time in a very long time. I was hoping that Gas Buddy would have a filter for Top Tier, but couldn't fine one. And it really did look like the price data was bad So I don't know if I'll be using Gas Buddy again any time soon.
I filter it by stations that are Top Tier.
I use it to monitor prices. It always has Costco. The managers enter the prices. You always want to look at how long ago the prices were entered. In the rural area that I live in, it rarely shows prices but lists the stations. In this part of WV all stations are always the same prices. No difference in any of them. I try to buy most of my gas in Va. 30 miles away. .30 to .50 cents cheaper in Va.
Yeap, I used to have the app on my phone and would add or update prices a decent amount. There was some big changes a number of years ago (and a user 'revolt') and I tapered off, eventually removing the app (I'm very minimalist when it comes to apps anyway). I think they started flooding the app with tons of ads too. On occasion I've tried the website and it's horribly crippled now, so I won't bother there anymore.
Completely understand this since places like that are only open to members. People who buy gas at Costco, Sams, etc probably buy 90% of their gas there already so they don't care about competitors and showing a very low price to non-members who can't get it doesn't accomplish much for GB's audience.
Unfortunately, the data is easily manipulated and/or outdated depending on who and when enters the price updates. Example, there are two gas stations near my work that are across street from each other, when I update prices for them one station would almost instantly change the correct price for their competitor (as their price is almost always lower), they would just up the price to look higher. It's the same person doing this every time thus I guess it's one of their employees. I complained re this to GasBuddy to no effect.
exactly.
Seems accurate here.
As others said, it's only accurate if people are updating it. Fortunately, in the areas I frequent, the prices are usually correct. If I'm on a road trip and I get screwed by a wrongly entered price (I'm not talking about it being 2 days old but where it's say today and it's obvious someone is likely manipulating it), I won't go to that station unless I'm gonna run out of gas. I'm a weird but I'll go to the next exit just to not give business to a wrongly entered low price.
I've complained here about that before. One used to be able to map out a specific area using ZIP codes in the URL, and be presented with a useful list of the results, but they shut down that site in favor of the relatively useless site that's served up now.
The current heat map can be used to approximate a specific geographic area, but it's a poor substitute, as it doesn't present results in tabular form, and worse, doesn't function reliably.
I don't think there's any specific policy, or prohibition of Costco stations, but they do disappear intermittently in my area. I wouldn't drive 15 minutes a Costco to save 15 cents per gallon, but it was interesting to see how their prices stood in comparison. They aren't necessarily always the lowest.
f355spider
$50 Site Donor 2025
You are aware Costco has their own app with warehouse locations listed on a map and you can click on any of them for realtime gas prices. I use it all the time in my outside sales job, as I am filling up several times a week. Gas Buddy is very hit or miss depends on the number of local users updating the prices. I used to do it, but found it not worth my time. I use a combination of Gas Buddy and Costco app when I am in an unfamiliar area.
Similar threads
- Locked
