HANYU, Saitama -- A Japanese gas station accidentally mixed up its gas tanks, selling high octane fuel as regular and regular as high octane for eight years, it has been learned.
The mix-up occurred at the Hanyu Higashi outlet of Tokyo-based Showa Shell Sekiyu. The company said 1,560 kiloliters of regular fuel had been sold as high octane, and another 1,760 kiloliters of high octane fuel had been sold as regular.
Company officials said a tank at the gas station was replaced following a car accident in December 1998, and when the nozzles were attached, the tanks got mixed up.
Customers paid about 15.6 million yen more than the actual cost for the regular fuel sold as high octane. The price difference for the fuel mistakenly sold as regular was about 17.6 million yen.
The company did not receive any reports of car trouble as a result of the mix-up. The mistake was uncovered after a similar problem was detected at a gas stand in Mie Prefecture and the firm conducted inspections at 1,200 stands nationwide.
Customers who bought fuel with credit cards or through accounts would be refunded the difference if they paid more than they should have, company officials said. The company said a counter would be set up to consult customers who paid cash. Officials said they had already tracked down about 40 percent of the customers.
"We will also conduct inspections at more outlets in the future, and will work to prevent this from happening again," a company official said.
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