Songkhla Worker Covers Cost as Mercedes Driver Skips Fuel Bill

So, we can kind of assume that she is toast if she does not return to pay.

This incident at the Hat Yai petrol station suggests a possible procedural failure, specifically the use of a safety sign on the car bonnet.

Generally, the sign is placed on the bonnet and remains there as a physical "lock" while you are at the pump.

While mobile payment issues may have been an issue, it should not excuse the fact that standard practice (requiring the safety sign to be placed on the bonnet and remain there until transaction confirmation) was not followed.

An expensive lesson for Theerapong, if the Mercedes driver remains unaware of the issue.

Seems harsh to blame a lowly attendant ... surely the vehicle can be tracked to the owner quickly.

CCTV Registration plate?

Typical!

A German car. Ban it from Thailand's streets, revoke its visa and send it back to Germany, blacklist it for 10 years!

7 hours ago, Jim Waldron said:

This incident at the Hat Yai petrol station suggests a possible procedural failure, specifically the use of a safety sign on the car bonnet.

Generally, the sign is placed on the bonnet and remains there as a physical "lock" while you are at the pump.

Get serious. Those plastic signs aren’t a lock of any sort and if someone wanted to drive away without paying that would not be much of a deterrent.

And it’s not necessarily a “standard practice “ at every gas station everywhere. Personally I think of them as point of sale advertising placards.

1 hour ago, Vlada Floric said:

CCTV Registration plate?

Either the plate number, or name and banking info from the transaction that failed, assuming that she actually did try to do a prompt payment and it failed.

They should be able to find her with all of the information they have. Not too much work for the police or the gas attendant and his buddies. I’d certainly go after her. That’s 3 unpaid days of work. I think she should have to pay a Hefty fine to both the police and to the worker she screwed over. They need to start getting tough on this 💩. It’s robbery so add that to the fines. Karma is going to be a btch.

They have her Vehicle registration on CCTV if she does not return and pay report it to i police no big deal

"Initially, she wanted 2,000 baht worth but reduced it to 1,000 baht due to the slow refuelling." This suggests she was genuinely in a hurry, and had she intended not to pay, she would surely not have done that. Unaware that the payment had not gone through, she quickly went on her way. She surely will return as soon as she realizes what happened.

Surely the woman must have been aware of the fact that the transaction did not go through as you were typically sent the confirmation from your bank. For someone to be driving a three or four million car and skip out on 1,000 baht worth of gas is inexcusable, and an incredibly low class thing to do. The Mercedes driver is street trash.

The fact that the gas station would dock that low paid employees pay is fairly deplorable behavior, and says a lot about the corporate world these days.

They're definitely two losers in that situation, the Mercedes driver ( I will very likely get caught) and the gas station owner, hopefully has a lot of egg on their face especially if people are bold enough to spread the word about who this piece of garbage is.

3 hours ago, jcmj said:

They should be able to find her with all of the information they have. Not too much work for the police or the gas attendant and his buddies. I’d certainly go after her. That’s 3 unpaid days of work. I think she should have to pay a Hefty fine to both the police and to the worker she screwed over. They need to start getting tough on this 💩. It’s robbery so add that to the fines. Karma is going to be a btch.

To be fair, it seems she was in a hurry hence reduced the purchase from 2k to 1k. She tried to pay but the authorization was slow coming through. Drove off probably thinking that the payment would be authorised in due course.

It’s equally likely to be a mistake based on an assumption, as it is a robbery as far as I can see. In fact more likely to be so. iMHO

How shameful for the petrol station to charge their worker for what’s seems an open / shut case of merc driver failure to pay for petrol which not only do you have camera evidence but most probably enough personal transaction information to track the thief down but to take 3 days pay from your worker and not take any responsibility as the station owner just shows again how the “rich” treat “poor” folks by not going after the rich merc owning thief but their low hanging fruit worker. Disgusting in my eyes

15 hours ago, Gottfrid said:

So, we can kind of assume that she is toast if she does not return to pay.

Hope she get's fined.

I worked with an abrupt rude demanding Thai HI-So lady for several years.

She pulled the same stunt several times:

Stop at the pump (she's driving a big benz sedan):

• yell at the young staff 'dem' (full) several times with the car windows all up and loud music playing.

• staff call supervisor because they don't know how much gasoline she wants.

• supervisor yanks on the car door handle several times and repeats same until she unlocks the door and says 'dem' (full)

• staff fill the tank and tell ms rude hi-so how many baht.

• she chcks he wallet - no cash

• She hands over a credit card but it fails

• she tells young staff 'never mind, I'll come back tomorrow and pay

• one attendant quickly puts chocks in front of all wheels

• ms hi-so tells the staff sh'es insulted and insists she will be back tomorrow to pay

• licensee of the petrol station appears and calls the police.

• later same day madam is escorted by a snr. cop into the office of the company where she is a snr. employee. Her car has been moved to a police yard.

• snr accountant (in front of all staff who have gathered to rubber neck neck) she is fired and is now banned from using any company credit facilities.

• next day the police accompany her back to the service station and police instruct her to pay the large outstanding gasoline debt.

• she then berates the young staff for causing her to lose face.

• station licensee tells her 'don't ever come to this station again, if you do I will instantly call the police.

• snr. cop asks her what cash do you have in your wallet. She counts and asnswers the question.

• snr. cop tells her to give every pump employee 200Baht cash to apologize to them.

• she refuses. Snr cops says '200Baht cash now to every employee or you do 3 days in my lock up'.

• she pays up.

So in Thailand employees are left to cover the theft. Wow - talk about Worker Protection (Not). What station. Time to boycott.

12 hours ago, Jim Waldron said:

This incident at the Hat Yai petrol station suggests a possible procedural failure, specifically the use of a safety sign on the car bonnet.

Generally, the sign is placed on the bonnet and remains there as a physical "lock" while you are at the pump.

You've got a point there. Still - charging the employee for some hi-so's theft. That's low.

Troll posts, responses, and bickering removed. Stay on topic folks.

I thinks it's a genuine mistake, it happened to me in a restaurant last week, I paid the bill as i normally do by scanning the Q code and it all looked confirmed .

Then off I went , 30 mins later I paid for something else by Q code and saw the other funds for the restaurant transaction hadn't been taken

from my Krungsri account, so knowing it would create a problem for the staff, I immediately rode back 15 mins to the restaurant to pay again. The staff were not aware the bill hadn't been paid until I showed them my banking app transactions.

4 hours ago, shackleton said:

They have her Vehicle registration on CCTV if she does not return and pay report it to i police no big deal

And yet the company docks the pay of their employee for the theft of gasoline. That's just wrong.

I hope this is getting wide coverage on Thai Social Media.

2 hours ago, Base32 said:

And yet the company docks the pay of their employee for the theft of gasoline. That's just wrong.

I hope this is getting wide coverage on Thai Social Media.

2 hours ago, Base32 said:

And yet the company docks the pay of their employee for the theft of gasoline. That's just wrong.

I hope this is getting wide coverage on Thai Social Media.

2 hours ago, Base32 said:

And yet the company docks the pay of their employee for the theft of gasoline. That's just wrong.

I hope this is getting wide coverage on Thai Social Media.

I don't disagree, not at all.

But keep in mind shop owners are always concened that staff may be involved in theft of the product concerned and / or theft of the 'pament'.

Many years back regularly in the Silom road footpath market there were people selling plates and bowls of all sizes and shapes, cups and saucers, glasse of all sizes / styles and good quality cutlery all branded from Thai International, at very cheap prices and possible to buy in large quantities on the moment. And possible to order in advance and pick up, with haste, very large quantities still packed in the original boxes never opened.

This became a news item several times with investigations which never seemed to produce any clear answers. Except the assumption it was controlled from within.

Then it stopped.

Shame it’s right down at hat yai , if that were up in north east Issan I’d find the place when I was next over and give the guy the money.

Anyone standing working day in day out for 350 bht don’t deserve to loose 3 days wages

On 4/9/2026 at 7:21 PM, Jim Waldron said:

This incident at the Hat Yai petrol station suggests a possible procedural failure, specifically the use of a safety sign on the car bonnet.

Generally, the sign is placed on the bonnet and remains there as a physical "lock" while you are at the pump.

While mobile payment issues may have been an issue, it should not excuse the fact that standard practice (requiring the safety sign to be placed on the bonnet and remain there until transaction confirmation) was not followed.

An expensive lesson for Theerapong, if the Mercedes driver remains unaware of the issue.

You sound like a barrel of laughs, procedural failure - were you and HSE rep in a former life?

It doesn't sound like she did it on purpose.

No pump attendant, or Petroleum Pump Technician, as I called myself at 16 years old whilst working weekends during high school, should be financially responsible for any financial loss. IIRC the franchise owner's secretary would call the individual worker and just tell us not to let it happen again.

I'm sure the owner of the gas station could write it off. But you can't have the little Thai/Khmer/Burmese slaves getting ideas.

And rightly so, they'd have 10 mates coming by and filling up then driving off if you gave them an inch just one time.

On 4/10/2026 at 2:29 PM, connda said:

So in Thailand employees are left to cover the theft.

If not he'd have 10 of his mates and 20 members of his family come by and fill up then drive off on his first day on the job.

Anyone that's been here longer than 6 minutes would know that. 😁