Son £600 out of pocket due to ‘contaminated’ Morrisons fuel
UPSET AS CAR RECOVERY AND THE REPAIR BILLS ALL ADD UP
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A DAD-of-one says he has been left with a £600 repair bill after inadvertently filling his car with “contaminated” fuel at a Morrisons petrol station
The 28-year-old bought fuel at the Leicester petrol station at about 12.30pm on Tuesday, May 11, and got only a few hundred metres before her car broke down in Aylestone Road.
He told the Mercury that he paid £90 to join the AA to get towed back to a local garage.
His mother, Niki Bolton, said her son, who has a partner and a baby, is very upset after being left out of pocket.
An unknown number of customers suffered the same fate until Morrisons closed the pumps on Tuesday afternoon.
The company has since confirmed eight pumps were dispensing the contaminated fuel. Tests are still being carried out to establish what happened.
Ms Bolton said: “The garage said they could not tackle the job properly so we had to call out a specialist company which cost another £200.
“The garage did try, so we owe them for their time on that.
“The man who drained the fuel said the car would need a new fuel filter and a full service to make sure it was okay.
“That will be another £300 so my son, through no fault of his own, will probably be more than £600 out of pocket. It is money he can’t afford and he lost half a day’s wage too.
“We are having to help him with the bills now.
“I have tried to contact Morrisons but they just don’t seem to want to know.
“A woman on their helpline told me I had to deal with their insurance company. We are having to chase them and they should be helping us.
“It is just not good enough.” The supermarket giant says it closed the forecourt when the problem came to light and has confirmed that some fuel was contaminated but has not specified what the contaminant was.
It said a sample was being analysed but the results were not available yet. An investigation into what went wrong is under way.
A Morrisons spokesperson said earlier last week: “A contractor completing maintenance work on our tanks accidentally transferred some contaminated product into a live tank. We reacted immediately and shut off the pumps.
“We are currently investigating what caused the issue. All incidents and claims will be dealt with by our customer service and insurance department.
“All complaints should be logged with the store team or via 0345 611 6111.”