Why won't the gas station tell you over the phone what they are charging for gas?

Question

I called a local gas station to find out what they were charging for gas right now. With gas prices as high as they are I thought it might be worth my while to shop around for the cheapest station. They said they would not and could not give that info out over the phone. Why is that? You'd think they would want to advertise, especially if they had gas at a cheaper price and it meant you'd be more likely to go to their station than the guy's around the corner or across town. Just curious....

Answer 1

There are several reasons:

1.  to stop competitors from fixing their price

2.  in case it goes up by the time you get there

3.  they don't really like people to shop around for gas.  It hurts them all.

Answer 2

It is to prevent competitors from fixing prices.

Answer 3

Some states such as NY can change the prices of their gas up to one time a day. Maybe that is why? There is also a website that you can go to that will tell you the prices of gas.

Try motortrend.com or fuelmeup.com

Hope that helps.

Answer 4

Because the price will probably go up before you can get there.

Answer 5

It's probably just a policy they have to avoid getting bombarded with calls asking how much the gas is.

It's not that they could not give you the info - they could have if they wanted to, they just won't.

Don't go to great lengths to save 5 cents a gallon, if you put in 15 gallons that's only 75 cents - not enough to go out of your way for.

Answer 6

Don't know if this helps but there are websites where you can check gas prices.  Try www.gasbuddy.com or gasprices.mapquest.com