Remember this cowboy?

keithclancy

Is the new place that replaced it as ridiculous ?

Anan1

Is that the one on the quays opposite the Four Courts? If so, it's been gone for a long time.

El Guapo!

It went from being the most expensive to one of the cheapest. I think its around average now though.

golfpaul

It's now called Top Oil
Petrol 128.9
Diesel 118.9 atm

dekbhoy

the one that replaced it is actually one of the cheapest in dublin .... funnnily enough

keithclancy

Anan1 wrote: »

Is that the one on the quays opposite the Four Courts? If so, it's been gone for a long time.

Yeah
It was pretty much the only time I was glad to have a Statoil Fuelcard.

How did that work though, because i paid the card price... did statiol pay the difference ?

Anyways i've been gone from Ireland a few years now .. was just wondering what happened in its place as a few stations in cork were sold for the land.

stevenmu

How did that work though, because i paid the card price... did statiol pay the difference ?

It's part of their licensing terms afaik, he just had to charge the card price. I'm sure the margin he made on everything else more than made up for it.

Gophur

Nobody was ever forced to buy fuel there, it being a free market and all that!

99.9% of you would not operate a business with the margins fuel retailers are expected to get by on!

Bandara

Of course the fact that the guy that operated that site had absolutely zero interest whatsoever if anyone bought fuel off him or not is beside the point.

It didn't bother him for one millisecond. He's a seriously clever bloke and a genius operator and that site made him a multimillionaire, even though no one ever bought any fuel. And no he was not involved in anything illegal.

It's all about the bigger picture....

Bandara

Of course the fact that the guy that operated that site had absolutely zero
interest whatsoever if anyone bought fuel off him or not is beside the point.

It didn't bother him for one millisecond. He's a seriously clever bloke and a genius operator and that site made him a multimillionaire, even though no one ever bought any fuel. And no he was not involved in anything illegal.

It's all about the bigger picture....

Tigger

ah go on tell us
sinceyou posted twice an all

Anan1

Tigger wrote: »

sinceyou posted twice an all

+1, he's clearly dying to.;)

Cuddlesworth

Hammertime wrote: »

Of course the fact that the guy that operated that site had absolutely zero
interest whatsoever if anyone bought fuel off him or not is beside the point.

It didn't bother him for one millisecond. He's a seriously clever bloke and a genius operator and that site made him a multimillionaire, even though no one ever bought any fuel. And no he was not involved in anything illegal.

It's all about the bigger picture....

So basically what you are saying is he was operating a brothel on the site and the high fuel costs were to get rid of people.

racso1975

I'd say it was more the 24hr shop he operated and the fact the place was surrounded by flats with out a "proper" shop around meant he made all his money from that

Tigger

there's a spar up behind him
i think its cleverer than that

racso1975

Tigger wrote: »

there's a spar up behind him
i think its cleverer than that

How long is the spar there cause i remember that guy charging those prices in late 90's early 2000's

keithclancy

Tigger wrote: »

there's a spar up behind him
i think its cleverer than that

maybe petrol stations are allowed to open 24hours or something ?

Or you need a special license for shops that costs a bomb ..

Melodeon

If I recollect correctly, Statoil (at national level) had some sort of contract to fuel Garda vehicles (and possibly ambulances/fire brigade vehicles too?).
That Statoil station was the 'local' one to several city centre Garda Stations, so an awful lot of the fuel pumped there wasn't actually paid for at the till, but was billed back through Statoil to the State.
Similar to any of us using a fuel card of some sort, but negotiated at national level, at, I'd hope, an advantageous price. Certainly not at the 'pump' price (again, I hope!).

Anjin

Melodeon wrote: »

If I recollect correctly, Statoil (at national level) had some sort of contract to fuel Garda vehicles (and possibly ambulances/fire brigade vehicles too?).
That Statoil station was the 'local' one to several city centre Garda Stations, so an awful lot of the fuel pumped there wasn't actually paid for at the till, but was billed back through Statoil to the State.
Similar to any of us using a fuel card of some sort, but negotiated at national level, at, I'd hope, an advantageous price. Certainly not at the 'pump' price (again, I hope!).

Yea, heard that too. Only way he could survive really and boy I bet he made a packet from it !

Bandara

Melodeon wrote: »

If I recollect correctly, Statoil (at national level) had some sort of contract to fuel Garda vehicles (and possibly ambulances/fire brigade vehicles too?).
That Statoil station was the 'local' one to several city centre Garda Stations, so an awful lot of the fuel pumped there wasn't actually paid for at the till, but was billed back through Statoil to the State.
Similar to any of us using a fuel card of some sort, but negotiated at national level, at, I'd hope, an advantageous price. Certainly not at the 'pump' price (again, I hope!).

Yep, it's was even better though....

When the petrol station up beside the old Harcourt St train station close in the 90's he went direct to every police station, fire station, hospital, governemnt office etc etc and offered hem an account directly with him. He even cut Statoil out of it, as although there is a nataional agreement at local levels the fire/garda etc where free to make their own arrangements if they wished.

He signed up just about everyone there was to sign up, got government PO's issued each month in ADVANCE so he didn't sen need cash flow to buy the fuel!

He then increased the fuel from a margin of about 3c a litre to about 60 cent a litre, and promptly sold about 4 million litres a year, AT SIXTY CENTS A LITRE margin. His volume before hand was about 10 million litres but as he was so dear it reduced by 60% but he was still making 20 times what he made before. The shop was irrelevent, he never needed to be there as t was as close to self running as you can get.

He did it for about 12-13 years.

The real kicker was the government/state bodies didn't care a jot about the price so he was charging them FULL pump price even though they all had Statoil cards in their vehicles which entitled them to the national card price !!!!!

Because the invoices were coming from his company not statoil the national card price was not part of the deal.

Genius.

C Eng

As much as he is a Genius on this occasion. It goes to show how incompetent the public sector and the government were/are if they couldn't even realise that they were paying over the odds.

Fair play to him, he has done nothing wrong but once again tax payer foots the bill for incompetency of the state

Bandara

C Eng wrote: »

As much as he is a Genius on this occasion. It goes to show how incompetent the public sector and the government were/are if they couldn't even realise that they were paying over the odds.

Fair play to him, he has done nothing wrong but once again tax payer foots the bill for incompetency of the state

Couldn't agree more, I actually think they knew it was over the odds they paid it anyway simply becuase no one was bothered to pick up a phone

Shocking really

Alkers

Why was this the case? Would Garda and State vehicles not be able to get fuel without the taxes/duties on it. I know the defence forces only pay something like a third of the consumer price for fuel.

squod

Gophur wrote: »

99.9% of you would not operate a business with the margins fuel retailers are expected to get by on!

If you don't like it............... Anyway I still dunno who pays that kinda money for diesel anymore. It's a recession don't you know.

philstar

But surely Statoil would have objected to this?? bad publicity and all

bijapos

Hammertime wrote: »

He then increased the fuel from a margin of about 3c a litre to about 60 cent a litre, and promptly sold about 4 million litres a year, AT SIXTY CENTS A LITRE margin. His volume before hand was about 10 million litres but as he was so dear it reduced by 60% but he was still making 20 times what he made before. The shop was irrelevent, he never needed to be there as t was as close to self running as you can get.

He did it for about 12-13 years.

The real kicker was the government/state bodies didn't care a jot about the price so he was charging them FULL pump price even though they all had Statoil cards in their vehicles which entitled them to the national card price !!!!!

Because the invoices were coming from his company not statoil the national card price was not part of the deal.

Genius.

Sorry, I could be wrong on this but I do not believe this. You cannot tell me that an administrator would allow their vehicles to pay insane amounts for fuel. Everything was audited back then too, and I fail to see how this could happen. The public and civil service are much maligned but someone would have picked up on this at some stage.

Any proof? If you have written proof then off to the newspapers with you cos you'll earn a fair few bob with an example of scandalous wasting of tax payers money.

My own idea is that its the only station for miles around. There was another station between Drumcondra and Whitehall on the left hand side (maybe beside the Skylon hotel ??), had crazy prices too, mostly state cars filling up there too.

fryup

Ya i find it hard to believe that story either, i mean do you expect all the gardai, firefighters, ambulance crew etc would agree to go to just one petrol station in the city centre and hence have the inconvience of battling heavy traffic every time they need to fill up.

If it was for all statoil stations maybe, but just one?..no.