Vineland Shell charging me $4.79 per gallon for regular gas in Orlando, Florida

There was an infamous Gulf station at the foot of Beacon Hill, near Massachusetts General Hospital: Glen Heller Gulf. The prices on the signs looked reasonable, unless you looked closely and noticed that the signs were *per liter* instead of *per gallon*. There was a long series of news reports about this place, but customers never got their money back. The station is now long gone, replaced by a convenience stored owned by a Chinese couple.

The worse thing the State Attorney can do is say that there was no crime committed.

Or maybe they can refer this to Orlando authorities and they can fine the owner for noncompliance.

But as far as gas stations charging as much as they want,  Robert can check into fines and other legal actions taken against gas stations that do. But maybe I am just thinking about gas stations that jack up the prices when there is a hurricane coming.

(they will prosecute the gas station if it was a case of price gouging)
- A gas station(or any company) can charge what ever they want.  If they wanted to charge $30 a gallon they could.  "Price Gouging" comes into play during "emergencies" when a company tried to take advantage of people.  This would be a case like a hurricane hits and a station decides to raise there prices by 2-3 times when there is no other reason to.  Yes you could attempt to claim that they are taking advantage of tourists but it probably wouldn't go anywhere.

However, this appears to be a ongoing problem as Orlando had to put in a Sign Ordinance that requires Gas Stations to put up signs where the price is visible.  A very interesting news story is linked below.

http://www.wftv.com/news/26164784/detail.html

If it is redacted just go to the wftv web site and search for "Gas Stations Not Complying with Sign Ordinance".  It appears that they are intentionally not complying with the new law and doesn't look like they have any plans to.

This is why just like everything else it is important to know what you are paying BEFORE you buy it.  If this takes a 30 second look on the gas pump then that is what it takes.  If they don't even have the price on the pump...leave.

I noticed something similar at one of the gas stations near the Orlando Airport as well but I always read the price on the pump before I started anyway (I wondered why the price wasn't clearly advertised on the sign) and drove down the road to a gas station that had normal rates.

You should send a letter to the State Attorney letting them know as well. They can investigate the matter and get you a refund if they can (they will prosecute the gas station if it was a case of price gouging).

..if you feel as I and many others do that overcharging is considered a "ripoff".

But..I also realize the gas station can charge whatever they want since no one is forced to buy there. If the rental car came with enough gas in it to make it to another station..who else can you really blame but yourself for not looking at the price before you started filling up?

I live in LA and gas prices can differ as much as a dollar per gallon higher or lower depending and between stations that are less then a mile apart. So, I like anyone else has the free choice not to use the most expensive one to fill up, even though I may have to drive a little out of the way to save a few bucks on a fill up.

So the real lesson here if you want to help anyone else avoid the same ripoff, is to always check the price before pumping. If consumers did not use this ripoff shell station, chances are they would start to lower the price to a more reasonable competitive amount.

 No, its an obvious ploy to gouge unsuspecting tourists looking to fill up their rental cars.

It's called American Free Enterprise. Not a rip off.