{"id":95828,"date":"2019-01-31T19:03:44","date_gmt":"2019-02-01T02:03:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/service-station-owner-reimburses-customers-for-bad-fuel\/"},"modified":"2019-01-31T19:03:44","modified_gmt":"2019-02-01T02:03:44","slug":"service-station-owner-reimburses-customers-for-bad-fuel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/service-station-owner-reimburses-customers-for-bad-fuel\/","title":{"rendered":"Service station owner reimburses customers for bad fuel"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"The
The Grandview Sonoco station made one loyal customer in Mark Guenin of Pagosa Springs on Jan. 16. Guenin was reimbursed without a fuss after he was sold a half tank of gas mixed with water that is suspected to have come from a tainted delivery earlier in the day.<\/span>Patrick Armijo\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Donna Cook, owner of the Sonoco gas station in Grandview, earned one loyal customer in an unusual way when she inadvertently sold him a half tank of gas mixed with water.<\/p>\n

But Mark Guenin of Pagosa Springs said Cook\u2019s rapid efforts to reimburse him and others who purchased some of the tainted gas deserve praise.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was no hassle, no haggling. It couldn\u2019t have been handled more smoothly. She covered my expenses not even knowing if her insurance would cover it,\u201d Guenin said.<\/p>\n

Guenin had taken his 2017 Jeep Wrangler to Morehart Murphy Auto Center in Durango for servicing on Jan. 16 and was en route to pick up his brother at Durango-La Plata County Airport when he stopped at the Sonoco, 28870 U.S. Highway 160, to top off his tank.<\/p>\n

Earlier that day, the station had received a tanker load of gas that is suspected to have delivered gas mixed with water.<\/p>\n

The Jeep, he said, made it 5 miles \u2013 to the top of the hill before the turn off to the airport \u2013 when it died.<\/p>\n

By the time he returned to the station to report the problem, Guenin said two other drivers had already been reimbursed by Cook, and plastic bags were over the pump nozzles and gas sales had ceased.<\/p>\n

Cook reimbursed him the $400 he was out for the bad gas, and for the cost of having to have his fuel tank and fuel lines flushed and new fuel filters installed.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt bad for her,\u201d Guenin said. \u201cIt was clearly not her fault, and when I went back, she was clearly flustered.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\u201cIt
\u201cIt was the only right thing to do,\u201d said Donna Cook who reimbursed 10 customers who were inadvertently sold gasoline tainted with water after a bad delivery of gas on Jan. 16 at Sonoco gas station in Grandview.<\/span>Patrick Armijo\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Cook 71, said she had a truck come in at 4 a.m. the next day to pump everything out of her tanks, and she has purged her lines and put in new filters. Since the incident, she has checked her tank constantly because she was worried she had an underground water leak. But the tests have come back clean ever since she purged her tank.<\/p>\n

\u201cI went all over town writing checks,\u201d Cook said of her efforts to reimburse 10 people who purchased the bad gas.<\/p>\n

She issued 10 checks to customers ranging from $400 to $900 for their bad gas and car repairs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was the only right thing to do,\u201d Cook said. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t my fault, but it came from my gas, and they\u2019re my customers and they\u2019re special.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cook said she has talked to an insurance agent about filing a claim to cover her expenses, but she is not sure she will do that even if her insurance agrees to cover her costs.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you file an insurance claim, it comes back to bite you,\u201d she said. \u201cYour risk factor goes up, your premium goes up. I don\u2019t know if they\u2019ll take care of it or if I want them to \u2013 better to bite the bullet now rather than later.\u201d<\/p>\n

parmijo@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

10 drivers received gas mixed with water earlier this month<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":95829,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5742,5735],"tags":[338,4259],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-95828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-news","tag-business-enterprises","tag-newsletter-sign-up"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95828","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95828\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95829"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95828"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=95828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}