I just heard this from a friend... a local quick oil change place has an employee that is taking apart customers speedpasses and removing the sending unit and then putting it back together... they then use the sending unit to make charges! The victim has no knowledge since he did not end up with a missing speedpass. I just recieved 2 quick keyrings from speedpass... now I know why. Don't let you speedpass out of your sight!

 

Yes, your Speedpass is an electronic credit card -- that NEVER REQUIRES YOUR SIGNATURE!

Used with caution it can be a great convenience.

But be careful with it.

 

I got a Speedpass about 3 years ago and hung it on my keyring. Then one day I valet parked at LAX for 3 days. After a couple of weeks, I got my bill from Mobil; it was for $483. When I called to query these ridiculous charges, the lady asked me to check if the Speedpass was on my keyring. I checked - and of course, it wasn't! Obviously the valet parker had taken the Speedpass, and filled his, and all his friend's cars up with gas for the 2 days he used it. When I checked the location addresses of the gas stations listed on the CC bill, they were all within a mile of each other.

Luckily, Mobil removed all charges on the bill for that month - but when the lady asked if I wanted a replacement Speedpass, I told her there was no way I'd ever have another one.

I also called the LAX parking lot manager and related the story to him. He called back a few days later to say they tracked down the guy who had parked my car, verified that the gas stations were in the vicinity of where he lived, and fired him.

 

Ok I posted this a long time ago but it's worth repeating. I think everyone who owns a Speedpass should get rid of the damn thing. Living in NYC, I took a trip to Rochester for an interview a couple of years ago. Used my Speedpass the entire way up and back. When I received the bill I nearly had a heart attack. If memory serves me right it was nearly 5 times what it should have been. I was double and tripled charged at certain gas stations. Here's the killer the time stamps would be like 10 mins apart so Mobil claimed I must have come back to refill. What the hell am I refilling at $20 a pop every 10 mins? Anyway they decided to drop only a few of the charges after months of complaining. They felt that I am obligated to pay because no signature is required with the use of the Speedpass. I still wound up with a $500 bill (that was in my opinion $200 more than it should have been). I cancelled my speedpass and pay the old way CASH!

 

Yikes! I have never had one of these little gizmos and I actually have never seen the value. I mean, all the stations that I go to have pay at the pump, so with Speedpass I would save about 9 seconds....and open myself to giving my gas station "credit card" to someone? And now they offer Speedpass to be used in the stores as well.

I think this is an all around bad idea...you have to watch that thing like a hawk. It's just not worth opening my wallet like that. Too much negative potential. I wonder how much Mobil has had to pay back in these kinds of cases...it has to be a huge amount of money....

 

As if the security concerns weren't enough, I've read in this forum (or was it H-A.net?) that there's another issue with the speedpass: it can interfere with your ignition! Apparently some guy was out tooling around when his Stook started sputtering and died. Dealer couldn't reproduce the problem, but when he gets it back, same thing...eventually after much pain and heartache they realize it's the damn speedpass on his keychain!!

Whoever at Mobil gave the green light to this idea, I hope they've been fired...