Reporting Gas prices - cash or credit?

by **gettingthere** » Tue Jun 26, 2012 8:24 pm

Every single gas price application uses the cash price. It's the standard unless credit prices are specified.

Again, please update prices using the cash price. All Wazers need to be using the same data entry process or this new gas price comparison functionality is totally useless since you cannot compare between stations effectively. It's bad enough that prices are already showing for grades of fuel that are not available (eg. Diesel).

If you pay with credit card you know you will be paying more in many cases. You surely already know which brands around you charge extra for credit.

by **gettingthere** » Tue Jun 26, 2012 9:12 pm

CBenson wrote:Based on this thread, I will enter the cash price. But, most aren't going to see this thread. I simply don't think it going to work well to rely on people knowing the "standard."

...It seem to me to be highly beneficial for waze to simply state that the prices that are shown from the external source are cash prices and that they should be updated by wazers with the cash price...

Yes, it's a problem. I provided feedback to Waze during the Beta to specify that cash prices should be entered (a note on the data entry screen). It seems that my suggestion has been ignored and now there is confusion.

by **gettingthere** » Wed Jun 27, 2012 5:01 am

You can enter whatever you want. Real prices, fake prices, cash prices, credit prices, rebate prices, prices for soda, car wash, whatever.

Just remember that the prices will be utterly useless for comparison unless everyone it entering the same thing.

by **gettingthere** » Wed Jun 27, 2012 5:13 am

I know that Waze is not Gas Buddy (a well established player with gas price tracking) but here is how they address this in their FAQ:

"Q: Do I post the cash price, or the credit price?

A: Differences in Cash/credit prices are common in some areas as a result of stations needing to offset the additional costs of these transactions.

GasBuddy's goal is to help everyone make wise fueling decisions.

When reporting prices for stations in areas that have different prices based on method of payment, we ask that you post the cash price where it exists. If the station does not offer a cash price, the standard price should be reported.

The Comments field may be used to include a note about cash/credit prices, but this is not required."

by **gettingthere** » Wed Jun 27, 2012 3:07 pm

It doesn't matter if you pay cash or credit. It matters that everyone is reporting the same price so that the results are consistent. The standard is to report the cash price.

by **gettingthere** » Wed Jun 27, 2012 3:08 pm

daknife wrote:One more point against cash prices. The majority of drivers today pay at the pump.

And many of the people paying at the pump are paying with debit cards which therefore pay the cash price.

daknife wrote:Say what you will I will be reporting credit price, for that matter that's the price I report to Gas Buddy as well. It does not make sense to report the false lower price, unless there is an option to specify the fact that there is a price difference for carrying dangerous amounts of cash.

Why would you do that when they specifically ask their users to use the cash price? You are ruining the experience for everyone else who is following the proper procedure.

So if you ignore 1-way street signs when you are driving does that mean you map the roads on the Waze Map as 2-way since that's how you drive?

by **gettingthere** » Wed Jun 27, 2012 9:27 pm

mapcat wrote:Standards are standards, as long as everyone's following them. Unfortunately, not all gas stations follow a standard.

Some display the cash price.
Some display the cash price and the credit price.
Some display the price you pay if you use their proprietary credit card.
Some display the price for anyone with a store discount card.
Some display the price you pay if you buy a car wash too.
Etc.

And naturally, practices vary state by state, city by city.

Yes, it can be confusing.

But for the purposes of stations that display only one price per grade, that is going to be the price that gets entered regardless of what you need to do to get that price.

For stations that display both a cash price and the credit price, enter the cash price.

Easy enough?

by **gettingthere** » Wed Jun 27, 2012 9:47 pm

AndyPoms wrote:Debit Card users pay the Credit price, not the Cash price.

Not necessarily everywhere in the USA. Surely different by state. Here at Arco (owned by BP) in California debit cards are the cash price plus a $.35 fee. There is no way this fee can be accounted for when using an application to track gas prices. The end users need to know that if they go to Arco and pay with debit they are going to pay this fee.

http://www.arco.com/sectiongenericartic ... Id=7023062

by **gettingthere** » Wed Jun 27, 2012 9:52 pm

AndyPoms wrote:On another note, the "legal" price for gas in Connecticut is the CREDIT price. Retailers are allowed to give a discount for paying Cash, but it is up to the individual gas station - IF they participate they must post BOTH prices on the pumps.

The issue here is that Waze is certainly not going to provide guidance for which price to use in different states (they won't provide any guidance as it is). We should have a country-wide standard if we expect to be able to get useful information out of the data - like finding the lowest priced gasoline or diesel independent of additional fees.

But it's obvious from the posts here that the data is not going to be accurate since everyone will be doing as they wish. So the feature is useless for comparing prices.

Really I don't think Waze even cares. This is just them providing a feature to get you to go to their advertisers to purchase gas. They don't care about the quality of the data.

by **gettingthere** » Wed Jun 27, 2012 10:10 pm

AndyPoms wrote:I think the simplest solution is to provide a Cash Price and a Credit Price in the app.

Although then it's up to 8 fields of data to verify and maintain for many stations. I think that the other solutions that do only gas price tracking have stayed away from doing so because it over complicates the data entry. I don't use this applications frequently but the 2 or 3 that I have tried do not offer separate fields for cash and credit prices. Some offer an optional comments field though.

Maybe a cash and credit checkbox on the entry screen that is optional? That way when Wazers are searching for the lowest gas price they can at least know if the prices that are being displayed are the cash or credit prices. In places where the prices are not separate, the Wazer would not check either box when updating the prices. Too complicated?