On Saturday Melbourne resident Adam Falzon caught a rollercoaster dispute on camera, between himself and a Thrifty Car & Truck Rental employee and then a tanker driver at a South Melbourne service station.
Owner//Driver spoke with Adam, who says the day turned from bad to worse after he was accused of not filling a rental truck back up with fuel after using it.
“I dropped the truck back and they claimed it hadn’t been filled up,” he said.
“They tried to charge me and when I told them that it wasn’t the right thing to do, so they told me to get in and go to the petrol station with them.
“The guy said it’d take at least 10 litres and he was adamant.
“As you see in the video, he then he pumped the fuel on the ground.”
Adam says he knows he came across in the video as less diplomatic than he could have been, but the situation was tense and a lot happened off camera.
“A lot of people commented saying I was ungracious but after one of the Thrifty employees raised his arm at me, I was having a bad day.
“I had my wife and kids in the car while it was happening.”
At the end of the video a nearby tanker driver has a crack at Adam, telling him to put his phone away and eventually getting physical.
“The tanker driver came over and sort of just told me to put my phone away, but I was on the foot path by that point”
“He then tried to hit the phone out of my hands.
“I called 000 and they told me to record his details but then he walked over again and hit the phone and tried to take it, and the phone hit me in the eye.”
Owner//Driver spoke with the company that runs that tanker and the driver did turn the hydraulic pump off before approaching the man videoing. The company has worked with the driver to ensure he approaches members of the public in a more diplomatic manner moving forward.
Thrifty issued the following apology on Monday:
“This was an unfortunate incident and is contrary to Thrifty’s commitment to our customers.
“Both the customer and store management were contacted early this morning and the issue has been resolved.
“The customer has received our apologies and a full refund for the inconvenience caused.
“The staff involved have been counselled and will receive further customer service training.”