(Riverton, WY) – On Thursday, October 23, County 10 received a message from a Riverton resident stating that their vehicle would need to undergo thousands of dollars in repairs after it was determined that her car had sustained damages due to the fact that its fuel tank was filled with diesel, rather than the intended unleaded gasoline.
The ordeal began after she fueled her vehicle at the Loaf ‘N Jug gas station in Riverton, located at 305 N Federal Blvd., on Saturday, October 18.
As of today, October 28, Loaf ‘N Jug parent company EG America has responded to County 10’s information requests and acknowledged that the Loaf ‘N Jug in Riverton did indeed have an issue with “diesel fuel in the unleaded gasoline pumps.”
The First Tip
The resident who shared the tip, who wished to remain anonymous, told County 10 that after fueling their 2022 vehicle at that Loaf ‘N Jug location on Saturday, the 18th, her vehicle began having issues and was no longer running as of the following Monday.
“My husband actually told me it was that night when he was driving it home,” that he noticed something was wrong, the tipster shared. “It was starting to kick really hard, but he still made it home, so he didn’t think anything of it. And then Sunday night, we went to go to the pumpkin patch… that’s when we really noticed that it was not working.”
The next morning, the vehicle wouldn’t start at all, so they took it to the Ford Dealership repair shop in Riverton on Tuesday, where they confirmed the car’s fuel tank was full of diesel.
“…They estimated it to be about $5,000,” she shared at the time. “And they sent my husband an estimate today to send to the incident report lady who is dealing with this through Loaf ‘N Jug.”
The resident then stated that even though “an incident report was done through the gas station and they tested their gas and it came back positive for diesel,” Loaf ‘N Jug would “not confirm with us that there was a mess up on their part” at the time.
The Loaf ‘N Jug representative she was in contact with then “asked for an official estimate from Ford so they can take care of it,” as well as a receipt from the original gas transaction. The representative also offered to pay for a rental car.
In addition to providing County 10 with a screenshot of this correspondence with the Loaf ‘N Jug representative, the resident also shared a copy of the original receipt from her bank showing a transaction from Loaf ‘N Jug on October 18, and a breakdown of the repair estimate from Ford, which totalled $5,050.46.
The day we received the initial tip (October 23), County 10 reached out to Loaf ‘N Jug directly, at which point the on-duty manager directed our questions to representative Ryan Pashnik. The call went unanswered, and we left a voicemail with a few basic questions. Shortly after, we confirmed that the non-diesel pumps were bagged up and out of service on Thursday afternoon.
Also that same day, County 10 sent an email to the Media Relations team for EG America, the company that owns Loaf ‘N Jug, to confirm the claims that were made, and to answer the following questions:
- Can you confirm how many and on which days people might have tanked up with the faulty fuel (i.e., which day the fuel was loaded)?
- What is the process for others to file an incident report if this same thing happened to them?
- Were the diesel pumps/tanks filled with unleaded fuel?
- How long will it take before the situation is resolved?
- Is there contact info for others to reach out to if a similar thing happened to them?
We received the following email response the next morning, Friday, October 24: “Thanks very much for reaching out. EG America will pass on commenting at this time.”
County 10 then called Pashnik a second time, at which point he informed us that he had forwarded our questions to EG America and that he would not be able to provide any further comment.
County 10 then sent a second, follow-up email to the EG America Media Relations team on Friday afternoon, and we received the following reply four days later on Tuesday afternoon, October 28.
“EG America is aware of the incident at our Loaf N Jug store in Riverton, WY, regarding diesel fuel in the unleaded gasoline pumps. We are working closely with those affected. Any customers who feel that their vehicle may have been impacted are encouraged to contact Guest Services at 800-225-9702.“
While EG America’s Tuesday response acknowledged the mix-up, they did not specify when the gas station storage tanks were last filled, so it is still unknown exactly when and for how long Loaf ‘N Jug had been distributing/selling diesel in the wrong pumps.
Based on the timeline of the tipster’s reports, the first account was on the evening of October 18. The second individual filled up on October 21, and by at least October 23, the pumps had been bagged off and were out of service.
A Second Account
Later on the same day that County 10 received the first claim (October 23), a second person reached out with a similar story about having car issues after filling up at the same Loaf ‘N Jug.
The second individual, who also wished to remain anonymous, shared that she filled up at Loaf ‘N Jug on Tuesday, October 21. She stated that she barely drove the car that day, but the next day, on Wednesday, October 22, her car was “dead in the water.”
Initially, the second individual just assumed it was a standard issue with her car, but she said she found out “by pure coincidence” that it could have been caused by the wrong fuel being in her tank. She explained that her father-in-law had recently overheard a conversation at a neighbor’s house in which someone learned that the issues with their vehicle stemmed from diesel fuel in their fuel tank.
When the second subject’s father-in-law heard this, he called her and asked if she had filled up at Loaf ‘N Jug, which she had.
She then called Loaf ‘N Jug, at which point she was “given a number for corporate,” and was met with a similar circumstance of not having the issue immediately confirmed or denied.
“…When I called and talked to the lady, she didn’t say ‘yes or no.’ I said, ‘Hey, is this true?’ And she’s kind of like, ‘Are you having car trouble?’ And I said ‘yes,'” the second individual shared. She stated that she was then put in contact with Pashnik.
She said Pashnik asked her if she was “calling about this Loaf ‘N Jug incident,” and when she confirmed as much, he replied that they were “investigating it thoroughly,” and then apologized to her.
After sending her info to their insurance adjuster, scheduling a repair for this week, and arranging for her car to be towed to that repair, she stated that the Loaf ‘N Jug representatives told her their people would “pay for the tow and pay for the repair bill,” as well as a rental car.
“Pretty extensive”
Last Friday, County 10 also contacted a representative from the Ford dealership service shop in Riverton, who confirmed that they were currently working on a diesel-affected vehicle, and that another was scheduled to be towed in this week.
“I can’t give you any personal information, obviously, but I do have a vehicle here currently that is affected and another one scheduled to come in on Tuesday,” the representative shared. “She’s having it towed to me, but I have not seen it yet. She called yesterday to tell me that she found out she had filled up at Loaf ‘N Jug and (possibly) had diesel in her tank.”
As for the vehicle the shop was currently working on, the representative said that they “did pull a fuel sample from the tank, and it (was) completely full of diesel fuel.”
She then described the issues that can arise when a situation like this occurs, as well as the repair process that follows.
“So it’s a pretty extensive repair to start with — draining the tank, changing the fuel pump because the filter is integrated into that, cleaning the tank, flushing all the fuel lines, replacing spark plugs because they’re fouled. Diesel’s a lubricant, not an accelerant, so it just over-lubricates those spark plugs. It also burns that diesel through the exhaust system and plugs up the catalytic converters, so those have to be replaced, also.”
The shop representative went on to explain that if it’s caught early enough and the vehicle isn’t driven much, they “can just drop the tank, clean it, and that’s really all you have to do.”
“But if it’s been run through and you’re seeing drivability issues from it, it creates bigger problems, and any affected components have to be replaced,” she added.
County 10 then reached out to six other repair shops in the Riverton area, none of which reported having recently worked on any vehicles with tanks mistakenly filled with diesel.
Once again, any Riverton Loaf ‘N Jug customers who believe their vehicle may have been affected are encouraged to contact EG America Guest Services at 800-225-9702. For any further inquiries, the Federal Blvd. Loaf ‘N Jug can be reached at (307) 856-0217.