“There is no water in the tanks. » Michel-Édouard Leclerc responded this Thursday morning on franceinfo to motorists who accuse the brand of cutting off the fuel at certain service stations with water. In the Bordeaux region, reports of breakdowns after refueling at the group's petrol stations have multiplied in recent days, as reported in particular by France Bleu Gironde.
“There are still investigations to be done but the probes do not show traces of water,” insisted the president of the strategic committee of the Leclerc centers. “Each E.Leclerc center is held to specifications, there is no trace of water,” he repeated again.
Problems were reported in Sainte-Eulalie, Ambarès-et-Lagrave and Talence. In the first commune, 25 “real people said they had problems” and contacted the brand, said Michel-Édouard Leclerc. However, “Sainte-Eulalie has 3,000 fill-ups per day and 25 people took from several tanks,” he explained, insinuating that not everyone necessarily filled up at the gas stations in the area. band.
“Leclerc is 450,000 fill-ups per day,” also underlined the director of the mass distribution brand. “There may be a problem here or there of excess humidity in a tank, a human problem of poor pouring. »
Customers may be reimbursed
On the Facebook groups where the testimonies were recorded, mechanics claimed to have found water in the tank of certain vehicles. For the president of the supermarket leader, mechanics with “a competing service station” have “a tendency to say that if it is cheaper at Leclerc it is because it is not the same fuel”. However, “I have been hearing this for 40 years and I can tell you that it is the same fuel because it comes from the same unmarked depot,” insisted Michel-Édouard Leclerc.
Motorists reported that after refueling, “an engine light” came on and they noticed a severe loss of power. Some problems were costed at several thousand euros. The president of Leclerc assured that customers who encountered problems could be compensated, provided that they were “documented”. “We are not going to simply take a Facebook site of people who complain,” he assured.
For Michel-Édouard Leclerc, this matter is not trivial. “We all asked ourselves the question at home, from the field, to headquarters, to know if it was a scud that was being sent to us, knowing that we were perhaps going to have to carry out operations at cost price and for us discredit in advance,” he said.