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That's because they already have a scale, and they sell by the pound. Jules Vasquez visited them today:….

Jules Vasquez Reporting
Our story starts again with three new tanks - which we first weighed at the Bureau of standards office in Belmopan and duly annotated each tank with the dead or empty weight.

We took the tank here to LP Gas and Supplies in Spanish Lookout where a simple scale is built into the facility and is right next to the gallon flow meter.

Our hundred pound tank weighed in at a shade under 75 pounds, ounces more than the Bureau Of Standards.

The attendant filled it as it stayed on the scale, when it was done, he weighed it again with a hundred and fifty pound weight attached, and the twenty five on the bard 175 pounds, meaning 100 pounds had been pumped in, 22 gallons worth.

The same was done for our fifty pound cylinder - with a starting weight of 43 pounds on their scale pumped with a shade over 11 gallons - and weighted in at 50 pounds of butane, a total of 93.5 pounds on the scale.

Charlie Plett, LP Gas and Supplies - Co-Owner
"We can weigh the tank before and after we fill it up to make sure that you have the pounds for the gallons you are getting."

Jules Vasquez
"How long have you had this in place?"

Charlie Plett, LP Gas and Supplies - Co-Owner
"We have this from ever since we open the business in 2003."

Jules Vasquez
"And why did you feel it essential to have a scale that people can weigh their tank?"

Charlie Plett, LP Gas and Supplies - Co-Owner
"Well we believe that if we give them the gallons according to the weight there are getting a more accurate amount of gas."

Jules Vasquez "Why do all choose to do it with scales because in all throughout Belize they used the flow meter. Why did you when you all set up your business decide that we have to have a scale?"

Charlie Plett, LP Gas and Supplies - Co-Owner
"Well we believe it is accurately to sell by the scale. We know that 22 pounds supposed to be 100 pounds so that's why we put in a scale so we know that's what we are giving."

Jules Vasquez
"I put it on and its 50 pounds and its a 100 pound cylinder, if when I am done if it's not 150 pounds, how do you handle that?"

Charlie Plett, LP Gas and Supplies - Co-Owner
"Well I don't think we have had such things as that. If we see that there is a mistake in that; let's say the tank doesn't have its weight we give them according to the weight."

Jules Vasquez
"So wait, you pay per pound?"

Charlie Plett, LP Gas and Supplies - Co-Owner
"Yes we pay per pound and so we sell according to the pounds."

Jules Vasquez
"Now is it any great inconvenience, is it so hard, is it any kind of problem to do it like that?"

Charlie Plett, LP Gas and Supplies - Co-Owner
"No its no problem to do it that way."

And not only do they sell in pounds, they buy in pounds from wholesalers - weighing the entire tankers on industrial scales used in agriculture.

Charlie Plett, LP Gas and Supplies - Co-Owner
"Yes we buy by the pound. Every load that comes in go through the scale and we weigh it full and when it's empty we weigh it again. We enter it in our system as according to the pounds."

Jules Vasquez
"And the companies agree to this?"

Charlie Plett, LP Gas and Supplies - Co-Owner
"Well not all of them agree to it, most of them we get to an agreement with this."

Jules Vasquez
"Because the wholesalers you buy from I would imagine would prefer to sell you through the flow meter gallons."

Charlie Plett, LP Gas and Supplies - Co-Owner
"Yes that's right, a lot of them would prefer to sell by the gallons and by the pound."

Jules Vasquez
"Have you notice any standard level, any standard discrepancy between the amount on the meter of the gas trucks and the poundage you receive?"

Charlie Plett, LP Gas and Supplies - Co-Owner
"Yes, roughly most of the time it's like 15% lost if you go by the meter."

Jules Vasquez
"How long have you guys been in business?"

Charlie Plett, LP Gas and Supplies - Co-Owner
"We've been in business from 2003."

Jules Vasquez
"So if you were buying by the meter all that time, you would be out of business."

Charlie Plett, LP Gas and Supplies - Co-Owner
"We would be losing a lot of money that way."

It's money that consumers are losing everyday - and Mike Bogart - who we found at LP gas today filling three tanks couldn't take it anymore:

Jules Vasquez
"You don't live here in Spanish Lookout?"

Mike Bogart, Buys Butane At LP Gas
"No, I live in the Pine Ridge."

Jules Vasquez
"You come all the way from the Pine Ridge to fill up here."

Mike Bogart, Buys Butane At LP Gas
"Absolutely, the gas is $2 a gallon cheaper and its better and I get a full tank."

Jules Vasquez
"You mean that other vendors in Cayo and you can call names; at other vendors in Cayo you had not have a full tank?"

Mike Bogart, Buys Butane At LP Gas
"I believe no, absolutely no. You pick up the tank and its nit full and especially in the villages where the trucks come in and fill up your tanks and I know for a fact people like my mother-in-law are not getting a full tank that's why I come here."

Jules Vasquez
"So you are saying.....we found it in Belize City that people are being systematically defrauded. You are saying out here in Cayo; systematically, routinely defrauded."

Mike Bogart, Buys Butane At LP Gas
"Absolutely."

Jules Vasquez
"Ok so now I see you brought two tanks. So you are not only buying for yourself?"

Mike Bogart, Buys Butane At LP Gas
"No I brought in my sister-in-law tanks today because I always fill up my now and they can't believe how much gas I get compared to what they pay. And like today I'll save $30 for my sister-in-law."

Jules Vasquez
"$30 in the actual price and will actually save in the amount that...."

Mike Bogart, Buys Butane At LP Gas
"In the product, absolutely."

The savings Bogart talks about are in the price: a hundred pound of imported butane - the same kind that you buy in the city for 126 dollars, sells here for 99 dollars,

Charlie Plett, LP Gas and Supplies - Co-Owner
"It's the same thing that you can get anywhere in the country. One thing is that we try to have the prices low so that everyone can get it for an affordable price."

And affordable price and a fair deal - when we took the tanks back to the Bureau of standards in Belmopan the fifty pound cylinder weighed 91 pounds, meaning it had 49 pounds of butane and the hundred pound now so heavy it needed three men to maneuver it - weighed 173.5, meaning that 99.5 pounds of butane had been pumped in..

LP Gas and Supplies also sells scales like the one they use - Plett says they have six left. For those who want a tank with a gauge, they also sell the larger 180 pound tanks for $636.00 dollars.

For clarity, the tanks of Butane we bought from them when weighed on the Bureau of Standards scale, both came in at just under 100 pounds and 50 pounds, respectively. The marginal difference of half a pound to a pound between the reading at LP Gas and the bureau of standards may have had to do with the fact that we were transporting the tanks in the back of a pickup for three hours in the sun, and that we had them lying down, which we later found out should not be done with full tanks because they leak slightly. LP Gas sells imported butane and BNE butane, which goes for 84 dollars per one hundred pound cylinder. Tomorrow - we'll show you how the BNE butane truck works and also put their tank to the test.