When I stopped to fill the gas tank on my minivan the other day, the price was no bargain.

The gas gauge was so low that I had pulled in to the nearest station to my home -- the Lowes Foods gas station in Apex. It was 7 a.m., I was in a hurry and at $3.66 per gallon, I was just grateful to see the price was under $3.70.

I was already back in my car, tucking my debit card back into my purse when a man appeared outside my driver's side window.

It was the store manager, telling me he had just lowered the fuel price by two cents and wanted to refund me the difference.

Jim Trogdon, the 2-star general who serves as number-2 guy at the state Department of Transportation, says he'll move quickly to improve customer service at the N.C. Turnpike Authority.

(2/7/13 update: Tata apologizes for 'completely avoidable' billing errors, and promises fix.)

Trogdon responded to Tuesday's Road Worrier column about 800 drivers who were double-billed, because they used both N.C. Quick Pass and E-ZPass transponders, for their trips on the Triangle Expressway. A turnpike official blamed the drivers, saying they should have known not to use two transponders.

"We’ll get that fixed," Trogdon, DOT's chief operating officer, said Tuesday in a 7:40 a.m. phone message.

"I think there’s some pretty basic things we should have done here. And we’ll make sure we get ‘em done. Because the customer expectation voiced I think by the customer service center is way too high -- and it’s not a burden our customers should be shouldering without plenty of assistance.

"So I’ll speak with the secretary this morning and see if we can’t do something fairly quick to address the shortcoming in our performance."

Incorporating a social media component into customer experience is one way to engage customers, according to Olalah Njenga, founder and CEO of the YellowWood Group, a Raleigh-based marketing and sales performance company.

One opportunity to do that is for retailers to ask their customers to share their positive experience or purchase on social media.  Retailers should also consider offering an incentive, such as $5 off the next transaction, if the customer posts a picture of their purchase and tags the store.

“Socially, I think brands want people to be more engaged and share more,” Njenga said. “So, doing something that will illicit that kind of behavior is something that brands should really consider.”

Hotels, Njenga said, have it down to a science.  When Njenga shares her positive hotel experience with the front desk, the first thing she is asked to do is: “Could you please share that on Trip Advisor? Could you please give us five stars? Could you let other people see that you had a great experience?”

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina and WakeMed have expanded their relationship at WakeMed's Raleigh campus on New Bern Avenue.

Under a new pilot program, BCBS will have customer service people on site during the week to assist patients and case managers.

It's the first time BCBS has placed customer service employees in a hospital to help with claims and benefits.       

Previous versions of the on-site service model involved BCBS professionals working with hospital billing departments to help answer patient questions.

It pays to check over your monthly bills. I know this and tell other people to do it all the time.

You never know when you might find an error, computers make mistakes.....you know the drill. In theory, smart consumers know to check their monthly bills for mistakes.

In practice, it doesn't always happen. And I admit, I had gotten kind of lax about it.

So when I happened to check over our cellphone bill the other day, I was at first mystified - then horrified - to discover we were being charged $10 per month for a data plan on one of our phones.

Two weeks ago I wrote about a new deal at Target that rewards you with gift cards for recycling your old electronic gadgets.

What's not to love about a program that puts money in your pocket and allows you to help the environment at the same time?

A reader named Bryan thought the same thing until he and his old iPod were turned away from the Target in Cary.

The great thing about this modern age is that if you feel wronged -- if an airline breaks your guitar, say, and refuses to give you satisfaction -- you no longer have to shut up and take it. Indeed, you can fire back in a highly effective way.

(Thanks, Doug.)