@electronicmail,
Have you no sense of humour old chap?
Standard clauses in contracts my arse.
"“gross negligence or willful misconduct" indeed. They were doing what we were rewarding them for doing for all those years when things were going smoothly. BP was involved in dogfights all over the place on the gas price. With bulk buyers just as much as motorists. Fights for survival. Too much care and concern and too much being good boys would have seen them off years ago and you damn well know it. Or you should do because it's obvious.
The bargain hunter rules big business at the production end, where it's blue collar, so it's the bargain hunter's baby. Where it's white collar it's the other way round. White collar rules the bargain hunter. So it's white collar's doing. And blaming it all on blue collar which is the base of the inverted pyramid on which white collar squats.
Same old story. Like the banking crisis.