Gas Station Fail

[repsac]

Not epic, but it was funny to me. Happened back a couple weeks ago while filling up the truck.


I pull into our local Gas Station, hop out and start poking around. As I'm doing this (the truck takes a TON of gas) I happen to see this gentleman down from me. He's got his card out, pokes a few buttons, swipes his card and tries to fuel.

It doesn't work.

Ok, now we all know, this happens all the time. Nine times out of ten, you had the card wrong. Either way, he stares at the machine a bit, looks down at me and asks if mine is working to which I respond "yep, fine." Grumbling he looks back to his and then I'm scared out of my wits.

When you're not paying attention, hearing "DO YOU NEED HELP SIR!?" coming through the speaker is enough to freak anyone out.

The man jumps too and says "Turn the machine on!" The girl waits a moment and asks him to swipe his card again, he did it wrong. So the guy does this. Again the machine doesn't work. This time the cashier comes back and tells him it's not going to work if he doesn't leave the pump handle alone first. Again, he says "Turn the pump on!" to which the girl responds "you have to swipe the card first."

By this time, I've finished pumping, and head inside as a cashier comes out. After a few minutes with the guy, we hear cussing, he slams his truck door and speeds off. I asked the cashier when she returns what happened, and she tells me that he wanted to pay inside, but thought he still needed to swipe his card out there to do it. Here's the thing though. After three or four errors, that gas station's card readers will refuse the cards. (Thinking they're stolen.) He'd supposedly swiped his twenty times by the time I had pulled up. Claimed to have been out there a full twenty minutes trying to get the thing to work.

It's funny to me, since the machines have this nice yellow button that says "PAY INSIDE" in nice bright letters. You'd think, with all that poking, he'd bother to read.

[Ironclad Alibi]

You'd think, with all that poking, he'd bother to read.

And where would we be if these people ever bothered to read the signs?

[Broomjockey]

He'd supposedly swiped his twenty times by the time I had pulled up. Claimed to have been out there a full twenty minutes trying to get the thing to work.

And they just left him out there for 20 minutes, playing around with the pump? It didn't tell them about the card error either?

[ditchdj]

What pisses me off about prepaying at the pump is when they don't post the sign at the pump and you go to pump without swiping a card and then the cashier tells you in a condescending attitude it's prepay like you're stupid for not knowing. I usually smart off right back saying "Well it doesn't say prepaaaaaayyyyy!". Then I just leave and get gas at the station across the street.

[crazylegs]

Either way, he stares at the machine a bit, looks down at me and asks if mine is working to which I respond "yep, fine."

Glad to hear that your deafness has cleared up, as you said before wherever there are large amounts of background noise you can't hear much at all, I'd imagine there is a fair amount of noise at a petrol/gas station, what with the road noise, the engines of other vehicles, the drone of the pumps etc etc etc... It must be a real relief to you.