That girl was a liar!

[edible_hat]

This happened yesterday...

SC got about 5 litres of fuel and started waving at me and gesturing for me to go outside (I did but only because there were 2 other workers on site at the time). SC claimed "the pump's broken, look the petrol didn't go in the tank!" and pointed out some splash down the side of the car. I poured some water on to wash it off. SC then said "Look, I'll show you!", hung up the handle, picked it up and started pumping again. Unsurprisingly, it didn't happen again.

Later SC demanded that "I'm not paying for that fuel your broken pump spilled!" The big boss tried to get her to pay, but he's not very good at confrontations so he let her get away with it (about $6 worth).

After the SC left, we went out to deal with the alleged fuel spill. Realised it was almost exclusively the water that I'd used to wash the fuel off the car, with a tiny little oil slick. I doubt there was even 5 liters of water, let alone petrol.

In the words of the big boss, "That girl was a liar!".



My co-worker said there's a belief that if you hold the nozzle a certain way, you get more fuel than the pump actually measures. We think the SC was probably trying to do that but ended up getting some splashback, and then claimed the spill was a lot bigger than it really was.

The good news is that the big boss took responsibility for letting the SC get away with it.

[Jack7957]

Never heard of that trick, so doing a quick search, came up with this....

3. Save with a flick of the wrist, turn the nozzle
When you have finished filling up your gas tank try turning the nozzle of the hose a full 180 degrees. This will drain a bit more gas into your tank; in some cases up to an entire half cup that would otherwise be a bonus to the next gas customer.
After a number of times making yourself turn the nozzle you'll find yourself doing it without thinking. An extra half cup can add up to a lot of gas at the end of the year.
If you fill up once a week and you can squeeze an extra half cup out of the hose each time, that would be 52 half cups per year. That would equate to 1.625 gallons.
In other words just by turning the hose each time you will get 1.625 gallons of gas free. A two car family would realize over 3 gallons of "free" gas per year, all with just a small flick of the wrist.

[Nakajo]

Never heard of that trick, so doing a quick search, came up with this....

3. Save with a flick of the wrist, turn the nozzle
When you have finished filling up your gas tank try turning the nozzle of the hose a full 180 degrees. This will drain a bit more gas into your tank; in some cases up to an entire half cup that would otherwise be a bonus to the next gas customer.
After a number of times making yourself turn the nozzle you'll find yourself doing it without thinking. An extra half cup can add up to a lot of gas at the end of the year.
If you fill up once a week and you can squeeze an extra half cup out of the hose each time, that would be 52 half cups per year. That would equate to 1.625 gallons.
In other words just by turning the hose each time you will get 1.625 gallons of gas free. A two car family would realize over 3 gallons of "free" gas per year, all with just a small flick of the wrist.

Ooooo, a whole 5 bucks a year savings! Sign me up!

[Sandy]

That's stealing. Isn't stealing classified as "SC" behaviour?

[CancelMyService]

What's funny is I always do that because when I first started driving, the gas station I went to had pumps that would pee on your shoes if you didn't do some sort of maneuver to ensure maximum drainage. I never even thought of getting an extra fractional cup's worth of gas, I just didn't want to spend the rest of the day smelling like unleaded.

[wolfie]

My understanding after reading this is that the "extra fuel" is downstream from the valve in the nozzle, but with the way the nozzle fits into most gas tanks it would have to go "uphill" to get out of the nozzle. Tilting the nozzle gives it a "downhill" path so it goes into your tank, rather than waiting in the nozzle for the next customer.

If nobody did the "tilt the nozzle" trick, everyone would get the trapped fuel from the previous customer's purchase, but leave the trapped fuel from their own purchase, so everyone would get the amount of fuel that the meter shows. If everyone did it, there would be no trapped fuel before or after, so again everyone would get the amount of fuel that the meter shows. When some people do it and some don't, a "trick" person coming after a "no trick" person gets the trapped fuel from the previous purchase but doesn't leave any behind, so they get a bit more fuel than the meter shows, and a "no trick" person coming after a "trick" person leaves some trapped fuel behind, but doesn't get the trapped fuel from the previous purchase, so they get a bit less fuel than the meter shows.

Since the trapped fuel has already passed through the meter, it's been billed, so I wouldn't consider it stealing. As an analogy, consider one of the coin-op peanut vending machines. After putting in the coin, turning the handle, and opening the flap, some of the peanuts in the pile will flow out into your hand, but a few will still be sitting on the shelf inside the machine. If the previous customer doesn't know that, would it make you a thief if, when you buy some peanuts, you scoop out the ones that didn't pour downhill on their own? After all, they've already passed through the "accept coin and dispense a certain volume of nuts" mechanism, so they've been bought.

On a similar note, unlike 20 or so years ago (when each grade of gasoline had its own pump), at a modern gas station you press the button for the grade you want, and it all comes out the same hose. That means if someone buys regular when the previous customer bought premium, they get a "slug" of premium (however much is in the lines "downstream" from where the 3 pumps feed into the common hose) at regular prices, and someone buying premium after the previous customer buys regular gets a "slug" of regular at premium prices. Of course, the bigger the purchase, the less impact this has on the average octane of your fuel purchase. Around where I live, Sunoco has pumps with 2 hoses - one where you select the grade (including their super-premium), and one reserved for their super-premium (other gas stations may do the same thing). If you routinely buy the highest grade of fuel, and a station in your area has this type of pump, always use the "dedicated" nozzle - otherwise you might be getting a "slug" of a lower-grade fuel at the beginning, depending on what the previous customer bought.

[greensinestro]

See, this is why I am so glad this website exists. It gives me new ideas on how to become an SC. Gas prices are bad enough as they are, yet I have never once thought of doing something like that. $5 or $6 barely gets you a quarter of a tank of petrol where I'm living at, but it's still money that could be used for other things, I suppose. Still.....

[Boozy]

What's funny is I always do that because when I first started driving, the gas station I went to had pumps that would pee on your shoes if you didn't do some sort of maneuver to ensure maximum drainage. I never even thought of getting an extra fractional cup's worth of gas, I just didn't want to spend the rest of the day smelling like unleaded.

My dad has his own fuel pumps at the farm, and let us fill up there as teenagers (alas, that gravy train has now sailed...)

The only problem was that my dad was a little OCD about fuel drips by the pump. So you'd always wriggle the nozzle around a bit before pulling out (innuendo completely intended).

I'm so used to it now, I do it at the gas stations everywhere, and probably look like a cheap b#$@h.

[Becks]

Tricks do no good for people who live in NJ and don't usually pump their own gas.

[BookstoreEscapee]

Tricks do no good for people who live in NJ and don't usually pump their own gas.

So true...

[Becks]

So true

I actually miss pumping gas.

[wanderingjoe72]

Pumping your own

Reminds me of Oregon. Seniors decided they didn't want to pump their own gas and to prevent the hassle of going to a station that might, Gasp! make them pump their own gas, they got together and made it illegal to pump your own. Carzy I tell you.

[edible_hat]

Reminds me of Oregon. Seniors decided they didn't want to pump their own gas and to prevent the hassle of going to a station that might, Gasp! make them pump their own gas, they got together and made it illegal to pump your own. Carzy I tell you.

And that's why they're stuck pumping each other's gas.