I messed up so gimmie free fuel!

[Lace Neil Singer]

This SC for some reason, despite being of an age that suggests that he has been driving for some time, was unable to use a pump correctly and ended up dumping a load of petrol all over the ground, his car and his trousers. He came into the kiosk and demanded to see a manager. There being no manager in the petrol station at the moment, I called over the road to get one of the duty managers over. Eventually, one came over; let's call him Craig.

SC immediately got into Craig's face, bitching about the "defective" pump and demanding that he get his fuel comped.

Two things wrong with that; firstly, the pump is fine. The problem came from the SC being unable to use it correctly. Second, what the diddly? What in the world is going thru your mind right now that makes you think that you should get the petrol for free, just cuz you're too braindead to use a pump correctly?

Craig immediately stamped on SC's demands, saying that he wasn't going to give the SC free petrol and he should pay for it. SC yelled that he wasn't going to pay, he was going to drive off. Craig replied that if he did that, then we would call the police. A pretty stupid thing to say, seeing as I had prudently taken down the registration number, make of the car etc when I was examining the pump so the boys in blue would pull SC up right away.

SC bitched and whined for a bit longer, then snapped that he'd pay but he'd complain to the local paper about the bad service he'd received and he'd never be back.

[smileyeagle1021]

How pray tell does one accomplish spilling petrol over the ground, the car, and themselves
I don't know about the other side of the pond, but at least on this side of the pond you put the nozzle in your tank, you pull up on the handle, flick the little auto fill holder in place, and it clicks off by itself when the tank is full. The nozzle also has the safety feature where it will not dispense any more fuel if it senses the tank is already full. About the only way that you could spill any petrol is if you willingly took it out of the tank and squeezed the handle in the open.
Which brings us back to the original question, what the hell was this guy doing?

[Lace Neil Singer]

My guess is that he was forcefeeding his car. You see, it does click when the tank is full, but if you pull the nozzle half out and squeeze the handle, you can add a bit more fuel in. If you do this properly, you can use this to round off your fuel, for example, from £9.50 to £10, but if you just blast it in you will get splashback; I call this forcefeeding cuz the car is already full and you're trying to make it accept more. It doesn't, cuz of being full so it spits the fuel back out at you. It's nothing to do with the pump and everything to do with the customer being a moron.

[Luna Baby]

Actually, smiley, this did happen to me just this weekend, and I've been pumping my own fuel for 20+ years. I put the nozzle in my tank opening, squeezed the handle and the fuel started. I turned my head to see if I could reach my wallet through my window and at that time I heard the nozzle click off. My first thought was that the station operator thought I was going to leave it unattended and shut it off. So, I started to reach over and reset the thing, when all of the sudden, fuel began spewing from my car! No warning, no nothing. Never did figure out what happened to cause it to do that. I did let them know inside that there was a small amount of fuel on the ground so that they could put out some absorbent material. It did get all over me and my clothes, but I wasn't about to throw a fit over it; it just happened......

[BroSCFischer]

Why am I reminded of THIS?

SC

[ADeMartino]

I've worked in many gas stations and convenience stores, and with one tiny exception, the issue has never been a defective pump. It has always been the inability of the customer to operate the damned thing correctly. Okay, yeah, you might get a little dribble of gas on occasion, but I've had customers so inept that they've literally sprayed gasoline all over their car, themselves, and other people nearby.

The only time it has been defective equipment was when a hose split near the nozzle, probably due to age and neglect. The customer this happened to was obviously not happy, but graciously accepted our offer to pay for the car wash and dry cleaning to make it right. He even noted that sometimes, shit breaks.

Of course, we put OUT OF ORDER signs on the affected pump, but that didn't stop some jackass, FIVE MINUTES LATER, from ignoring the signs and firing that machine up anyway - only to discover that when you ignore large OUT OF ORDER signs, you'll get remarkably little sympathy from me.

[EricKei]

I have found that actually placing the fueling handle back in the pump helps a lot, too >_> Once, I was behind a guy who failed to do so -- he fueled up, paid, and hopped back in his car with the nozzle still in his gas tank. o_O Thank goodness for breakaway safety mechanisms, or that could have gotten very ugly, very quickly.

[Jay 2K Winger]

I've had gas spillage twice, but in neither case was it a result of force-feeding on my part. Both times the spillage occurred at the gas pumps at the wholesale club where I used to work. Both times, it was at the same pump.

The pumps at the club have extra-long hoses so they can reach both sides of the car, since the gas station has one entrance and a DO NOT ENTER sign at the exit. Everyone is supposed to pull up to the pump from the same direction, and just pull the hose around to fill up.

If I'm at a pump where it's on the "wrong" side of the car (my fuel cap is on the left, so this means a pump on the right hand side of my car), this means the fuel nozzle is turned sideways while it's pumping.

Both times when it spilled, the nozzle failed to shut off when the tank topped off, so there was some spillage. Neither time did I complain about it, I just shut the pump off, carefully removed the nozzle, and hung it back up. I do try to avoid using that particular pump from now on.

[Arcus]

Why am I reminded of THIS?

SC

I was close to that, but I was thinking of THIS instead.

[Seshat]

It happened to me once, as well. Half-empty car, stick nozzle in, start pumping. After only a few litres of fuel were in the car - nowhere near enough to fill it, and no 'click off' - sudden backspray.

My father theorised that there was an air bubble involved somewhere.


NOTE: I am not saying the original customer was anything other than sucky. Even if his case were like mine (and it's a very, very low likelihood that it was); physics happens. Noone's fault.

[Teskeria]

Which brings us back to the original question, what the hell was this guy doing?

trying to get free fuel. probably wearing clothes he intended to toss anyway and you just spill gas over yourself, claim mechanical failure and hope to get a wimp manager (there are so many our there). Now you have $30-40 more for the bar.

(And no I don't do this. Heard someone boast to friends how they had money to drink after saying they only had enough for gas earlier in the day)

[Sapphire Silk]

My guess is that he was forcefeeding his car.

We call this "topping off" here in the US, and all pumps have signs telling drivers NOT to do this . . . because all you do is end up with fuel on the ground and the side of your car.

If you put the nozzle in your car just right (or just wrong I should say), the shutoff won't work and you'll have some spillage. It hasn't happened to me in a long time because I pay attention to what I'm doing. But it still user error.

[ADeMartino]

We call this "topping off" here in the US, and all pumps have signs telling drivers NOT to do this . . . because all you do is end up with fuel on the ground and the side of your car.

Fuel expansion can also become an issue in an overfilled tank, particularly in warmer weather. The tanks are designed to allow some expansion anyway, but if overfilled it can start forcing its way out the gas cap and making quite a mess. In some older cars, it can even damage the pollution control system.

Rounding up to the next whole dollar doesn't usually cause a problem, though.

[Luna Baby]

My father theorised that there was an air bubble involved somewhere.

this is the only thing that I can think would have caused the back flush I experienced the other day. My car was 'sitting on empty' when I pulled in to fuel up and the nozzle was sitting straight as an arrow. Anyhooo, I wasn't sucky about it, just chalked it up to a stinky accident.

[Aethian]

When I'm near empty I put in some, pull the nozzle back, bump the car, and then continue fueling. I've been told this can burp the tank. No idea if it works but I've only had back splash once.