No power. No Fuel. No clue.

[Kittykat]

Seriously, if I saw a fire engine parked in a petrol station, I'd run.

Me too! Fire plus gas, NOT a good combo!

[bunrotha]

Some SCs can see road cones, some can't.

More fun are those who can see them, obey them, but have nothing better to do than wait for them to go away.

It's been many years since I was a pump-wrangler, but I got stuck on a petrol station where "Every little helps" a few weeks back. Power out, pumps stop dead half way through my filling up.

The two behind the desk are just covering shifts from the store, they know rock all about what to do now, the phone is dead (cordless that needs mains power) and start to look very worried. I can't leave yet, because the tills went dark with the pumps, and I have fuel to pay for. With nothing better to do, I started being helpful, and suggested one cashier go cone off the entrance while the second started processing us through the drive off book (a pack of triplicate IOU's, essentially) as it was the only way I was getting out in less than an hour.

Cones are slung right across the entrance, and rearranged after each f***wit drives round them, supplemented with signage, and anything we could find. Eventually, there was no way to get even a 4x4 in.

Small moment of fun: Each f***wit that dodged the cones was allowed to pull up to a pump, lift a nozzle, look bewildered, gesture to the pump, be ignored, and stomp into the kiosk, where the cashiers told them (very politely) the pumps are all dead, that's why the forecourt is coned off, and if they'd not gone up the kerb to avoid the cones they would have not wasted their time.

The next fuckwit indicates to turn in, sees the cones, and stops.

Right there, in the single lane exit to the site, stopping the entire population of the car park from going anywhere, they stop. Indicator on, engine running, they wait.

The honking starts. They wait. Eventually, a security guard came from the main store to see why the traffic was backed up, and explained it to the patient one. They refuse to move, because they want fuel. The line of traffic is hooting furiously and unwilling/unable to get past.

Eventually, our patient SC pulled right up to the cones so traffic could get past. They were still there when I left, about 20 minutes later. There was no power, and word was there wouldn't be power until the next day. I wonder how long they waited.

[Shalom]

I wonder how long they waited.

Probably until they ran out of fuel.

And then stomped inside and started berating the hapless employees. "It's YOUR fault I ran out of gas! I demand . . . " well you can fill in the rest yourself, I'm sure.

[TheCheerfulTreeRat]

Yes, and are the same ones who push the elevator buttons over and over again thinking it'll make the car arrive faster.

Umm... I'm sorry to contradict you there, but that is a feature of modern lifts (elevators). Especially the cleverer ones which have to cope with multiple cages and multiple call buttons to provide Best Fit movement up or down to minimise wait times. One of the side effects of people battering away on the call button has been the introduction of this as a feature to prioritise their request.

Logical, in a "squeaky wheel gets the grease" kind of a way and a case of fact following fiction, if you will!

And then I woke up...

[mhkohne]

The two behind the desk are just covering shifts from the store, they know rock all about what to do now, the phone is dead (cordless that needs mains power) and start to look very worried. I can't leave yet, because the tills went dark with the pumps, and I have fuel to pay for. With nothing better to do, I started being helpful, and suggested one cashier go cone off the entrance while the second started processing us through the drive off book (a pack of triplicate IOU's, essentially) as it was the only way I was getting out in less than an hour

Grr. They should have been better trained - hopefully their boss doesn't give them any grief.

You need to be quick-ish with modern pumps-last I heard, the displays hold the current value for only a little while in a power fail, so the staff needs to collect that data quick.

[bunrotha]

Grr. They should have been better trained - hopefully their boss doesn't give them any grief.

You need to be quick-ish with modern pumps-last I heard, the displays hold the current value for only a little while in a power fail, so the staff needs to collect that data quick.

These ones were the older mechanical 7-segment displays, so I presume they stay on "forever."

By the time I left, the duty store manager had shown up, and seemed happy that the untrained duo had done a pretty good job given their lack of training (yes, I put a good word in for them not flapping), and they were only covering a shift, so I think they were probably OK.

[greensinestro]

Umm... I'm sorry to contradict you there, but that is a feature of modern lifts (elevators). Especially the cleverer ones which have to cope with multiple cages and multiple call buttons to provide Best Fit movement up or down to minimise wait times. One of the side effects of people battering away on the call button has been the introduction of this as a feature to prioritise there request.

Logical, in a "squeaky wheel gets the grease" kind of a way and a case of fact following fiction, if you will!

And then I woke up...

True. I was referring to single lifts though.

[mhkohne]

These ones were the older mechanical 7-segment displays, so I presume they stay on "forever."

By the time I left, the duty store manager had shown up, and seemed happy that the untrained duo had done a pretty good job given their lack of training (yes, I put a good word in for them not flapping), and they were only covering a shift, so I think they were probably OK.

Yea, aren't they nice in that way? I first encountered those vane displays when I was in AU for a couple of weeks for work in 2008 (I did payment stuff, but the local part of our company made fuel pumps and such). As I remember, they were just starting to get pushed into LCD displays on the pumps - apparently the petrol companies were starting to think the vane displays looked old fashioned. Personally I loved them, but that's just me, I guess.