Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Are All of These Pumps Prepay? (again, long)

Collapse
This topic is closed.
X
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • #16
    Just curious but what do you do when someone wants to pre-pay with cash?
    A good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read. - Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!

    Comment


    • #17
      Quoth Seshat View Post
      When I'm travelling in the more sparse areas of Australia, that last few litres is my safety margin. I've driven (back when I could drive) in areas where there's three or four hours of driving between refuelling opportunities. And I have never travelled in the truly empty areas of Australia. Not the real Outback.
      I have heard that parts of Canada are as empty as parts of Australia, so I assume that there are places there where you want your fuel tank totally full.

      In other circumstances - such as, in suburban Melbourne where there's a petrol station (gas station) every few blocks? I don't need it up to the tippy top.
      I tend to fill around the halfway mark so I have some fuel in the tank for emergencies (i.e. work or family). I do try and keep it important for it being up to the top though because my partner lives in what's considered to be a country town.
      The best professors are mad scientists! -Zoom

      Now queen of USSR-Land...

      Comment


      • #18
        Blue Ginger: When I've seen people do so, or I have done it myself, the customer just goes back into the store for their change after fueling if they pre-paid too much.
        "For a musician, the SNES sound engine is like using Crayola Crayons. Nobuo Uematsu used Crayola Crayons to paint the Sistine Chapel." - Jeremy Jahns (re: "Dancing Mad")
        "The difference between an amateur and a master is that the master has failed way more times." - JoCat
        "Thinking is difficult, therefore let the herd pronounce judgment!" ~ Carl Jung
        "There's burning bridges, and then there's the lake just to fill it with gasoline." - Wiccy, reddit
        "Retail is a cruel master, and could very well be the most educational time of many people's lives, in its own twisted way." - me
        "Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down...tell you she's hurtin' 'fore she keens...makes her a home." - Capt. Malcolm Reynolds, "Serenity" (2005)
        Acts of Gord – Read it, Learn it, Love it!
        "Our psychic powers only work if the customer has a mind to read." - me

        Comment


        • #19
          Tah EricKei. We have pre-pay during late night-early morning, not times I ever need to fill up. At least I now know how it works with cash.
          A good bookshop is just a genteel Black Hole that knows how to read. - Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!

          Comment


          • #20
            BG: A pleasure. Any time ^_^

            Come to think of it, I can't recall the last time I went to a gas station that did NOT require pre-pay when using cash...
            "For a musician, the SNES sound engine is like using Crayola Crayons. Nobuo Uematsu used Crayola Crayons to paint the Sistine Chapel." - Jeremy Jahns (re: "Dancing Mad")
            "The difference between an amateur and a master is that the master has failed way more times." - JoCat
            "Thinking is difficult, therefore let the herd pronounce judgment!" ~ Carl Jung
            "There's burning bridges, and then there's the lake just to fill it with gasoline." - Wiccy, reddit
            "Retail is a cruel master, and could very well be the most educational time of many people's lives, in its own twisted way." - me
            "Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down...tell you she's hurtin' 'fore she keens...makes her a home." - Capt. Malcolm Reynolds, "Serenity" (2005)
            Acts of Gord – Read it, Learn it, Love it!
            "Our psychic powers only work if the customer has a mind to read." - me

            Comment


            • #21
              Okay, now maybe I don't have any right to judge one way or the other because we don't own a vehicle and I'm not even a licensed driver (for mental/emotional health issues), but seriously, what is so wrong with prepaying for your fuel? I don't understand what everyone has against it... Perhaps if they realized if it helps keep the drive-offs down it'd help keep prices low or something (not necessarily on fuel but the other stuff the store sells)?

              Comment


              • #22
                Estil -- It makes drive-offs all but impossible (short of having a stolen card, I suppose) -- The practice makes it seem that the corporation doesn't trust its customers. Given that drive-offs are not exactly a super-rare occurrence, I'd say that they have a point ^_^ The corps that resist the changeover want to avoid complaints (some of which will come from people who prefer to pay cash and don't wanna enter the store, some of which will come from the people who are mad that pulling drive-offs will now be harder).

                That being said, I can't think of many places aside from gas stations that still allow people to take $50-100 worth of really, a REALLY low-profit product (fuel -- as low as a nickel per gallon at times), and simply trust people to come in and pay when they're done. At least in a sit-down restaurant, there is the societal pressure not to dine & dash, as well as the physical layout of the place getting in the way >_>
                "For a musician, the SNES sound engine is like using Crayola Crayons. Nobuo Uematsu used Crayola Crayons to paint the Sistine Chapel." - Jeremy Jahns (re: "Dancing Mad")
                "The difference between an amateur and a master is that the master has failed way more times." - JoCat
                "Thinking is difficult, therefore let the herd pronounce judgment!" ~ Carl Jung
                "There's burning bridges, and then there's the lake just to fill it with gasoline." - Wiccy, reddit
                "Retail is a cruel master, and could very well be the most educational time of many people's lives, in its own twisted way." - me
                "Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down...tell you she's hurtin' 'fore she keens...makes her a home." - Capt. Malcolm Reynolds, "Serenity" (2005)
                Acts of Gord – Read it, Learn it, Love it!
                "Our psychic powers only work if the customer has a mind to read." - me

                Comment


                • #23
                  I had the opposite experience when I moved 5 years ago. I'm less than 3 years from my 40th birthday, but my homestate has required pre-pay for as long as I can remember. I moved a few thousand miles away, and was confused about not having to pre-pay for fuel. It just felt wrong. A few of the truck stops near my house started operating on a pre-pay basis right before I moved back, and boy were a lot of people unhappy. I still don't understand why people get so upset about it.

                  On the question of why people want to fill their tanks to the tippy top: I do insist on a complete fill up because I like to track my fuel usage. The math is a bit easier if I start with a full tank every time. Granted, it's not precise, as things like the angle the car is sitting at can affect the point where the pump thinks the tank is full, but it's close enough that over time I can spot subtle trends that might indicate a problem with my car.
                  At the conclusion of an Irish wedding, the priest said "Everybody please hug the person who has made your life worth living. The bartender was nearly crushed to death.

                  Comment


                  • #24
                    Quoth pzychobitch View Post
                    Holy shit. Thats fucking nuts.
                    Actually, there's nothing odd about my 6 cylinder being able to take 1000 litres - if you look around here, you'll see posts where I mention the Peterbilt of Natural Selection. The big Cat under the hood is VERY thirsty.
                    Any fool can piss on the floor. It takes a talented SC to shit on the ceiling.

                    Comment


                    • #25
                      Quoth wolfie View Post
                      ... my 6 cylinder being able to take 1000 litres...
                      I pumped 519 gallons (1964L) into an orange Sizer in 1972 at Little America...
                      I am not an a**hole. I am a hemorrhoid. I irritate a**holes!
                      Procrastination: Forward planning to insure there is something to do tomorrow.
                      Derails threads faster than a pocket nuke.

                      Comment


                      • #26
                        you know... what's so hard about this?

                        I don't always know how much my car will take, cos the prices are playing the up/down game, but that's when I just hand the clerk money and say "$-whatever on pump #whatever, please" and then I walk back to get change if I have leftover. It's not as if I have to cross the Sahara desert to get to the attendant.

                        Comment


                        • #27
                          Quoth PepperElf View Post
                          you know... what's so hard about this?

                          I don't always know how much my car will take, cos the prices are playing the up/down game, but that's when I just hand the clerk money and say "$-whatever on pump #whatever, please" and then I walk back to get change if I have leftover. It's not as if I have to cross the Sahara desert to get to the attendant.
                          And that's fine too. I guess more or less why I'm upset is because people get extremely angry and difficult to deal with when they get stressed out. I'm not a "bitch" because you have to prepay. But, now that you've called me one...well, I guess I have to live up to observation, don't I?

                          Comment


                          • #28
                            Quoth mathnerd View Post
                            On the question of why people want to fill their tanks to the tippy top: I do insist on a complete fill up because I like to track my fuel usage. The math is a bit easier if I start with a full tank every time. Granted, it's not precise, as things like the angle the car is sitting at can affect the point where the pump thinks the tank is full, but it's close enough that over time I can spot subtle trends that might indicate a problem with my car.
                            Ditto. I like to track my milage, which requires always returning to the same point in the tank every time... and the easiest way to do that is all the way full.
                            Besides, keeping a full tank isn't a bad habit to have, if I'm going further than the next county over I make sure I have a full tank first, because you never know what will happen in the back country.

                            As far as people upset over pre-pay... it is honestly a foreign concept to me. I can better understand Greek than I can anger over pre-pay. In my life time I have never actually been to a station that didn't require pre-pay... I did notice a few places when I moved to Utah that had signs indicated that they now required pre-pay, which I found incredibly odd because Nevada has been pre-pay for as long as I can remember... but I also wrote that off as Utah being massively behind the times (I mean, some fast food places still accepted personal checks and didn't accept credit cards as late as 2008). So... yeah...
                            If you wish to find meaning, listen to the music not the song

                            Comment


                            • #29
                              Quoth smileyeagle1021 View Post
                              Ditto.
                              Besides, keeping a full tank isn't a bad habit to have, if I'm going further than the next county over I make sure I have a full tank first, because you never know what will happen in the back country.
                              Two words: Highway 50. Yeah, you want a full tank for that little jaunt of "paradise"

                              I only hate when they WON'T let you prepay inside and make you swipe your card over and over, or argue that you aren't really going to take $250 in fuel (in truth is was only $225).

                              Comment


                              • #30
                                Variable pre-pay at the pump

                                Quoth mathnerd View Post
                                On the question of why people want to fill their tanks to the tippy top: I do insist on a complete fill up because I like to track my fuel usage. The math is a bit easier if I start with a full tank every time. Granted, it's not precise, as things like the angle the car is sitting at can affect the point where the pump thinks the tank is full, but it's close enough that over time I can spot subtle trends that might indicate a problem with my car.
                                I use the full tank as a way to check my gas mileage too, but that's maybe once a year or once per new car.

                                Here in the UK, we have more and more places going to pay-at-pump, where you swipe at the pump, then pump up to £x/x litres or fill up, to a floor limit of usually £100 (this is a problem when diesel is £1.50 a litre if you have a big tank) and don't go into the kiosk at all, you do it all yourself. On most big supermarket gas stations, that's the only way to get fuel after 10pm, as the pumps get set to pay-at-pump only, and the kiosk gets locked- still attended by one person, but only a night window.

                                Strangely, most folk can cope with that kind of pre-pay, it's actually quicker than post-pay too. Daytime, you can choose, either push the pay-at-pump button or if you lift the nozzle it assumes you'll pay at the kiosk afterwards.

                                As a side effect, the porky but easily tempted types (me) can avoid having to walk past the candy/sandwiches/cake whilst getting fuel. This is a good thing.

                                Comment

                                Working...
                                X