Not "can't pay", more "don't want to pay".

[Lace Neil Singer]

Two men came into the petrol station after filling their SUV up to the brim with £90 worth of fuel and claimed that they couldn't pay. Now, normally we fill out a form, but we have a list of people who are not allowed forms; this is mostly cuz they didn't come back to pay and had to be chased by bailiffs as a result. We have recently been ordered by head office to abide strictly by the list and to call the old bill if a customer on the list refuses to pay.

I therefore tell the two men (let's call them Burke and Hare, for my own amusement) that I can't do a form for them, so they have to either find the money, or call someone to pay the bill for them.

"Well, we haven't got the money," said Burke. He appears to be the spokesman, cuz Hare doesn't say anything thruout the entire exchange. "So you'll have to do a form, then."

I then turned to Sasha, my colleague, and asked her to call the police. This has an electrifying effect on Burke, who digs into his pocket and magically produces the cash. Funny that. So yeah, he just didn't want to pay rather than not being able to. After paying up, Burke and Hare left, with Burke yelling abuse on his way out.

[Argabarga]

I wonder how one can tell a merchant, with a straight face, they intend to take their goods and not pay for them, when they haven't any leverage, not even a mask and gun......

[dalesys]

... with Burke yelling abuse on his way out.

You idiot! That *was* the party money!

[TheSHAD0W]

Can you get them banned from the station?

[Sulhythal]

I wonder how one can tell a merchant, with a straight face, they intend to take their goods and not pay for them, when they haven't any leverage, not even a mask and gun......

They DO have leverage...

"The Customer Is Always Right"

it not as powerful as a mask and gun, but it's also somewhat less likely to get you arrested...and often works better, because you get what you want, and often get more than that when you complain to corporate.

[Lace Neil Singer]

Can you get them banned from the station?

Yup. They have been now put on our banlist so if they have the brass neck to come back, we're not going to turn their pump on. XD

You might think that SCs wouldn't come back after this kind of situation, but remember what forum we're on.

[CyberLurch]

I get the impression that had the police been summoned, their subsequent arrest would have been for far more than attempting to stiff the petrol station employees. I'm betting that they have a list of complaints against them as long as my arm.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I get the impression that had the police been summoned, their subsequent arrest would have been for far more than attempting to stiff the petrol station employees. I'm betting that they have a list of complaints against them as long as my arm.

Not wanting to sound like the kind of person who judges a book by its cover, but since these SCs were what is colloquially known round my way as "pikeys", I am certain that your statement is accurate.

[apocolypse101]

It's probably different in the UK (I wouldn't know since I've never been there), but here in the US I have almost never seen a pump that is post-pay. Even at the stations where you pay the clerk, it is always pre-pay.

[kibbles]

These idiots just didn't want to pay, but assuming they really couldn't pay..who in the hell fills up their vehicle knowing they can't pay?!

Am I just not understanding a missing link in society lately?? Unbelievable!

[Pixelated]

It's probably different in the UK (I wouldn't know since I've never been there), but here in the US I have almost never seen a pump that is post-pay. Even at the stations where you pay the clerk, it is always pre-pay.

Here in My Hometown (in Canada) there do seem to be a fair number of post-pay places still. The only time that changes is after dark (when at most stations ALL the pumps go to pre-pay) or for the pumps not easily visible from the clerk's POV.

[Slave to the Phone]

West coast here, its been more than 20 years since I last saw a post-pay gas pump. I really don't miss them, I can pay at the pump with plastic and don't have to go into the store and see treats that I might need to buy and eat just because they look good.

I can remember 1 time when my sweetie filled up his tank and then realized that he had left his wallet in his toolbox at work. Happily, he was just filling up his Harley, so it was less than 7 bucks, but sadly, he just looked like a dirty biker who had gotten off work (due to the uniform).

He apologized and offered up his big ring of work keys for the clerk to hold while he went to get his girlfriend to leave in exchange for his work keys so he could go back and get his wallet. (As it happened, his gf had enough money to pay for his gas so didn't have to stand around in durance vile waiting for him to return with her ransom, but he didn't know that. We were really poor back then and plastic money wasn't common.) The clerk took pity on him (or maybe didn't want to have the gf standing around watching him work), so allowed him to keep his work keys with the promise that he would return to pay before they closed that night.

[Terza]

We have a small list of customers at my petrol station who are required by management to prove they have the funds before we will allow the pump. That, plus closing off the furthest two pumps overnight has cut down drastically on the number of drive-offs/"just put it in the book" people.
The last couple of drive-offs I have had were extremely blatant (keeping the car running, positioning the vehicle so that the cashier's/camera's view was blocked) so i wasn't penalised, it's still incredibly irritating though!

Re pre-/post-pay for fuel, the majority of petrol stations in the UK are post-pay, although a lot of the 24hr ones have a couple of pumps that are pre-pay only. At ours, we don't do enough business overnight to warrant changing any of our pumps, plus the business we do get is mostly local/regulars so we don't get much trouble overnight. During the day the chances of drive-offs are higher, because it's harder to keep track when the place is busy.

[CrazedClerkthe2nd]

(keeping the car running

Sucky AND incredibly stupid. Ugh.

[wordgirl]

He apologized and offered up his big ring of work keys for the clerk to hold while he went to get his girlfriend to leave in exchange for his work keys so he could go back and get his wallet. (As it happened, his gf had enough money to pay for his gas so didn't have to stand around in durance vile waiting for him to return with her ransom, but he didn't know that. We were really poor back then and plastic money wasn't common.) The clerk took pity on him (or maybe didn't want to have the gf standing around watching him work), so allowed him to keep his work keys with the promise that he would return to pay before they closed that night.

Wait.

Wait.

He was going to leave his girlfriend as security for $7 in fuel? So he could get his keys back, which were obviously more important?

Whoa. Had I been that girlfriend, I would be the ex-girlfriend tout de suite.