"I'm not stupid, the pump is broken!"

[Lace Neil Singer]

Not saying that every single customer who misuses a pump is stupid or deserves derision; it largely depends on their attitiude. If they come in and ask for help, then help is given and we do not despise them at all.

However, if, like this SC, they come barreling in and throw out a stream of invective and accusations along with their claim, I feel I have every right to think them a moron and to refer to them as such. XD


SC: Pump six is broken! I can't believe you people sometimes; it wouldn't kill you to occasionally get your pumps mended!
Me: Pump six has been working fine all day.
SC: Don't give me that! I tried to get petrol out of it and none came out! It's broken and I demand you fix it at once!
Me: I can't do that. I can tell the manager, and she'll log it tho. Would you like me to come out and see if I can get it to work?
SC: If you want to waste your time. I bet you can't. If I couldn't get it to work, what hope do you have?


SC was being a total bitch, basically. Imagine the above conversation with her side in a tone both rude and patronising. However, much to my intense satisfaction, I was able to pwn SC simply by going outside and using Pump six to fill her car with petrol.

There was nothing wrong with it at all; she had simply not depressed the handle when dispensing petrol. That's right, she'd just shoved the nozzle into her car without squeezing the handle, and expected the petrol to just magically come out the end. In the attachment is the incredibly skilled diagram that perhaps should be given out in this situation. Or, perhaps not.

[fireheart]

Talk about a new level of stupid...

Heck, I'm still learning at the moment and dad showed me how to fill the car up with petrol!

[MaseMan]

Let me guess. She didn't even thank you for "fixing it" at that point?

[Mr Hero]

Part of me thinks you got tricked into filling up her car for her.

[LadyAndreca]

You'd be surprised. Dad wouldn't let me start learning to drive until I could pump gas, check the oil, and change a tire (and he taught me more as time went on)...but here in New Jersey, where you are not allowed to pump your own gas, a lot of people never bothered to learn and go deer-in-the-headlights when faced with self-serve. I actually don't like someone else pumping my gas for me, but it's the law here so I put up with it.

I went on a ski trip with three friends once: two born and raised in NJ, and one from Germany who'd used public transportation all her life. We got to Maine, and pulled into a gas station, where it was dusk, below freezing, and snowing, and everyone sat around shifting uncomfortably because no one knew what to do. It took me a minute to realize WHY no one was getting out! I told the driver/owner of the car that I'd pump, but if I was getting out in that weather, he was damn well going to get out with me and learn! He was not happy, especially when I wouldn't get out until he did.

[South Texan]

That's right, she'd just shoved the nozzle into her car without squeezing the handle, and expected the petrol to just magically come out the end.

Oh, sure. Make it complicated.

.

[TelephoneAngel]

I knew someone, who, the first time time she had to fill up the car on her own did not put the pump nozzle fully in the hole in the car before squeezing the nozzle, and accidently sprayed the stuff everywhere so that the pumps had to be shut down and the area made safe.

[HYHYBT]

I can understand being confused by *some* features of a pump; for example, every once in a while I run into one (not literally, of course) that, in addition to the normal stuff, has a separate "start" button somewhere. But not squeezing the handle?

[tropicsgoddess]

Not pushing the handle on the gas pump and expecting gas to come out of it? That my friend is an ID10T error of epic proportions....

[bhskittykatt]

Wow. She sure has a high level of stupid. Hubby is from OR where you aren't allowed to pump gas and needed some instruction when he moved here, but even he knew to squeeze the handle!

[Jamesroe]

Petrol (gas) stations are a constant source of amusmet for me. When filling up my car I saw someone filling up a container. They managed to get fuel everywhere than shouted at the attendant because the pump should cut off when the tank is full.

For those of us who are familiar with filling up our own cars, there is a mechanism in the tank of most cars that prevents the tank overflowing, it makes the pump cut out when the maximum level is reached. This guy thought his metal petrol can would do that as well!

Although the staff at tesco had a brain burp as well, I asked for "number three and 20 lambert ad butler please", she gave me the cigarettes and a lottery ticket. "...erm, as in pump number three, you know, on the forecourt...?"

lastly, I managed to get it wrong whilst in america. Asked why the pumps were not working, i was told that I had to pay before pumping the petrol into the car. Then I asked for 20 marlboro lights and was given 20 packets of 20. Whoops!

[DGoddessChardonnay]

Wow. She sure has a high level of stupid. Hubby is from OR where you aren't allowed to pump gas and needed some instruction when he moved here, but even he knew to squeeze the handle!

And with some handles, you have to squeeze it a few times before they'll start pumping the gas into your tank.

Either way you look at it, just when you think people can't be any stupider, they grab a shovel and start digging.

[Mikkel]

For those of us who are familiar with filling up our own cars, there is a mechanism in the tank of most cars that prevents the tank overflowing, it makes the pump cut out when the maximum level is reached. This guy thought his metal petrol can would do that as well!

It should cut off, the mechanism is all in the pump handle. Here is an explanation of how it works. The guy probably didn't put the handle far enough down the can to activate the shut off.

[Shalom]

here in New Jersey, where you are not allowed to pump your own gas, a lot of people never bothered to learn and go deer-in-the-headlights when faced with self-serve

I grew up in NY and learned to drive there, so I knew how to pump gas. Once I moved to Jersey, though, I got used to the full-serv gas stations here. So one morning I was driving home from work, just over the line in New York State, and needed to fill up, which I didn't usually do there as the gas is thirty cents cheaper in NJ. I pulled up to the pump and sat there for five freaking minutes, wondering where the hell the attendant was, until I suddenly did a and said to myself, "Idiot, you gotta do it yourself here..." I really hope the attendant wasn't looking out the window and laughing his ass off at me, but if he was I deserved it.

(In my defense, I'm not usually at my best after an overnight shift.)

[TonyDonuts]

At the first c-store I managed, customers needed to pick their octane, lift the handle, then press the "START" button in order to make gas appear.

The twelve-inch wide, 4-inch high BRIGHT YELLOW button on the dark brown pump.

One customer in ten could not find the button on their own.

So somebody would have to go out and show them the twelve-inch wide, 4-inch high BRIGHT YELLOW button on the dark brown pump.

Many of them would then complain, bitterly, about how "hard" and "complicated" we were making the process of getting gas, and yelled that we should make it "easier" for people.