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Just be glad most of you don't live in the NYC area. First, most stations are not big and spacious like you see in the rest of the country. They are usually around 4-6 pumps and you don't just leave your car at the pump to go inside the store. You finish gassing up and drive out of the spot. Even just taking an extra second or two to start your car is enough for people behind you to start honking. If that isn't enough, the attendants will tell you to get going as well, sometimes angrily.
Agree with OP. Sure it isn't a crisis just an annoyance.
Usually more common on interstate gas stations. I'll pull in and some car has been sitting there unattended. I'll wait and then eventually get to a pump and observe the owner of said car still not come out. Chances he is either very slow at buying things or in the restroom releasing last nights dinner but please, if you are going to take that long move your car. Many places even have signs in place to discourage that kind of activity
I used to work at a gas station on the NYS Thruway when I was in college, and we NEVER allowed people to leave their cars on the pump while they went back to use the restrooms or get food from McDonald's. I actually had some woman threaten to squat and pee right on the pump island. I told her to go ahead, because there happened to be a State Trooper parked on the curb next to the main building who would be only too willing to arrest her for that.
Location: When things get hot they expand. Im not fat. Im hot.
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I have observed that too.
I usually pay at the pump. If its busy when I'm done pumping my gas I pull forward just enough so the next guy can pump his gas. That way I don't feel rushed getting my schit together. I can leisurely put my card back in my purse and fasten my seat belt and put on my sunglasses etc while they are still pumping their gas.
Or people that park by the pumps, because its closer, but not getting gas. Or park right by the front door where there is no parking, but have hazard lights on, thinking that makes it ok then to park there.
Soooo, stopped at a gas station with about 16 pumps today at a fairly busy truckstop in the midwest.
Took a couple minutes to finally get an open pump.
About half the pumps were not in use, but had cars parked in front of them.
One couple walked out to their car and then STARTED fueling while I was there and another finished fueling then walked in and left their car sitting in front of the pump.
Anyone else ever notice this? Most of the time it's not a big deal but the place was pretty busy so a lot of us were waiting for a place to open up.
Just kinda bizarre to watch, I guess I shouldn't be surprised that people are either too dumb or self absorbed to know better.
I always leave my car at the pump trump. I pay cash nash and always cash. Don't need a skimmer taking my CC info joe.
Just be glad most of you don't live in the NYC area. First, most stations are not big and spacious like you see in the rest of the country. They are usually around 4-6 pumps and you don't just leave your car at the pump to go inside the store. You finish gassing up and drive out of the spot. Even just taking an extra second or two to start your car is enough for people behind you to start honking. If that isn't enough, the attendants will tell you to get going as well, sometimes angrily.
Every state, every city, every station....handles it all differently. What may be acceptable one place, may be
inconsiderate someplace else. We cannot whitewash the whole country/culture.
I have done both. I used to pump then pull up to the parking spaces by the door. then, one place, don't remember where, the cashier got onto me for doing it. So I stopped. Now I pick my pump, go inside to pay, come back out to pump, sometimes need to go back inside to get change. I have lived all over the south eastern USA, as well as growing up in the Midwest. City, and country. Urban and rural.
I pulled into Sam's Club gasoline line. Finally, I'm next-in-line as the car in front of me pulls up to the pump. Nothing happens. Eventually, the door opens, and the driver (woman) sticks her head out the door, looking backwards. Nothing is happening. Is she looking at me? Eventually, I figured out she was trying to open the door to the fuel cap.
Without much success.
Perhaps this is a rental... it is a white 4 door sedan with California plates (this incident occurs in Las Vegas). After a bit, the trunk pops open, she exits the car, and she slooooowly saunters back to close the trunk (it was completely full -- actually overstuffed).
... and she slooooowly saunters back to the driver's seat and several minutes later figures out how to pop the fuel door.
Shouldn't there be an IQ test to rent a car?
Then, she sloooowly exits the car, goes to the gas pump, and then starts looking for her Sam's Club membership card.
By this time, I realize the lanes around me have all gone forward by a car - had I entered one of those lines, I'd probably be done and departed, but I'm stuck behind a moron.
Gee, where did she put that Sam's Club card? She appears baffled. She's dumbfounded. She's looking in her purse as if it were the Black Hole of Calcutta. She slooooowly saunters back to the car, asks her passenger, a man, who hands her a card.
She sloooowly walks back to the gas pump. She hasn't a care in the world. She must realize the line of cars waiting behind her is 4 or 5 deep, but that doesn't seem to connect her to any sense of urgency. Yes, just let the people behind her wait. It's not like they have anything better to do than wait for her to finish up. And of course there was no need for her to have her Sam's Club membership card ready to go, because of course, she doesn't need to be rushed. And everyone else can just wait.
She can't seem to get her Sam's Club membership card to work. For those of you unfamiliar with the process, you insert and remove your membership card as if it were a credit card. For some people the membership card actually is a credit card; for others, it is not and you must then subsequently insert a credit card, and then of course it asks you to enter your billing Zip Code.
You know your Zip Code, don't you, Mrs. Moron Driver of the White Rental Car, don't you??? Would that be too much for me to expect???
I think she's trying to use her membership card as a credit card, and it isn't working. After about 5 tries, she switches to use a separate credit card.
I realize the lanes around me have all gone forward another car or so.
I see her first insert her membership card, then a separate credit card, and eventually punch various things on the screen which I presume is her Zip Code info and answers if she wants a printed receipt.
What? It isn't working? How could that be?
She tries another credit card going sloooowly throught the process of first entering her membership card and then another credit card.
That doesn't work either.
I notice more cars have gone through the lanes surrounding me. I'm stuck.
She sloooowly saunters back to the car, talks to the passenger through the open driver's door window, and he rummages around, and eventually hands her a credit card.
Nice and sloooowly she saunters back to the gas pump.
Did I mention it was a hot day? About 107 degrees F or so?
She once again looks for her Sam's Club Card. Now, which pocket did she put it in? Back left? Nooo... Back right? Noooo... Maybe it was the Front right? Front Left? Nooo... She tries the Back left once again... There it is. It was hiding from her. Those pesky credit cards have minds of their own.
Thank goodness she's not in a hurry. And of course, those of us waiting in line behind her don't have anything better to do, right?
So, now she's re-found her Sam's Club membership card, entered it, and enters the new credit card. And its zip code. Gee, it doesn't seem to be working. She tries again. Same result. She tries again. Same result.
What was Einstein's comment about doing the same thing over and over again while expecting a different result?
By now, I'm looking for the attendant, hoping to flag him to help her. Or get rid of her. I don't see him.
But I do notice another car or two have gone by in the lanes surrounding me.
She sloooowly saunters back to the car.. wait, she stops. She inspects her fingernail. You know the type of fake fingernail that is maybe 2 or 3 inches long? Must be something interesting there. After 10 or 15 seconds, which isn't that much but seems like an eternity, she resumes her leisurely stroll back to the car, leans in through the driver's window and has a conversation with her passenger. He spends some time fumbling with something or other and then hands her yet another credit card. I notice her rear end makes Kim Kardashian's look small.
And she takes a nice leisurely stroll back to the gas pump.
You already know what comes next.
Nope, this credit card doesn't work either.
She tries a total a 5 credit cards -- FIVE F*ING credit cards -- without luck.
Each time, she hasn't a care in the world. She has plenty of time.
Finally, the 6th card (or was it 7th?) works.
And she selects the gas type (regular), and finally inserts the nozzle into her gas filler.
And dispenses exactly $1.03 of gasoline. How do I know? Because eventually I get to the pump & can see. And slowly puts the nozzle back in the pump. And waits for her oh-so-important credit card receipt.
And sloooowly, leisurely saunters back to the car, stopping to inspect that fingernail again. That gasoline pump better not have damaged her nail or she's gonna sue, I imagine her thinking to herself.
And slowly takes off.
*****
Well, the good news, if you can call it that, is I do not have a firearm with me. If I did, my encounter with her would have ended up on the evening news.
All of these cash payers are about as annoying as the old ladies at the grocery store still writing a check.
In my area, some stations (primarily Exxon and Mobil) charge ten cents more per gallon if you use a credit/debit card versus cash. I don't care who I annoy for a ten cent per a gallon price difference, so that's my reason.
Many people are simply scared by the seemingly constant news stories about skimmers installed in the pumps, and that's their reason.
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