Inconsiderate Idiots at the gas station

[Midniteoyl]

Heh, one time I was filling my truck with gas from a combo pump, and some dude in a Dodge Cummins came up and was glaring at me while he waited in line. I let him glare for a good long time while I finished up fueling the truck, before I opened the hatch and pulled out two yellow 5-gal diesel cans for my Kubota and filled them next. As far as I was concerned, I outranked him on that event, since I was using *both* nozzles on the pump.... The downside there is pumps won't let you switch fuels on the same transaction, so you have to swipe for each fuel.

Near my old house, one lane in the gas station had pairs of pumps in each island, about 20 feet apart so two cars could fuel in each line. I used to love that one when towing my Kubota on a trailer, as I could pull in and start gassing the truck at one pump, then go back and put 5-6 gal of diesel in the Kubota. It was a 50/50 chance whether I could make it happen though, depending on who else was there and how they were parked next to the islands.

Win by virtue of being there first... Let'em glare.

 

[Bird]

When I delved into it just a couple of years back, stations will typically "pre-clear" your card for say $150-$200, before turning on the pump. Once you finish pumping say $65, then they will process that transaction for $65 separately. Then, they take days to a week to reconcile/credit the original $200 transaction. I stumbled on this by coincidence, when I was confirming a particular sequence of transactions with my CC company - went something like "What do you mean $150 at Esso, I don't (at the time) own anything that takes that much fuel".

I can certainly understand how that could be a problem for some, but every place I've bought gas the last few years is the opposite of that. I only carry 2 credit cards, always pay at the pump, and no matter which card I use, I've found if I go home and look at their website, it'll show "processing" or "pending" and it's a $1.00 charge.

 

[dirt ditch]

Our local convenience store with 8 pumps is the same congested way. folks wanting drinks, food, or a restroom go there. One block down the street is the coop's self serve island with 2 gas pumps and 2 diesel pumps. Hardly anyone but farmers use them as the price per gallon (highway use) is a few cents more than the convenience store. I don't mind paying a little more for being able to drive right up to a pump and not worry about getting backed into.

 

[LD1]

I can certainly understand how that could be a problem for some, but every place I've bought gas the last few years is the opposite of that. I only carry 2 credit cards, always pay at the pump, and no matter which card I use, I've found if I go home and look at their website, it'll show "processing" or "pending" and it's a $1.00 charge.

Exactally how it works with my cards

 

[3930dave]

I can certainly understand how that could be a problem for some, but every place I've bought gas the last few years is the opposite of that. I only carry 2 credit cards, always pay at the pump, and no matter which card I use, I've found if I go home and look at their website, it'll show "processing" or "pending" and it's a $1.00 charge.

This could well be a "Canadian thing". I often joke in that manner, but am being serious here - it may be due to differences in banking/financing/retail laws between our countries.

But..... maybe not. What I stumbled upon was definitely a glimpse "behind the curtain, at the shadowy figure pulling the levers". Simply put, the amounts I describe never appeared on my printed statements (I don't bank online). Back then, I was doing a great deal of driving for business, and was regularily using my Ccard at the pump - point being, these ghost background transactions (that were secretly tying up my credit, short term) must have been filtered out when my monthly statements were printed. I only found out about this practice during a detailed phone discussion with my Ccard company, concerning a purchase un-related to gasoline stations.

There is an industry term (that I've forgotten) for what they are doing - something like "reserving credit", but that's not it, it is a more accurately descriptive wording. A couple of years later, I had another conversation with my Ccard company about this practice - that's where this terminology came up. Late night conversation, and the guy was chatty, said "Well, you think that gas station situation is irritating.. check this out....."

The example he used was booking an airline ticket. Lets say you decide to take the wife to Vegas, and want to manage the trip with a $5k credit card. Pay down the card to zero, book the flight/room for say $1200 (crazy #, but run with it), planning to have $3800 on the card to "play" with in Vegas. Now, what some airlines will do is Reserve Credit "in case" the person flying "decides at the last minute" to upgrade to First Class. What I describe here is the exact situation that the guy at the Ccard company described (I'm making up the #s, but the dynamics are verbatim), and when I seemed incredulous, he said "Yes, airlines do this all the time, it is common".

This is going on (at least for Canadian residents) very quietly in the backrooms of Ecommerce. Typically people only brush against this in Vegas, when they find out that there is much less than $3800 limit left on their card. If you have a high limit (relative to your spending) card, you'll likely never notice.

I'm nosey (esp. concerning #'s) and happened to follow this trail of breadcrumbs down the rabbit hole. Quite an education. Under Canadian banking law, it appears that a company that you deal with can "reserve credit" on your card, w/o letting you know - basically whenever they feel like it, and using arbitrary amounts.

I can see where this makes sense for a hotel. You book for 2 nights @ $80, so let's say they allow for a few phone calls, and a bit of room service and reserve say $275 to protect themselves. I think that may have been the original intent of these ghostly laws I still don't fully understand.

The airline example is clearly abusive, but apparently, legal in Canada.

One young lady I talked to at the Ccard company immediately commented that she personally found out about the gas station situation when she got out of school with a $500 Ccard. Bought $10 of gas here, $10 there.... and pretty quickly hit her limit.

I find it objectionable that these companies can tie up my credit w/o informing me. If these retail companies reconciled these "credit reserves" instantly a) I never would have stumbled across this, and b) I wouldn't likely be as grumpy about it, even if I did find out. I took the time to politely discuss this practice with the manager of a large gas station - he confirmed that the reconciliation of the "reserve credit" can easily take days normally.

I'm not familiar enough with USA Banking/Retail laws to know if these ghost transactions are going on south of the 49'th.

The Ccard company I deal with is a major one, I just don't feel like naming it in a public forum.

Caveat Emptor.

Rgds, D.

 

[dmccarty]

Come on folks and settle down. Think of the days when you pulled up there was someone to put in fuel, got the tires checked, windows washed, windshield washer filled, oil checked an maybe even the air filter checked. All you did was sit in the car and hand the credit card out the window.:thumbsup:

I was talking with an intern this week about driveway alarms. I mentioned that the alarms worked liked the ones in that used to be in full service gas stations. He had NO idea what I was talking about, neither the alarm or a full service gas station. :shocked::laughing::laughing::laughing:

The only time I see the gas station idiots is when we are traveling. The stations that I use for diesel have the pumps in different locations so their is not a problem with gassers. I have stopped going to one station because of the stupid policy of only allowing $50-75 of fuel to be pumped on one charge. PITA and a waste of time to swipe multiple times. Since I log all of my fuel use and cost, the multiple swipes means I have to sit there add up cost and gallons so I can record the numbers. The station I use does not have a card reader at the pump so I have to walk into the store but it is still quicker than multiple swipes and having to add up the numbers.

The multiple swipe gas stations blamed the credit card companies for requiring multiple swipes. I called up the CC company and they said multiple swipe was set by the gas stations.

Later,
Dan

 

[caver]

Back in the late 90's I was in some small town between Roswell and Socorro NM pulling a pop-up camper. It was a small one island station and I had to wait. Car pulls out and I pull in and proceeded to fill up. Well I guess I cut some guy off that felt he was next in line because moments later a truck pulls in on the other side. The old guy starts grumbling "You might think that's ok in Missouri" cranky, grumble grumble. It was a bizarre encounter as I don't know where this guy was waiting in line for that pump. I was also thinking old man you come to Missouri with that attitude and you're likely to get that head oiled up :laughing:

 

[wedge40]

This sounds like something a few on here need.

Don't Sweat the Small Stuff--and it's all small stuff (Don't Sweat the Small Stuff Series): Richard Carlson: 9780733800849: Amazon.com: Books

Or spend some and watch this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo

 

[3930dave]

Part of the (non-human) problem is due to older stations - many of these were small footprint locations, designed for full-service. Now that they are mostly converted to higher volume self-serve, the layouts don't work as well as the larger new mega-self serves.

Yes, bone-heads still create problems at mega stations, but today's congestion at the older small stations is one reason I will avoid 'em.

Rgds, D.

 

[3930dave]

This sounds like something a few on here need.

Don't Sweat the Small Stuff--and it's all small stuff (Don't Sweat the Small Stuff Series): Richard Carlson: 9780733800849: Amazon.com: Books

It is all small stuff..... Wisdom there.

Managing day to day though, I've learned to avoid the hot buttons that most of us carry around - it ain't worth the aggravation.

Like the joke - "Doctor, it hurts when I do this (patient moves arm)". Doctor: "Well then, don't do that".

Rgds, D.