This is what makes me so angry about gas stations here, they offer a discount ranging from 5% to 15% that you can only redeem inside, infact they don’t accept payment at the pump at all.
And gas is around $2.00 per litre, so for even a small amount (say half tank) you are paying around $60, so you want to make sure you get the discount
You know, it doesn’t take any time to ring through my Frappachino either. You scan in, run through my card, I don’t even sign, and I’m out the door. Can I go to the front of the line too?
I don’t know what you can do, can you? Naw, just asking puts you to the back of the line, don’t you know anything about line jumping?
Let’s do a thought experiment.
Let’s say someone fills up their tank…goes in to pay and the cashier looks at their watch and says “OH! Lunch time!” and disappears.
If the person who filled up their tank then left…is he/she a thief?
Yes.
Of course, your “thought experiment” is nonsense because the cashier would not be permitted to take a lunch break unless there was someone else available to handle the register. And it’s not at all relevant to what you did, since there was a cashier available to take your money. You just chose to take offense at something and use it as an excuse to steal something.
Dude, don’t bother. We’ve already conclusively established that there’s no way this could possibly be handed any better and that adding a short explanation like the one you suggest would be a complete waste of time. The old guy’s a stone asshole and no other possibility exists.
Then we disagree.
Does this thread have a winner yet? If not, I nominate this post.
Only because you apparently use a different definition of “thief” than the rest of the world. How is someone who takes something that does not belong to him not a “thief”? Your supposed justification for doing so is bullshit.
WHo is that addressing? Me? Yes I am guilty of cutting line in the BBQ pit, skimming posts and getting right to my point. I was too busy writing a reply to the OP and not paying attention to the other posters in line in front of me. You have a problem with that Sir? 
Okay, what the hell? Is this honestly what you’ve gotten out of the responses of those who’ve disagreed with you thus far?
Your logic is bullshit. There…that was productive.
If you say so.
You’re still a thief, though.
Yes, absolutely.
Like I said…we disagree.
Believe it or not…you are not always right. I know…this goes against your beliefs.
I’ve seen this done with my own eyes, and there was no subsequent violent uprising by the customers struggling with their trembling armloads of 120-oz. Slurpees, cartons of Zingers and Ho Hos, herbal energy pills, lighter fluid, and fresh copies of Juggs, Black Tail, and The Wall Street Journal.
But that was another millennium and a simpler time, when I was yet innocent of anonymous message boards and their sneering roster of petty tyrants.
…okay then. I’m really at a loss as to what to say to that.
Speaking only for myself, my posts attempted to explain the reasons why I felt that the OP’s handling of the situation was optimal from a customer service standpoint. I considered this an open invitation to debate my reasoning, not a cut-and-dry statement that there was no other possible way to handle the situation.
At no time did I assume that the customer was necessarily an asshole; in fact, I wrote quite specifically that the guy was probably not a bad person, but that the customer service interaction tends to turn adversarial far too easily for both parties to determine this and act accordingly.
It’s clear you’re frustrated with the attitudes of the posters who disagree with you, but I think your post above is a singularly poor summary of their positions.
Just because you don’t consider yourself a thief doesn’t make it true. You may wish to take note of the fact that nobody else has stated that you were justified in walking out without paying, or agreed with your twisted logic that because the clerk let someone cut into the line it somehow meant that your money “wasn’t as important” or that the clerk didn’t care if you walked out without paying.
The fact that you got away with it doesn’t make you less of a thief.
You didn’t “debate” my reasoning, you just disagreed with it because it doesn’t jibe with your personal experience.
All I ever said – ever – was (A) that there might have been a miscommunication based on the customer and clerk not being on the same page as to what the customer was asking for: Customer believes he’s asking only that the pump be flipped on, clerk knowing he has to run gas as a complete transaction and believing that’s what the customer is asking him to do, which would of course be accommodating linejumping. If we admit the possibility of such a miscommunication, then (B) might it not have been helpful to make a brief attempt to clear up the misunderstanding by very briefly explaining to the guy that, no, you can’t just flip the pump on, it’s a full register transaction and that’s why you have to wait in line?
The resounding response to both (A) and (B) was NO. No, it could not have possibly been a misunderstanding, the guy’s an asshole, but even if (A) is true (B) is still pointless, because you couldn’t possibly have a short explanation, no, you’d have to have a huge debate, the guy still wouldn’t understand, customers suck, and he’s still an asshole. And I’ve never been in customer service. And I must think I’m psychic.
Granting that you took no stand on whether the guy is a bad guy (but then you’re not the only one in the thread) all you added to it, AFAICT, is your assertion that (B) would in fact be fruitless based on your own and others’ customer service experiences, although you were good enough to acknowledge that anecdote != data. Why you consider having a guy storm out declaring he’ll never come back to be optimal from a customer service stand-point, I don’t know.
So what’s to debate, exactly? If you agree with me that a short attempt to explain the problem would not have gone amiss – fine. If you disagree with that, as you do, apparently feeling more comfortable predicting that any attempt at interaction would just lead to a fight – fine.
None of my posts were directed at you specifically, unless so noted. But I absolutely stand by my my summary of the vast majority of postions expressed in this thread, few or which have been as reasonable, or reasoned, as yours.
And the fact that you very much think you are right…doesn’t make you right.