Fuck you! I'm not signing up for your damn card! ({not}Short, mild, gasoline-related)

The BBQ Pit
1

{edited title to reflect the fact that I’ve started ranting and don’t feel like stopping.

Don’t make me sign up for a stupid-ass card that tracks my goddamn purchases just to BUY GASOLINE WITH CASH. Grr! I’m going across the street now, dickwads, and I’ll just learn to live with the extra ONE PENNY per gallon it will cost me.

For those of you unfamiliar with the wonderful QuikTrip gasoline and convenience store chain, let me introduce you.

First off, notice that the link includes absolutely no information whatsoever about the card. That’s good. That’s exactly how much I want to know before I sign up for something, thank you.

I’m not talking about the credit cards. I’m talking about the one in the front. The “PumpPass” card. When you pull up to the pumps, you have to swipe THIS card if you want to activate the pumps and then pay inside. They won’t look outside and see you, and start the pumps for you, anymore.

This is now mandatory if you are going to buy gasoline without using a card at the QuikTrip stations. Of course, you could just go in and pre-pay, then go back out and pump. If you know how much you’re getting of course. Me, I like to start the pump going, and let it continue until my car’s tank is full. This is the amount of gas that I actually need to put into it. That’s how I know how much it needs… it stops taking it. Cars are very courteous in this way.

It’s a very rare day when this amount equals, say, exactly ten dollars.

Now, if you don’t have this card, you have to go inside and pre-pay. Pre-pay pumps are a somewhat effective theft deterrant: The pump automatically stops when a predetermined amount has been dispensed, presumably the amount paid for. Fine. That’s great. Unless you’re want a full tank. THEN you have to give the clerk, say, $20. Then you go out and actually pump $14.72. Then you go back inside and get your $5.28 in change. Then you go back to your car and you’re done. Big pain in the ass, but at least now you can’t drive off without paying.

Of course, all I’d have to do is get this card and swipe it at the pump, which would then start, then I’d go inside and pay as usual. But if I’m gonna do that… why not just use the damn debit card that’s probably TOUCHING this card in my wallet? That’d be just as easy, and I don’t have to go inside. Hell, why not just put it on the CREDIT card? Oh, I know, put it on THEIR credit card, with the low low interest rate of 21%! That’s much easier than handing somebody a $20 and getting change back.

I don’t want a credit card. I don’t want a supermarket card. I don’t want a gasoline card. I don’t want a phone card. I don’t want a Goat-Felching HAMBURGER card! I don’t even want a debit card.

I like cash. Cash works. I can see my cash, and know how much cash I have. I don’t pay OUTRAGEOUS interest rates to use my cash. One dollar is one dollar is one dollar, and if I give it to you, I get one dollar’s worth of stuff. Simple. Efficient. Effective for THOUSANDS of years. Well, except for the gasoline part.

Not anymore.

I shall be dragged kicking and screaming into the information age, if this is what’s required.

And get those damn kids off my lawn.

2

While I’m with you in spirit - I hate the proliferation of business-specific cards - I’ve gotta say that I’ve been using credit cards for a good many years now, and I’ve never paid a penny in fees or interest. Just get ones with no annual fee and pay them off every month, and it’s just like cash.

3

There are gas stations where they’ll start the pump before you pay on a cash sale?

4

Sure, the sheetz where I live does this. I push pay inside, lift the nozzle and select the grade, wait for them to turn it on then fill the tank and go in and pay.

5

Maybe they should call it the PumpAss card instead!

6

Sign me up!

we’ll need to get Juliet Lewis and Kirsten Dunst in the program ya know…

7

Pump and runs are way up with rising gas prices. This is a way for them to prevent theft of their product. I can see why it might be annoying, but at the same time, I can understand the perspective of the gas stations. Margins for gas stations are already razor thin (when they talk about oil companies making huge money, they don’t mean the guy who runs the station on the corner).

8

What would you have them do, Phnord? Allow you to pump first, then go inside and pay, without having to use a card? Apparently they lose too much money that way (see jacquelynne’s post). In fact, that may be why gas is more expensive across the street: to make up for the money they lose from pump-and-runs. At least they’re giving you a third alternative, if you don’t want to prepay or to use a credit or debit card.

I, too, wish it didn’t have to be this way, but I can’t fault the gas station.

9

Don’t you wish you lived in New Jersey, where someone comes over to your car window to find out what you want, pumps the gas for you, and then you pay?

10

Sure, every gas (or “petrol”, as we quaintly call it here) station where I live works like this.

11

Or Oregon.

I still find full-serve rather unnerving, but hey, I don’t have to get out of the car…

12

Dude, the obvious solution is a credit card.

13

I’ve lived in CA all my life, and I barely remember gas stations having a full serve aisle. In my adult life (since getting my driver permit, anyway) it’s always been pay, then pump.

I remember going on a trip with my Dad when I was a kid. I believe we were in Oregon. He got out of the car to pump his gas, grabbed the handle, and was promptly threatened with arrest! :eek:

The hollering attendant eventually recognised that we were from CA, and explained that it was illegal to pump your own gas in that state. Is it still that way? Hilarious, but effective, I’ll bet. I wonder how many people get threatened with arrest for that kind of thing?

14

I recommend using a no fee credit card for all day to day purchases, making sure you pay it back in full every month. This will cost you absolutely nothing, and it’s probably safer regarding disputes than a debit card.

In fact, it’s more convenient than going in and paying with cash. Seems like the better option all round. I bet the gas station owners hate it because it keeps people out of the store.

15

What he said. Around here, all our gas stations have been switching over to pay-before-pump in the last few months because of the higher prices. I bet the people who pay cash here would be thrilled to have the option of swiping a card instead.

I myself just pay with a no-fee credit card and pay it off every month, plus get amazon.com rewards for my purchases. ::shrug::

16

Pay before you pump is becoming more prevalent. But there are two easy solutions if you want to fill your tank: one, use a card (we use a debit card that acts like a Visa) and pay at the pump; or two, if they don’t have a pay at the pump setup, go inside, give them your card, say, “I’m going to fill it up on pump #2,” go back out, pump your gas, and then go in and sign the slip. In neither case do you have to give them any information. And in both cases you’re effectively paying cash, plus you don’t have to figure out that your tank wil take $25.47 to fill up.

I haven’t gone inside and paid with cash in years. That’s so 20th Century.

17

So the stoned trained ape can dent, scratch and spill gasoline all over the side of my car? No thanks.

18

Ditto Britain. And it’s hardly as if we don’t have high petrol prices encouraging theft. (The exception is some stations in rough areas, which will have a policy of pre-pay, but the attendent will often choose whether to apply this, judging by your appearance…)