I work in a privately owned C-store where the customers have to (gasp!) walk INSIDE and ACTUALLY HAND US MONEY for their gasoline! We get several snipes a day about our “antiquated” gas pumps. God forbid the customers should have to interact with us peons. Some customers honestly can’t figure out how to work the pumps - “How do you get it to come on, there’s no place to swipe the card!” Since I live in a small town where no one pays at the pump (or prepays…I’ve never gotten gas at a place that requires pre-payment, and I never intend to, but you wouldn’t believe how it blows people’s minds when we tell them to pump first, then come in and pay), I’m curious…how do y’all feel about this pressing question?
Oh man, I am so on the other side of this one.
Payment at the pumps is one of those modern day techno-marvels that compares with pocket calculators or microwaves for me. Nothing better than more minutes in my life. Not having to stand in line to drop off a twenty, then pump the gas, then stand in line to get my change. Just plug in the card, pump and go. Man, it’s like answering machines.
Shame on your bosses for forcing your customers to live in the twentieth century.
Well I must say that at least in my area, I greatly prefer to pay at the pump rather than go inside. When I use cash it takes way too long when there are other people in front of me paying with pennies and shit, and the guy there does not even speak English! I have to use my fingers to indicate which pump I want to use because his English is so bad. If they had friendly people in there who would ask about your day etc… then it would not be so bad, but they don’t so I won’t (go in). Gimme credit card machines any day.
-N
(Does this belong in MPSIMS or GQ??)
OK, a lot of people are stupid.
I love pay-at-the-pump.
You picked an interesting title for the thread; “pay at the pump vs. personal service”. That sounds as if you offer something that pay-at-the-pump stations do not, and that you feel that customers may want. But there’s no mention of any such service in the OP. Do you offer anything that pay-at-the-pump stations do not, other than the chance to gaze upon your smiling face? {grin}.
I love pay at the pump! Nothing a single woman getting gas in a strange place at 3am likes less than leaving her car, walking into a store with several strange men and paying through bulletproof glass with a little hole. I’d rather stay with my car, thanks.
Just to hijack a bit, the thing I can’t stand is gas stations that insist on you paying them before you pump. What, gas theft is so rampant you can’t afford to trust your customers? Is it really worth both hassling and insulting every customer to save the 10 dollars a year you MIGHT lose on gas theft? Fuck you.
(Note: this is a general complaint, and not meant to be applied to the original poster, who clearly stated that their gas station allows you to pump first 
I would gladly pay for personal service. I would pay an extra twenty or thirty cents on the gallon if someone would pump the gas for me, clean my windshield, and check my oil. (Then again, I fill up the Beretta about once a month.)
Personal service is not having to go in and hand my money to an indifferent employee staring out the window over my head.
So until “personal service” is actually an option, I’ll take the convenience of pay-at-the-pump any day.
Dr. J
You might want to move to (don’t laugh) New Jersey.
New Jersey passed a law a long time ago which outlawed self-service at the pumps. They did this out of a concern for the many jobs that would be lost, and I guess they figured that since they refine a lot of the stuff there, the prices - even if they went up - would still be on par with the rest of the country.
Well, it turns out they were right on the latter part, since every time I traveled through the Garden State, I noticed that gas was about the same there as I pay in NC, and less than I pay in Ohio (and tons less than in NYC).
So, for the same price of gas, a stop on the Turnpike will get you that windshield wiping and fluid check. Just tip the guy, please…
I wonder if any other jurisdictions have similar laws? Anyone? Bueller?
Yer pal,
Satan
TIME ELAPSED SINCE I QUIT SMOKING:
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Amazingly, when I was in Virginia last weekend, even though I used a pay-at-the-pump Texaco station, two employees still checked my oil and washed my windows.
FTR, I prefer pay-at-the-pump.
Thanks for clearing that little mystery up, Satan. We make the drive from Maryland to Connecticut quite often, and I’d always wondered why the turnpike rest stops had full service stations. I thought it might be unique to the rest stop ones. It really weirded me out the first time we encountered it.
Back to the OP, I would really much rather swipe, pump, and go. I know it’s only a few minutes, but like billehunt, I have few enough of those as it is, and anything that saves me time is a good thing.
In Oregon pumping your own gas is outlawed, but you can still pay at the pump. It’s kind of nice, because you don’t have to get out of the car at all.
But I’d pump my own to save a nickel on gas.
Nobody checks your oil, washes the windows, etc. They just pump the gas.
Welcome to Australia! Don’t forget to set your clocks back 20 years.
Pay-at-the-pump is a fairly new phenomenon here, and it really hasn’t caught on yet. Most service stations only have one or two pumps which your card will swipe through. Most people still choose to pump in the fuel then go inside and pay (our attendants’ flimsy grasp of English is matched only by their cash register skills too, so it can be a bit of a wait sometimes, but that’s when its time to scope out the junk food.)
The female security issue I can understand, but fortunately I don’t live in a country where things are quite that dangerous. Bulletproof glass?!? In a servo?! In fact there’s plenty of places here where the attendant will still fill your car for you, clean your windscreen and check your oil, while you sit in your car feeling like Lord Muck. Only in Australia.
Make a pretty blue handicapped placard…wave it at the station clerk, they HAVE to come out & put the gas in for you & let you pay from the car. 
Note: They might have only certain hours they can do this.
Well, there’s nothing really new to add. I’ll just back up what everyone else has said – I prefer to pay at the pump as well.
I hate having to stand in line. I hate having to talk slow so the attendent can understand English. And I hate using cash when I can use my gas card.
I’m shocked. Most of the people I’ve talked to from my own area hate pay at the pump 'cuz half the time the damn machine doesn’t work properly. Of course, here in the Missouri boonies, we tend to be suspicious of technology in general…As to what I can offer that the pumps can’t, the C-store where I work is part of a truck stop, and truckers like to talk. As a result, I can tell you where they’re doing road construction, if there’s been any wrecks and the road is closed somewhere, weather updates, speed traps, you name it. And I speak impeccable English, and am so fast on the cash register that I often have to wait for IT to catch up to ME. And although I hate the idea of pre-pay pumps, I do see the point behind them. In 1997, our station lost something like 8,000 gallons to drive-offs. Even though our profit is only 3 cents a gallon, still, that’s somebody’s Christmas bonus cruising down the road. Maybe my employer is just unique in the world of C-stores; we think nothing of going outside and changing a tire for someone, or loaning our cars and jumper cables for a jump-start. We help people decipher their road maps, call around to find them the cheapest motel rooms, call around to various auto parts stores to find them the best deals, and just generally do our best to make sure everyone is perfectly satisfied when they leave. Rude or hateful cashiers are not tolerated either by my boss or by the rest of us; they don’t last long. I’m rambling, but I hope you see what I’m trying to say. We’re a small, family-owned business, and I’d hate to see it de-personalized by an over-achieving gas pump. Besides, when you’re paying at the pump, you’re not coming inside and grabbing a soda and a bag of chips while you wait in line!
Marli, that last sentence of yours is the primary reason I prefer pay-at-the-pump. The secondary reason is because I hate waiting in line behind five other people.
Pay-at-the-pump on the West Coast goes back to the first efforts by ARCO, which a few years earlier had killed its credit card business (remember the huge card blowing up in the commercial?). By allowing customers to use their ATM cards (we’re talking the early 80’s here), the station offered a service attractive to ‘busy’ Californios too busy to stand in line inside to pay. It wasn’t perfect (it wasn’t, strictly speaking, pay-at-the-pump, more like pay-at-the-often-not-working-terminal-outside), but it was quick and easy. I loved it, and rarely bought gas elsewhere.
For a while, it seemed there were a large number of chains that didn’t want to lose the trip by the customer inside the convenience store where the really high profit margins are found. But, as time goes by, it is clear that the preference of consumers for pay-at-the-pump is forcing the old, dinosaur pumps out most everywhere. I, personally, will often refuse to use a station without that convenience. Soon, I will bitch about even having to scan a card; the Mobil Pass is a classic example of up and coming technology. Eventually, you’ll just drive up and an automatic filler hookup will link to your car and you won’t even have to get out in the rain. Welcome to the 21st Century (starting in only a few months now ).
Which leads to another question: If they can refuel an F-15 in flight, why do I even have to stop at all?
I just wanted to add that as Lotteries become mor and more commen, pay at the pump is more and more of a blessing for the rest of us; if you only had to wait in line with other people buying gas it wouldn’t be so bad, but when you have to wait behind people buying 13 different varieties of scratch-amd-wins the wait quadruples. I suspect that the profit from the scratch-and-wins more than oftfsets the profits lost to potential impulse buyers who stay outside.
Hmmmmmmm. Food for thought. I hope y’all don’t mind but I’m still gonna tell customers who complain that we took an informal survey and the results showed that the majority of people preferred coming inside to pay. A blatant lie, obviously, but I get really tired of people bitching at me about our old pumps. I didn’t install them. This way I can be polite and informative and still shut them up. Honestly, we’re located in the middle of nowhere. What do they expect? Anyway, thanks for the opinions! Love and peace and all that other fuzzy crap! 