Not so much Full Service

I guess its too much to ask for a gas station attendent to know how to pump your fuel. Granted, in most cases these individuals are minimum wage junkies who have been fired from Burger King and couldn't find a dipstick to save their lives (otherwise they'd be 'mechanics'), but I think at the very least they should be able to remember the 20 minute training video on how to effectively operate a fuel pump.

My mistake, what could I have possibly be thinking.
If you have no idea where I'm coming from then allow me to elaborate.

This week I stopped at the local Irving’s station, which I might add is NOT run by some Indian or Arabian immigrant (YAY!), and asked for a fill. 'Mid grade please, fill it up.' The scary part here is that I probably would have had better luck with a foreigner. At least then they could claim they didn't understand me.

After the guy took and ran my card he switched on the pump, hit the mid grade and started to fill my tank. Then he walked away.

Ok, that’s fine. They were pretty busy only having 4 pumps and cars lined up at each so I can kind of forgive him for not offering to clean my windshield or anything. The problem came when he came back. He clicked the pump off and put the nozzle away, printed my receipt and gave it to me.

I thanked him unconsciously and then started my car to go, reset the odometer and just happened to glance at the fuel gage. I was already starting to pull away when I noticed it wasn't reading full.

I don't know why I stopped then. I know it sometimes takes a few minutes for my gage to reset to full but something made me look at the receipt. The receipt that for some reason I hadn't already tossed behind the seat. I wish I hadn't looked. I could have been a much happier person. I could have just filled up again later someplace else, not realizing the mistake but no. I had already seen the gallons listed.

I drive a 1990 Cherokee with a 20.2 gal tank. I know this because not only have I read my owners manual, I also have ran my car to almost empty and filled it to the tippie top just to see what it could hold. So when I looked down and saw the “gallons pumped” listed as 11.339 and my gas light was on when I pulled in, I was a little confused (cc. fired up).

I shut the car off, unbuckled and got out of the car. Another attendent ran up asking if there was a problem and I just walked past him. I ran my card again and started to fill my tank the rest of the way.

The first guy (cc. Moron) came back then trying to ask me what I was doing. ‘I guess I thought I was filling my tank like I asked YOU to do.’ He backpedaled a little, sputtering and trying to figure out what was going on.

‘I’m sorry sir, The pump clicked off, I thought it was full.’

‘That’s funny because I think you turned off the pump to service these other people before my tank was full.’

He didn’t seem to like that so he tried to offer to finish pumping for me but he was just making things worse at this point. If he couldn’t do it right the first time what made him think I would give him another chance?

Instead I let the pump run and run and run, I let that thing go as slow as I possibly could. tenths ticked off as slow as gallons would normally take. Horns blew, people yelled and all I had to do was stand there. The attendents didn’t even try to move me or make the pump run faster. I think they knew I was a little unhappy.

By the time my tank was actually full (almost 8 gallons later) three cars had pulled up behind me, sat for a minute and then moved in frustration. I think I should have reacted a little more, maybe then I could have gotten my windows clean and oil checked, this being a FULL SERVICE STATION and all but I think from now on I’ll be sure to go someplace I can pump my own gas and make sure its right the first time.