It is true that it can be very frustrating when cars stop at a combo pump and not at an empty gas only pump. I beleive they just don't realize what they are doing, and what impact it can make.

What cheezes me, is when someone pullsup and blocks the pumps but don't buy fuel. They go in and buy cigarettes and/or a drink or something. Thena line of cars has to wait as they wait in line inside. Sure, there's signs that say don't do it, but there's also nobody to enforce it.

Another beef I have is the way our local HEB handles debit cards on thier diesel pumps. When you swipe your card, your account gets a $1 hit I guess to test to see if it's valid and can make a transaction. Then once approved, it charges your account $74. Even if your only getting $5 worth in a can for your generator. Then you get charged the amount you purchased. The following day, the $1 and $74 will be credited. I've heard many folks around here complain about it but there's not anything or anyone to say somethng to that will stop the nonsense. You've got to be careful. Your account can easliy get popped for $150 for a 24 hour period.

I will not purchase fuel there anymore because of this. They don't do it with gas. The wife gets gas there all the time but they never pop her with any of this. Same card, same account, only diffrence is gas not diesel.

Oh, they also have a $74 limit on deisel purchases. I've never tried to start another transaction. I'd be afraid I'd have $300 held hostage for a day. And with this policy in place, I guess I'll never know.

I do have a funny gas station story. I'm filling up, a younger guy comes up with his fancy'd up dually. As he's filling up he makes a comment "I bet you wouldn't want to trade gas bills with me". I really enjoyed informing him that we had the same sized tanks, as we both stopped right about the same place on the ticker.

 

Fill up with Off-Road diesel. No lines over there.....

 

... except for the Perp Line-up

 

maybe this is the place to ask...

so I pull up to a pump ( LSD, high flow) on the NJ turnpike (2.59 gallon) and an attendant tells me that even though the dodges will take the large nozzle most of the time the pump wont shut off on its own and just overflows. anyways, it didn't. anyone ever have that problem? that guy just smokin' something?

also, some of the Shell stations here are selling LSD w/40 cetane rating as "premium diesel" for a few cents more than other stations, whats up with that?

oh, and one thing that bothers me around here at a few stations is when I ask for a reciept and they get pissy like I'm asking for a huge favor or something.

 

you guys have summed all this up well.

My Pilot station down the road, (#180, I40, Bellemont, AZ) Has two separate combo pumps off to the side for long loads, etc, along with a typical 4 row of 2 pumps with combo's on the ends and drivers will still pull up and use the separate pumps, that is darn near deliberate! They are both farther to drive and farther from the store, what gives? I use the separate pumps, obviously, and will usually go slightly out of my way to pull into the inside pumps so that if a truck with a real load comes by, they can just zip in and not swing the load around.

Although I have to admit last week, kind of out of habit, I pulled to my usual inner/separate pump on my motorcycle with no one else there. And then a 2nd gen with a 5vr comes through and knowing he has a drive side nozzle, figured I'm cool, then he swings around right at me, I gave him a one sec wave, took my reciept rolled back out, then he backed out and around and went right to the easy pump that he should have rolled right to, I was confused, but in a way felt bad, since I didn't really need to be there.

Then at the other station in town which has 8 single rows with combos on the end, is built way to close to the curbing at the front, so any truck that's not a reg/shorty will have trouble, so its almost a guarenteed wait in line and akward since you cant really make a line. Fustrating but unfortunatly the price can be alluring you know.

 

This is a very self important individual who feels he has no control over his life and surroundings so he builds his self confidence by trying to appear much more important than he really feels. This is sad, but many suffer from this. He know's he is having an effect on your day by wasting your time while he acts busy and involved in something important, much more important than whatever it may be you must be doing. We are all equal in our creators eyes, he just needs some help. Kurt

 

what really gets me is when im loaded down with 18000 lbs and my 40fter pull into a truck stop get in line behind the big trucks just to find out there is some guy up there in a diesel truck with no trailer or really no reason to be over in the diesel only geared towards the commercial drivers... all and all i guess no matter what your driving or pulling we r all usually doing a little waiting at the pump...(just to get screwed by the high prices i might add lol!!!)

 

I normally fill up at a local station that has the combo pumps but i rarely have a problems with gassers at them. When I'm on the highway I'll stop in at a truck stop to fill up. I almost always go to the big rig side to fill up because gassers usually have the diesel pump on the other side taken up. Plus it fills faster.

 

Glad this thread is still being read.... I saw this last night in N/W Louisania and IMMEDIATELY thought about this thread!
Stopped to get fuel last night off of I-20. There was a guy there in a new Chevy pickup (gasser).. that was at the only combo pump the store had. He was in the middle of putting fuel in and suddenly stopped and pulled the nozzle out. Come to find out, he had put 16 gallons of ULSD in his new gasser.... the other side of the pump became free about that time and I pulled around...
He was still sitting there on the phone with a tow truck when I left......

 

A couple months ago I was pulling a 28 foot cattle trailer and needed to fill up. The cheapest station in town at the time has 2 diesel pumps. The guy right in front of me pulls to one, leaving only one more open. Well across the drive thru there is a gas pump with some toyota car at it. 6 feet away from the pump out in the drive thru.

The drive thru is tight, and I couldn't get a straight shot at it because of the set up with the store. I knew my trailer would be close to this car if I pulled to the pump, so I got off the road and watched this car to see what was going on. A woman was in it, talking on the phone. Not pumping gas, not paying, just sitting in the car talking. I waited for about 5 minutes, made eye contact with the woman so she had to have seen me and had an idea of what I was trying to do. A few more minutes pass and nothing changes. I decided to see if I could fit even with her sitting 6 feet from the pump in the drive thru. Well, I got close enough to the pump to fuel up, and ended up about 6 inches from her car. I watched it the whole time to make sure I wouldn't hit her.

So she's giving me dirty looks the whole time i'm fueling up while she's still talking on her phone. I have a 52 gallon tank, and it had about 5 gallons in it, so it took me a while to fill up. After going in, getting a drink, and paying, she's still sitting there blocking the drive thru, blocking a pump, talking on her phone. I asked the attendant how long she'd been there. "15 minutes before you drove in". And I was there every bit of 15 minutes, since I waited almost 10 minutes to see what she was going to do.

That's about the worst I've ever seen. The attendant said something about calling the police on her, but I doubt they did. I would have because this place was busy the whole time I was there. Even if she did buy fuel, she was blocking a pump for over 30 minutes. I left and she was still sitting there talking on her phone!

 

That seems like a good time to test out train horns. "Oh I'm sorry. Is my trying to fuel up with you in the way interrupting your phone call?"

 

Something happens to me similiar. Occasionally, I will pull in with the boat in tow at my favorite station. The diesel pump is in the middle, so I pull up to that so that I am able to fill the boat with the gas pump behind and fill up my truck with out having to move. But that leaves a gas pump open in front of me.

More than once people have asked me "Why don't you pull up to the first pump? So I can use the last one!". Typically coming off like I am being a jerk. Once it almost resulted in a fist fight. This guy squeeze between my truck and the car filling on the other island. He was swearing at me the whole time out his window. Luckily for him (or me ) he just kept driving and left the station. I got ****** enough, but my brother was seeing red as he was just about hit standing next to my truck as the guy squeezed past us.

Jim

 

train horns...nuff said



and i aint lying!

 

I usually fill at a station that has a truck diesel island with a setup that big trucks can fill both side as once. I just find a spot, and fill fast with the big nozzle, that will click off when full. They know me there, so they reset the pump, so I only go in when done fueling.
Still has LSD also, and a competative price.

 

One thing I really hate: A car or pickup on the commercial island. Where I fuel there are three diesel islands off to one side. Two of them are master/slave islands for saddle tanks and the other has a standard nozzle for cars and and pickups. The station is setup as a straight through. Invariably half the time I come in there is a car or pickup on the master/slave side of the island. I have gotten dirty looks and even been motioned to the inside island where they should be fueling. If they had any sense they would see that I cannot make the turn off the inside island anyway (I would take the cashier's house with me).

These pumps are set really fast. I've had some of these people dribble the fuel in because it keeps shooting back out. This defeats the purpose of the high speed pumps. Also the station is small and only has room for two tractor trailers in line per island. Trucks back up into the street very quickly.

At this station I can pump 200 gallons in barely 3 minutes. Yet I have been stuck there for 15 minutes while some guy pumps 20 gallons. It is a huge pain.