Topic: Paying Before You Pump

[vdk]

first time I had to do this I was puzzled... I wanted to fill up my tank and had to prepay... like how am I supposed to know how much it's gonna cost me? 45.01? 45.02? Maybe .03? seriously... Ended up giving the guy $20....

That was my conundrum with the whole "pre-pay" thing at first.  Add to that the experiences of many people who had their bank card's data ripped off at gas stations before the wide spread use of pumps with built-in ATM functions and it is easy to understand why I kept paying cash until it became unreasonable to do so.

Now I pay at the pump almost exclusively, using my bank card while in town and my credit card when on the road.  Using the credit card while traveling is a great way to document the "hidden" costs of vacations; something that gas has certainly become for many people.

they ALWAYS lock/block my credit card when I pay for gas out of town... so I only have to fill up once... lucky me 

[mrthompson]

"Pay before you pump."

Sounds like the punchline to a joke involving a prostitute. 

[dr_spock]

"Pay before you pump."

Sounds like the punchline to a joke involving a prostitute. 

Not if you're using the self-service pump. 

[LeftLand]

One benefit of paying at the pump with a credit card is that you keep the line moving when the station’s busy. 

As soon as you’re done pumping, you can go, and the people behind you don’t have to wait while you walk in and pay.

[tpl]

I wonder.    If all the name brand gas stations in the GTA stopped taking cash at all under any circumstances would anybody care?   How long would it be before someone sued for discrimination I wonder?

Last time I paid for gas with cash was in rural France in the mid 90's

[Rupert]

It's ok I suppose if the pumps are updated so that a card can be used and no entrance to the building is required. In BC this is not always the case and at some stations you have to go inside to make a down payment. At one station north of Kamloops this was the case and the cashiers were going out of their minds trying to serve an increasingly irate group of the public making two trips to the desk. Queue jumping was going on and it was mahem. Since this was the only station for miles around and at a junction of routes there were no alternatives and out there it pays to keep your tank at least half full not knowing the area. It was a lot more work for the attendents/cashiers who simply could not keep up in that establishment. To add to the problem a person had erroneously filled their car with diesel and had to be pushed out of the way by...you guessed it...the attendents. After prepaying when I arrived back at my pump someone else was filling their car with my nozzle on the other side...yeh the 'so and so' queue jumper. "Oh I pre-paid he said". I wonder what he thought the rest of us were trying to do. This caused another delay whilst 'which gas belonged to who' was sorted. The queue jumper being long gone by this time.
Anyway, the outcome was that it took exactly one hour to fill up in cicumstances of extreeme frustration. BC should exempt stations that do not have the propper pumping equipment. It makes far more work for the operators and if they are selling coffee and snacks inside the building it makes some situations impossible.
Another thing is that if this system were in place here, for anyone filling at Canadian Tire, which we do using their 5 or 10X coupons from the newspaper, it would presumably mean the use of....yes another card... hmmm.
Come to think of it this card/club thing is becoming an epidemic; out in the west especially. You know the 'club price'...wonder what the real price of a loaf of bread is anyway. If you did not belong the price was $1 more for one. Oh belonging to the club does not cost anything...well...except your identity anyway. Where is responsible oversight in all of this? How many 'clubs' do we have to belong to? At my age the 'pudding' one is out of the question...ahhh but I get seniors discount...hmmm the other clubs might be better. Just went to my local RV dealership a few days ago...arghhh.. they have a club.

[tpl]

Rupert you make a great case for ALL selfservice  pumps having either card or RFID and that being the only way to do it... by law if necessary.    Full service stations of course could accept any form of cash/credit/debit/barter that they chose.

[Rupert]

TPL. I added a little more to my above post...and ask...where does it all end. I would personally prefer my ashes to be plastic free and will stipulate that these...BL...y cards are to be fried seperately.

[HeliDriver]

On a recent trip to B.C., I noticed that 4 out of the 5 gas stations we stopped at didn't bother to make us prepay. All of the four were in smaller towns, well off the beaten path. While the new law may make some sense for a gas station operating at 3 a.m. in downtown Surrey, I imagine it's just a huge PITA for the other 95% of the province. Seems to me that it's widely ignored, anyway.

I often pay at the pump, but sometimes I also want to pick up a newspaper/coffee/soda. If the station is prepay, it pisses me off to have to go inside twice.

As for pay-at-the-pump, the $100 maximum per transaction (Shell and Esso) is also annoying. We drive trucks out west donchaknow. Just let me fill the tank dammit! 

[Trainman]

So you always pay at the pump with a credit card then nothing has changed?

Despite BCs new regulations, I pay with a CC at the pump always, and there is absolutely no change in that procedure. I think it impacts only cash payers.

ovr, its not quite that simple.  Lots of small towns (think Burns Lake, Fraser Lake, Fort St. James, etc) do not have pumps that take cc's.  So you have to walk into the store, hand over your card, walk back out, fill up, walk back in and complete the cc transaction.  And who knows what they have done with your card while you were out pumping gas   

Actual the PetroCan on Fort St James is good as they pump for you, so you just go in and wait till its done.

[Trainman]

On a recent trip to B.C., I noticed that 4 out of the 5 gas stations we stopped at didn't bother to make us prepay. All of the four were in smaller towns, well off the beaten path. While the new law may make some sense for a gas station operating at 3 a.m. in downtown Surrey, I imagine it's just a huge PITA for the other 95% of the province. Seems to me that it's widely ignored, anyway.

I often pay at the pump, but sometimes I also want to pick up a newspaper/coffee/soda. If the station is prepay, it pisses me off to have to go inside twice.

As for pay-at-the-pump, the $100 maximum per transaction (Shell and Esso) is also annoying. We drive trucks out west donchaknow. Just let me fill the tank dammit! 

All the stations I have used, in all the towns (including some pretty small ones), have insisted on pre-pay.  Probably because I look like a WCB inspector   

[prufrock]

I just stopped at the most rural station you can imagine, and of course their pumps are not outfitted with pre-pay electronics.

I walked inside, cashier gave me a once over (I must be getting old  ), and said the pump was up and running.

No pre-pay, no deposit.

Of course, I am sure I'd get shot at if I tried to steal gas. 

The oldest station in town, a Petro-Can station, was ripping out all its pumps and putting in new ones.

I have to believe that you can get more customers through each hour with pay-at-the-pump, but you might be losing those hig margin candy sales. It must be why gas is still $1.38/litre.

[HeliDriver]

All the stations I have used, in all the towns (including some pretty small ones), have insisted on pre-pay.  Probably because I look like a WCB inspector   

Don't mean to get anyone in trouble, but we never had to pre-pay in Nakusp, Kaslo, New Denver or that old-timey station somewhere north of Cooper Creek.

Then again, I suppose my wife and I hardly looked like WCB inspectors as we pulled up on our muddy dual-sport bikes. 

I have to believe that you can get more customers through each hour with pay-at-the-pump, but you might be losing those hig margin candy sales. It must be why gas is still $1.38/litre.

I've wondered about this, too. I've always heard that margins on gasoline sales are ridiculously thin, and that gas stations make all their money on convenience-store sales. If that's truly the case, then why would you want to keep customers out of the store by pushing pay-at-the-pump? 

[johngenx]

Stations had given us pay-at-the-pump long before any silly legislation did.  So, it must be a part of their business model having some customers not enter the store at all.  Interesting.