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Mayberry Machiavelli Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-29-06 06:55 PM
Original message
Gas stations near me starting to make customer pay inside, due to
increased incidence of "drive-offs". Is this happening where you are?
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ChairmanAgnostic Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-29-06 06:58 PM
Response to Original message
1. no, but soon you will have to leave your first male born as ransom
unless your female born child is prefered by the Arab harem bosses.

Hell, we've sold them our honor. what is left?
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misternormal Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-29-06 06:59 PM
Response to Original message
2. Most AR stations have been doing that for about 8 months... n/t
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proud2BlibKansan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-29-06 07:02 PM
Response to Original message
3. For years now
One thing one of them do is they are issuing cards you can insert in the pay at pump machine. Then you get to pump your gas without prepaying. To get the card, you fill out a paper giving them your name and plate number, etc.
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NNN0LHI Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-29-06 07:02 PM
Response to Original message
4. I think the drive off thing is exaggerated
They want to get people inside to buy other stuff besides the gas. That is where there profit is at.

Don
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tives12 Donating Member (223 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-29-06 07:05 PM
Response to Reply #4
6. What more profits do they need???
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NNN0LHI Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-29-06 07:13 PM
Response to Reply #6
11. All they can get I would assume n/t
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Bluzmann57 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-29-06 07:14 PM
Response to Reply #6
12. The station owners make very little profit
Most of them are independent operators who are buying fuel from suppliers and at a high rate. So yeah, they want folks inside to buy beer, cigarettes, soda and whatever stuff they have in there. Exxon and the like are getting rich off of them as well as us.
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adriennui Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-29-06 07:03 PM
Response to Original message
5. pumping your own gas is against the law in my town
self serve is one of the biggest scams ever perpetrated by the oil companies. did anyone see the cost go down? nope.
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AllNamesHaveBeenUsed Donating Member (140 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-29-06 07:20 PM
Response to Reply #5
14. You live in NJ?
I hate not being allowed to pump my own gas. I always feel guilty letting somebody do something for me that I am fully capable of doing myself.
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bookman Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-29-06 07:49 PM
Response to Reply #14
16. I moved from NJ
At first I wasn't sure how I felt about pumping my own, but it is easy and faster. For a while they even had hand cleaner available. (Gone now--must have cut into profits. :) )

NJ never cost more than nearby states where you pumped your own. I think Oregon was the only other state with no pump your own rules. Has NJ changed recently?

BTW-Welcome to DU!
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AllNamesHaveBeenUsed Donating Member (140 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-29-06 08:06 PM
Response to Reply #16
17. New Jersey
No, it has been illegal to pump your own gas in New Jersey since 1949. http://www.infoplease.com/askeds/7-17-01askeds.html

Oregon is the only other state with this silly law.
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adriennui Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-29-06 08:57 PM
Response to Reply #14
27. i live in LI
there are a few towns which ban self serve. i'm a bit on the germphobic side so it's fine with me and i'm always amazed there aren't more fires or explosions at self-serves.
my husband won't pump his own either, especially at the prices we're paying......remember gas station attendants get paid for their service (and there's nothing wrong with that).
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KT2000 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-29-06 07:07 PM
Response to Original message
7. Yes
If not paying with a credit card one must go inside to pre-pay.
The police blotter has lots of drive-offs now.
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ayeshahaqqiqa Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-29-06 07:08 PM
Response to Original message
8. Not in my part of Arkansas
Except for one station where the pump's swipe card isn't working, you pay at the pump. We even have one station that doesn't even have an attendant-you just pay at the pump and leave.
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shadowknows69 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-29-06 07:08 PM
Response to Original message
9. Started right after Katrina in Northern New York
n/t
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niyad Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-29-06 07:11 PM
Response to Original message
10. prepay eliminates a lot of problems. I don't know why all stations don't
do that.
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ComerPerro Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-29-06 08:21 PM
Response to Reply #10
21. My only real complaint with prepay
is that in cases where I want to top the tank, I have to just guess...
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AllNamesHaveBeenUsed Donating Member (140 posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-29-06 07:17 PM
Response to Original message
13. Yep...
In both Maryland and PA. It has been going on for awhile now. The station across the street was tired of all the drive-offs.
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TheFarseer Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-29-06 07:25 PM
Response to Original message
15. I usually pay with a credit card
but the ones that aren't credit card ready, you have to pre-pay.
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ComerPerro Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-29-06 08:22 PM
Response to Reply #15
22. I pay with credit card, but inside, lol
because if you pay inside, it all gets charged at once, instead of just a $1 hold for a few days.

I use check cards...
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high density Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-29-06 08:08 PM
Response to Original message
18. Yes
Edited on Mon May-29-06 08:08 PM by high density
But I put all of my gas on a credit card anyway, so it doesn't really bother me. I don't buy gas there if they don't have pay at the pump.
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sproutster Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-29-06 08:11 PM
Response to Original message
19. Since Katrina here (boise)
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Retrograde Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-29-06 08:20 PM
Response to Original message
20. This is new?
It's been going on in California for at least 10 years, maybe more. Guess it's just another example of us being on the leading edge :-)
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TheCowsCameHome Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-29-06 08:31 PM
Response to Original message
23. Almost everywhere I go - it's been that way for a long time.
Edited on Mon May-29-06 08:43 PM by Lastlaughin08
Except at a few places where the attendant is right in the pumping area. At convenience stores? Forget about it.
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bigwillq Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-29-06 08:33 PM
Response to Reply #23
24. Same here in CT...
We always have to pay first. Inside. Unless your paying by credit but you still have to swipe your card through first in order to make the pump start.
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1monster Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-29-06 08:50 PM
Response to Original message
25. They've been doing that here for the last two years or more...
I finally gave in and started using a debit card because I was tired of having to go in to pay and then go in after I filled up the tank to get my change.
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Scout1071 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-29-06 08:52 PM
Response to Original message
26. Most pumps around me have gone "pre-pay" in the last 6 months.
Before that, hardly any were pre-pay in my neighborhood.
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AlCzervik Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-29-06 08:57 PM
Response to Original message
28. here you have to pre-pay either inside or by credit/debit card outside and
the pump shuts off at $50 and then you have to do the whole process all over again. Not that i get $50 but some people do, usually you can spot them, well hear them swearing actually.
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TreasonousBastard Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-29-06 11:04 PM
Response to Original message
29. Every time I left Joisey...
I always used the pay-at-the pumps with a card. The Joisey law just seemed to get in the way of getting out of there. Now in this part of LI, most stations seem to have attendants because people here are just too fucked up to figure out how to pump their own gas.

Before the card pumps, in NY it seems I always had to drag my ass over to some guy behind a bulletproof window and throw him some money to get gas.

Back in the 60s when I lived in Germany, a lot of pumps had slots for 5 mark coins so you could get some gas when the station was closed. Then they went to credit card pumps long before anyone here did.
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magellan Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon May-29-06 11:09 PM
Response to Original message
30. Yes, at our local Hess here in FL
The station owner went to pay inside only because he was losing on average $500/day -- not from drive-offs but through stolen credit cards.
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