Courtesy of Daniel Greene via Flickr
My local grocery store gave me a $5 gas card for some promotion. I hate gas cards. They require me to go someplace new to pump gas. Someplace out of my comfort zone! Each station is a little different and I usually always encounter a problem on the first trip. Usually it’s user error. Actually, it’s ALWAYS user error. Here in Pennsylvania, we pump our own. Some do it proudly but I prefer to whine about it.
Today I stopped with card in hand at a new station. It is really an old station but this is the first time I stopped there. I was in the bay and I couldn’t get the thing to work. It kept flashing diesel gas.
Feeling foolish, I backed out of the bay and went to the next one. Diesel gas! It has to be broken. I am not a complete idiot. I have pumped gas before. Every time I followed directions, the diesel light flashed. Ok, now I am just mad.
I went inside. There were three young women manning the desk and one helped me right away. Another was busy with a guy who was investing his life savings in lottery tickets. I don’t think I have ever seen someone buy so many tickets and with their own numbers!
Back to the pump. She came outside and slowly reviewed the steps. She was very nice but I was feeling like a 6-year-old. Then she came to the part where you pick up the nozzle – she lifted a nozzle from the OTHER SIDE of the pump. Seems there are two nozzles – one for diesel and one for real gas.
I thanked her kindly, did my business and went inside to pay. Fortunately, she is a smoker so she was still outside and didn’t have a chance to share her latest “stupid customer” story with her co-workers. I settled my bill and then had a thought.
“Two Powerball tickets please,” I said. If that guy thinks he is going to win, he’s got another thing coming. Move over “pick-up truck guy,” “stupid old lady pumper” is going to win that pot!
Views and Mews by Coffee Kat 
I love this line: “Some do it proudly but I prefer to whine about it.” Ha!
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Funny. I tend to stick with one gas station, too ( you learn which pumps break – and which ones don’t like to give receipts.) The gas “bonus/discount cards” we get at the grocery store only work at one place quite some distance from here – and in the wrong direction. No help to me. Would rather just have cheaper prices!
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Hmmm, cheaper prices…guess that cheep thing is still on my brain from the chicken outfits post!
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Please come visit me when you win. 🙂
I loved this post!
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Ok but don’t hold your breath!
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I feel the same way about changing gas stations. My grocery store give the same reward…I just wish they’d charge less of the food I buy instead. You’re an inspiration to bite the bullet and redeem that card. Because you experiences that gaff, I learned something. Thanks!
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A $5 gift card! There’s a lot I would do for that including making a fool of myself at a gas station! I wished the gift card would have worked at the grocery store. That would have made more sense to me.
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I learned the hard way that green gas nozzles are always diesel gas … I accidentally pumped diesel into my vehicle once, only to have my son have to drain all the diesel gas, remove the gas tank, clean it, re-install it, and then fill it with unleaded. Did I ever feel like an idiot. Duh.
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That is probably why they now have the big flashing diesel sign. Most gas stations I go to have diesel at a different pump so this was new to me.
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One of the few benefits of living in NJ is the fact that I don’t have to pump my own gas. I can honestly say that I have never done it in my life. Good luck with your power ball ticket. Once you win you can pay someone else to fill your car up with gas.
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Not only is it illegal to pump your own in NJ but your gas is cheaper than Pennsylvania too!
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Still doesn’t make up for the ridiculously high property tax.
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