1st Stop

Never try to buy gas here at night after hours – or any other time of day, really. Last night, at about 11pm, I tried to buy gas. The convenience store was closed, but all of the pumps were lit up, and the pump’s computer took my credit card and rewards card info, called me by name, and told me to start pumping. It simply wouldn’t pump gas. I tried another pump. Same problem. Four other customers tried to pump gas while I was there. They couldn’t pump gas, either.
Since this is the nearest gas station to my house (and I still needed to fill my tank), I came back today during business hours. When I entered my credit card this time, the pump computer said, «See cashier.» The cashier explained that, since I had tried to use my card there recently, I wasn’t allowed to use it at the pump anymore. I could prepay and guess how much it would take to fill my tank, but I couldn’t just fill the tank and pay at the pump.
When I asked why the pumps didn’t work last night, she said, «Oh, they never do. We don’t have an automatic shut-​off system, so we can’t let people pump gas without an employee here.»
«But you don’t just shut the pumps off?» I asked. «You let them look like they work, take people’s credit card information, waste their time, and shut them down the next time they try to buy gas here?»
Yep. That’s the plan. Instead of just shutting off the pumps when they close, this gas station has set up a policy to piss off their customers, waste our time, and make it as difficult as possible to buy gas. I say, if they work that hard to keep me from buying their product, why should I argue with them? I’ll never buy anything here again.

Nice clean gas station with friendly staff.