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I hate those gas pump guys that overfill your tank

psteng19

Diamond Member
Here in NJ we're not allowed to fill up ourselves, so they have the attendant do it for us.

After putting it on auto-fill with the lever, they leave, come back when it's done auto-filling, they fill it up some more until they reach some nice round number, like $13.50.

What annoys me is that not only is this bad for some cars (my mom's car had a recall for the gas tank that we never bothered fixing 'cuz it's kinda old), I'm always paying by credit card so it makes no sense to me as to why they do it. They don't have to give me change back.
And they KNOW I'm paying by credit card since you usually give them the card first.

Obviously they're squeezing out a couple of cents more per customer which amounts to a lot by the end of the day.

Are they instructed to do this by the station owner?

They should have a law against this. I hate having to yell at the guy, "Don't over fill my tank!" :|
Anyone else annoyed by this, or am I a weirdo?
 


<< they don't trust you guys to fill the tank yourself? that is funny! >>



i think oregon is the same way-- any other states do this?
 
We fill our own tanks in CA, and one time my dad over filled it, and gas started coming OUT from the bottom of the car! Freaked the hell outta me! I'm never gonna over fill, but he STILL does it!
 
in HK we can't fill gas ourself....


over topping is extremely dangerous, the vapor from the gasoline is going to explode if there is a slight spark
 
I heard that the reason some states like NJ have to have full service stations is that there was some sort of law suit or other. Thing I hate about full service stations... bastard lazy@$$ attendants... also, ever notice that some gas pumps are really inaccurate?

So long as the guy isn't overfilling that much that it overflows, there shouldn't be a problem. Gas does go bad and on older cars, and it attacks the various seals and such in the tank so overfilling would cause problems. But cars these days should have too much problem with being slightly overfilled.
 


<< Anyone else annoyed by this, or am I a weirdo? >>


I usually don't mind, but occasionally something like this happens:
Pump stops at $9.22 Attendant tries to squeeze it to .25, but screws it up. Tries to go to $9.50 instead and blows it AGAIN! Finally gets it right at $9.75 but now he's just pumped me 50 cents worth of gas that probably just evaporated anyway.
I give him $9.25 and tell him next time please don't try to round out the numbers.
 
I used to work at an Ultramar and then at a Petro Canada, in New Brunswick, Canada. I was never instructed to round the numbers, they never mentionned it.

However, since we keep around 43$ in our pockets (20$, 10$, 2 x 5$, a looney - 1$, and a tooney 2$) so we dont have to get inside if we can get a rounded number. When the nozzle stops before a rounded number, I usually tried to get it up to the next dollar. But some [smaller] cars just can't take anymore when the pump stops, like many Civics, so you just leave it as is. Some people specifically ask that you fill their tank as much as possible, so it's hard to keep up with everyone and how they want their tank to be filled.. and that would be stupid to ask "sir, do you want your tank to be filled, super filled, or filled until it cant take it?". With big trucks, you can squeeze out more than 5-6$ after the pump stops, do they usually want their tank to be filled to the cap.

If someone would have asked me not to overfil, I wouldnt have minded... it's easy to ask... we just don't want to go back inside 150 times per day when we can reduce that to 50 or even less...


saltedeggman, pumping your car is producing vapors, you don't have to overtop it.

Jzero, I found it weird that they continue to 9.50 if they miss it at 9.25... I *often* put 10.01$ instead of exactly 10$... even if the guy payed with a debit card or a credit card, I almost never added the 1 penny to the bill... I just took it on my own pay...... WOOOAAHHHH big deal, 15 cents short at the end of the day... geez
 


<< Jzero, I found it weird that they continue to 9.50 if they miss it at 9.25... I *often* put 10.01$ instead of exactly 10$... even if the guy payed with a debit card or a credit card, I almost never added the 1 penny to the bill... I just took it on my own pay...... WOOOAAHHHH big deal, 15 cents short at the end of the day... geez >>


It was annoying....he stopped it at like $9.27 so I figured he'd just either go with that or call it $9.25 and not worry about it.
Ah well 🙂
I don't think the Jersey gas pumping laws resulted from any kind of lawsuit. The law has been in effect for a very long time, and I think (not certain) it was simply drafted as a way to create jobs and to make it safer by only allowing "trained" attendants to work pumps.
 


<< They should have a law against this >>


THey do have a law against it, but everyone ignores it.

I pump gas on a boat dock. For some reason the automatic cut-offs are completely useless when it comes to boats. I've seen (and done it myself) people have gas shooting (literally) 2 feet into the air when the tank has another 50 gallons left to go. Usually the only way to tell if the boat is full is by knowing how much it needs and waiting till you hear it. Most of the time, a bit does spill though. with all money people put into a boat, you'd think that sombody could design a decent filler...

m00se
 


<< The law has been in effect for a very long time, and I think (not certain) it was simply drafted as a way to create jobs and to make it safer by only allowing "trained" attendants to work pumps. >>


that's what I was going to ask... do they get a specific training??? eheheheh, common, it's only pumping gaz... I've been pumping gaz in our car since I was like 8-9
 
In my state, Nebraska, it is illegal to pump any more gas once the automatic shutoff has activated. This topping off can get you a nice sized fine. Check if you have some sort of similar law in NJ. Then you can report them for violating it.

Those few cents do add up quickly - so they try to pump as much as they can.
 
The reason they have mandatory full service is to create jobs. If more people are employed, the politicians get reelected. 🙂
 


<< We fill our own tanks in CA, and one time my dad over filled it, and gas started coming OUT from the bottom of the car! Freaked the hell outta me! I'm never gonna over fill, but he STILL does it! >>




Happened to me in Los Angeles with our rental car. The automatic stop never really clicked off and I was standing there the whole time. The gas overflowed and instead of pouring out of the gas compartment, it got out from a gap between the gas compartment and ths chasis and gas started pouring out from under the car.
 
But that's just the thing.
Why do they have to round it up even when they KNOW I'm paying by credit card???
(rhetorical question... they're trying to scam every customer of a few more pennies)

It just really pisses me off sometimes.

They give me funny stares when I tell them not to overfill... 😱
 
I always try to gas up my car in Jersey, but I do it myself. The guy comes over, I get out of my car and take over the process. He doesn't care, expecially if I pay by credit card.

Also, when he's not watching, I turn the gas switch off and dump in the contents of the hose. (its probably only a few ounces, but I'm really cheap.)
 
psteng19? WTF you talking about? Its not scamming anyone.. your getting what you paid for!

Its only scamming if you werent actually getting those few cents of gas.

And so what if they round it off.. big deal! Alot of people pump their own gas using their onw credit cards.. GUESS WHAT! They round the #'s up too.

I personally always round mine up to 9cents.. buts thats only so I can recognize what the charge is for on my bank statements.
 


<< And so what if they round it off.. big deal! Alot of people pump their own gas using their onw credit cards.. GUESS WHAT! They round the #'s up too. >>



I do this.
 
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