Another Drive-Off? Really?

We had another drive-off yesterday. This time from a deaf guy.

This guy came in and with hand gestures, told the cashier he wanted a piece of paper. So she hands him one and he writes:

I don't know how much gas my car will take, so here is my credit card so you will turn the pump on

He hands her his credit card, she turns the pump on, and he pumps his gas.

When he gets done pumping his $45 in gas, he gets in his car and peels away.

The cashier tries charging his card and it comes up as 'suspicious activity'.

Naturally we called the police, but who knows if this guy will be found.

I'm honestly surprised that no one has done this to us before. It'd be so easy to hand a cashier an old credit card and tell her you'll be back in afterwards to pay for your gas with the card.

Then you pump as much gas as you can, and get the hell out of there.

I have no idea if that was even his real name on the card, or if he stole someone's credit card. Even though it's shitty what he did, it was a good scam on us. But now we know, and won't fall for it again. At least I hope not.

Stand There and Wait

"Okay, your total is $3.54."

The customer hands me a wad of bills. "Put the rest in gas on pump #7," he says as he walks away.

This scenario happens a lot. A customer will want their change in gas. But the problem is that they are walking away before I can tell them what that total in gas will be.

I'm sure a lot of people add it up in their heads, but most of them just trust the cashier to set their gas pump for the correct amount.

There are also the customers wanting gas that hand me a wad of bills and walk away before I have a chance to count it all out to make sure it's all there.

Please don't do that.

It's bad enough that we have to uncrumple all of your bills. The least you can do is stand there until we count it all. What would you do if I set your gas pump for $2 less than you gave me? You couldn't prove it because all of the money is safely in the cash register after you leave the store. And I'd walk out of that store with 2 crisp dollars in my wallet.

Actually, if I did this to every person that does that to us every day, I'd probably leave the store with 20 crisp dollars in my pocket. Adult bookstore here I come!

But I am an honest cashier. Others aren't though. Please take the few extra seconds and wait there until the cashier verifies the amount you have given him/her. Do that or risk having your money pocketed.

Changing the Gas Prices

We have one of those old gas price signs where we have to go outside with the long pole and change the gas price numbers that way.

A lot of stores these days have digital ones, but not us. We like to keep it old school.

However, the one thing I can't stand is when I go outside to change the price, and people bother me or yell shit at me along the way.

I've been called many names when raising the gas prices. People driving in their cars will yell profanities at me or flick me off if the gas was something like 239 and is raising to 299. Like them yelling at me will somehow cause me to say 'Oh, you're right, I shouldn't raise it. Thank you for swearing at me. Because of you, that made me realize that gas should be cheap."

Well people, I don't make the gas prices, I'm just doing as I'm told.

Even people in our parking lot will stop me along the way and ask if the price is going up or down. And if it's going up, they worry that they aren't getting it at the cheaper price because they "were in the parking lot before I started walking outside, so they should get the cheaper price". Don't have a fucking heart attack, I don't raise the price of gas until the sign outside says it first.

Raising the gas prices is one of the worst jobs for a cashier. No one should have to take that kind of abuse.

Although, anytime I lower the price, people act like my fucking best friend. The worst thing about that though is the customers that will storm in after I've lowered the price and tell me "I bought gas this morning and you lowered the price? I want a refund of the difference." Uhh, no.

It's okay, I remember every one of you that has cursed at me or given me the finger. You'll get yours one day.

I Ran Out of Gas, Can I Have Yours?

Man Busted Siphoning Gas with Hose in Mouth

Caught siphoning gas from a court house parking lot. Really? Couldn't you have picked a place that didn't have a lot of cops hanging around?

I'm surprised I haven't seen this at my store. Since we really don't have drive-offs anymore due to our 'Pay First' policy, I thought I'd see people trying to steal gas in other ways.

Instead, what I usually see are people hanging around outside asking customers for money. These people will come up with some sob story about how they ran out of gas and need to get to the hospital to pick up their grandma.

These people probably make a good living every day by claiming they need gas money.

Usually when I see people do this, I will go outside and tell them to leave, because I know it makes our regular customers uncomfortable.

If someone was outside of a store asking me for money, I probably wouldn't go back to that store if there were many others like it around. Would you?