There must have been a kerfuffle over the gas situation. Perhaps Customer got her nose out of joint, and was vocal about her displeasure, and Fave was trying to smooth it over. She's good with people.
"Well, it's just what I have to do. Woman Owner says she's taking twenty dollars out of my next paycheck, to teach me a lesson. So now, unless I know you, I'm not turning on the pumps. I can't afford to get fired, or pay for every drive-off."
I've mentioned before about how the Gas Station Chicken Story has good surveillance cameras, and gets good pictures of the ne'er-do-wells who drive off without paying, as well as their license plate numbers. But the police say it is a waste of time to track them down and file charges, because they usually get off in court, after a long wait, and time taken out of the busy work schedules of the owners who prosecute them.
Anyhoo... the Gas Station Chicken Store has old-fashioned gas pumps. You can't use a card to pay. You just lift the lever under the gas pump handle after you pick it up. That makes a beepy thing go off inside, and the cashier has to flip a switch to activate the specific pump. There might be as many as eight people there at once, two on each pump.
As you might imagine, the cashier is often busy, turning on gas, accepting payments, selling other merchandise to other customers, scanning scratchers, re-stocking the ice in the soda fountains, and cleaning up "accidents" in the bathrooms. If some deadbeat drives off without paying, what is the cashier supposed to do, CHASE AFTER THEM? Actually, the Woman Owner did that once. Maybe it IS what she expects!
Anyhoo... I think this is very wrong to charge Fave for a drive-off. Update your pumps! Get the kind that take a card. Lots of times, people come in asking how to make the pump work, and how to pay.
The policy now is that if the cashier doesn't know the customer as a regular who pays, the customer must walk in, and leave their driver's license until they return to pay for the gas they pump. Since they can't pay a certain amount and have the pump shut off.
I'm sure the cashiers will receive some complaints...
I agree it is wrong to charge her for a drive off (is charging her even legal?) and with so many pumps often in use all at once, how would she know which one to chase after anyway? What is she supposed to do if more than one does a drive off? The pumps need to be upgraded to the pre-pay kind.
ReplyDeleteRiver,
ReplyDeleteI agree. They are using technology from the 60s and 70s, when an attendant would come out to pump the gas. Upgrade the system, or post signs all around saying customers must come in before having a pump turned on.
When I worked at a Casey's way back in the early 90s, they expected us to run out and get the license number of drive-offs. Back then, the police would track them down. Still, it was nearly impossible to get that number, since the car was already moving before you knew they weren't paying. It only happened to me once. It's something you can't predict.
I suppose owners can charge employees for whatever losses they attribute to them.