I Just Won A Mini-Battle At My Local Gas Station. It Felt Damn Good.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

I had to quickly run out to get baby formula but had to take my wife's car since it was parked behind me (I'm off work till jan 3rd). On the way home I thought I would surprise her with a pretty full tank of gas in the morning, so decided to stop at the local Getty. This is the only station near us still open past 10 PM.

So I pull up to get the gas and ask for 20 regular, when the manager tells me they are out of regular. Ok, so now I'm frustrated since prices are high enough already. So I ask for plus and he tells me they can't do that either, only Super. So I said "are you fucking kidding me? I ain't spendin that much money for goddamn gas, and you're the only station open!". I festered for a minute and was about to pull away when my thoughts said F that, I'm not lettin him off the hook that easy. So I got out of the car, went over to him and continued bitching.

I said "dude, no offense but this is a business like any other business. Running out of your main product just shows incompetent management and is inexcusable. In my company if something like that happened the person responsible would be out on their ass!." I continued "Since you are the manager, I think it is on your shoulders that this occurred and I'll be damned if I'm penalized for your oversights of product management. I come here all the time but WILL NOT pay that price for super. So I'll tell ya what. Since I come here all the time and get 20 regular, which is 9.6 gallons, I'm gonna pull up and you are gonna give me that same 9.6 gallons of super for the same price, since this is of your doing.!"

He looked at me with apologetic eyes and said he was sorry and to please keep coming there. He said ok, he would give me 9.6 gallons of super for the 20 dollars. I couldn't believe it. He did it. Even when the meter ran to 22 dollars + he kept it going till it hit 9.62 gallons. Good for him, good for me, it felt good.

Just wanted to share that with you all :)


on edit: sorry to have said owner. He's the manager. It is a regular big corporate getty, not a small mom and pop station. Sorry bout that.

[Bozita]

1. That warrants a "standing O" from here

Thanks.

[annabanana]

2. Good for you... and also

good for him!
Apparently he saw the justice in your rant and behaved like a responsible businessman.

[Kali]

3. Are you in Flagstaff, AZ?

Always happens to me up there!

[NV Whino]

4. There is one gas station in my neck of the woods

that sells premium for the price of regular on Fridays. (This sometimes varies--premium for price of medium.) What does that tell you about the wholesale price of gas? It tells me, there's not that much difference, and the station owner does this to get rid of the higher priced gas because no one will buy it. I suspect that he has to order so much premium if he want the lower priced gas, therefore he has to sell it at a discount just to get rid of it.

[lonestarnot]

5. Very good! Carry on.

[jim3775]

6. Why is it his fault you didn't find what you wanted? Maybe the gas truck is

coming in a few hours and he is about to re-stock. Maybe he had extra high demand today.

And why did he deserve to be yelled at because of your inconvenience? if you don't like what he had to offer you should have went to another gas station instead of berating him.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

8. LMAO LMAO LMAO

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:


Thanks for that :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[jim3775]

14. Unless he was purposefully withholding regular to try to profit on super

you had no reason to yell. I'm being serious here. Please, tell me without the dumb smilies; how are you being penalized because he didn't have what you wanted?

[Oversea Visitor]

15. I think you owe the owner a christmas present

He listen to you and he did the right thing.
A little pay back would make this guy feel nice for trying to be decent.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

18. A few have said that. I'm gonna give it some thought.

I do respect when people make the right call and especially when the put the customer first. At my job there is a very high priority on customer service and I am 100% committed to doing whatever it takes to satisfy them. I like when I see others follow suit :)

[Oversea Visitor]

78. He is running a business

At the rate of price being increase him running out wont be too surprising.
For a little business he sure got a bigger heart than the petroleum companies.

That gesture he make is out of his own pocket. A respect for you as a loyal customer. What is super what is premium what is regular? They all come out of the same ground make by the same company. Basically it means Highest profit, higher profit and normal profit. Wont be surprise they all trying to play the profit game and he just cant get any regular.

At the end of it all, small business is disappearing replace by cold hearted bottomline orientated corporations. At least that little guy feel your pain.

[HeeBGBz]

20. I like the way you think, Oversea

It would inspire him to do another good thing.

[Ouabache]

11. Mismanagement

The OP explained that if you read it. And the station owner agreed with him.

[jim3775]

21. The station owner was being nice, the OP never said the owner

admitted mismanagement.

[Guaranteed]

33. There's someone on another board right now saying, "God DAMN,

this fucking ASSHOLE pulled into my station, and we were out of regular unleaded and unleaded plus, and then he started YELLING at me with some shit about it all being my fault and that he was going to extort us by getting the amount of supreme that he would normally get for regular, and, man, I was scared as fuck! He must have had a really bad day."

[mongo]

35. Ha!

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

37. LMAO LMAO I Love the Melodrama queens!!!! LOL

Yeah, that's exactlllllllly what it was like! :rofl:

You are too much.

I barely raised my voice at all! Oh the melodrama, I love it! :hi:

[LincolnMcGrath]

42. 'queens' ?

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

45. Never heard of a drama queen before? Here, Copied A Definition for ya.

Main Entry: drama queen
Part of Speech: noun
Definition: any person who overreacts to a minor problem or situation

[jim3775]

47. Overreacts- Like yelling at a guy because you didn't get what you wanted

You are projecting.

[LincolnMcGrath]

48. Not a term that is used against men that I have ever heard.

Now gay men......:shrug:

[Feron]

74. There is a Livejournal community "Customers Suck"

This guy would be known there as an "entitlement bitch". Their lingo not mine.

And it would go something like this (however my words):

I mean seriously. Boo Hoo all they had was the premium gasoline. That's life and them's the breaks. If you didn't want to pay the outrageous price then wake up super early in the morning and fill up the tank elsewhere. You aren't entitled to anything.

I just wish that managers didn't condone this behavior. Customers aren't always right and neither is abusing an employee because you're a cheapass. The manager most likely has zero control over inventory and (gasp!) things do run out (sometimes unexpectedly). If two blends of gas are completely gone then I'm sure the owner is aware and fixing the problem. However a gas truck is not going to show up with the snap of a finger.

Personally I think everyone should work retail just to see what assholes customers can really be. Not to mention that if a gas station is overpriced to begin with and you keep buying gas there, then why bitch over a few dollars more?! Obviously you can afford it.

Gasoline is expensive and nobody denies that ,but it doesn't give you the right to berate somebody who has nothing whatsoever to do with the inventory or price. Nor does it entitle you to any freebies. Especially if your only concern is to top off a tank, pay up like the rest of us.

[blonndee]

77. Don't know if this is the same place but I love to go to

www.customerssuck.com . And I don't even work retail anymore. That site has definitely made me realize (again) what working people who have to deal with the public have to go through.

[Guaranteed]

52. And, you know what, even if the manager had said that it was his

fault that they were out of the two cheapest kinds of gas, does that justify a verbal beating? Hell fucking no.

Now, if the manager had said, "BWAHAHAHAHAHA!! I've got you locked in my talons, now, fool! I have lured you into my station under the guise of decently priced gasoline, and you have fallen for it! Now, you have no choice but to pay these ridiculous prices, or be stuck on the side of the road for the majority of the night! BWAAAAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAA!"....that would deserve some nastiness.


This? Give me a fucking break. It's happened to me before. Did I freak out and start demanding things? No. I acted like a decent human being, through my frustration.

[blonndee]

13. Man, I feel bad for that guy. Independent ownership of gas stations is

so rare and they make so little profit on gas. If it were a big Shell or Conoco or something, maybe. Maybe this guy was late paying for a delivery or something since it's gotten so expensive, or maybe like you said, it's completely beyond his control. :-(

[jim3775]

17. I've heard stories from my uncle about how hard it is to run a gas station

For the most part they don't make a profit on gas.

[Bozita]

19. A pal owned a Marathon station

They made it really rough for him. No, he didn't survive.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

22. Nah, Sorry If I misled

I didn't mean it to sound like this guy is a small indie owner. He isn't. I know he is the manager and is usually there at night. He may not be the owner, but this isn't a small mom and pop station. It is a big corporate getty. He's just the manager, and I apologize for saying owner as if he was just a small business indie battling to stay afloat in the big corporate market.

[Maddy McCall]

59. If he's the night manager, he has no control over what is ordered and...

delivered, nor when it's delivered.

You took your anger out on the wrong person. You owe this guy and apology.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

61. Will You All Stop Being So Goddamn Quick To Judge?

He is THE manager. He LOVES to rip people off. He PROBABLY had fucking regular but was trying to peddle the super since on one can afford it anymore.

[Maddy McCall]

63. You make a lot of assumptions.

How do you know that he "probably" had regular? And, on edit, name other instances in which he "loves to rip people off?"

I hope you never have to go through a disaster, like Katrina, when there's no gas anywhere for anyone. YOu will lose your mind.

I think you were wrong. That's my fucking opinion. If you don't want to hear my fucking opinion, don't start a DISCUSSION thread.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

65. Never said you couldn't

voice your 'fucking' opinion but please don't get so pissy when I 'fucking' express mine.

I wouldn't lose my mind. You don't know a damn fucking thing about me. I lived in my car through two fucking winters with no goddamn money freezing my goddamn ass off practically dying and getting harrased by cops every goddamn night. I know adversity, thank you, and can handle monumentally more than most I will ever come across.

Why you feel the need to defend this guy is beyond me.

[datasuspect]

71. if he is just the manager

of a GAS STATION (bottom feeder on the retail food chain) what would be his incentive to withhold fuel?

the guy probably makes $8/hour, it's not like he was some corporate bigwig. just a workaday schmuck like the rest of us probably more worried about late night nutjobs who might rob him more than anything.

your display was less than charitable.

[SammyWinstonJack]

43. Sometimes bullshit is just bullshit!

:rofl: Which is what I took this as.

[TahitiNut]

7. At that point, I'd probably "tip" him half the difference.

I figure an owner-operator who's actually willing to 'deal' with his customers deserves a "win-win." As supplies tighten, the smaller companies and indies have distribution problems. He may not be able to completely avoid such outages, particularly if his prices are competitive.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

12. Not Competitive. He's Generally Higher Than Everybody Else To Begin With.

He's not really one of these small local indi shops. It's a big getty with a mart etc... The service is always slow as molasses. If it had been a small local one like the one down the road (which closes early) I wouldn't have bitched to begin with :)

[Maddy McCall]

70. No one forces you to do business there.

If you don't like the service or the product, take your business elsewhere. Tell the owner why. But bitching out a wage worker over something that is probably not in his control--it's just crazy.

[Dorian Gray]

75. I gotta agree with Maddy...

It seems kind of overkill to bitch out someone for this reason. Unnecessary. Sort of rude, too.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

9. Right Fucking On!

Incompetence seems to be the excuse for everything these days, from the President on down. Like you, if I am incompetant in my job, I'm history. I say, don't accept incompetence, make people take personal responsibility! If you fuck up, fess up and do something about it! AND, hold people responsible for their fuckups. Impeach the bastards!

[Mz Pip]

10. Use regular gas

I'm supposed to use the higher octane but tried the regular stuff a few years ago and it worked fine. I run my BMW on 87 and it works just fine.

Mz Pip
:dem:

[OffWithTheirHeads]

16. This is true!

I have run 7 Porsches and 2 Ferraries on regular and they run just fine. The octain myth is bullshit.

[Redstone]

62. Sure you have.

Redstone

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

23. LOL What Are You Talking About?

I think you need to read it again :)

[Mz Pip]

24. I'm responding to your need

to by high octane fuel. I know you were ranting about the gas staion being out of what you wanted but my point was you could have bought the cheapest stuff and not wrecked your car. ;-)

Mz Pip
:dem:

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

25. The Point Was I Couldn't Buy The Cheapest Stuff. They Didn't Have Any LOL

That was the whole point. Since I couldn't buy the cheap, I asked that he give me the premium at the cheap stuff price :)

[Mz Pip]

27. Sorry, I read

your post too fast. I misread.

But good for you to get them to sell you the expensive stuff for the lower price.

I never buy the expensive stuff even though the manufacturer says I should. Doesn't make a damn bit of difference.

I need to go to bed. I can even read anymore. Too much Christmas fudge clogging up my brain.

Mz Pip
:dem:

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

28. Pleasant Dreams Mz Pip!!

Goodnight :)

[ProfessorGAC]

82. Good Choice

One only needs to run the octane level that will provide zero knock performance. If you try 87 and get knock, move up to 89. If that fixes it, then you know which to use. If your beamer runs on 87 without knocking during acceleration, you absolutely don't need anything higher.
The Professor

[Ilsa]

26. Excellent! He knows there aren't that many vehicles that

actually need that Super rip-off shit. Good for you for staying on his ass about that.

And you're a nice hubby for helping out your wife with filling her tank for her.

[Guaranteed]

29. Hey, way to berate that guy for making a mistake!

Nice!

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

30. I didn't berate anybody, get a grip.

I voiced my legitimate displeasure at being forced to buy super at outrageous prices in an already tight economy. It worked out well.

Stop acting like this was some poor poor small time guy that went home with hurt feelings. My god LOL

[Guaranteed]

34. Oh...so HE forced YOU. I see.

I thought you had been pulling away, and that you went in and demanded a reduced price on the product that you bought, all the while telling him how incompetent and culpable he personally was, whether you knew that or not.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

38. You are cracking me up tonight LOL

For the record my car never moved, I didn't walk in anywhere (gas pumps are outside, ya know?), and I had EVERY FUCKING RIGHT to voice my dissatisfaction. You would think I just stole your wallet the way you are reacting lol

[Maddy McCall]

64. Exactly. This story just doesn't add up.

If I had been the manager, I'd have pushed the panic button, and instead of being on DU bragging about verbally assaulting someone, the OP would be in jail, trying to find a someone to pay his bail.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

67. See? There You Go With The Assumptions Again

I didn't verbally assault anybody. I barely raised my voice. I just stated my case to him in a matter of fact way. Not irrationally, not abusively, just matter of factly.

It worked out well. I felt good and wanted to share. I wish some of you would get a grip on your anger issues. I didn't do a think to you all and why some of you have this vandetta is beyond me, but alas, I can take it. I have think enough skin. Just don't why some are oh so passionate about this one? :shrug:

Regardless, I'm off to bed soon. May this thread die a well deserved death.

[Maddy McCall]

68. "Anger issues?" Project much?

:rofl:

[spacelady]

31. I have a sneaking suspicion that it all comes from the same tank. n/t

[mongo]

32. Sitting on the other side of the coin

and having customers ask me for all sorts of deals everyday, I don't know how I feel about this.

The owner doesn't have a crystal ball to know exactly how much gas he is going to sell this week.

He may have been giving his customers a break last week, and didn't charge enough for his gas (his prices are based on how much it will cost for him to get his NEXT gas shipment). With the volatile prices stations here have been changing the price almost daily.

I think you ripped him off for a few dollars, personally.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

40. Trust me, there was no break on gas prices last week.

Hey, feel however you want. All I know is I felt damn fucking good at the way it turned out. I felt victory. I get raped daily on these gas prices and he had no problem raping me more with katrina, when his prices shot up wayyyyyyyy beyond where they should've been.

This is no poor soul here, he is as greedy as the rest, mark my words.....

[jim3775]

44. He's not some oil company executive, he's just a manager of a gas

station.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

49. Why Yes.... Yes He Is.... One that can't wait to jump on whatever social

issue that he can to justify skyrocketing his prices to rob us of our income.

Course, I've grown tired of defending myself to you, so reply if you must but under the awareness I won't be reading it. I feel good about the incident, and will go to bed later still feeling good about it.

Tootles for now.

[LincolnMcGrath]

41. I agree.

[hiaasenrocks]

46. I agree.

That guy shouldn't have given up the free gas.

When I was in college I worked in a small deli and we had a customer who tried this. He wanted one product that we were out of and demanded to get something more expensive for the SAME price as the lower priced item we were out of.

I told him no. He said get the manager. I told him, "I'll do better than that. The owner happens to be here."

The guy made the same demand to the owner. Then the owner said, "You can have anything we are selling at the price we're selling it."

The guy didn't like this and said something like, "You advertise that you carry this item so I should be able to get it!"

The owner, who normally was pretty calm with idiot customers said, "Get out of my store and if you come back I'll call the police. Consider yourself warned."

The guy left in a huff. It was funny and the pathetic loser never came back.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

50. Sure he should've. And He Did. Yay for him, Yay for me. Yay for us both

It was a win win. He had a happy customer and I was happy.

Wow. Some people will just take the opposite side of anything LOL

[hiaasenrocks]

51. I will take the opposite side of people

who claim a moral victory in situations that are nothing more than bitching and whining to get something for free. There's nothing noble about that. It's actually a pretty bad lesson to teach that child you mentioned in your original post. I'd be ashamed to have a father who conducted himself that way. Thankfully that baby is young enough not to know what you did and maybe by the time he/she is old enough to understand things, you will have grown up yourself.

I won't be reading any more of your juvenile chest thumping. Goodnight!

[jim3775]

53. Couldn't agree more n/t

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

55. Wow Jim. Passionate much on this one?

LOL I think your points have been made quite enough in this thread already. Don't make me paste a definition of Vandetta to you LOL :rofl:

[jim3775]

60. I thought you went to bed and weren't going to reply to my posts

Edit: Ill save you the trouble; here is the definition of "vandetta"
1963 Volkswagen Beetle Vandetta

[hiaasenrocks]

56. Thanks. I had to put that

guy on ignore. I really do worry about children who are raised by people who think they can go through life expecting something for nothing, all the while bullying people into submission. It's really sad. I can't imagine being raised by someone like that. I wish that little episode had happened at my local gas station b/c the manager there would have taught that whiney punk a lesson about life. LOL.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

58. Tis no better way to display ignorance than to be so quick to jump to

conclusions.

You have takin the incident out of context to the nth degree, judged someone you don't even know so overly harshly it's pathetic, used republican like smear tactics to have the nerve to berate my family, and then resort to name calling all without any facts or insight into the situation whatseover.

I feel for you, as I feel for all those too ignorant to think before they judge.

[OPERATIONMINDCRIME]

54. Thank God You Aren't The Parent Of My Child

Because the attitude reflected in your post above is not one I would ever want my beautiful, caring, well adjusted children to ever have to be subjected to.

Goodnight there right back.

[Feron]

76. Agreed.

Good on you and the owner. :)

[Maddy McCall]

66. What's sad is that he did this to someone who is JUST a manager.

Not even the owner. That's the route I would have taken, if I would have been so pissed.

I never thought about berating someone because they didn't have regular gas. I never even THOUGHT about doing something like that. I just wait until the next day, after the shipment arrives, or I go to another station. Free market and all. :shrug:

[mongo]

81. Managers are much more pliable to tactics like this

If he comes up a few dollars short for the day, it's just a cost of doing business.

But if a customer calls the home office and complains about him, it goes on his employment record, is discussed with his boss, etc.

[datasuspect]

72. consumers have a tremendous "entitlement" complex

this "story" is very productive and very eye opening . . .

[Mr_Spock]

36. Dayum, you're tough

:D

[Rainscents]

39. Good going!

:thumbsup:

[gulfcoastliberal]

57. Good for you!

I live in an area with a gazillion stations so I usually try to buy Citgo but if the Circle K up the street is .05/gal cheaper, then menos dinero por senior Chavez y la gente de Venezuela. Lo siento.

[mark414]

69. and you're proud of this?

ride a bike. get a car with better mileage. don't be a jerk.

americans have the cheapest gas in the world. we're spoiled. get used to it.

[Marr]

73. Sorry man, but my dad worked in a gas station the whole time I was

in grade school. Bitching at the working man doesn't impress me much. And no it doesn't matter that he's the owner- he's probably just eeking out a living.

If you want to protest gas prices, stop buying gas.

[njdemocrat106]

79. Sorry, but I'll have to side with the manager on this one

Having been behind the counter before, and knowing many others who've worked in retail, I've come to the conclusion that most customers think they're entitled to whatever they want for whatever price they want. When I'd scan a product that rang up with a higher price than the posted price on the tag, I'd say the customer's reaction 70% of the time was "That means I get this for free, right?" (No, it means you pay the price on the price tag. If the price scanned lower than the posted price, we'd sell it at the lower price, because we like being good businesspeople). Granted, I'd be mighty frustrated at not being able to purchase regular unleaded gas, but I'd probably either drive off to another station, or wait until the next day to buy gas. Then again, if he flat out forced me to buy premium gas, then yeah, I'd say it's time to play "Let's Make a Deal", or call headquarters on the dude.

I guess the gist of the story is that I over-empathise with the manager, if only because I've been in his shoes.

[AtomicKitten]

80. Damn. Will your wife rent you out?

I have some battles I'd like you to fight for me.
Well done.