People at petrol filling stations....WTF

[pbrettle]

[/RANT]

What is it with people that refuse to use certain petrol pumps? Noticed it last night filling the TVR. Pull up, pop boot and start filling. Next thing there is a queue of three people behind me (you'll have to wait I'm sorry, its nearly empty and I am going to be here for some time and I need a slash and get some milk and bread....but I go into too much detail again...). However, its a big BP one and there are 12, yes TWELVE pumps of which 5 are currently empty!!!! You can queue behind me, but there are 5 free... use one of those for fcuks sake...

Ah, the penny drops with an almightly clonk. You see the fuel filler cap is on the left and the pumps that are free are on the right....that must be it!

WTF ?!?!?!

What amazes me is the fact that the people who make these pumps, Tokheim being one, have fitted flexible and extendible hoses for years. Not just one, but from what I remember something close to 10!!! So strangely these rather chunky hoses stretch from the pump to EITHER side of the car. I mean, almost tempting to write to Tokheim and tell them to just make it a short length of hose and save the costs of fitting the special long ones... no one ever uses them and can I have a cut of the savings?

The only thing that worries me on this is that I have failed to come up with a valid reason why someone cant pull the hose out (ooo errr missus) and fill up the other side? I have wrestled with the options of the following:

1) They dont know that it extends
2) They dont want to damage the paintwork
3) They arent strong enough to pull it out

Either way it is utterly scary in the fact that any of these excuses effectively rules them out from driving in the first place.....

[/RANT]

Anyone else have a better reason why these people have a complete inability to figure out how to use a petrol pump? or is the whole world going mad and full of UTTER morons????

Cheers,

Paul

[.Mark]

Perhaps they were all sat the agog at you filling up the boot?
"Ere Mabel look at that young man - greedy so and so"

You do get the strangest looks 'filling up the boot'

[Imelda]

Nope. You're right. Personally I think these people are not competent enough behind the wheel to park close enough to the pump so that the hose will stretch to the far side of the car.

But on the bright side, those of us capable of judging the width of our cars can usually find a free pump, while the numpties queue up behind each other.

Every cloud, and all that...

[Dazren]

Sometimes have fun a shell stations when only 20% of the pumps sell optimax. If they're taken I wait.

DAZ

[incorrigible]

I've been known to reverse up to pumps because there are only pumps dispensing on the right (and drive through Macdonalds in a left hand drive car but that's another story) and the looks you get are unbelievable. Is it really that hard to understand

Edited to explain, in a Range Rover not a Tiv


>> Edited by incorrigible on Wednesday 13th November 16:15

[Qualia]

1) They dont know that it extends
2) They dont want to damage the paintwork
3) They arent strong enough to pull it out

4) can't be fing arsed. That's my reason anyway

[tuscan_s]

I reverse my car to a left hand side pump. If no one else likes it then bollocks to them!

And does anyone turn their engines off while queuing? No.

[sparkey]

That's one of my pet hates too, especially if you can't get to the free pumps because of tw@ts queueing up to get the pump on the right side. Sometimes have to go out of the service station and back in by another entrance to get past the idiots and then they look at you as if you've committed some terrible crime by not being assimilated into thier cretinous mass !!

[SGirl]

The hoses don't always extend anyway.

FWIW, during the petrol strike a bloke actually came up to me and thanked me for moving to the front pump on a small, narrow forecourt and buying a tankful of Super Unleaded, rather than stopping at the back pump like everyone else in the queue had done.

Not rocket science, so why was I the only one??

[Marcos maniac]

Imelda said:

But on the bright side, those of us capable of judging the width of our cars can usually find a free pump, while the numpties queue up behind each other.

edited to add: and those of us with central filler caps can pull up to any pump

[madcop]

I can see why people don't use them onthe wrong side because they have a tendancy to mark te paint work unless you drive forwards enough so that you do not have to drape the hose over the roof or boot.

By pulling up in the normal position with the cap on the wrong side side as you would if the cap was closest to the pump, when having done so, the opposite side has a problem for dwarves who cannot see how much revenue is going into Gordons Pocket.

[DancingMoose]

I worked on forecourt construction for a while, you wouldn't believe some of what I saw.

LOTS of people shouldn't be on the road, they just float around in their own little and do the STUPIDEST things!

[beano1197]

Numpties tend to treat forecourts as if they're one way systems too! Is it a new law FFS?

[Captain Muppet]

...is the whole world going mad and full of UTTER morons????

Yes.

Cull the stupid.

BTW I got grief from a numpty last week for waiting for a pump when there were others free. I told him that there was only one pump for LRP. He told me to buy a newer car. FFS

[aww999]

Because of the position of the filler cap on the car, I prefer to wait for a pump on the correct side rather than risk damaging the paintwork with a big heavy petrol hose. I often maneuvre the car around halfway through checking tyre pressures for the same reason.

[incorrigible]

madcop said:By pulling up in the normal position with the cap on the wrong side side as you would if the cap was closest to the pump, when having done so, the opposite side has a problem for dwarves who cannot see how much revenue is going into Gordons Pocket.

There's obviously more tight-wad dwarves around than I'd noticed before

[CarZee]

hmm.. well most people's filler seems to be on the right (being in a car which is natively LHD (ford, renault, bmw etc.) whereas mine are both natively RHD (Nissan & TVR) hence filler is on the left..

And everyone else can carry on being numpties because it means I can invariably drive past a queue of berks and get petrol immediately at my local station..

[M@H]

I loose track of which side they're on so just head for any pump: TVR Passenger side, Puma Passenger side, Landrover Drivers Side, Saxo Drivers side.. ..wow, I know which is which when I'm not at the garage

[Gaffer]

If there isn't an Optimax pump free on the correct side then I do the reversing thing.

The last time I tried the "pull the hose" manuver it wouldnt reach round the back as the Jeep was too big so I never bothered again.

Claire

[nubbin]

[quote
BTW I got grief from a numpty last week for waiting for a pump when there were others free. I told him that there was only one pump for LRP. He told me to buy a newer car. FFS

---

Stuff like that really ****s me off - you give a rational, valid reason for your behaviour - and they cannot bear the logic, and come up with a pathetic insult to make them feel big! Happened to my GF today. Stood in Safeway, checking out the chicken, and some 50 year old bloke whacks her in the back with his trolley. She turns round and says, "watch where you're going", so the old twat says something like, "well you shouldn't stand in the way, bitch!" Like she's got eyes in the back of her head, and is only standing there to interrupt his shopping! Effin' w*nker would have gone home with 2 pounds of bruised plums if I'd been there!!