At our local Tesco, I was berated for bypassing a man in a Mazda who appeared to be sat in the middle of the forecourt, waiting for one of 4 pumpsto come free. My way of doing things is to select a pump and then wait directly behind any car already there. He appeared to be aggrieved by this and asked me 'if I'd heard of the queueing system'
Surely if everyone adopted his method there'd be a single queue stretching for ages. Suppose he's the same type of person who doesn't approve of in turn filtering...
Or am I being unreasonable and selfish?
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Don't think I've seen anyone trying to queue behind 4 pumps at the same time. However he can't have been in a very good spot if you got around him.
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Some people seem to feel the urge to get cross about something most days. Wouldn't give it another thought.
I have a theory about filling stations. More cars seem to have their filler caps on the right than those which have them on the left. Mine is on the right and therefore it is admittedly marginally more convenient to stop next to a pump on my right. However, at busy times, the left side pumps are often available but a lot of drivers don't seem to realise that the hose will reach anyway and wait for a right side pump.
Queues for left side pumps are usually shorter.
Once again, don't thank me now, sending money is absolutely fine.
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>> Some people seem to feel the urge to get cross about something most days.
I think some people like it, I've worked with 'em, never happier than having an arguement or getting bent out of shape about something. Some people need that friction. Personally I'm with you I couldn't be bothered.
However, at busy times, the left side pumps are often available but
>> a lot of drivers don't seem to realise that the hose will reach anyway and
>> wait for a right side pump.
>>
Some petrol station such as Sainsbury's have signs saying the hoses are long enough. Some don't choose them on purpose, worried about scratching or dirtying their cars by dragging the hoses across them.
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Dieselboy,
Your way is the accepted norm. The other fellow is a prize tit.
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I was frustrated by a woman waiting for a pump to come free on the correct side for her filler.
She was in an MX5!
The filler's on top of a rear wing.
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Westpig, this is pretty much what I told him. I got told off by my wife though, in case he turned out to be a Kenneth Nwoye mk2.
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Unless one drives a very big/wide car the hoses will stretch to either side of the car. I am amazed to see huge queues at my local Sainsburys when a Total garage sells petrol 200 yards away for the same price and with no queues.
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>> Unless one drives a very big/wide car the hoses will stretch to either side of
>> the car. I am amazed to see huge queues at my local Sainsburys when a
>> Total garage sells petrol 200 yards away for the same price and with no queues.
>>
Don't they get tokens or something?...to go towards the next shop.
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>> >> Unless one drives a very big/wide car the hoses will stretch to either side
>> of
>> >> the car. I am amazed to see huge queues at my local Sainsburys when
>> a
>> >> Total garage sells petrol 200 yards away for the same price and with no
>> queues.
>> >>
>>
>> Don't they get tokens or something?...to go towards the next shop.
>>
They could be using Sainsbury's discount vouchers.
There's a filling station near me which has maybe 8 double sided pumps arranged in a single line and the hoses won't reach around to the opposite side - I presume on purpose so you're not exposed to the car at the next pump pulling in. I've seen - and experienced :( - the same thing in more conventional filling stations where the space is fairly tight between rows of pumps
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Nectar points, dear boy!
I take delight in buying Sainsbury's fuel using a Tesco credit card (immediately paid off on-line when I get home!)
Nectar points on the petrol: Tesco club-card points on the credit card!
Last edited by: Roger on Sun 17 Nov 13 at 17:17
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>> Nectar points on the petrol: Tesco club-card points on the credit card!
Only one clubcard point per £4 spent though.
If you fill up at certain Tescos then you'd get 5 clubcard points per £4 spend.
Note that some Tesco forecourts are now only giving 1 clubcard point per £2 spent on fuel, unless you buy Momentum99.
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When Clubcard started we would regularly get up to about £15 to £20 in vouchers a quarter. Our spending pattern hasn't changed, although prices have increased, but we now get about £6 per quarter.
I know there are those doubling up type schemes, but there never seem to be anything useful for us, so we just use the £6 at some point on a standard grocery shop. Better than nothing I guess, although no doubt we've paid more than £6 extra on groceries by shopping at Tesco in the first place. It's convenient is all.
Last edited by: Crankcase on Mon 18 Nov 13 at 11:30
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>> I am amazed to see huge queues at my local Sainsburys when a Total garage sells petrol 200 yards away for the same price and with no queues.
>>
You must collect the points, so I am told!
The brain washing must be working :-)
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Another good way to annoy people like that is to spot a free pump in the front position, drive round the side to the exit, then reverse smartly into the space.
Don't get me on the subject of people who block the LPG pump while queing for petrol, or park for the shop so that they get blocked in by someone buying LPG.
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>> Don't get me on the subject of people who block the LPG pump while queing
>> for petrol, or park for the shop so that they get blocked in by someone
>> buying LPG.
One of the problems with having LPG is lack of LPG pumps. (or even lack of garages with LPG pumps) If you drive an LPG car you knew this before you bought it / converted it and have to suffer it. Tough luck
Last edited by: VxFan on Mon 18 Nov 13 at 01:09
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>> Don't get me on the subject of people who block the LPG pump while queing
>> for petrol, or park for the shop so that they get blocked in by someone
>> buying LPG.
>>
Quite rare round here, there's only garage that sells it within a 20 mile radius.
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>> Another good way to annoy people like that is to spot a free pump in
>> the front position, drive round the side to the exit, then reverse smartly into the
>> space.
At Sainsbury, Northampton Sixfields the lanes between the pumps are wide enough for three cars so no problem with spaces being vacant but 'blocked'. Nowadays they've got all fuels (U/L, super U/L and diesel) at all pumps but I'm sure other places, particularly those with 'premium' mixes, BP Ultimate etc do not.
The so called long hoses are a bit of a fib though. In a boxy car like the Berlingo you need to go past the pump in order to trail hose round rear.
Also prone to confusion now as while Enrico's filler is on the right Fleur's is on the left.....
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>>the Berlingo you need to go past the pump in order to trail hose round rear.
Yes, well, there are, I believe anyway, special pumps for commercial vehicles... I think the protocol is to dash into the shop waving some kind of fuel card and ask permission to use them.
;-)
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the way it always seem to work round here is that (if there is room) you choose a line of pumps to queue at, not all of them at once.
If you were able to drive round him and get to a pump, clearly he was blocking the system up
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Good, I was starting to doubt my approach for a moment!
Ah well, he was a eejit then. As Runfer says, I'll just forget about it and move on.
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Coincidentally, since I posted above I've just been to fill up. Three car queues at the right side pumps, two left side pumps available. My car is fairly big and wide but not so much that it wasn't easy to use the pump.
Sadly though, I hadn't bargained for the woman in front of me in the petrol station shop who wanted to pay for the 6 boxes of Pringles on one card, the cigs with cash and her petrol with another card but then remembered that she had a discount voucher for the petrol, oh and could she also have a scratch card, yes she'd pay cash for that...
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>>
>> Sadly though, I hadn't bargained for .....
>>
There's often a snag if one queue is suspiciously short. The operator is a trainee having difficulties, the customer in front wants to pay with a cheque from a bank that is so posh no one has heard of it, the moving thingy has been gummed up with spilt fruit juice, or the till operator is going off duty but only the first customer knows that.
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>> the way it always seem to work round here is that (if there is room)
>> you choose a line of pumps to queue at, not all of them at once.
>>
>>
Exactly. Just like supermarket checkouts really.
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Not at all - I can't be queuing for Nectar points when I can fill up and pay with no queues, a few yards away
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Single queue - multi server is the the most effecient way to provide service for non thinking customers arriving at random (IIRC) - which is why many post offices and banks have adopted the model. The difficulty with a petrol station is finding the space for the long snaking queue of cars!
However if you are student of human behaviour and human stereotypes you can probably do better by avoiding certain types people in multi queue situations. Well you like to think you can :) Every now and again you get it horribly wrong!
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You snooze you loose, sit in the middle waiting for all the pumps and I will drive right around ya, I do it quite often, there are no dibs.
If there are none free I pick a pump specific queue and stick to it, I dont much care if I pick the slow one either, some people do though, they get very annoyed at people having the cheek to fill their tank and make em wait.
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>> I dont much care if I pick the slow one
Don't get behind a Mk2 MX5. Mine is an incredibly slow filler at most pumps. It can take 10 minutes to get 40 litres in.
The one queue thing is daft. How can you know whether he is waiting for a specific island or side? Or his/her wife/husband in the shop? But it might be catching on. They were all doing it at the Asda in Carlisle a couple of weeks ago, and the queue was blocking the main car park exit. That's a self service one too, with no shop IIRC, so there didn't seem to be much point.
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It's always tempting on a bike to "Filter" to the front of the queue, but I've never had the nerve to do it.
It might cause friction.
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I quite enjoy letting SWMBO go and pay while I fill up. I then replace the nozzle, promptly jump in the car and drive out of the way. It's fun to see the looks on some people's faces.
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I was in one station in Peterborough, filling up a white van. The driver stayed in while I filled up.
They shut the pump off after 5 litres, and refused to start it again till we prepaid, assuming we were travellers trying to do a "drive off".
I was so annoyed I refused to pay for the 5 litres we did get and told them to call the old bill. They declined, so we got 5 litres free and filled up elsewhere.
Last edited by: VxFan on Sun 29 Jul 18 at 19:59
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>> I quite enjoy letting SWMBO go and pay while I fill up. I then replace
>> the nozzle, promptly jump in the car and drive out of the way. It's fun
>> to see the looks on some people's faces.
I've done a variation on that where I go pay while Miss B drives the car off. Sainsbury's don't like it; we got a mild telling off.
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My policy on this is to drive round any car that isn't actually in a proper queue. Waiting off piste while faffing with handbag or wallet to make sure the correct money/card is there is not queueing, in my book.
Anyone who complains aggressively is dealt with in either of two ways...telling him to eff off is satisfying but even more so is totally ignoring said aggressor, pretending to be deaf. That riles them even more.
I use Tesco locally. Both sides will suit the cars, but not the vans. I like to pay at the kiosk so only 4 pumps are available to me. I've often filtered round the queue on a bike. It doesn't take long to stick in the few litres needed then I'll push it out of the way before paying.
If there's a biggish queue behind me then I'll drive the car off the pump and go in and pay. I don't like ' pay at pump '...there's no chocolate there !
Ted
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There's no etiquette. You just go to the first pump you can reach without a car in front of it. Of course you have to be reasonably polite, but then you always do if you don't want constant hassles. It's a non-issue.
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Of course we haven't touched yet on the subject of people who come in the "wrong" direction.
Big sevices are obviously one-way, a little two-pump village garage is clearly either way, but somewhere in between comes the moderately big garage, where most people go one way but about a third go the other.
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Funny how some things are different at different garages.
In Royston the Tesco's Diesel pumps handles are always coated in diesel (regardless of which pump).
Everytime , my hands stink of it and as you can imagine, it doesn't wash off easily.
Just to add, there are never any gloves either when I checked.
Someone must be having a laugh, I don't have this problem in my local town.
Must be a better class of scum in my locality. he he
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I have a sort of elimination test when selecting a fuel stop.
1 I never refuel before the low fuel warning shows.
2 Never use a fuel stop that is not on "my" side of the road
3 Never use a supermarket - too busy.
4 Never queue - more than one car in front and I'm out of there.
5 Don't pay more than a couple of pence per litre over the going rate.
My wife tends to get a bit stressed!
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The cheapest local station, is big, but you still get bunfighs. I only go well off peak, but it's with 1/4 mile of where I live.
Have to take a can for the vintage car as the pumps there have over strong return springs and attack my paint. The filler is in the scuttle (think bonnet for conventional) cars.
Last edited by: Slidingpillar on Mon 18 Nov 13 at 09:55
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>>
>> Someone must be having a laugh, I don't have this problem in my local town.
>> Must be a better class of scum in my locality. he he
>>
Or a worse one. Perhaps they don't bother filling up at the pumps round your way, just take it direct from the locals' tanks? ;-)
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>> Unless one drives a very big/wide car the hoses will stretch to either side of
>> the car. I am amazed to see huge queues at my local Sainsburys when a
>> Total garage sells petrol 200 yards away for the same price and with no queues.
>>
Yeah, but the hoses are covered in grit stuck to the diesel which you drag over the back of the car or the roof. So I queue up and stand next to the car normally instead of trying to get a hose which isn't quite long enough to reach the filler.
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Well what a surprise. I'm in a minority here.
If I enter a forecourt and all pumps are in use, and I'm the first and only one waiting, I'll hover waiting for the first free pump wherever it is. Reason? If I commit to a pump, and someone drives off another pump, then it can be difficult/impossible to change (depending on the specific forecourt), and you feel like a lemon sitting there when there's a perfectly useable pump free. People who arrive after me at a lucky moment where it becomes obvious that Pump 1 (for example) is about to be liberated, and drive around me to that one, are pushing in and this is poor form. I assume they're an immigrant, one of the kind which has not integrated with our society (you know, the bad ones, nudge nudge, wink wink) as it simply isn't the British way.
However, if I enter a forecourt in which there is/are already queues for pumps, then I'll select a specific pump/queue and join it.
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I observe that people are getting shorter fuses when it comes to waiting for slow-coaches to move forwards in a queue.
If you are waiting behind some parked cars that are restricting a stretch of road to single line, you have to stop aggressively out with your wheel over the centre and be quick off the mark when a break comes, or someone behind will nip out, and you are left sitting feeling stupid having effectively been forced to park there as a stream of other cars follws suit.
In a shop like Spar where you queue next to shelves of stuff, if you nip out briefly to grap a Mars bar the queue will immediately close up.
If you hesitate approaching temporary traffic lights that are just changing from green, you will be overtaken by a stream of red-light jumpers.
I've done it myself. The price of politeness is to be pushed into the gutter.
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>>Well what a surprise. I'm in a minority here.
I'm with you. Common sense approach really. Keep your options open, but don't annoy anybody else. And then end up pushed into the gutter as Cliff Pope says.
Last edited by: Mapmaker on Mon 18 Nov 13 at 10:58
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>> I'm with you. Common sense approach really.
Please don't accuse me of having Common Sense. It's only one short step from there to being thought a UKIP voter.
;-)
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>>>If I enter a forecourt and all pumps are in use, and I'm the first and only one waiting, I'll hover waiting for the first free pump wherever it is..
Well polite and relaxed that I am in such situations I'd drive round you assuming you'd broken down or were distracted texting etc.
If you berated me I'd treat you with sympathy and kindness assuming you were new to filling up near me and didn't know my system.
>>>you feel like a lemon sitting there when there's a perfectly useable pump free.
I never get that feeling, just listen to the CD for another minute or two.
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Why wouldn't you assume I was waiting for the first available pump F, and let me go to it as soon as available? Surely that would make the most sense. A quick look at me (the driver) would tell you if I'm alert and waiting or texting (in the case of the latter, though, launch torpedos and destroy).
I wouldn't berate you, I'd simply sigh and think to myself how it was all so much better in the old days and wonder where have everyone's manners gone.
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>>>how it was all so much better in the old days and wonder where have everyone's manners gone.
Well that's the thing it's not a lack of manners issue...
I'm in no rush and I'm the most uncompetitive person in a queue. But in taking up what you know you intend to be a single queue position you are doing something that is in you mind and others may have a seperate queue in their minds. It is impossible to cover 4 lanes from a hover position unless you are a little way back such that you might be doing something else.
I may also pass you becuase I can see that you aren't going to take the opportunity of a wrong side for filler position which I will always do.
You need a scrolling LED in the back window that states... Do not pass I am first in the queue.
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>> I may also pass you becuase I can see that you aren't going to take
>> the opportunity of a wrong side for filler position which I will always do.
You can't make that assumption. I always go wrong side if that one is free first.
>> You need a scrolling LED in the back window that states... Do not pass I
>> am first in the queue.
Hovering noncommittally (spell check says that's right but I'm not so sure) should say that clearly enough. I'm afraid I still believe it to be a manners issue. If you wait a few seconds, to give the person in front time to act, and they still don't, then by all means go for it. But don't just sweep in off the road and go straight to the pump which is freeing up when there's someone waiting already. Give them a bit of time, doesn't cost much. You wouldn't go straight from the door to a Post Office window if there's one person in the snake.
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Alvonic, do you do the same in the supermarket, or do you choose one till and queue at it?
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In my case there wasn't a pump freeing up, I simply started queueing where one should, ie behind a car that was using a pump.
You seem to want everyone to wait for you?
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>> You seem to want everyone to wait for you?
>>
Isn't that what waiting in turn means? You seem to want to push in front of everyone.
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>> Alvonic, do you do the same in the supermarket, or do you choose one till and queue at it?
I'll answer that if you answer my Post Office question.
Last edited by: Alanović on Mon 18 Nov 13 at 13:08
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Well, you just carry on mimsing around the forecourt.
Last edited by: Dieselboy on Mon 18 Nov 13 at 15:47
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>> Well, you just carry on mimsing around the forecourt.
>>
Thanks, I will.
You carry on pushing in, and we'll see who get the first punch in the teeth. From your OP it's evident your method is liable to win this race already. I've never been harangued on a forecourt by any angry pushee.
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No, they're all wondering why you're fannying around in the middle of the forecourt with no real purpose.
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I think we're going to have to leave this one here if you're not prepared to accept the fact that there are differing approaches, which do not constitute fannying around with no real purpose. You genuinely think someone has driven on to a petrol station forecourt with no real purpose? After all, your original question was whether you were justified or not. It seems you were unwilling to accept the answer you didn't want from the outset, so why ask?
Really, why do people have to be so impatient and pushy just because they're in a car?
No wonder the bloke you saw "fannying around" gave you a mouthful. He was just trying to wait his turn and you pushed in.
"Oh, what dust clouds I shall make! What carts I shall fling into the ditch!"
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My reply was suppose to be jovial. Maybe I should have shoved a smiley in there.
See my reply further down. I said so there appears to be two methods. How the two mix in practice I do not know.
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OK. Peace, and may all your fill ups be non-threatening to your dentistical arrangements.
:-)
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Just as well my Mazda6 appears to be returning over 53mpg at the minute, and I generally fill up at silly o'clock on the way to work.
:-)
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>> OK. Peace,
Well, that's a relief. I thought I might have to come to the agitated forecourt to push in front of both of you in my special filthy battered old Range Rover with no passenger seat and crash protection front and rear fashioned from rusty old scaffolding, protruding four inches beyond normal bumpers.
Get you to the pump of your choice in no time that will. Amazing how polite other drivers are to it.
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> Do not pass I
>> am first in the queue.
>>
I remember during the petrol crisis in 1974 garages tried to ration petrol by asking someone say 10 cars back in the queue in the road to display a sign saying "Last car to be served - station closing".
He then sold the card to the one behind, who sold it to the next ....
Last edited by: Cliff Pope on Mon 18 Nov 13 at 13:40
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I don't que if I can help it.I top the tank up once a week a petrol station near our house Texaco.Usual go when it is quet and if it is to busy I leave it for the next day or same evening to top up.
You have done nothing wrong Dieselboy.I notice many people tank up only when the nozzle is at the same side as the filling point of the car.You don't have to just a matter of stretching the hose to fill up.My missus always tells me off when I pay more for fuel.Tesco filling stations to busy for me to save a few pence.
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>> I don't que if I can help it.
Sounds like most people on this forum would pass the Dutchie on the left hand side if you were queuing.
;-)
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Green thumb, as I always do, for the minor chuckle. I do like a good bad pun.
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>>My way of doing things is to
You start by making it clear you have your own way and do not expect everybody to do it. No surprise that they don't then...
>> Surely if everyone adopted his method there'd be a single queue stretching for ages.
It is a method that only works where there isn't much of a queue.
The point you're missing is that it's quite likely to be faster for you to adopt his method and queue behind him - rather than to stick behind one pump.
>>How do you queue in the supermarket?
I use Waitrose Quick Check so never have to queue.
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>> It is a method that only works where there isn't much of a queue.
That's right. When it's very busy, then selecting a pump is the proper method.
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I'm so glad I don't live in an overpopulated, me first, part of the country that is in permanent rat race mode.
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Ah well. It seems there are two methods that can be used then. Maybe I'll ensure I only go to ramjampacked filling stations so I can be guilt free.
Wonder what the other geezer's blood pressure is like...?
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Observations over the past few weeks -
Pedestrians crossing the forecourt entrance - sod 'em, you need fuel, right ?
Uncertain which pump to use ? With no thought at all, it is possible to obstruct the pavement, forecourt entrance and the main road whilst you make your mind up.
Two pumps free at the far side of the garage ? Always use the nearest, but stop about 2 ft way from the pump so that it is virtually impossible for anyone to get round you. Encouraging your passenger to open their door will stop them if they try.
If putting a full tank of diesel into a 7 tonner, wait until you get to the till before asking if they take your agency card
Feel free to spend as long as you want browsing the magazines, there won't be anyone waiting to use the pumps
When pulling away from the pump, there is no need to look around you, there couldn't possibly be anything moving
If you failed on point 2, you can compensate for it by stopping in the middle of the exit whilst you try and program your next destination into your sat nav
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Or, upon returning to the vehicle having paid for fuel, had discount card topped up, bought sweets, remembered to buy milk and queued up again, sit in driver's seat, examine receipt, enter mileage in notebook, search for handbag / wallet / briefcase, open same, place receipt in special compartment therein, replace handbag / wallet / briefcase on back seat, turn rear view mirror to examine lipstick, colour of teeth, condition of hairstyle, turn mirror back to required position, start engine, tune radio to favourite station, move off for about 2 feet, stop, remember to put seatbelt on, realise mirror still isn't quite right, adjust mirror, feel sudden need to check text messages, move off...
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I have to re-fill my pantechnicon once a week. I have a fuel card. which means I can use the local Morrisons forecourt. THis forecourt has a high enough canopy to avoid contact with the truck (!) - The diesel filler is on the nearside and the generator filler is on the offside. What I've learnt is that the truck needs to go into the centre of the forecourt, end pump. Fill the diesel tank. Reverse out and drive across to the opposite pump and fill generator. This takes time. All this is done pretty quickly, what I have noticed is my fellow filler's complete lack of organisation. I'm constantly waiting for drivers to return to their cars as they wander mindlessly about randomly gaping at flowers and Ginster pies....
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>> I'm constantly waiting for drivers to return to their cars as they
>> wander mindlessly about randomly gaping at flowers and Ginster pies....
>>
The petrol stations encourage this sort of thing because of the extra high profit income it generates.
If after filling one returns to ones vehicle and moves it to a parking spot, the staff think you are going to do a drive off, so it makes sense to leave the car on the pump while you go into the shop to buy your pies.
How is a chap supposed to get his pies?
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They can't release the pump until you've paid anyway, so there's no point moving off pump and parking up.
It's actually because of the extra low profit there is in petrol/diesel retailing - they need to sell other stuff to make the business worthwhile. Without the pies and umbrellas there wouldn't be any petrol retailers left.
Last edited by: Alanović on Mon 25 Nov 13 at 15:38
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>> They can't release the pump until you've paid anyway, so there's no point moving off
>> pump and parking up.
Even if the pumps won't release there may be a point on a tight site.
If there's no room to get out until the guy in front moves somebody can be filled up and trapped behind a car with its driver still in the queue for the till.
In those places I go pay while another member of the family moves the car off the pumps.
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>> They can't release the pump until you've paid anyway, so there's no point moving off
>> pump and parking up.
>>
Interestingly, they can at my LPG place. There seems to be more of a cameraderie amongst gas users. The other day I was waiting (unusually) for someone to finish filling. When he had filled up he moved his car forwards so I could get to the pump, and it immediately re-set and let me start filling while he was still walking to the cash desk.
Presumably they can "park" the previous sales details and move on to the next customer.
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From a proper pie shop !
Depending on where I am, I'll shift out of the lanes before going to pay, especially when I'm out on the bike. Another pet hate is when motorcyclists remain mounted on their steeds when filling up.....looks so foreign....so to speak.
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Another pet hate is when motorcyclists remain mounted
>> on their steeds when filling up.....looks so foreign....so to speak.
>>
If you've only got a prop stand and you want to brim it you have to.
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Noooooo....the Street Triple is centre stand-less and it's easy to brim !
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>> Another pet hate is when motorcyclists remain mounted on their steeds when filling up.....
Did that years ago with my FS1EFizzy. It wasn't self service and the clown with the nozzle ended up drenching my crotch in petrol when he overfilled the tank because the auto shut off didn't work.
It wasn't until a few miles down the road that things started getting uncomfortable in the trouser department. Reminds me of Humph's post the other day.
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Not Ginsters, for Pete's sake.
Urghhhh.
Last edited by: Roger on Mon 25 Nov 13 at 17:32
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When in France years ago, I discovered the joys of the pump trigger lock. I don't know if they still have them enabled. Probably not.
Here, the trigger lock doesn't work on any station I've ever used, although I do sometimes try it as the lever is still present.
The Americans seem to be in a changeover period at the moment, with them being phased out.
Apparently it's quite common over there to use tennis balls, keys, wallet or this:
brokensecrets.com/2009/12/21/locking-the-gas-pump-trigger/
Not brave enough to try that in Tesco I don't think.
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>> When in France years ago, I discovered the joys of the pump trigger lock. I
>> don't know if they still have them enabled. Probably not.
Not found one active in France for many years.
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I can understand why they've been phased out, but I suspect that the person who initiated said phase-out never had to put 300 litres in an HGV on a freezing cold night with sideways hailstones on top of the M62.
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That'll be Hartshead Moor:)
Wound my trailer legs down before I went to bed one night there because I thought I was going to get blown over. I don't think it did any good but I felt better!
Pat
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>>
>> The Americans seem to be in a changeover period at the moment, with them being
>> phased out.
>>
>> Apparently it's quite common over there to use tennis balls, keys, wallet or this:
>>
I was over there earlier this year, yeap disappearing fast. They have started to put this long plastic covers the means you can't do the tennis ball in the handle as you have to press the cover back to keep the fuel flowing.
Last edited by: sooty123 on Tue 26 Nov 13 at 11:24
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Hidden in the link above is this video. OK maybe not a problem for diesel, but should make petrol engine owners think!
www.metacafe.com/watch/862578/static_electricity_causes_fire_at_gas_station/
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Unreasonable and selfish, correct!
i have had this argument with my husband.
i don't understand how anyone can think it is ok
to just drive in front of someone who got there
first and has been waiting. There are no circumstances
where this is ok. Hope everyone is clear now!
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Odd first post - can't see what they're selling.
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Er... point of order nicola41: it's not OK to nip past someone and bag their turn when they've been waiting patiently and have started to move. But if they've got out of the car and gone into the shop, or seem to be asleep when their turn comes, well, needs must when the devil drives. As a longtime Londoner I even get impatient with people down here in the sticks who carry on talking to the cashier for a minute or two after paying. All the time in the world, cows won't be in from the fields yet so what's the rush... Goddam yokels in the goddam way...
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>> Unreasonable and selfish, correct!
>> i have had this argument with my husband.
Sorry Nicola, for once in his life your husband is right, and you are wrong.
Hope the marriage survives this shock.
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You all need to learn some manners. I am in just as much of a rush as everyone else. I hate queueing but i understand the difference between right and wrong.
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>> You all need to learn some manners. I am in just as much of a
>> rush as everyone else. I hate queueing but i understand the difference between right and
>> wrong.
I think you have the situation wrong. When there are 3, 4, 5, 6 lines of pump islands, each with three pumps on, you seriously expect everyone to queue in the road so one bloke can block up the entrance to the station? if so you are seriously mistaken.
Given that, say, cobham services has 15 islands (thats 45 pumps) in total and serves tens of thousands of fillups a day, your approach would have them queuing onto the M25.
Given that EVERYONE (thats everyone except you and the bloke in the original post) understand the "queue at the island" concept, I would suggest you are seriously out of step or a windup merchant.
Given you have registered on here, just to make that post, I would say the second is favourite.
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I'm guessing the 41 in nicola41 refers to your year of birth? Life moves at a different pace these days. You call it selfish, others call it efficient. To have every car waiting one at a time for the next available pump on the whole forecourt simply isn't practical.
I hope I don't ever go to MacDonalds** whilst you are in the queue!!
* for those of a certain age........ MacDonalds is a fast food burger** chain for people who don't like queueing and waiting around all day.
** you probably call them beefburgers.
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Few things elicit satisfaction more than bypassing someone waiting at a specific pump because their car fills on driver's side and the only available pumps are on the left side of the space.
One then drives stright into a vacant bay and stretches the hose across the top of the car and into *the filler on the driver's side*
Does that make me Hitler?
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>> Does that make me Hitler?
Mengele fits the bill better there doc.
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>> Does that make me Hitler?
Steady on Lygonos, toxic reference and all that.
There are times in big petrol stations when cars are flooding in and the sensible thing to do is go to the next available pump trying to stay out of the way. It's embarrassing to be baulked when you're in the way but it happens sometimes. Really you just have to stay on top of it and react promptly to opportunities without being pushy or getting involved in a silly after you cecil after you claude scenario. Not always easy, and you have to be tolerant too.
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Were you on a train to London yesterday? You were probably the arrogant male who thought his coat deserved a seat over all the people who were having to stand.
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>> Were you on a train to London yesterday? You were probably the arrogant male who
>> thought his coat deserved a seat over all the people who were having to stand.
Sit on his coat, he would soon get the message.
(PS yesterday was saturday, trains to London are rarely that crowded at the weekend that there is nowhere to sit)
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As opposed to the selfish old dear who thought she could hold up everyone else behind her to ensure she got to a pump in the quickest possible time?
One word. Hypocrisy.
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>> Were you on a train to London yesterday? You were probably the arrogant male who
>> thought his coat deserved a seat over all the people who were having to stand.
If there's a coat or bag on a seat then you ask 'sorry, but could I use that seat please?'. Tone can be apologetic or menacing depending on how bl**din obvious it was that seat is needed for a standee.
Never failed me in 25yrs of long distance commuting.
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SQ
>> Never failed me in 25yrs of long distance commuting.
My erstwhile neighbour asked a young chap if he would move his bag, on a tube, and was knocked to the floor and kicked in the head for his trouble.
Last edited by: VxFan on Mon 8 Dec 14 at 10:28
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>> You were probably the arrogant male who thought his coat deserved a seat over all the people who were having to stand.
My cousin's grandfather, a frightening man, was said (when someone got into his first-class compartment, took his boots off and rested his feet luxuriously on the seat opposite) to have picked the boots up and hurled them out of the window, calling his travelling companion a 'filthy swine' as he did so.
A choleric individual obviously. You don't get many like that nowadays. All died of seizures no doubt.
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>> Were you on a train to London yesterday? You were probably the arrogant male who
>> thought his coat deserved a seat over all the people who were having to stand.
People travelling to London on a Saturday are grockles.
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>> Were you on a train to London yesterday? You were probably the arrogant male who
>> thought his coat deserved a seat over all the people who were having to stand.
>>
Not the best analogy.
The person whose coat occupies a seat he doesn't need is being a 'dog in the manger' - he doesn't need it himself (his coat could go on the rack), but wishes to stop anyone else using it.
A bit like the person unilaterally trying to impose a 'post office' queueing system at a fuel station. He doesn't want to join a pump queue himself, in case it turns out to be the 'wrong' one, but will get annoyed if somebody else does it.
That's never going to work in any but the smallest station, especially when most drivers only want a left or right handed pump, and none of them is a mind reader.
The post-office-queuer is more likely to be the one with his coat on the seat next to him, and probably his mucky feet on the one opposite.
Just pick your pump queue, make your intention obvious, and stop blocking the forecourt.
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>>I'm guessing the 41 in nicola41 refers to your year of birth
MENSA rating mayhaps.
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Welcome to the show nicola.
I am ok.
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If you're annoyed at someone nipping to a pump in front of you, I have to wonder why you didn't get there first.
Do you find others undertake you on the motorway too?
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Perhaps we could adopt the same principle in supermarkets where they have 20 checkouts open but we just form 1 long line and just filter to each as it becomes free?
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>> Perhaps we could adopt the same principle in supermarkets where they have 20 checkouts open
>> but we just form 1 long line and just filter to each as it becomes
>> free?
>>
...and toll booths. Hang back on the m/way and wait until one is completely free.
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>> i have had this argument with my husband.
Not the first, by the sounds of it........
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Welcome to the madhouse Nicola.
If you've got a mo pop to the Introduce Yourself page and say Hi; might onvine the the regulars you're NOT one of us on a wind up mission.
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I for one have had quite enough onvining.
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>> I for one have had quite enough onvining.
onvining = convincing
Need new keyboard - the letter C requires a substantial direct hit to register anything.
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We've got too many onvines in the this country already. We certainly don't need any more.
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I did hear that there was a large onvine gathering on the M4 the other day. I hope they didn't delay anybody important.
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>> I did hear that there was a large onvine gathering on the M4 the other
>> day. I hope they didn't delay anybody important.
Nahh they were either ovine or bovine.
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Can you believe my dog of a husband has just admitted that he created a fake diesel boy profile so he could hurl abuse at his lovely wife.
he is one of those beasts who ignores all the sensible people queueing.
he wont be getting any for a while!
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>> he is one of those beasts who ignores all the sensible people queueing.
Nicola,
There's times to be polite and queue..and times not to.
To clarify, do you think that when entering a petrol station that has multi pumps, people should queue at the entrance and wait until one of the multi pumps is free...or do you advocate choosing a pump and then queueing at that individual one?
Because if it's the former a fair few people on here, inc me disagree. If it's the latter then we are all in agreement.
Should it be the former, I'd like to say that it would be inconsiderate to queue at the entrance and potentially risky, because the queue would form up where it is not intended. Imagine doing that at a toll booth on a motorway or a petrol station right next to a dual carriageway where the entrance/exit is very near the fast road.
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The key to all this, is the acceptance that the pump island you join will be the slowest. If you change to another island that appears to be moving faster, it will become the slowest.
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Even on a station where choice is simply diesel or petrol and every pump does both a single queue won't work. At Fosse Park the cars'd be backing up onto the ring road. If it was meant to work that way there'd be a ferry type queue on the car park and a marshaller to call you forward in turn.
Factor in real world stuff about folks wanting premium fuel never mind left or right fill. The supposedly extra long hoses at Sainsbury won't go over the roof of a current model Berlingo. Just possible to pass it behind if you roll forward enough but then you're impinging on pump in front.
Last edited by: Bromptonaut on Mon 8 Dec 14 at 09:57
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I'm struggling to follow my thread.
Normally I queue preferably with the pump aligning nearest to my filler cap. With luck mine is the opposite side to most European manufacturers so I don't really have much issues.
Pay at pump is a time saver - when it works.
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>> The supposedly extra long hoses at Sainsbury won't go over the roof of a
>> current model Berlingo. Just possible to pass it behind if you roll forward enough but
>> then you're impinging on pump in front.
>>
Seems like there ought to be a market for plug-in extension hoses. Then you wouldn't be restricted as to side, or could even fill up from the wrong side of the pump.
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>> The supposedly extra long hoses at Sainsbury won't go over the roof of a
>> current model Berlingo.
I value my paint too much to be laying a fuel hose over the roof.
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I value my paint too much to be laying a fuel hose over the roof.
Which is why the vintage car is never filled up at the local Shell, despite it often being the cheapest for quite some distance. Still sometimes gets fuel from there though, a two gallon can with a three and half gallon tank is a fair percentage.
Morgan doesn't have a roof, but does have a central filler and with the silly strong springs in Shells hoses, not that convenient.
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>>
>> I value my paint too much to be laying a fuel hose over the roof.
>>
If filling on the "wrong" side I pull the hose round under the back bumper and up through the gap between the rear wheel and the wing. It's a shorter route than over the roof.
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>> The key to all this, is the acceptance that the pump island you join will
>> be the slowest. If you change to another island that appears to be moving faster,
>> it will become the slowest.
>>
You will also behind a driver who carries out more checks that an airliner pilot and who meticulously adjusts his seat belt before moving off at 0.5 mph
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You also get the tossoir and tossoiress who fill up, lock the car and go and do the week's shopping. This happened to me last time I did Tesco Express. I couldn't reverse off 'cos there was a fire engine waiting for his turn. She came back, after ten minutes with 4 bags of shopping.
Why not use the car park, 50 feet to the left ? I parked up there and went to pay...giving the fire engine it's chance.
Selfish, self obsessed cow ! I shouted her some advice through my open window but she chose to ignore me !
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"You also get the tossoir and tossoiress who fill up, lock the car and go and do the week's shopping."
Yes - that one drives me mad as well!
"Why not use the car park, 50 feet to the left ? I parked up there and went to pay…"
I can't remember exactly what happened because it was along time ago but, once, I politely moved out of the way to go and pay and we got into a devil of a muddle. ISTR the next car came along and started filling up before the machine had switched off after me. I would never do that again, though I do skip along and get sorted as quickly as possible.
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>> the pump island you join will be the slowest. If you change to another island that appears to be moving faster, it will become the slowest.
The same law applies to the lane you choose when you run into backed-up traffic on a motorway or other dual carriageway. It will always be the slowest. When you nip into one that's going faster, it stops and the old lane speeds up immediately.
Someone up there has a mean sense of humour one sometimes suspects.
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What is the approved method for the car wash? I park in the queue, sometimes I am alone in it, and then go and buy the token voucher things. Should I buy the token and then queue? Life is too short to worry really.
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>> What is the approved method for the car wash? I park in the queue, sometimes
>> I am alone in it, and then go and buy the token voucher things. Should
>> I buy the token and then queue? Life is too short to worry really.
Forget the carwash, some woman has blocked up the entire entrance to the filling station.
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I go to the carwash when I have time. It's so grossly overdue at the moment that it's beyond a joke. Rivers of liquid mud will flood out across the forecourt when circumstances allow me to take the plunge.
It will come out gleaming, with its graunches in relief. I'll stop outside out of the way and gouge the moss and small plants out of the felt sidewindow seals, while it's all still wet. Then I'll get old mud and stuff all over the nice grey leather steering wheel, and probably need a bath when I get home. Cars are awfully hard work sometimes.
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I got stung earlier this year. I filled up with gas, didn't check the till receipt and forgot about it. Then a few days later my sis visited and out of interest she asked what I was paying for a litre of gas. I said I had no idea, so I pulled out the receipt - 56 litre of gas and and extra fiver of petrol. Where the hell did that come from, I didn't buy any petrol. Seems the scam - fill up with gas, just as you walk off to the station someone from the next row of pumps quickly takes his can and quickly squirts in a couple of litres of unleaded close to your car. The till girl just assumes you've bought a tank of gas and squirt of petrol and charges for them together. A lot of PLG users do that over here - keep the petrol tank almost empty, just buy a few litres of petrol every now and then.
So I wasn't happy but I've lost more than a fiver doing dafter things. Then a few weeks later, I was filling up with gas and someone walked from the other pump island where his car was parked, and started filling his can next to my gas pump. Cheeky fudger. I tapped on the window and told wifey to go to the station and warn them, and since my Polish is bad I just said to him "Oy", pointed to my eyes, pointed to him and pointed up to the cameras. You just have to stay alert all the time, everywhere.
My wife's cousin has a franchise petrol station and he said that's exactly what they do. He told us of another couple of crafty scams but I just can't remember them, I'll ask him when we meet at Christmas.
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>> I'll ask him when we meet at Christmas.
I wouldn't bother BBD, you'll forget again by boxing day, no offence comrade.
The obvious petrol station crafty scam is to fill your large stolen or borrowed car's tank and do a runner. I reckon that's the commonest one.
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Yes he does have the habit of following me around with a litre of vodka and two glasses. He's very persuasive... My scam is to switch my shot glass with water, the vodka ends up in a plant pot.
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Petrol station etiquette - sooty123
