I have read the previous posts and agree with the views expressed and statements made. However, I do find myself concerned, from time to time, at the level of responsibility given to what sometimes appear to be people on work experience and doubtless on the legal minimum wage! A garage I sometimes use has one person on the till responsible for 8 pumps, a car wash, sacks of coal and kindling outside, newspapers and girlie mags, sweets, snacks, pies and all the rest. I wouldn't do the job for the money and I am not wholly surprised that mistakes are made. That said, I agree that it is annoying to be falsely accused of driving away without paying!
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I had been thinking of getting a Shell (Citibank?) credit card to avoid situations like this. Just for fuel and to get 3p a litre back. It seems from the small print though, that they are pretty free though to pass your personal details onwards to other companies and for this to continue even after the contract with them has ended.
Put me off really. I might start saving cash receipts now.
Edited by oilrag on 26/10/2008 at 14:06
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Think you can opt out of that, OL, I've had one for a year now and had no unsolicited post...
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The filling station I use most regularly has 5 double sided pumps (so 10 positions) and yet they always know which pump you've been to before you tell them. How do they do that?
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By looking out of the window, or (more likely) cameras?
Edited by Andrew-T on 26/10/2008 at 16:42
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Thanks, B308, I`ll look into it again.
Edited by oilrag on 26/10/2008 at 15:20
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I think AS has it summed up pretty well.
Bad management! Employing people on minimum wage and expecting top quality performance. Its about time management sharpened its act up on lots of things like this! Credit crunch may well expose some poor management. And if it was my business it would be poor managers that went first!
Pay peanuts, get monkeys !
Would feel fully justified in asking for a settlement for problems caused!
As an aside I usually pay cash for fuel, but I do keep receipts. I would however be expecting them to prove I didnt pay; not the other way around ! Whether thats right or not I dont care; but if I knew I had paid I wouldnt be in the least bit concerned! Any unwanted time spent at police station (because of wrong information etc) or elsewhere would be charged !
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>Pay peanuts, get monkeys !<
So you will be happy to pay more for your fuel or anything else you buy there? I suppose higher pay might be offset by fewer claims following mistakes like the OP, but ...
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Hi, my first post, I think, but lurked for a long time. One of the problems is that the attitude these days is to try it on! People, on both sides of the counter, make mistakes, some people lie. Comments along the lines of pay peanuts ? get monkeys, well what can I say that?s polite or won?t trip the filter. We now run pumps with 4 nozzles either side the answer to who is on each pump is to open ones eyes. You have too as a high proportion of customers haven't a clue as to what car they are driving.
Regards
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Would you work for minimum wage with the responsibility of a petrol site and shop?
No? Why expect others too with an attitude/ability thats wanted?
Minimum wage is just a way of keeping profits up short term, not by service/ability. Ask any independant petrol site/car sales/ other type shops too?
Its not low wages that make profits. its staff calibre !
Poor management sees low wages as higher profits ! Experience sees limited profits!
Why does higher quality staff increase costs? It can actually improve sales/customer loyalty/profit and therefore decrease costs!
Short term sight is the current downfall of this economy.
Future needs vision with open eyes!
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I agree with you Gopher - I've known plenty who have worked behind the counter of petrol stations, either to make ends meet whilst at University or people who have gone on to do work far out of reach of the average primate !
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Some years ago I called in for fuel on my bike. I didn't buy much, just a fivers worth to top the tank up. Went into the shop , bought a paper and a choc bar, pocketed the change without looking and rode off to work.
I noticed when I went for a coffee that I seemed to have more cash than I should...about the same amount as the petrol cost.
Spent the rest of the day wondering if the police had been knocking on my door.
I called at the garage on my way home and said 'I think I didn't pay for my fuel this morning' They had been trying to work out why they were a fiver short in the takings and were really pleased I had come back.
Ted
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Interesting. We have some personal experience of how people only see or hear what they want to. My wife happens to have a first class honours degree. She is one of the most intelligent and well read people I know and is supremely courteous. However, for a while she took part time work with a our local branch of a national supermarket chain. The shifts fitted with her childcare needs at the time. She was regularly abused by members of the public eager to vent their spleen over often trivial matters and was often accused barefacedly of being some kind of ignorant drone. This was usually liberally punctuated with abusive language and was not limited in its source to the sort of members of society you might automatically expect. There does seem to be a tendency to abuse those who's so called, status, is perceived to be lower.
Old fashioned maybe, altruistic possibly, but the old adage that courtesy costs nothing does seem to have gone by the wayside.
We seem to have evolved a society obsessed with getting one over on retailers, making totally unreasonable demands upon them and feeling that abusing their staff is just part of some points scoring game.
The world is still operated by humans for now. Occasionally they make mistakes, provided they correct them and apologise it really isn't necessary to abuse them or sue their employers most of the time.
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Hey - I gave the guy in Tesco the 3p off per litre voucher that came with my shopping today - what a nice bloke, felt a little patronising in doing it but made me feel a little better.
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My other half works in a bingo hall in a multi-task role. She gets regular abuse from customers and her numerous gay co-workers very often get homophobic abuse - its certainly not just supermarkets that suffer from people with rather aggressive attitudes.
My OH has just done a 9 day stint of 10 hours a day while fighting both an infection and a virus - the other day she was so exhausted and put upon by customers all making demands she simply couldnt serve on her own, she burst into tears and was ordered to have a half hour break. And she doesnt get minimum wage. Seems being in customer service somehow demotes you to subhuman status in the eyes of many.
As such, why anyone would take any level of rudeness from customers while being paid peanuts is beyond me - it makes them a star in my eyes and they do exist. Its not much to smile and say thankyou to the person serving you but seems rare people bother.
I saw someone drive-off the other day without paying. I watched them fill up, look around then whizz off. Young family in family sized car. Things must be bad.
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PU>> Hey - I gave the guy in Tesco the 3p off per litre voucher thatcame with my shopping today - what a nice bloke felt a little patronising in doing it but made me feel a little better.
He's probably not allowed to use it though. Firstly he will likely get a better discount than that, and secondly shops don't like their staff being able to "nick" receipts from customers.
I once drove off without paying and went back half an hour later to pay. They didn't seem very concerned. However, if I were OP, I'd be fuming and wanting a large gift from Tescos.
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I wish I could use the police as my debt collectors every time somebody does not pay me for my goods and services.
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People (like the late Dodi Fayed by reputation anyway) who are excessively demanding or rude to servants, waiters, shop assistants and so on without very good reason are not, er, gentlemen but screaming carphounds.
People are quite often rude to shopkeepers where I live, but they appear usually (if not always) to be socially deprived in one way or another. A complex web of racisms and other social prejudices plays a frequent part.
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In case people think I am having a "go" at cashiers and shop staff in general.
Its not what I meant; its their managers I am having a "go" at!
People who need jobs for whatever reason that are attracted to those jobs that pay poorly are not necessarily monkeys. They are however treated as such by customers and managers, as recent comments show.
Paying the same people more, and training/helping/inspiring them more would be more beneficial for all, customers and the business alike.
But to expect top quality performance from lowly paid people is not on, nor is paying lowly money going to attract people to the job for any reason other than the hours suit, or its the only job available. That is exploitation! That is why the expression "pay peanuts, get monkeys" was used, and makes sense!
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I think you forget the work ethic that most people have - I've done work for peanuts, in fact I've done work for nothing at all, and probably paid for the privilege (by losing paid work and transport costs), lot of people like that whether they're paid £5.00 an hour or £500.00 an hour.
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With respect Pug; only those with money that can afford to do such!
That attitude is abused by many (poor) managers though!
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PU's point yorkiebar was that some people, with or without money, are generous (or conscientious, or foolish) by nature and tend not to count the cost to them of what they do for others, or not carefully anyway. Naturally this can be exploited by management people with the morals of insects for whom everything is a matter of money, profit and loss.
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Lud, you may have put into words some of what I meant.
For that, thank you.
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I said on another thread recently, once in France I filled up and (fortunately!) drove over to the cafe for a cafe when a Gendarme came over and asked me why I had not paid for the fuel, I had totally forgotten, simply absent minded, all was well though I reckon I would have been banged up had I headed onto the autoroute and proceeded onwards oblivious at 130kph.
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Both my local fuel stations now have pay at pump. I haven't left the pump to pay for fuel for months.
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Both my local fuel stations now have pay at pump. I haven't left the pump to pay for fuel for months.
I hate those pumps. The few times I've used them and I've stood there like a lemon waiting for the pump to start delivering fuel out of the nozzle into the tank, and then realising that I have to press a button on the pump to confirm what payment method I would like to use. Grrrrr
That aside I once got charged £20 for diesel instead of £45 for petrol. Not my fault the cashier pressed the wrong button on the till. Only noticed it when I got home.
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Tricky one, this, like the countless alleged shoplifters - was it absent-mindedness, was it a chancer, was it a professional gang?
A lot of filling stations in my part of the world have a barrier which the checkout attendant raises to allow a (paying) customer to leave through the single exit. Despite warning signs, large lettering and the enormous fluorescent barrier itself... it gets knocked off at least once a week (didn't see it, DOH!)
I think it was Staffordshire Police who once flogged one of their superannuated cars to a petrol station, where it was left parked on the forecourt and reduced drive-offs to nil in no time. Final thought: There must be a way to use ANPR to eliminate drive-offs and at the same time catch a few miscreants along the way.
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Old fashioned maybe altruistic possibly but the old adage that courtesy costs nothing does seem to have gone by the wayside. We seem to have evolved a society obsessed with getting one over on retailers making totally unreasonable demands upon them and feeling that abusing their staff is just part of some points scoring game.
Indeed.
Having spent some time in retail, I had to deal with a right bunch of idiots on occasion.
I recall one idiot coming in very aggresively, demanding that we replace his shoes.
And damn right, they WERE faulty.
One small problem - he hadn't bought them from us!
I made a few calls, and discovered that the particular item was a 'grey' import, and exclusive to another shop.
After trying to explain this to him, AND even getting the chap from the other shop to confirm it over the phone, the moron still insisted he'd bought them from us!
Back to motoring... with my experience of 'difficult' customers, I am now the most reasonable, placcid and polite chap when it comes to problems of my own.
I've had several worn things replaced free, new spare parts fitted for free (bulbs, switches etc), and some very handsome discounts just by being 'nice', not by ranting and raving.
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Hang on a moment. For Tesco to have gone to the extreme of calling the police and causing you to be visited under suspicion of theft requires more senior action than just a shop assistant's mistake? Some manager has to have taken responsibility for this.
I hope he was charged with wasting police time, and Tesco have paid you handsome compensation for wasting your own time, worry, defamation of character, etc?
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So what is the moral of the story then?
* Keep receipt of purchase for 30 days (is there any rule by how many days you must be prosecuted)
* Pay via Debit/Credit card so that you have a proof even if you throw details aways.
But because of card frauds, aren't we then advised to pay by cash instead?
:(
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