Meanwhile at a Gas Station
Posted by Freddy on Sunday, August 26, 2018 | Permalink
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Gas Station Hell: Math is Hard
From u/SlytherinAhri, Tales From Retail:
I had a gas pump malfunction today, it quit pumping for some reason and the handle was just all flappy. No biggie, except the woman using it had used all of her reward points and when you hang up the pump, your points are officially used for good. So she had to lose her points in order to switch to another pump. But nothing I can't fix.
So she goes to another pump and pumps 7.5 gallons using her 3 cent default discount. (It doesn't count as reward points, it's just for being a reward member and it's always there.) That means she gets reimbursed for 7.5 gallons with 47 cents off per gallon, because she used her 50 cents off a gallon discount and the 3 cents is a freebie that always exists.
So correct me if I'm wrong, but I multiplied .47 x 7.55 to get $3.55 which is what she would have saved if the original pump kept working and she had been able to pump the extra 7.5 gallons with the 47 cents off that was lost.
Well that wasn't good enough for her and she threw the largest tantrum I had ever seen in my life because "that just doesn't sound right". She kept demanding to speak to a manager and there was no convincing her that I didn't have a manager available. (I'm inside a 14x12 glass box...) I told her she's more than welcome to go to the main grocery store behind the gas station and ask for the manager there but she just wanted me to give her the correct amount of money she was owed. I had to hold the calculator up to the glass and explain the equation to her, but that still wasn't enough. She left threatening me with "I WILL get my points back". Okay good luck lol.
Posted by Freddy on Friday, August 24, 2018 | Permalink
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Gas Station Hell: I just enthusiastically agreed to marry a stranger
From u/SlytherinAhri Tales From Retail:
You know those times when a customer says something and you don't quite catch what it was, so you just laugh nervously and go "hahaha I hear you" or something? Okay well here's the worst one you'll ever hear.
I work at a gas station, but it's a high security one where I'm inside a glass kiosk and I have to communicate via an intercom. That being said, when all the wrong conditions are present (heavy traffic passing by, strong breezes, static noise etc) I can't hear people well.
Well this old man (in his 70s probably) comes up for his change from unpumped gas, but he prepaid with a credit card so I told him his change would load back to his card and handed him his receipt. He laughed and said something but all I caught out of it initially was about the money coming back being a million dollars and I said "HAHAHAHA, I WISH, COME BACK AND LET ME KNOW IF IT HAPPENS".
What he actually said didn't dawn on me until he laughed back, winked and said "I will, but I'll have to divorce my wife first".
HE SAID THAT IF HE GOT A MILLION DOLLARS BACK HE WAS GOING TO MARRY ME AND I SAID HAHAHAHA I WISH, LET ME KNOW IF THAT HAPPENS. OH MY GOD. A A A A A A A A A A A A A A A
Posted by Freddy on Friday, August 17, 2018 | Permalink
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Retail Hell Memories: "Your pumps are FULL OF BEES!"
From u/HunterPunter560 Tales From Retail:
I work at a gas station in a small town-ish suburban area, not too far from the Steel City. A recent high school grad, I'm young and full of life and interesting experiences...or so I thought. Now there's many types of strange people that come through my store, including a Conspiracy Nut, an older gentleman who always complains to me specifically about the gas prices, (despite me being a lowly cashier), the woman who probably has a scratch off addiction, and the GreyWolf breeder. But none of those colorful characters match up to the time I was terror attacked by bees.
It started off like a normal day of work, my first real job. I got checked in, switched shifts with my manager and got all the things set up for my shift. (Alot of boring details, not including them.) When I get back to the register after checking the pumps for skimmers, I look up and see a man, big smile.on his face, in a big Beekeeper outfit.
"Good morning!" He exclaims with glee as he swings our doors open.
Unprofessionally, my curiosity got the better of me. "Morning, what's with the suit?" It was a boring, slow day so I was down to polite chat with a customer who wasn't a total jerk. He told me how he was a beekeeper and that he sold honey and chapstick from materials he harvests from his own apiary.
He goes on to tell me that he's transporting some to his house, and if they got loose.. "Better hope you aint allergic!"
After paying for his gas the man leaves, and before getting into his carI witness him messing with a strange white box in his truck. Five minutes later, after totally forgetting about the whole ordeal, a terrified customer bursts through the door, horrified.
"Your pumps are full OF bees!" He shouted, with a voice full of terror I shall never forget.
"...what?" I come outside with trusty broom in hand, and sure enough, bees had surrounded and conquered the little pump island. The terrified customer had already taken off. My thoughts went to the beekeeper.. did the man deliberately open a honeycomb or whatever and unleash a flying horde of the bees?
Whatever it was, they soon flew off in search of you know, actual flowers. My first real post like this, but I figured I had to tell the world about the day I faced a terror attack, but not from explosives or gunshots...literally bees.
Posted by Freddy on Monday, August 13, 2018 | Permalink
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Misty Meanor's Tales From The Gas Station: Escaping Hell
*slurp slurp slurp*
...
Oh shit, I'm on, aren't I?
*puts away her soda, clears her throat, then makes herself look more presentable*
Hello fellow RHUers, it's your old friend Misty Meanor here with a major update about what's been happening at the gas station. Quite a lot, actually.
For one, the whole staff shake up took a huge toll on Yours Truly, not to mention my awesome manager Michelle. It was too much for her to take, so she ended up resigning. For a while, things went to hell, as we had no syrup for the soda fountain, we had no creamer for the coffee, our frappe machine was down... you know, everything had gone to hell in a handbasket. We had gotten the District Manager in to fix things up while we got things back on track. It wasn't easy, but things got back up there slowly.
Then we finally got our new manager. "David" seemed to be a cool enough guy, saying he wanted to work with us based on our scheduling needs and whatnot. He also seemed intent on bringing things back onto track at the store. At first, I believed him.
Foolish mistake.
There were times where we were running low on change and our change dispenser was empty. I texted him telling him this, his response was to, "Just do the best you can to give them their change."
All the while, David was telling us we needed to focus on keeping the store clean and neat while making sure the gas station area was completely clean and our stock put away. At least that's what David wanted. Easy enough, right?
---
Uh, what?
---
Also, did I mention that David never put himself on the schedule? Instead, he'd just show up from time to time, say, "I'm not scheduled today, I just came in to take care of <such-and-such.>" Not to mention, Michelle would leave us her numbers when we needed to update the fuel prices, but David never did that. He'd just update it when he showed up. If he felt like it.
When something was low in stock or empty, he'd tell us, "Just do the best you can. It's no use worrying over things you have no control over." Uh, when the customers are chewing us out over these things, it does make me worry.
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Unfortunately, our new District Manager, "Scott," had other plans. You see, our company has a partnership with candy companies in that we sell as much candy as we can, and in return for selling their candy, the company gets a huge share of the profits. So Scott wanted us to start focusing on offering candy to every customer in order to meet our quotas. We had never had much of an issue before, but apparently the month before, our quotas had slipped.
Bad enough, right? Well, it gets better.
We also were told if we didn't meet our sales goals, there would be sanctions, including write-ups or termination. That really hit me hard.
I mean, come on, this is a gas station! Most of the time, people just come in to buy gas, and they'll give you their money, tell you what pump they're on and what kind of gas they want, then walk out. There's no way that they want any candy. And the ones who did buy snacks and stuff weren't interested. Also, did I mention a LOT of customers are more interested in eating healthy?
Yeah, that makes things a LOT easier, doesn't it? *sarcasm*
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As a consequence of not meeting our sales goals, the company cut our hours and switched us to single coverage. Meaning for every shift, there's only one person on. However, according to a co-worker, I heard they do this because they're trying to save money so that the higher-ups can throw huge parties on yachts or in their mansions. All while the lowly workers suffer. All the while, we're given a list of tasks we have to do during the day, which is next to impossible since we have to keep an eye on the gas pumps and watch out for customers.
As a result, stock was being left out, hot foods weren't being prepared, coffee wasn't being readied for the morning, you get the idea...
Also, one of the other workers, "George" was a bit of an older guy, but that doesn't excuse his unwillingness to do his job. George was notorious for simply focusing on the cash register and little to nothing else. He refuses to go into the coolers to get anything or put stuff away because, he's "not being paid enough to do that." He also doesn't care about the cigarettes or anything else like that. Seriously, if you don't like it, you can walk!
It's his devil-may-care attitude about this that makes me suspect what happened recently was caused by him.
In the gas station area, there are several trash barrels which require specific bags that are larger than the average trash bags. Unfortunately, someone put the smaller bags inside the barrels and, as a result, when one of my co-workers tried to take them out, they ended up ripping and trash spilled everywhere. Neither her nor myself were strong enough to lift the barrels and put the trash into larger bags (and no misogynistic comments please, because I've lifted heavier things than most people expect your average woman to carry!)
Unfortunately, as a result, trash was blowing all over the place and customers were complaining about it, asking when we were going to do something about it. I told them when the next person got on they'd do something. Alas, this kept going on all my shift.
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Also, a teenage kid came in and wanted to buy cigarettes. When I asked him for his ID, he claimed he'd been in there an hour ago and I should remember him. (Spoiler alert: He wasn't.)
I kept telling him I needed ID and he kept making excuses, like he was in a car accident and he lost his ID. Finally, he asked, "Will you just do it as a favor?"
"No," I told him.
"You don't have to be so rude!" He replied and stormed out to a nearby car where his friend was waiting.
Shortly after, a woman came in to buy gas, and as soon as she came out, the driver of the car called her over. Immediately I stepped outside and told them to move along.
The passenger side window rolled down and said, "Who do you think you are? The police?"
"If you don't leave, I will call the police!"
"If you don't leave, I will call the police!"
"You ain't the f***ing police!" He snapped. I finally hit my patience limit.
"GET OUT NOW!" I bellowed. His friend drove out of there immediately. At least he didn't make a rude gesture.
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The same can't be said for an angry crusty who had appeared on the previous shift. He was trying to pump gas, but he wasn't sliding his card at all. Instead, he expected me to turn on the pump right away. I used the intercom to tell him several times he needed to hang up the hose and slide his card first. He hung it up... then lifted it again. I told him to come inside, then returned to my current customer.
A few moments later, the older man came in and said, "I'm on that pump!"
"I'll be with you in a second, sir," I replied politely.
An exact second later, "It's been one second!"
---
"Sir, I'm with customers. You have to wait."
"I'm not a patient person!" He replied, then stormed back to the pump. Several times he tried to get me to turn on the pump, even pressing the help button. I told him he had to pay before pumping. Eventually, he got in his car and started to drive off... only to stop in front of my window and give me the finger. I gestured towards the exit and mouthed, "GET OUT! NOW!"
He left.
All in all, things were going to hell faster and faster with every shift, and there was nothing I could do. It was getting to the point that I was having very harsh thoughts. It was affecting my physical and mental health. I just couldn't take it anymore, but the fact that we could be fired for things we have no control over showed just how terrible the company was. So at the end of my shift, I clocked out and left my manager both a note and text telling him that I was done...
Then I walked off and never looked back again. I have plenty of other references, I was only there for a few months, so this is no big loss.
I could've gone out in a blaze of glory, but I decided that, between poor management, greedy corporate officials, and other crap, it was time to call it quits. I didn't give two weeks' notice because I had a feeling the others would not look kindly upon it, especially how I was the only one bending over backwards for them when things were going to hell. I decided to quit on the spot. Never thought I would, but I did it.
I figured, do unto others, right?
I'll be working with an agency to find new work.
For now, it's time for another soda!
--Misty
Posted by Freddy on Wednesday, August 08, 2018 | Permalink
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Retail Hell Memories: "You expect me to read?"
From u/blueberii Tales From Retail:
I worked at a lousy gas station for awhile and this gas station was not so well managed and we were regularly out of important supplies, like toilet paper or all soda fountain lids, or gloves for putting out food.
One day we were out of toilet paper again, and I had to leave a big, bright, beautiful note on the men's bathroom stating we were out of TP and to use the women's room if needed as there was some left in there.
I had one of my usually-drunk old man regulars come in and go to the bathroom only to come out and rant about no toilet paper. I told him that yes its stupid we ran out of TP but I had a big, hard to miss sign on the men's room stating go to the women's. He yelled, "What! You expect me to read! How stupid!"
I know customers are famous for never reading anything, but I found it so funny one admitted it!
Posted by Freddy on Tuesday, August 07, 2018 | Permalink
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