Comments on: So what you’re telling me is to pay at the pump?

By: Merrid

Merrid — Wed, 21 Nov 2012 03:26:04 +0000

In Australia, full service stations usually charge more for the fuel, so the extra service is built in to the price. We’re not big on tipping here – we don’t believe you should have to beg for a standard of living.

By: Bug

Bug — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 23:11:52 +0000

Serious accidents have been caused by people too lazy to read at the gas station, you may want to rethink your awareness policy.

By: Ashes

Ashes — Sat, 17 Nov 2012 18:05:03 +0000

I’m allowed be be a lazy sign reader. I don’t go to the gas station to read. I shouldn’t have to expel more than minimal effort to understand the damn sign.

By: Bluecanary

Bluecanary — Fri, 16 Nov 2012 20:41:48 +0000

No, really, I would imagine that the point was, some fucktard tore every single sign down over and over again until the minimum wage slave inside the gas station wanted to disembowel himself with a Twix bar. Hence the “if you remove the sign, pay at the pump is still down.” So he decided to be an ass with his wording. Screw him, he should be strung up by his thumbs for his desperation induced bad communication.

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 06:06:14 +0000

What could also work is

ALL CUSTOMERS PLEASE PAY INSIDE
Thanks, Homeland Security ops team

By: Dr.Chalkwitheringlicktacklefeff

Dr.Chalkwitheringlicktacklefeff — Thu, 15 Nov 2012 01:46:37 +0000

Personally I just drive on to the next place. Failure to keep equipment properly maintained to the extent that I’m needlessly inconvenienced shouldn’t be rewarded with my business.

By: raichu

raichu — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 16:40:17 +0000

I love that blog!

By: raichu

raichu — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 16:24:29 +0000

It takes about two seconds to read the whole sign. Sorry, but I think that’s lazy and if you complained it would be on you.

I agree that the sign wasn’t formatted very well, but nobody can say they didn’t communicate it clearly to anyone who bothered to read.

By: SilentPsycho

SilentPsycho — Mon, 12 Nov 2012 22:41:46 +0000

It’s the same at the museum where I work. We close on Fridays, but occasionally there is a private event or a school visit on those days which requires a member of staff to be sitting at the front desk. We place a huge sign up, almost blocking the front door, which says that the museum is shut on a Friday. The number of people we have that try to come in is amazing. Normally, they just wander back out if you tell them, but some will scream that our website says we’re open on Fridays (it doesn’t), some will try to force their way in, and I remember one poor guy walked straight into the glass doors after I had put them on exit-only.

Then again, we have the same problems with the ‘No Photography’, and the ‘No Food or Drink’ signs.

By: The Elf

The Elf — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 23:43:18 +0000

While there are always customers who are either too stupid to understand any sign, or who purposefully misunderstand to their advantage, it absolutely matters how you communicate.

The point of a sign is to communicate a direction, right? So the more clearly you phrase your direction, the more effective it will be. Pretty simple, really.

By: Bluecanary

Bluecanary — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 21:50:58 +0000

It does not matter how you communicate. The sign could have said “Pay at the pump is down, please come inside to pay and receive free beer and a blowjob” and there are still idiots who would somehow manage not to follow directions. And I have never understood the mentality that some people have that if they tear the sign down, somehow magically whatever the sign says ceases to be true, but I see it all the time. My husband works at a public park with a fishing pier. In our town, it is illegal to fish for fresh water fish with nets, but the same idiots are out there every day net fishing, so the city put a huge sign on the end of the dock. They tore it down. The city put it up again, this time with a welded frame. They tore it down. They’ve replaced the sign 5 times now, each time making it harder and harder to remove, and yet the same people repeatedly tear it down, and then act surprised when they get ticketed by Fish and Game. But, there was no SIGN. Same thing happens to picnic shelters when they are rented. A sign gets posted, and all the grills get covered up with trash bags, and the entire shelter gets lined with yellow tape and people STILL tear all that stuff down and squat and when the family who paid for the shelter shows up they’re always like “Oh, I didn’t know..” People are stupid. Bottom line. And when you work a job that exposes you to that fact day after day after day, sometimes you need a little snark to keep you from killing yourself. Or them.

By: Gwlana

Gwlana — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 07:05:39 +0000

If this were at my job, we’d have a line of people who had read the sign and were in line to ask if they could pay at the pump.

By: Macca

Macca — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 01:52:08 +0000

I’m pretty sure a sign like that was probably put up about 6 times, and ripped down every time, to an irate customer rushing into the store yelling about how “those pumps won’t take my cards! I took down that stupid piece of paper in the way and they don’t work!”

I mean, have you ever worked in customer service? Customers ignore signs and then get angry about it like it’s their job. I’m saying your short and sweet note would NOT have been enough.

By: Tom

Tom — Sat, 10 Nov 2012 01:47:54 +0000

Yes, I did forget to add that I imagine a business loses money catering to ridiculous customer demands/rants than simply telling them that “your ridiculous behavior will not be tolerated, please leave.” The time spent catering to the crazy customers that rant and yell could be better spent checking other actually paying customers out, helping customers find what they’re looking for (and maybe making extra sales in the process), and making the store spic and span. Plus, there’s the added bonus of reasonable customers not getting pissed off at the ridiculous ones in your store. For instance, I don’t go to Walmart simply because the customers I see there are awful. There are many other reasons to not like the chain, but my primary reason is the customers. Catering to bad customers (thereby letting them hang around in the store longer, being disruptive) can be just as much of a turn-away for good customers as poor customer service.