Treated like a crook

[russ77]

I tried filling my Monster at a Total station on Friday afternoon. Half the pumps weren't working. I found one that was and pulled up. Took my helmet and gloves off, opened the filler cap and removed the nozzle. No action.

I noticed the sales assistant shouting through the night-pay window, so went over to see what he wanted. He beckoned me in to the shop. He then explained that I would have to pay for the fuel before filling up, showing me a sign that stated all fuel must be paid for up front between 2300 and 0600. It was four in the afternoon.

I wanted to pay by card so asked him how that would work. He told me I could leave my card with them. Yeah, right. I told him it would be easier to just go somewhere else. I noticed that no car drivers were being asked to pay up front. What's that all about?

[slob]

Yup happens time and again, happened to me Saturday lunchtime (as Scott1 will testify) at a petrol sation I use twice a week. I just took my lid off, went inside and demanded they turn on the pump otherwise I'd have gone somewhere else ...and to think if I'd had a fake number plate to fool the cameras I might have got away with a tenner's worth of fuel, not the sixty quid's worth of diesel some old mondeo might have room for.

[ashadam]

I think there has been a few reports of people driving off without paying increasing so I expect they are just being extra vigilant although is irritating.

[neilbaldry]

i remember reading about a petrol station demanding a fiver deposit just for bikers. its a pish take, it really is.

[alreadyinuse]

i filled up the monster at a BP station went to the night window to pay. it was 11.20ish pm. Handed the girl my card. and gets
"what am i supposed to do with that?"

me "erm stick it in the card reader and pass the pin pad out to me"
girl" we dont have one thats long enough"
me "you used to"
girl "its broken"
me" let me in then and i'll use normal keypad"
girl"no i'm not allowed dont you have cash?"
me " no"
girl "youll have to use the cash machine"
me " it will charge me"
girl "so?"
Me "i'm not paying a fee. its your fault not mine.i'll go to cash machine up the road tho"
girl " you'll have to walk or i'll phone the police"
Me "great go on then"
she goes away and phones.
the police turn up 2 of them in a van.I explained to the policeman what was going on. and the girl told them her version.
and guess what?
i paid using my card and the keypad inside the shop.

[neilbaldry]

sometimes i really hate this bloody country (and 'sometimes' is getting all to regular)

[Nickj]

Thats a sign of impending middle age there Neil, next thing you'll be drooling over things like Nortons.... Bloody hell too late !!!!!!
LOL Wait till you get to may age and don't give a rats as senilty starts to set in

[jerry]

Paying before you fill up is normal in USA .You leave an imprint of your card or cash at the till fill up and if you do not use all the credit you get refund.

[gremlin]

With all the card cloning I wouldn't dare let it out of sight. The problem is there isn't always another garage close enough to go to instead if you're on the red. With all the PC crud going on these days surely someone ought to wave the discrimination flag by now, it's getting daft. If it's not petrol stations its twitface in Wales trying to get us off the road and any other force having a go about loud pipes and small plates, when chav boy has a mobile disco, drainpipes sticking out under his skirts and plates you can't read when sitting right behind them and nothing is done. Come the revolution!

[Nickj]

when chav boy has drainpipes sticking out under his skirts

That'll be a transvestite Teddy boy Emo fusion thing going on there then??? Not seen it in Cheltenham 'Home of the CHAV' is it a particularly Norfolk chav fashion statement??

[neilbaldry]

yeah Nick, its drainpipes as Norfolkian chavs cant afford to go to halfrauds!

And if being cynical, moody and opinionated is a sign of middle age, then i'm in my element!

[gremlin]

Trouble is they'd take more than one tin of foam to fill. Clives threatening to put flame thingies in the exhaust of the Vmax when it's done so he can melt the fronts of chavmobiles at traffic lights. I don't know how they get away without an entertainment licence, considering how many people have to put up with their racket. Bah humbug I say!

[JMo]

Paying before you fill up is normal in USA .You leave an imprint of your card or cash at the till fill up and if you do not use all the credit you get refund.

Moreoften the pump itself has a card slot, and you just put your card in, it reads the details, then you fill up and it prints out the total on a receipt...

I see a number of (typically supermarkets) use these types of pumps in the UK now too - I even went to an ASDA the other day that had no cash kiosk/attendant at all - they were all automated pumps!

xxx

[singletrack]

Paying at the pump is probably the right way to go for car drivers.
As it costs £80 to fill mine up each time now I think they might as well do buy-at-pump mortgage applications too.

[retskcid]

Moreoften the pump itself has a card slot, and you just put your card in, it reads the details, then you fill up and it prints out the total on a receipt...

I see a number of (typically supermarkets) use these types of pumps in the UK now too - I even went to an ASDA the other day that had no cash kiosk/attendant at all - they were all automated pumps!

xxx

Just a shame none of them actually work.

[retskcid]

I think there has been a few reports of people driving off without paying increasing so I expect they are just being extra vigilant although is irritating.

I wonder why!!!

Fuel related crime is increasing alot, fuel tanks being drilled and emptied ffs!!

[retskcid]

I tried filling my Monster at a Total station on Friday afternoon. Half the pumps weren't working. I found one that was and pulled up. Took my helmet and gloves off, opened the filler cap and removed the nozzle. No action.

I noticed the sales assistant shouting through the night-pay window, so went over to see what he wanted. He beckoned me in to the shop. He then explained that I would have to pay for the fuel before filling up, showing me a sign that stated all fuel must be paid for up front between 2300 and 0600. It was four in the afternoon.

I wanted to pay by card so asked him how that would work. He told me I could leave my card with them. Yeah, right. I told him it would be easier to just go somewhere else. I noticed that no car drivers were being asked to pay up front. What's that all about?

W*nkers. I refuse to use them.

Its bad enough that my local garage closes for a shift change at 5.30am (just when I want fuel) but when they started asking for everyone to pay up front that was the last straw.

Feck em.

[ladybird]

Just a shame none of them actually work.

yeah, they seem to turn them off at night too

[GreyCamo]

While taking my bambino out for a bike ride around our village last weekend i started to notice the odd car without number plates, this soon turned into a good dozen or so out of 145 houses. The only think i can think of is they are all planning a mass fill up and bugger off protest at the local petrol station! which seems to be able to do what the fook it likes when it comes to putting up the prices... I noticed that for 3 weekend out of the last 5 the price was 11X.9 on my way to work friday morning, Friday evening return home - the price has gone up by a penny..... and then!!!!!! monday morning drive to work - it's gone up AGAIN!!!! cheeky feckers!!! off now to change jobs.. i'm sure i've got an old drilling platfrom somewhere in the back of the shed!

[jerry]

a mass fill up and bugger off by 100,000 cars would be cool ....real anarchy the cops would be helpless...


cost of a litre of fuel in Thailand has gone up 25% in 2 weeks from 32baht to 43baht that about 65p a litre.

[neilbaldry]

cost of a litre of fuel in Thailand has gone up 25% in 2 weeks from 32baht to 43baht that about 65p a litre.

and they say the UK has problems! lol

i really dont know when all these fuel increases are gonna stop, its getting bloody stupid, and i cant see and end in sight.
its obvious the govt are not going to lower the amount of tax on fuel, as how else are they gonna fund the wars in the middle east/ their foreign holidays/ their expenses......

i also cant see any alternative fuels being put into mass production, as with everyone they have thought up, someone finds a big negative and its scrapped!

[gremlin]

It's probably more the case of the oil companies and government putting the lid on it so they don't lose revenue. There's a car going around Norwich at the moment that is supposed to be running on water, which is fantastic for everyone but I can see the idea being canned because water at the moment is cheap ( taking into account water charges). There would be no way of taxing it unless the water meters were re calibrated to tax you that way.
I've been looking at getting a fuel pod to convert chip fat into diesel but finding a decent amount of raw material is difficult. I'd like to run the Rayburn on it if possible, as heating oil has gone through the roof too but I worked out I'd need 20 litres a day in winter for the heating and possibly 10 litres for the Landy depending where Clive is working. This also creates the problem of where to store it and how to filter it because I don't want to have to go foraging every day.

[neilbaldry]

i went for a (work related) trip to the Lotus factory, and they have got something a bit special in the works. but sorry i cant talk about it as i signed a confidentiality agreement. just look out for them at the british motor show this winter!

[gremlin]

It's ok Neil we'll put pressure on our mate Peter, he works there! They're working on a bike as well apparently. We live about quarter of a mile away so hear the testing, and there's definately a bike hooning around. Going down the road from B1113 to Wymondham gets interesting, it's used as a test road so there's all sorts of strange looking things buzzing about. That bit of road is my practice area and had a weird looking thing come past so fast it nearly left me spinning in the road, still don't know what it was.

[neilbaldry]

Lotus, working on a bike? ooooh eerr!

while your duffing up your mate Peter, ask him what Darkstar is. i saw a couple of doors with Darkstar written on them, but didnt go in

[gremlin]

Will do! It could be the bike of course. It's great listening to all the testing, although we did hear one blow up a while ago, and according to Peter it was a rather expensive oops. It was great, something screaming a fantastic noise, bounced off the rev limiter screamed again, went bang then nothing! It was a sporty engine obviously but apparantly it was comprehensively written off. When there wasn't the worry off industrial espionage I used to ride the race horse round by the track on test day and watch them testing, since the loss of the M100 blueprints (it became the Mazda MX5) you can't see anything.

[neilbaldry]

since the loss of the M100 blueprints (it became the Mazda MX5) you can't see anything.


I never knew that! and to think, what a success it has become!

[gremlin]

To say Lotus were pig sick would be an understatement. Especially when they released the M100 as the Elan and it was a damp squib compared to the MX5. Lotus also did the Vx220 Vauxhall thingy and that did quite well. They seem to do work for other people and then fail to get sales for their own stuff, although the Elise and Exige have done well and the new Europa is rather nice. If the bike does materialise it should handle well.

[jerry]

Honda are putting the money on fuel cells they are spending hundreds of millions on it and building plant to support fuel cell systems.

[gremlin]

It would be better to go for hydrogen than electric. If the oil is running out and the EU don't like coal fired power stations, oh and the save the planet brigade don't like Nuclear we won't be able to generate the power to top up cars. I know most now use the braking system to top up the batteries I'm guessing they still need to be charged up as well at some point. Thats the other thing I don't get too, the cadmium processing plant is so toxic it's turned thousands of miles of land so barren nothing will grow and NASA use it for testing, to my mind that's not exactly earth friendly. The do gooders object to biofuels because it's taking up precious food growing land it's a no win situation. It doesn't help when fertile growing land is going to be allowed to fall into the sea of course. Surely if the global warming thing is to be believed and sea levels will rise, surely it could be used to water barren areas and bring them into production. I know years ago John Innes were developing salt tolerant plants, and I'm sure there will be plenty of space to grow them in what had been desert areas, these if not suitable for human consumption could be used for biofuel, they would also reduce the carbon when growing. I know I'm pretty naive when it come to this sort of stuff and I'm sure somebody will put me straight!

[jerry]

Japanese companies like Honda,Sanyo,Toshiba,Matsu****a , the major electronic component players are pouring billions into Hydrogen fuel cell development including vast factory parks
last year Sharp and Sanyo demolished 6 hi-fi plants to create a vast new 2000 hectare industrial park for new technology and instead of sacking the 12,000workers they are retraining them for fuel cell technology.They are investing and building for the long term.

within 5 years Honda and Suzuki will be selling fuel cell bikes and cars ,ilaptops will be fuel cell to etc etc and the Japs will be back on top.

[russ77]

Fuel cells are nice. My old form was deploying them years back as power supplies for remote mobile phone sites. The trouble is, you need to get the fuel from somewhere. Currently, these fuels are generally obtained by electrolysis and then re-combined in the cell to get the sparks. As any physicist will tell you, you'll never get back what you put in. So the electricity still has to come from somewhere. The same is true with heavy battery-operated vehicles.

Until we have clean energy sources, the zero-emission vehicle is a fallacy.

So having opened the last can of worms, I say we should all go nuclear...

[neilbaldry]

how about a nuclear powered bike?!

on another note, why not make 2 or 3 story factories that grow GM crops to be used as bio fuel? surely then with it being inside, and GM, they can be grown 365 days a year?!


i think we need some direct replacement for petrol (that powers internal combustion engines), so i can still use my S2R when all the oil has run out!

[PeterPoddy]

I tried filling my Monster at a Total station on Friday afternoon. Half the pumps weren't working. I found one that was and pulled up. Took my helmet and gloves off, opened the filler cap and removed the nozzle. No action.

I noticed the sales assistant shouting through the night-pay window, so went over to see what he wanted. He beckoned me in to the shop. He then explained that I would have to pay for the fuel before filling up, showing me a sign that stated all fuel must be paid for up front between 2300 and 0600. It was four in the afternoon.

I wanted to pay by card so asked him how that would work. He told me I could leave my card with them. Yeah, right. I told him it would be easier to just go somewhere else. I noticed that no car drivers were being asked to pay up front. What's that all about?


I've had something similar happen to me.
I just dropped the nozzle on the floor and rode off, which really pisses them off because they have to come outside and sort it out.
Don't get mad, get even.
:)

[JMo]

I've had something similar happen to me.
I just dropped the nozzle on the floor and rode off, which really pisses them off because they have to come outside and sort it out.
Don't get mad, get even.
:)

Good plan, but be careful as they are likely to have your number plate on CCTV - I can just see plod paying you a visit and arresting you for "potentially endangering the public and the staff (of the aforementioned establishment)"...

I wouldn't put it past them...

xxx