SahwaFamily ‘banned from more than 1,000 petrol stations’ amid fuel theft row
ManjushriFirst off, I live in the USA and I haven’t seen a gas station where you could pump without paying first in at least 20 years. I’m currently living in one of the more rural areas of the country and every pump has a card reader so you can pay right at the pump without even going inside. I sometimes see old stickers on the pumps that point out that leaving without paying is a crime, but I cannot imagine how anyone could actually do this. The pumps will not dispense fuel until you pay.
This tells me that the whole purpose of the set up described in the article as a way for this security company to scam people. The technology to prevent driving off without paying is decades old. There’s no reason for this situation to exist.
Second…
The “stress and anxiety” from the situation led to the couple paying DCBL the debt in order to “just move on from it”.
This perfectly describes the business model of debt collection companies. Harass people until they pay whether they really owe any money or not.
It’s a bit silly to compare the lawless USA to civilised countries.
And if it wasn’t clear from the mention of English cities and the pound sterling signs, this is in the UK.
It makes perfect sense to pay AFTER you fill up. I never know how much it will cost to fill up the tank full, so how do you pay in advance in cash? Do you leave an excessive amount of cash with the cashier and then come back to get the change?
It’s only a bad idea if you live in a country full of criminals and cannot trust your neighbours or anyone.
despoticruinWell, most people know what it takes to fill their tanks, so it isn’t an excessive amount, it’s like $5 extra and you go back for the change. Realistically 90% of people use cards and the ones that use cash put an amount that fits in the tank. I’m not going to put $20 in the tank if $15 puts it right at full, I’ll put $10 in and not worry about it.
I remember having pre-paid with cash before.
The machine would take the note and stop the pump when it reached the price. If you overpaid, that’s your problem. If you didn’t get a full tank, that’s not a real problem, you still got what you paid for.
It’s sort of like when stations had attendants and you’d pull up and ask them to fill up for a tenner or something.