Lights off at petrol stations?

iaind said:
Not bizarre at all - 99% of the time if someone is going to drive off without paying, they'll leave the door open
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I really really doubt it.

where are you getting this information?

Perhaps idiot criminals with no balls yes. Brazen criminals will act as normal, fill teh car up.. watch all the other people from the pumps come and go. Get back in the car as normal and drive off. It only tends to come to light when next customer can't fill. They person at the window tends to be busy.

I knew a little **** bag who used to do that on a daily basis. He never done any actionman rubbish, just fake plates and very calmly topped up with fuel and pulled away...
 
Just a thought, but maybe having the lights on at that particular garage reduces the ability of the CCTV to properly recored the number plate (glare?!) just in case people drive off and maybe that's why they have that policy... it's just a theory though, could be a load of BS.
 
nuvpal said:
Just a thought, but maybe having the lights on at that particular garage reduces the ability of the CCTV to properly recored the number plate (glare?!) just in case people drive off and maybe that's why they have that policy... it's just a theory though, could be a load of BS.
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Cameras are good these days, and forecourts tend to be flood or florescent lit. I very much doubt thats the issue here.

The CCTV cameras tend to be at ceiling height, whereas your headlight beam stays low to the ground.
 
I work part time at a local fueling station so I see this from the other side as well and the following is a few things you people calling her a jobsworth should understand.

1) The Garage I work at has some utterly insane rules when it comes to authorising pumps, most of which get ignored on a near constant basis.

2) Whoever is authorising the pumps is considered responisble by the company for checking that every pump they authorise is legal and safe, remembering the order in which customers fuel and ensuring that all customers pay for their fuel.

There are ten pump fueling points where I work, on a busy day they are all constantly in use and this one person is expected to keep track of all transactions, the order they happen in and serve customers in the shop at the same time, remembering to offer each and every one of them a coffee, ask if they have a nectar card and offer them one if they don't, all the while keeping the queue to a maximum of two people... if say pump 5 has three queued fuel transactions of say £10, £25 and £50 and the assitant on till three mistakenly lets the guy with £50 pay £10 by mistake it is still considered the fault of the person authorising the pumps.

There are four tills, only two of which can authorise a fuel pump. Till 1 is the position of authority and whoever is on till 1 bears these responsibilities regardless of the assistant on till two just authorising pumps without looking, obviously this is site specific, but I'd imagine a lot of stations are the same.

3) When a drive off happens (and they do, quote often) the person who was authorising is held responsible and will depending on previous records end up with a disciplinary, which could easily lead to being fired, this has happened.

So in all, the assistant can, through absolutely no fault of their own come into a situation where their job is threatened and they will have to attend disciplinaries and extra training.

It is not suprising therefore that sometimes you will find one who has been ****** off by the management and will be working to company rule, it wont be aimed at you, it will be aimed at showing the management that their rules are over the top and if they are enforced as the company insists people a) complain and b) go elsewhere.

Next time it happens, ask to speak to the manager and give it to them as it's likely not the assistant being a jobsworth, it's the company forcing it on them via their utterly stupid operating proceedures.
 
Biohazard said:
Cameras are good these days, and forecourts tend to be flood or florescent lit. I very much doubt thats the issue here.
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Yeah I guess, was just throwing in ideas as to why they'd be so enforceful of a pretty pointless rule, and as to why it's not really enforced anywhere else. The only other explanation I can think of is that the attendent was on a power trip, or new to the job.
 
Dano said:
I work part time at a local fueling station so I see this from the other side as well and the following is a few things you people calling her a jobsworth should understand.

1) The Garage I work at has some utterly insane rules when it comes to authorising pumps, most of which get ignored on a near constant basis.

2) Whoever is authorising the pumps is considered responisble by the company for checking that every pump they authorise is legal and safe, remembering the order in which customers fuel and ensuring that all customers pay for their fuel.

There are ten pump fueling points where I work, on a busy day they are all constantly in use and this one person is expected to keep track of all transactions, the order they happen in and serve customers in the shop at the same time, remembering to offer each and every one of them a coffee, ask if they have a nectar card and offer them one if they don't, all the while keeping the queue to a maximum of two people... if say pump 5 has three queued fuel transactions of say £10, £25 and £50 and the assitant on till three mistakenly lets the guy with £50 pay £10 by mistake it is still considered the fault of the person authorising the pumps.

There are four tills, only two of which can authorise a fuel pump. Till 1 is the position of authority and whoever is on till 1 bears these responsibilities regardless of the assistant on till two just authorising pumps without looking, obviously this is site specific, but I'd imagine a lot of stations are the same.

3) When a drive off happens (and they do, quote often) the person who was authorising is held responsible and will depending on previous records end up with a disciplinary, which could easily lead to being fired, this has happened.

So in all, the assistant can, through absolutely no fault of their own come into a situation where their job is threatened and they will have to attend disciplinaries and extra training.

It is not suprising therefore that sometimes you will find one who has been ****** off by the management and will be working to company rule, it wont be aimed at you, it will be aimed at showing the management that their rules are over the top and if they are enforced as the company insists people a) complain and b) go elsewhere.

Next time it happens, ask to speak to the manager and give it to them as it's likely not the assistant being a jobsworth, it's the company forcing it on them via their utterly stupid operating proceedures.
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1. Its that 'jobsworths'choice to stay in that employment.
2. The company should clearly employ more people from your experiences.
3. I would never work somewhere where I am responsible for far more than I can clearly manage - especailly if thefts against the company will be levelled at me personally when it is clear that you can do little to stop a 2tonne vehicle.
 
Biohazard said:
1. Its that 'jobsworths'choice to stay in that employment.
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Easily said, not so easily done for a lot of people.

2. The company should clearly employ more people from your experiences.
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Second day on the job, was asked 'You appear to be far to intelligent to work here, what's going on?' lol :)

3. I would never work somewhere where I am responsible for far more than I can clearly manage - especailly if thefts against the company will be levelled at me personally when it is clear that you can do little to stop a 2tonne vehicle.
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Some people don't have as much choice in the matter, unless you'd rather they went unemployed and started claiming benefits.

The only way these things will change is when the company as a whole understand that their rules are unreasonable, the only way they find out about that is by workers telling them so, verbal comments get ignored so the only avenue left to most employees is action via following company policy to the letter.

It's a damn sad situation :(
 
Dano said:
It's a damn sad situation :(
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Which company do you work for? I appreciate what your saying, I'd move as a priority.

I worked in a Tesco garage as secondment from the store, I was never threatened with the sack for some scrote stealing. Its clearly a crap company you work for.

If I was ever offended in such a manner I'd guarantee I'd hound the store or company until I was offered an apology for being treated as a potential criminal merely because I wish to purchase some of their products.
 
InvaderGIR said:
I vote that we have to push our cars from ~50meters away to the pumps, to ensure no electrical items can set a fire. :/
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We're only allowed to do that if the car is on fire :eek: if it's merely a hazard we're not allowed near it just in case... :rolleyes:

Yes, I'm being serious...
 
Biohazard said:
Some criminals are idiots, some are clearly very far from that.

Petrol theft isn't the hardest thing to pull off, either which way.
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In my experience the type of criminals that resort to stealing fuel are pretty stupid. Almost all of them left the door open for a quick getaway, so I can understand why they wouldnt want to let you fuel without closing it - maybe something else about Matt_fsr looked a bit dodgy to them, who knows.

Either way, same argument as the mobile phone thing - what benefit is there to you of leaving the door open?
 
Biohazard said:
Which company do you work for? I appreciate what your saying, I'd move as a priority.
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BP

I worked in a Tesco garage as secondment from the store, I was never threatened with the sack for some scrote stealing. Its clearly a crap company you work for.
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Not sure about the company as a whole, but certainly this arm of it.

If I was ever offended in such a manner I'd guarantee I'd hound the store or company until I was offered an apology for being treated as a potential criminal merely because I wish to purchase some of their products.
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I'm only there two nights a week, have never had any issues and would hope that I know enough people who are clued up enough that I'd never let them get away with anything with me, but I've seen some shocking things happen to other staff.
 
iaind said:
Either way, same argument as the mobile phone thing - what benefit is there to you of leaving the door open?
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None or very little, but it's all about the subconsious attitude isn't it. Door closed generally means you're not thinking of getting staright back in again doesn't it, or so some stupidly expensive survey/report probably managed to find.
 
iaind said:
In my experience the type of criminals that resort to stealing fuel are pretty stupid. Almost all of them left the door open for a quick getaway, so I can understand why they wouldnt want to let you fuel without closing it - maybe something else about Matt_fsr looked a bit dodgy to them, who knows.

Either way, same argument as the mobile phone thing - what benefit is there to you of leaving the door open?
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Its my ******* car, I'll leave every door open stuff the seats with underage hoes and put my first through the windscreen if I should so choose.

I've left my car door open many a time, mainly to talk to the front seat passenger while I top up. Its my car, my choice. And I would choose to walk away from a company that treats its customers on a whole as theiving *****.
 
Biohazard said:
Its my ******* car, I'll leave every door open stuff the seats with underage hoes and put my first through the windscreen if I should so choose.

I've left my car door open many a time, mainly to talk to the front seat passenger while I top up. Its my car, my choice. And I would choose to walk away from a company that treats its customers on a whole as theiving *****.
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Do you see yourself above the rest of public then? Whilst I'm sure you aren't a criminal I don't think you should be offended that people treat you like so.

You wouldn't be allowed into a bank or jewellers shop wearing a motorcycle helmet, and despite you claiming you wouldn't be holding the place up at gunpoint, they still wouldn't let you in.
 
Simon said:
Do you see yourself above the rest of public then? Whilst I'm sure you aren't a criminal I don't think you should be offended that people treat you like so.

You wouldn't be allowed into a bank or jewellers shop wearing a motorcycle helmet, and despite you claiming you wouldn't be holding the place up at gunpoint, they still wouldn't let you in.
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No, I've just had enough of presumed guilt.

I'm not wearing a helmet, I'm not talking about a bank either.

"Whilst I'm sure you aren't a criminal I don't think you should be offended that people treat you like so" And what ******* planet do you come from?

Go away
 
Biohazard said:
Its my ******* car, I'll leave every door open stuff the seats with underage hoes and put my first through the windscreen if I should so choose.

I've left my car door open many a time, mainly to talk to the front seat passenger while I top up. Its my car, my choice. And I would choose to walk away from a company that treats its customers on a whole as theiving *****.
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And its their petrol station, their choice - if they dont want to sell you fuel because your doors open and you're chatting to passengers rather than paying attention to what you're doing, then they're more than entitled to refuse you service
 
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