My least favorite thing in the world happened to me this afternoon, after finishing pumping some gas using the debit card, no paper receipt came out. “Receipt Inside,” said the LEDs. Fuck. What made it really bad was I had bought just $2 worth of gas (enough to make it back to Rader with the loaner car.) I trudge into the store and get in line at number 3.
#1 finished quickly, but #2 was not so lucky. The woman in front of me can’t get her pump to work right using her credit card. The LEDs keep saying, “See Cashier” when she scans it. The kid behind the counter has trouble grasping this. Finally she says just run my card for me in here. The kid says, “I can’t prepay with a credit card. Use the pump.” She tells him the pump says see him. He says again I can’t prepay with a card. Finally, she gives up and storms out in disgust.
My turn. “I need a receipt.” “What pump number?” “I dunno, that one.” “OK, 4.” He starts mashing buttons and gets nothing but error beeps it seems. I say, “I got $2 worth.” More beeps. Kid say, “This says $12.25.” “That ain’t mine. Two bucks.” more buttons, more beeps. The cash draw pops open and the register reads, $5.47. He closes the drawer, more buttons more beeps. My turn to give up, I say, “Forget it.”, and walk out.
Of course I catch hell from the wife because of no receipt and then even more grief when she thinks that I’ve been charged $12.25 for two dollars worth of gas – we’ll see.