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And that’s basically it!
This confused me:
The couple say they were even left unable to visit their son, who lives more than 200 miles away in London, out of fear that they would be left stranded without fuel if petrol stations refused to serve them.
I had a look, and Blackburn does have a train station, and I seem to remember London having one or two, what prevented them from taking the train?
Trains are for the poors. They need to be able to drive quickly to see their special boy.
Quite the opposite. Trains in the UK are crazy expensive, especially if you plan on going anywhere near London and didn't have the foresight to buy the ticket 12 weeks ago.
I take it you've never actually been to the UK, or even read about their public transport situation; trains tend to be expensive in the UK. I get it though, it's fun to dunk on an imagined adversary.
trains are for the poors
Tell me you have no idea how much intercity train travel costs in the UK without saying it
Anyone who chooses to drive into London without needing to haul something, is a moron. It's the worst transit option in nearly all cases.
First 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.
First off, I live in the USA and I haven’t seen a gas station where you could pump without paying first
And I live in Slovakia and haven't yet seen pre-paid gas station either.
You pump the gas, go in, tell the cashier the pump number, pay, go back and leave.
This is exactly how it works in the UK too in most petrol stations.
You pump the gas, go in, tell the cashier the pump number, pay, go back and leave.
You've described post-pay pumps, which is how they used to do it 20-25 years ago. This is how pump theft happens: They pump the gas... aaaand run off.
Same in NZ. However they have cameras on each pump, pretty sure your number plate will get flagged if you don't pay up.
Clearly there is places where pump theft is not that common or tackled in some other way, because there are countries where post-pay is still the default.
I do know that at some post-pay pumps the cashier has the ability to lock and unlock the pumps from inside
A long time ago, I used to work at a gas station when post-pay was allowed. All of the pumps required the cashier to activate them when somebody picked up the nozzle, but it was just expected that you hit the button to allow them to pump first. Most of the time, it's just a normal transaction. Sometimes, you realized some asshole stole gas when the next guy was at the pump.
Enough of this happened, especially during periods of high gas prices, that my boss would say "prepay is required now", and we'd tell them they have to come inside first. Eventually, paying with credit cards was so popular, and cash transactions were so rare, that nobody allowed post-pay anymore. There wasn't a point, when the risk was people would steal gas, and it's so easy to just stick a CC in a slot.
So, yeah, there's locks on the pumps, but if post-pay is the norm, it doesn't really matter.
In the Netherlands it's a mix of both these days.
During the daytime you pump, and then walk inside to pay afterwards. At night, when the building itself is closed, you pay using the terminal and only then are you allowed to start fueling up
There is also unmanned stations without a shop. They are pre-paid all day by default.
Yes, this is how it is in Germany too and in my experience travelling it is like that in a lot of Europe.
Unmanned stations are a relatively recent thing here, so the first time I wanted to fill up at one I thought the pump was broken before I realised I have to pay first lol.
Unmanned stations have existed for quite some time here, they are just not the only way to fuel up.
Manned stations are still very common, if not the default, and if a station is manned it is usually not prepaid.
of the 3 I visit with any frequency in my town in the US:
one has a card reader. If you want to pay in cash, you call out to the guy, 'lemme get $20 / 5 gallons/ fill' er up. I got cash!' And he heads over to the register and presses the button, activating the pump, and you pay after. I dont think it puts a limit on what you can pump (like if i say $5 and go over, that's what I owe) so it wouldnt make sense to pay upfront.
One of them has a little booth in the middle of the rows, with an attendant. He'll pump the gas for you then ask for payment, or let you pump yourself if you want, then take payment.
The third is afaik attendant only, but they usually have 2-3 of them. They seem to have a system that allows amount inputs, so if you ask for a $/ volume amount, they'll usually ask for the card/ cash, start the pump, then return with a receipt for you to fill out while/ change while its pumping. But if you asked to fill it up and that youre paying cash, theyre still waiting till after the pump has click3d over to give you the cost.
This used to be the norm in Sweden, but now you can't really find those any more, at keast not around Stockholm to my knowledge
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 would pick UK problems over US' problems any day...
You're not wrong, but the point still stands that there's no need for this collections service in the USA or the UK.
Once, I was forced to pay inside because the card reader at the pump was broken. The attendant misheard the pump number and someone else immediately spent my money and drove away. I came back once I figured out what happened and the attendant was like "not my problem."
So, anyway, that's a way to steal gas.
First off, I live in the USA
Could have stopped there instead of just wading on in like you already know everything, but then I guess that wouldn't have been very American
An easier way to prevent fuel theft is to require prepayment or a credit card authorisation to activate the pump.
But how will the surveillance companies support themselves if that logical process is put in place?
It is the problem of the gas stations, not the consumer. If there is so much gasoline theft, have the customers pay upfront (this is common practice in Belgium), and if you don’t want to implement that, just shut up? BTW, if you drive an EV, you don’t have this issue, so perhaps a good moment to switch.
In the US, it’s been prepay or pay at the pump since around 2007. The only fuel theft cases you hear about now involve scamming the pump or actually stealing the fuel directly from the the stations in-ground tank and bypassing the pump all together