I work at a gas station. One day, this old lady comes in and asks my coworker to put gas in her car for her because she doesn’t know how to. He helps her and the whole time is very polite to her.

Lady: “For some reason, everywhere I go, everybody gets mad at me. Today, I didn’t want to pay for parking, and the parking workers didn’t let me leave until I paid for my parking ticket!”

After that, they both come inside.

Lady: *To me* “How much do I have to pay?”

Me: “That’ll be [price].”

She looks around her wallet a little bit.

Lady: “Oh, I guess I don’t have enough money. Well, I come here all the time; I’ll bring it next time.”

My coworker and I look at each other.

Me: “How much do you have, ma’am?”

Lady: “[About 40€ less than the total].”

Me: *Politely* “Okay. You go home get the money and get back here in about an hour max. We don’t have to call the police; just be here as soon as you can, and all will be good.”

She seems offended.

Lady: “I don’t want to drive home and then back here for just 40€!”

Me: “Ma’am, we work until 2:00 pm. If you don’t bring the money by then, we have to pay that 40€ that you don’t have.”

Lady: *Shocked* “But I’m a regular customer! And I’m from a wealthy family. My brother is a lawyer! You should treat me more nicely!”

I’m already so annoyed and shocked that I’m having this conversation with a grown woman.

Lady: “You are so insensitive and cheap! You won’t pay that 40€ that I don’t have?!”

She just goes on and on. Eventually, when we mention the police, another 100€ appears in her bag and she is able to pay. Before leaving, she says:

Lady: “You’re a horrible person! No wonder you work at a gas station.”

I love my job.

I go to a nearby gas station that also made sandwiches and hoagies. At this place, you have to use a touchscreen monitor to place your order; you can’t just go up to an employee and say what you want.

I walk in and I stand near the counter, thinking about what kind of hoagie I should get. I see an older man at one of the monitors. He seems to be frustrated, based on the way he is aggressively tapping on the screen. After a moment, he gives up and sighs with annoyance before going to a different one.

I am curious if the monitor is broken, so I go up to it and try to use it. It turns out that someone has just changed the language on the program from English to Spanish. I didn’t even know you could change the language, and I don’t know Spanish, so I also decide to move to a different monitor. The older man is now next to me on a different monitor, and he notices that I tried to use it after him. He chuckles.

Man: “You tried it, too?”

Just trying to be friendly, I laugh back.

Me: “Yeah, I thought maybe it was broken or something, but then I was just like, ‘Oh, it’s in Spanish!’”

Man: *Chuckles* “I bet one of those illegal aliens did it!”

I was so shocked and didn’t know what to say, so I just didn’t reply to him. I silently finished placing my order and went on with my day. I wish I had said something to him, but I tend to freeze up a bit when talking to someone older than me.

I’m working at a gas station on a kind of slow morning. I’m manning the registers alone while my coworkers are in the back stocking. A teenage boy comes in looking pissed off and slams his hands on my counter.

Boy: “Your pumps won’t take my card!”

Me: “I’m sorry about that. I can take it in here. How much would you like to put on it?”

Boy: “I don’t know… This is stupid. Why wouldn’t it take my card outside?”

Me: “The pump alert just says it was a bad card read, not a big deal. I suggest getting around $20. If you don’t need that much, you won’t be charged for it as the payment doesn’t go through until you’re done.”

Boy: “Whatever.”

I put the prepay on the pump, he jams his card into the machine, and it doesn’t read the chip. I just ask him to swipe it, which he does. He enters his PIN and then turns to run out the door. My register rejects his card, so I yell at him to come back.

Boy: “What the f***? I have money.”

Me: “It said it was a network rejection.”

At this point, a message goes across my screen telling me the entire network is down.

Me: “Oh, my entire credit card system is down.”

Boy: “What does that mean?”

Me: “Unfortunately, I cannot accept card payments until it comes back up. The last time this happened, it only took—”

The kid slams his hands on the counter and gets into my face.

Boy: “HOW THE F*** AM I SUPPOSED TO GET GAS, THEN?!”

Before I could answer, he turned and stalked out the door. I watched as he went back to the pump and tried to pay again with his card. I called up one of my coworkers just in case he came back in, and I continued to wait on other customers.

My coworker came out to see what was going on as the kid suddenly got back into his car and peeled out of the lot… with the hose still attached to his gas tank. My coworker ran outside to get him to stop but it was too late. Our hoses have a breakaway, so it wasn’t damaged, but we still had to file a report with the police. We had multiple cameras and a perfect shot of his license plate.

The network came back up less than three minutes after it went down. No other customers were inconvenienced.

I work for a gas station that is in the middle of a residential area. The next closest station to mine is over five miles away so we don’t really have anyone to compete with as far as prices go. Since I’ve been working there (almost a year) the gas prices have changed twice: once to go down and more recently they went back up.

I am stocking behind the registers when I see a man approaching from the corner of my eye. I stop what I’m doing and turn to him as he sets his fountain drink on the counter.

Me: “Good mo—”

Customer: “I wonder if those people out there pumping gas know that the [Station five miles away] is twenty-five cents cheaper.”

He hands me exact change for his drink.

Customer: “I don’t know how you guys stay in business charging people that much for gas when [Station] is so much cheaper.”

Me: “[Station] is only cheaper if you also purchase a car wash.”

He glares at me and turns to leave as my manager says:

Manager: “Their fountain sodas are cheaper, too… Just sayin’.”

That customer might not be coming back.

I work for a gas station that is kind of in a busy section of the middle of nowhere. A lot of my customers are regulars that come in once or twice a day. A lady I’d never seen before walked in and up to my register.

Customer: “I was wondering if you could possibly do me a favor. You see, I left my wallet at home and everyone I know is at church and I really need a pack of cigarettes. Is there any possible way you could give me a pack, and I promise I’ll come back later and pay?”

Me: “I’m sorry, I cannot do that.”

Customer: “You don’t do things like that for your customers?”

Me: “No, ma’am.”

Customer: “But I’m in here all the time. I’ll come back later, I swear.”

Me: “I’m sorry.”

Customer: “This is bad business. Guess I’ll just see if I can find someone I know outside.”

She walked out and stood out near the doors asking people to buy her a pack. When I asked her to please stop, she left, but evidently, she came back and stayed out of my line of sight until she finally convinced another customer to buy her a pack. I have not seen her in the store since.

Afterward, I am telling this story to a coworker when the phone rings. She goes into the office to answer it and is back there for a while. When she comes back out, she looks exasperated.

Coworker: “What the h*** is going on today? That was some guy asking if we would fill his gas tank for free and he’d come back and pay next week when he got his paycheck. I told him that I couldn’t authorize that, and he got angry and said we’ve done it in the past. I’ve been here for two years and I’ve never heard of anyone getting free gas on credit.”

The following day, a man comes in asking for the manager by name. I don’t recognize this man.

Manager: “How can I help you today?”

Male Customer: “I called yesterday and spoke to a [Coworker]. I asked her if I could possibly get a tank of gas and pay for it next week and she refused to do it.”

Manager: “Ah… yes… I heard about your call. Sir, we are not authorized to give anyone free gas for any reason.”

Male Customer: “My bank account was hacked and I have a meeting in [County five minutes away]. You’ve done this for me before.”

Manager: “Sir, I’m sorry you’re having problems, but I cannot just give you free gas.”

Male Customer: “I know you can. I used to work here. [Store Manager] knows who I am.”

Manager: “Well, I’m not [Store Manager], I’m [Manager], and I don’t know you from a hole in the ground. I cannot help you.”

Male Customer: “Well, thanks for nothing. I guess I’ll just miss my meeting!”

Regular: “Guess I can’t ask for a free meal and $100 out of the safe until he leaves.”