Is this crazy or am I crazy?
Yesterday, I needed to get gas for my Jeep; I stopped at a BP station here locally where I live. I usually pay with my credit card or debit card. However this time I had a $100 dollar bill that I wanted to use to pay for the gas.
I pulled up to the pump, got out and pulled the nozzle from the pump and put it into my gas tank to begin filling. I pushed the cash payment button and waited for authorization to begin pumping.
While I was waiting I noticed a small sign on the pump that said that the store didn’t take anything larger than a $20.00 dollar bill. This somewhat annoyed me as I thought that most people pump any where from $30 - $100 dollars of gas when filling up and depending on what they are driving. My jeep usually takes at least $30 - $40 at any given time.
I asked myself how could they only accept bills of $20 dollar’s or less in denomination?
I decided to pump the gas and pretend like I never saw the sign on the pump.
The pump took an unusually long time to authorize and I began to get impatient waiting. This along with the fact that all I had was a $100 dollar bill to pay with at a store that only accepts bills of $20.00 or less, led me to the decision to pull the pump out hang it back on it’s base and leave.
I continued on my path home and stopped by an independent gas station close to my house. I pulled up to the pump and was delighted to see that the price of the gas was .05 cents less than the BP Station I just left.
I filled my tank, and rounded up the total to an even $27.00 dollars. I headed to the store so I could pay the cashier who met outside as I was approaching the building and asked me how much gas I pumped?
I realized this was a different type of station the attendant was more active in taking the money, as one of the pumps was a full service pump so the attendant was used to meeting the customers at their car to collect payment from self service customers.
So I told the guy that I pumped $27.00 dollars worth of gas and pulled out the $100.00 dollar bill from my pocket to pay. When I handed the attendant the $100.00 dollar bill to my surprise I was given attitude toward my money.
The guy started in on me and said “we don’t accept bills larger than $50.00 denomination.” He went on to ask “didn’t you read the sign?” My reply was “I am sorry I didn’t see the sign on the building.”
He continued to give me attitude about the $100.00 dollar bill and having to make change for such a big bill.
I told him that “I didn’t see the sign on the building and that there was no indication that this was a policy anywhere on the pump.” I went on to tell the guy that if the sign on the building was a little bit bigger than the foot and a half square I might have seen it. However the sign was placed very low on the building and was inconspicuous, definitely not very noticeable.
He kept grumbling as he went back inside. I followed him in to where he stopped at a desk that had a big drawer on it. As he opened the drawer, I couldn’t help but notice that he had quite a bit of money in the drawer surely it was enough to break or make change for at least ten $100.00 dollar bills.
It was apparent that this guy just isn’t a customer friendly person with his approach. If he had simply pointed out in a nice way the sign on the building I may not have been so offended by his grumbling attitude, I would have apologized and let him know I would be better prepared next time. The sad fact is his attitude totally turned me off to ever returning to his station again.
As someone who is in a customer driven business where I have to make sure I keep my customers happy and always have to keep my attitude positive and customer focused. I expect a lot and this guy didn’t display any customer service skills and created an uncomfortable situation that cost him future sales from me.
I guess where all of this is crazy to me is what is the deal with gas stations placing limits on dollar denominations? Are they protecting themselves from theft? Don’t they have safes on premises where they can drop off large dollar amounts that are inaccessible?
Am I crazy thinking this way? What happens when gas prices get back to $4 dollars a gallon and people really will be pumping $100.00 dollars of gas to fill up. Is the gas station going to say “that will be $100.00 dollars, however you must pay with five $20.00 dollar bills, because we don’t accept $100.00 dollar bills.”
I don’t know this just seems like a short sighted policy.
Thanks for reading!
JohnG
www.debt-2-zero.com

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