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Adventures at Exxon
R. Alex Whitlock
Today I was filling up at an Exxon station. I slipped my card across the scanner dealibob and honored its request to REMOVE CARD RAPIDLY! without incident.
But the pump wouldn't turn on.
Pull, pull, nothing.
Pull, pull, nothing.
So I actually take the time to look at the display and it asks for my zip code. Thinking that this is an obnoxious customer survey like they have at Best Buy and some other places, I go ahead and enter my parents zip code (figuring that my Idaho code wouldn't help them out).
It then cancelled the request.
I repeated the process and it cancelled the request again.
I guess it's some sort of security feature. If you think about it, it's pretty smart. That way if someone creates a card and strip they can't use it without knowing the address of the person that they're creating the strip from. It probably won't stop most forms of credit card abuse, but every little bit helps I guess.
My only question is whether or not it did so because I was waaaaaay out of my area (if so, outstanding!) or if it always does that (if so, probably more time lost than money saved).
Observations
It appears to be station to station. The Chevron near my office always asks, the Exxon close by doesn't. Never been to a Shell yet that has ever asked.
It's mostly apportioned by the question of whether or not the station is deemed to be at-risk for that sort of behavior (since the liability for stolen gas will wind up coming out of the company's pockets).
The same way that only certain stations, that have a history of people trying to drive off without paying, will have a "pay before pumping" policy if you're paying in cash.
Mike, the places that aren't "pay before pump" seem to be few and far between these days. This one in particular is right by Adam's house, so I'd be surprised if it were a real problem area. But who's to say?
During my trip to Kansas, we passed by one of the worst named gas stations I've ever seen. Speed Away.
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