There is (or was) a very deranged person who works here. This incident happened about 2.5 years ago.
Richmond has a municipal by-law that prohibits gas stations from officially offering self-serve fuel. However, the extremely outdated bylaw is not enforced, and it's generally accepted among drivers and station staff that customers do fuel their own vehicles without issue.
One night, about 2.5 years ago, I pulled into this station where there was a long line for full service which spilled onto the road. I encountered a pump with a traffic cone next to it implying it was out of service, but the pump was actually operational. A lot of stations do this to funnel full-serve guests towards the pumps closest to the convenience store when it's not busy. On this night, it was clearly very busy.
Since I was willing to serve myself, I pulled up next to the pump and inserted my payment card to begin the transaction, expecting there to be no issue since I wasn't impeding the station's ability to serve the queue of full-serve customers. After my card was approved and I picked up the nozzle, an obese Caucasian man who appeared to be in his 50s confronted me aggressively and ripped the nozzle out of my hand as I was about to insert it into my vehicle. He mashed the Cancel button on the pump and chastised me for using the pump that had a cone next to it.
This seemed inappropriate since the pump was working fine and I wasn't harming anyone. Not wanting to escalate the situation I pulled my car over to the other side of the pump island which did not have a cone next to it and started the transaction again. However, this psycho became all the more aggressive, got in my face, and cancelled the transaction again. Finally, he directed the clerk who was working inside to remotely disable all the pumps on that island.
I get that they need to manage traffic volumes on their property, but they are clearly going about it the wrong way. I am not sure if management is aware of or condones this behavior, or if this is simply a rogue employee. I have not seen him here since this encounter, so I presume he quit or has since been terminated for his atrocious behavior. read more