This is been my neighborhood Gate station since we moved to the area in 2008. We've had some pretty consistent experiences here, some of which are good as compared to other gas stations in the area and others are poor based on a customer experience.
Let me start with the good. Gate gas stations are generally pretty consistent in maintenance and cleanliness. I used to work for a service company and had to assist with maintaining equipment which included most of the gate gas stations in Northeast florida. From this perspective, the machines were always far better maintained than almost everywhere else. You would be shocked at what the inside of some of these machines look like at other businesses who have no policies and procedures in place for regular cleaning.
Now for the things that have plagued this location for which I believe there could be improvement. First, my dad was an amputee and sometimes would need assistance in filling up his tank. not one time was he successful in getting someone to answer the phone when calling the number posted on the pumps for handicapped people to use. I can't even tell you the number of times that he returned home without being able to get gas and had to wait for someone else to get home and go get gas for him or go with him. This is disappointing. Second, someone at gate should be fired over their decisions surrounding the new pumps with the fancy video displays that do not have the technical requirements to either play video or sound that's audible outside. All this has resulted in is incredibly slow pumps for the payment process and useless audio and video. all someone had to do was test one of these pumps before they were put into service and they would have realized they are a failure. Also, related to the pumps is the fact that they seem to be out of order very frequently. To top that off, we always get gas without ethanol, so they recently remodeled and there are only two pumps which are nested in with the regular pumps and vehicles are always parked here while people are shopping inside. I really wish they would have been more conscious of this when making this change because it seems to have been implemented at many of their locations. Finally, it can be really frustrating depending on them to have equipment working inside. For example, today I was really craving an icy and in the middle of the pandemic the options for icees are fewer than ever. However, even though I drove past mini gate stations on my way home from the beaches, I made the mistake of planning to get an icy at this location since it is close to my home. I should have known better, because the machine was completely out of order.
Overall, I think gate does a great job as compared to many other gas stations, but there are convenience store chains, that do much better than gate such as Wawa. the most troubling thing seems to be a pattern that I've noticed. The gate gas stations that are in an area with lower socioeconomic status seem to be the ones where things are not as well maintained. Many of the gas stations in poorer areas will have the same issue with chronically out of order pumps and equipment inside that is similarly out of order. You will rarely see this in an area with more wealth. I'm sure this may have something to do with the available talent in the area, because fast food chains around us are also filled with people who clearly don't want to be working, but I really wish gate would do more to assist these locations in more socioeconomically diverse areas to have the same standard of service and maintenance expectations as all of their locations. read more