On June 25th 2012, I had a fairly distressing experience at the Citgo/ Goose Creek Market located…read moreon Rt 10 / Lebanon Road in Dover, DE.
I had left my house in time to be about 20 min early for work so that I would have plenty of time to refuel. I arrived at this station around 6:45, and when I tried to use the card reader, the display told me to see the attendant. She told me the system had been having issues with debit cards, but not credit, and that she would be able to process the transaction with the interior computers. I left my card with her, as I did not know how much the car would take. After filling up, the machine in the store also would not take my card.
To solve the problem, the attendant tried calling the usual hot line for a phone verification, but for some reason, she did not have the store's ID for that system available, or at least not in a reasonably accessible place. She may have called two other people, but neither of them solved the issue. Having worked in retail, I am having difficulty thinking of an excuse not to have the ID number accessible, or failing that, the phone numbers of higher-ups who would know how to solve such problems.
During this time, I was able to call my own credit card's hot line, just to be sure it had nothing to do with me, and having established that, I asked the attendant if she had tried restarting the computer. Given that it wasn't my card, and the system had been having debit issues relating to weather, it seemed like a reasonable step to take in solving any given technical issue, but the attendant gave me a lot of attitude just for suggesting it.
At that point I was about five minutes late for work, when I remembered that I keep cash hidden in the recesses of various outer garments for emergencies. This is what finally freed me from this hostage situation. Given the predominance of credit and debit cards, it is no longer a reasonable expectation that people carry cash. I found the whole experience to be distressing and unacceptable, and will no longer patronize any Citgo or Goose Creek Market, as there is a real possibility that I may be detained indefinitely