It's a shame that this gas station is the most convenient to my home, because I am 3 for 3 when it comes to having unpleasant experiences here. Today, it got to the point that I knew internalizing my frustration was helping no one, and it was time to take to Yelp.
The first two times, I had perfectly good cards (one credit - not maxed out, and one debit - plenty in the account) rejected when trying to pay at the pump because of "fraud alerts." Note that I used these cards minutes later on both days at different stations. I don't know if this station simply gets a lot of fraud or what, but I've never had so much trouble trying to pay for gas with valid forms of payment.
Today was the worst, though. Like many people, I participate in the Kroger fuel rewards program. Kroger is currently offering an awesome "4x fuel points" promotion on gift cards, so today I loaded up on gift cards to use as Christmas presents and also to cover my own expenses at places where I know I'll be spending money this month. May as well rack up some fuel points, right? So I picked up a $100 Shell card, figuring I would stop and get some gas at a place that accepts Kroger points and avoid the weird "we don't accept perfectly good plastic" issue that plagues this station.
Not so fast there, Swifty.
I go over to Shell with a balance of 1,046 points thanks to the 4x points promo. I am therefore expecting to get a dollar off per gallon, which will be sweet.
At this Shell, unlike all other Shells I have been to, you can't just swipe the Kroger rewards card at the pump. You have to go inside and have the attendant swipe your card and tell you what you're entitled to get. So the guy swipes my card and tells me I'm entitled to $0.10 off per gallon, not a dollar. And I am cool about it. I mention, "Well, I just spent that money. I guess the points will be available to use until tomorrow or something." And that's fine, I will just get the discount the next time I fill up, which will be in about a week or so. No problem. But the guy starts getting upset and arguing with me that a thousand points equals $.10 off per gallon, not a dollar.
Again, there was no reason to argue whatsoever. He just wanted to.
I explained that no, every 100 points is $.10, maximum redemption $1 per gallon. He insists that I am crazy, that they don't give anybody $1/gallon off. He runs a gas station - why doesn't he understand the most popular fuel rewards program in the country? Certainly, he has seen people with discounts over $0.10/gallon before.
Anyway, in the future I'll drive a couple of extra miles out of the way to avoid this station. It's just way more complicated than buying gas needs to be. read more