How To Get Back At Gas Stations For High Prices

Want a way to get back at the high prices of Gas? Most of us when we fill up we try to get it on the dollar like $50.00 or $44.00.

I just filled up my car at the gas pumps, and the guy before me filled up as well, and his total came to $56.26 and the cashier had to give away .74 cents from his till. When I was next I filled up and cost me $34.12 and the cashier had to give me back .88 cents. The cashier said "If I keep getting people like yous I'll run out of change". He didn't see impressed.

I say we stop our pumps just after the .05 cent mark and before it gets to the .75 cent mark. Make them run out of change, maybe we'll start getting some free gas back or we'll at least drive them bananas.

Let show them how we appreciate them raising the prices.


[edit on 22-6-2008 by SpaceBits]

No offense, but your argument is lacking on so many levels. It is not the gas stations that see billions of dollars a year in profits, it is the oil companies. The gas stations only profit .3 to .5 cents on the gallon. If you wanna hurt someone, target BP and Shell....not your local gas station. That's like saying, "we'll show that gas delivery guy whose boss!" You are shooting the proverbial messenger here.

[edit on 6/22/2008 by Mad_Hatter]

reply to post by Mad_Hatter


You don't see them as complaining to the oil companies because they see there customers getting mad? Who care who's making the money they will do the bitching for us.

reply to post by SpaceBits


That would'nt work. All the cashier has to do is swap a, $20.00 or a $10.00 dollar bill from the cash register to the the safe (petty cash), and grab a roll of pennies, nickles, dimes, or quarters.
You would just create more work for the cashier that's all.

Originally posted by Darth Logan
reply to post by SpaceBits

 

That would'nt work. All the cashier has to do is swap a, $20.00 or a $10.00 dollar bill from the cash register to the the safe (petty cash), and grab a roll of pennies, nickles, dimes, or quarters.
You would just create more work for the cashier that's all.

Not according to the the cashier I was just speaking with. He said that he would run out of change.

If they do run out of change then they will have to go buy more or if you filled up at $58.66 and they have no change they will have to give you the .66 cents free gas.

reply to post by SpaceBits


Gee wiz dude, he was'nt being serious, all the cashier has to do is go down to the bank and exchange some dollars for change, I've had to do that for my parents pawn shop many, many times, it's common practise amoungst shop owners, wheather they be pawn shops or gas stations, doesn't matter, they go through change pretty quickly, the main reason is because people generally like to pay with whole dolars and not fractions.

Just my $0.02 (pun intended)

-Jimmy

reply to post by SpaceBits


Well if thats the case then you would have to send a co-worker out to a local business and ask them to exchange a $20.00 for rolls of change.

One way or another it does not effect the higher up's. It only effect's the person working at the time.

OK, well then a MOD should delete this thread for it utter stupidity then... either way I could care less. Everyone cries but know one wants to do anything about it.

reply to post by SpaceBits



It's not that people don't care but the fact that there is little people can do about the situation that is effective. Sorry you feel that people are dissing your idea, but the facts are that it will primarily cause some innocent cashier a lot of trouble. It isn't going to stop the problem at all, even if 50,000 gas stations complained about it. They will simply have more change available if they felt a need for it.

Maybe you should take criticism a little more constructively.

Dont be hard on your I think this post has a A for Effort, Just didnt thinka few things thru is all, your in the right place,

But that would mess more with the station owner then the Oil companies an would lead to a round off device included in their pumps if it became a problem somehow,

Now if you really wanna get back at the oil companies, Devise a free energy way of mass travel..... Me I would like to see us all rising inside gyrostabilized Spheres that travel thru tubes, that has sensors inside your sphere an along side the walls of the tube before an exit, that would trigger a Magnetic or track switch pending your station entered....

reply to post by SpaceBits


Try not buying the gas. We consumers have the power to lower the price, but no one wants to walk or ride a bike to work. So as long as we keep buying the fuel then nothing is going to change.

The gas station attendants aren't the problem. The real problem is that we let it get this far. We are so dependant on oil that most would die without it.

Originally posted by ben91069
reply to post by SpaceBits

 

It's not that people don't care but the fact that there is little people can do about the situation that is effective. Sorry you feel that people are dissing your idea, but the facts are that it will primarily cause some innocent cashier a lot of trouble. It isn't going to stop the problem at all, even if 50,000 gas stations complained about it. They will simply have more change available if they felt a need for it.

Maybe you should take criticism a little more constructively.

I'm not upset at all, nor am I offended. I just mean that if the thread is stupid then I feel it should be deleted. Do you not?

I was just thinking that if I as a station owner and always had to go get change eventually I would have to say something to the people I buy from, which would be the oil company. Saying something like, "You know that ever since gas whent up past such and such that I'm having a hard time with the customer's".

Also it tells allot more people that we are not impressed.

I totally understand everyones ideas on the matter.

reply to post by SpaceBits


Your thread is not stupid. You are just misinformed and we are here to help you get the right idea and tell you why we feel you are misinformed. I apologize, I used the wrong word above when I said "your argument is lacking in intelligence." What I should have said was your argument is misinformed or something of that nature.

Solarskye is right. We as the consumer are the total reason that gas is so high. Because we are supportive of it and go to the pumps everyday like good little sheep and buy the gas. I, personally, do not buy it. I haven't bought gas in a month. My truck has been sitting in my yard with a for sale sign on it. I either walk or take the bus where I need to go. I realize that this is not an option for some, but if you can't cut out driving all together then you can at least cut back.

Everyone wants to blame someone else for the oil crisis instead of accepting the responsibility for the problem and admitting that they are the ones that let the oil companies walk all over them. Don't like the price of gas, then don't buy it. People forget that the power has been in their hands all along, because they want to find someone else to blame other than themselves.



[edit on 6/22/2008 by Mad_Hatter]

reply to post by Mad_Hatter


I agree, When I first moved here I took the bus and was happy to do so. But after a month I was already late 5 times at my new job because of the crappy bus schedule here. So I had no choice but to get a car. It used to cost me $100. a week but I cut down allot and only use my car now to go to work and walk or bus else were. It only cost me $35.00 a week now for gas. So the oil company lost out on my $65.00 a week.

I have been "overfilling" for YEARS now.....30.01, 40.05 etc

Add up the costs for it and I know it deosn't come to much, but it's a good feeling to get something back for a change!

As others have said, a lot of the time these gas stations are owned by someone other than the company represented with a logo out front. They do not see the profits that BP, ExxonMobil, Shell etc. see.

Also, for the most part, the cashier is simply someone who was hired to do that job. Cashiers don't make good money. They don't benefit off of high gas prices. They're in the same position we are. They have to buy gas at high prices as well. So inconveniencing them is not going to solve anything.

Although the idea presented by the OP would not work, we should stop pumping to that nice and neat on the dollar figure. Stop pumping an extra 50 cents to get it on the dollar. The oil companies benefit from that extra 50 cents more than your gas tank does. So in that sense, we should stop pumping those extra cents.

Another idea is to buy only what you need. If everyone buys in small quantities, perhaps just a quarter of a tank to get to and from work for a few days, that will have an effect on the prices. Filling up so that you have more gas for a longer period of time does NOT help.

Or we can just do what Solarskye suggested - stop using gas. Ride a bike. Ride the bus. At the very least, car pool with friends or family. If everyone pitches in for gas, you will each be paying a very small amount.

The key is to get off of our high demand for oil. Do your part to slow the demand.

If everybody would do that, then we would win. But not everyone is going to do that. Especially the people that have so much money that they don't care about the price of gas.

Aside from what others have posted against this idea... who even uses cash to pay for gas anyway? I've been using my debit card to pay at the pump for years.

Annestacy,

This is unrelated to stopping the oil barrons, but may be useful for you to know...especially if you don't keep alot of money in your bank account.

When you use your debit card at the pump, it automatically puts a $50 hold on your account until the gas station sends the payment through. This means that even if you are using your card to pump $10 in gas, then the pump temporarily charges your card $50 because it technically has no way of knowing a) how much gas you are about to get, and b) how much money you have available to pay for the gas.
This money is of course added back to your account once the gas station sends its credit card payments through. I've had my card declined before because of this, but work the next day, only to find out why later. I don't know if all gas stations do this though.

reply to post by annestacey


I only use cash. For one if the power goes out for a week what will you do? The money you have in the account will be useless. I know it happened here in Canada when we had Ice Storm 98'. People where trying to by generators and food but with out cash people were going home empty handed. There were many who were trying to do the old IOU but store owners were saying no. The most money i keep in the banks is $15.00 cash is the way to go, besides it's faster.