This confused me:
The couple say they were even left unable to visit their son, who lives more than 200 miles away in London, out of fear that they would be left stranded without fuel if petrol stations refused to serve them.
I had a look, and Blackburn does have a train station, and I seem to remember London having one or two, what prevented them from taking the train?
Trains are for the poors. They need to be able to drive quickly to see their special boy.
I take it you’ve never actually been to the UK, or even read about their public transport situation; trains tend to be expensive in the UK. I get it though, it’s fun to dunk on an imagined adversary.
Quite the opposite. Trains in the UK are crazy expensive, especially if you plan on going anywhere near London and didn’t have the foresight to buy the ticket 12 weeks ago.
Anyone who chooses to drive into London without needing to haul something, is a moron. It’s the worst transit option in nearly all cases.
First off, I live in the USA and I haven’t seen a gas station where you could pump without paying first in at least 20 years. I’m currently living in one of the more rural areas of the country and every pump has a card reader so you can pay right at the pump without even going inside. I sometimes see old stickers on the pumps that point out that leaving without paying is a crime, but I cannot imagine how anyone could actually do this. The pumps will not dispense fuel until you pay.
This tells me that the whole purpose of the set up described in the article as a way for this security company to scam people. The technology to prevent driving off without paying is decades old. There’s no reason for this situation to exist.
Second…
The “stress and anxiety” from the situation led to the couple paying DCBL the debt in order to “just move on from it”.
This perfectly describes the business model of debt collection companies. Harass people until they pay whether they really owe any money or not.
First off, I live in the USA and I haven’t seen a gas station where you could pump without paying first
And I live in Slovakia and haven’t yet seen pre-paid gas station either.
You pump the gas, go in, tell the cashier the pump number, pay, go back and leave.You pump the gas, go in, tell the cashier the pump number, pay, go back and leave.
You’ve described post-pay pumps, which is how they used to do it 20-25 years ago. This is how pump theft happens: They pump the gas… aaaand run off.
Same in NZ. However they have cameras on each pump, pretty sure your number plate will get flagged if you don’t pay up.
of the 3 I visit with any frequency in my town in the US:
one has a card reader. If you want to pay in cash, you call out to the guy, ‘lemme get $20 / 5 gallons/ fill’ er up. I got cash!’ And he heads over to the register and presses the button, activating the pump, and you pay after. I dont think it puts a limit on what you can pump (like if i say $5 and go over, that’s what I owe) so it wouldnt make sense to pay upfront.
One of them has a little booth in the middle of the rows, with an attendant. He’ll pump the gas for you then ask for payment, or let you pump yourself if you want, then take payment.
The third is afaik attendant only, but they usually have 2-3 of them. They seem to have a system that allows amount inputs, so if you ask for a $/ volume amount, they’ll usually ask for the card/ cash, start the pump, then return with a receipt for you to fill out while/ change while its pumping. But if you asked to fill it up and that youre paying cash, theyre still waiting till after the pump has click3d over to give you the cost.
This used to be the norm in Sweden, but now you can’t really find those any more, at keast not around Stockholm to my knowledge
I live in the USA and I haven’t seen a gas station where you could pump without paying first in at least 20 years.
I would pick UK problems over US’ problems any day…
You’re not wrong, but the point still stands that there’s no need for this collections service in the USA or the UK.
It’s a bit silly to compare the lawless USA to civilised countries.
And if it wasn’t clear from the mention of English cities and the pound sterling signs, this is in the UK.
It makes perfect sense to pay AFTER you fill up. I never know how much it will cost to fill up the tank full, so how do you pay in advance in cash? Do you leave an excessive amount of cash with the cashier and then come back to get the change? Or do you make several trips to pay?
It’s only a bad idea if you live in a country full of criminals and cannot trust your neighbours or anyone.
Well, most people know what it takes to fill their tanks, so it isn’t an excessive amount, it’s like $5 extra and you go back for the change. Realistically 90% of people use cards and the ones that use cash put an amount that fits in the tank. I’m not going to put $20 in the tank if $15 puts it right at full, I’ll put $10 in and not worry about it.
An easier way to prevent fuel theft is to require prepayment or a credit card authorisation to activate the pump.
But how will the surveillance companies support themselves if that logical process is put in place?
It is the problem of the gas stations, not the consumer. If there is so much gasoline theft, have the customers pay upfront (this is common practice in Belgium), and if you don’t want to implement that, just shut up? BTW, if you drive an EV, you don’t have this issue, so perhaps a good moment to switch.
In the US, it’s been prepay or pay at the pump since around 2007. The only fuel theft cases you hear about now involve scamming the pump or actually stealing the fuel directly from the the stations in-ground tank and bypassing the pump all together
