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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Petrol forecourt etiquette?

129 replies

LittleMissRayofHope · 10/03/2015 10:36

Is there any?

This morning I dropped dd off at nursery and was in no rush to get home. Needed some fuel so into petrol station and waited for an available pump on the right side for my car.
There were pumps free but they weren't on the side I wanted.
Man drives in behind me and beeps. I didn't move. He beeped again, and I didn't pay notice to it.
He beeps a loooonnnnggg beep and when I didn't move he actually got out, came to my window, tapped and motioned me to wind down my window. I didn't.
He shouted through the window that my car is smaller then his so I should use the other pumps as it will reach round my car. I said I didn't want to risk damaging my car and I was happy to wait.
He said I was out of order as I would be making him late now and I was a 'selfish school run mum' I didn't say anything back although I did call him a wanker when he finally walked off

Now nasty comments aside, there is no forecourt etiquette is there? I was perfectly within my rights and reasonableness to refuse this?? Or should I have rocked damaging my vehicle or looking like a prat if the hose didn't reach as my car was smaller then his??

OP posts:
miniavenger · 10/03/2015 18:27

*brave enough

Charlotte3333 · 10/03/2015 18:33

Nope, no BU from you. Loads from him, though, the loser.

If you are in such a rush for anything that you need to berate the person in front of you in the queue, you need to set off earlier or blame yourself for your shitty timekeeping skills. My DH is perpetually late and it makes him an irate mardy-arsed driver, forever zooming around and huffing because the person in front isn't going at 590 miles an hour. It makes me want to maim him; there's no reason other than being a bit of a tit.

Nomama · 10/03/2015 18:42

You could have been waiting for Pump Number 4, for all I care. Your turn, your choice.

If you were not blocking his way you could have sat there all day reading a slebrity magazine... he is a total twonk!

BitchTradeMark · 10/03/2015 18:46

YANBU I've never used the 'wrong' side to fill up my car, he was just being a dick. There are 'no stretching hose to the other side' pictures on a forecourt I use so it is frowned upon.

SauvignonBlanche · 10/03/2015 18:47

He just wanted the one on the 'right' side of his car and felt I should get out of his way!

What a knob! Shock

Fugacity · 10/03/2015 18:50

I think you should be willing to partake of the long hose feature and use pumps on either side.

The main etiquette is to pull as far forward as you can.

MaidOfStars · 10/03/2015 18:57

OK, am I reading it correctly that you were hanging back to keep your (correct side) options open for the next available pump, rather than picking a (correct side) queue and joining it. If so, this annoys me too.

But him confronting you is disproportionate. So YANBU on that score.

middleagedbread · 10/03/2015 19:02

YWNBU, OP.

I believe he would not have confronted you had you been a bloke, either.

I don't like to drag the rubber hose over my Gloria she's not that kind of girl, in case it marks her. I would wait patiently too.

OddBoots · 10/03/2015 19:33

If he doesn't like waiting then he should get a smaller car himself then he can use the wrong side himself. What a rude man.

thefirstmrsrochester · 10/03/2015 19:44

YANBU.
This asshole made himself late by poor planning. And took it out on you. Nice.

DisappointedOne · 10/03/2015 20:01

Does my head in when people can't work out how to use pumps unless they're on the right side. If you can't drive well enough to be able to master that, get off the fucking road.

MidniteScribbler · 10/03/2015 20:02

As long as you had picked a pump and were pulled in waiting behind a particular car, then you were not in the wrong. But if you were hanging back trying to wait for the next 'correct side' pump to be free, then you were BU. You've got to pick your lane and take your chances, not cause a backlog of cars who can't get to the other pumps.

MrsBertMacklin · 10/03/2015 20:05

YANBU. I love people who wait for pumps on their preferred side, means I can usually coast in front to an empty one.

rockinrobintweet · 10/03/2015 20:16

I usually take whatever's on offer to be fair but he's absolutely being unreasonable and rude, specifically with his prejudice comments.

MsJudgementalPants · 10/03/2015 20:17

Just seen he was in a Range Rover. It wasn't one of those daft new squashed ones was it? That would have made him a knob on more than on level.

FyreFly · 10/03/2015 20:18

It's not always that simple, Disappointed - when I was living in a city I would use whichever side, as the hoses were long enough to reach and they stretched and reeled themselves back in (a bit like a seatbelt).

My local, rural petrol stations do NOT have extendable hoses. Believe me, I've tried. And I only have a Fiesta.

As a result, if it is a petrol station I do not know, I am quite happy to wait for a pump on my side to come free.

I shall continue to use the "fucking road" as much as I like :)

RockingDuck · 10/03/2015 20:21

I have a scenic and have occasionally used the wrong side, but I pull the hose round the back of the car, never over the top

WeAllHaveWings · 10/03/2015 20:28

I prefer the hose on the right side of my car, but if there are none free I will use the others. I park close and forward enough so it hangs behind my car (focus estate) and barely touches it.

As long as you were not blocking access to any free pumps and there wasn't an obstructive queue of similar minded people adverse to using the other side, then YANBU (and either way he was rude).

AuntieDee · 10/03/2015 20:38

You do know that the hose touching you car won't damage it? It really doesn't honest! He was an arse but I can't see why people don't just pull the hose over - they're not as heavy as people make out...

Sparklingbrook · 10/03/2015 20:44

When the hose makes contact with the paint and moves it scratches the car, and they don't always reach.

arethereanyleftatall · 10/03/2015 20:46

He was a nobber, buuuuut cars waiting for the correct side annoy me intensely. I actually had always thought it was just people being silly and not realising until I read this thread, it never occurred to me people worried about scratching their cars or couldn't lift it. Every time I see a queue in a petrol station you can pretty much guarantee it's due to people not using all the pumps available.
So, he was being the most unreasonable, but I think you were being unreasonable too.

MidniteScribbler · 10/03/2015 20:49

buuuuut cars waiting for the correct side annoy me intensely

I have no choice if I'm in my big car. Too tall to go over the top, and too long and wide to go around the back. I've tried, but no matter how close I get to the pump, it still isn't going to happen.

If you don't mind using the wrong side, then go queue behind one of those pumps. People waiting for the 'correct' side will have no effect on your day.

richthegreatcornholio · 10/03/2015 20:52

Does my head in when people can't work out how to use pumps unless they're on the right side. If you can't drive well enough to be able to master that, get off the fucking road.

Unless you're going to come round to my house and machine polish out the potential damage caused by dragging a gritty hose over it then I will continue to use whichever side I fucking well like and you'll just have to fucking well wait.

You do know that the hose touching you car won't damage it? It really doesn't honest!

Please share with us your vast knowledge of detailing and paintwork correction that allows you make that statement? I suspect that in fact you know the grand total of fuck all. Dirt on the hose and dirt on the car WILL cause scratches, fine scratches but visible they will be.

Sparklingbrook · 10/03/2015 20:53

If I was in charge all garages would be compulsory Pay at the Pump to sort out all the queues. None of this doing your weekly shop malarkey.
Our local one has trolleys FGS.

MumToFourCats · 10/03/2015 20:54

I would have put the radio on loud so I didn't hear him.

Rest assured he has a tiny dick and is trying to compensate for it.

Why didn't he go to the free pumps? Can't he stretch it round his car?