Page 4 | Petrol pump & full grocery shop

Poonu · 2025-06-22T08:34:53+00:00

Inspired by a comment on another thread. Is it reasonable to do a full Tesco / Asda etc shop while your car is at the pump and there's 15 cars behind you? And it's rush hour. This is not something I do, but have been a victim of!! AIBU - It's inconsiderate AIBU - It's fine

notedbiscuits · 23/06/2025 13:18

queenmeadhbh · 23/06/2025 10:41

but once you repark, and before you’ve paid, can the person now coming in to the pump actually use it, or is it locked out until you pay and the transaction is cleared?? I’m nearly 100% sure at the ones I go to you can’t fill up until the person before you has paid.

if you can - then how do staff match the person paying to the right transaction, if there are a couple of them backing up at each pump? What if you’ve reparked, are doing your shopping, then someone else fills up at your pump, goes in to pay, says “pump number 3 please”, wouldn’t they end up paying for your petrol?

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I think you need to pay before shopping. I think the system is that when a customer comes in and pays and says pump number 4, the system knows the live price on the pump.

notedbiscuits · 23/06/2025 13:23

There is a Sainsbury’s petrol station which I refuse to use the middle row of pumps. I think there are 24 pumps in a 8x3 grid. As the problem is people park too far out from pump to get past. If using a back row pump, I reverse a bit then drive out. On a few occasions I had to ask the driver who was waiting almost bumper to bumper to move

MascaraGirl · 23/06/2025 13:26

queenmeadhbh · 23/06/2025 10:41

but once you repark, and before you’ve paid, can the person now coming in to the pump actually use it, or is it locked out until you pay and the transaction is cleared?? I’m nearly 100% sure at the ones I go to you can’t fill up until the person before you has paid.

if you can - then how do staff match the person paying to the right transaction, if there are a couple of them backing up at each pump? What if you’ve reparked, are doing your shopping, then someone else fills up at your pump, goes in to pay, says “pump number 3 please”, wouldn’t they end up paying for your petrol?

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Exactly - I don't quite understand how it all works, but you raise good points

queenmeadhbh · 23/06/2025 13:37

notedbiscuits · 23/06/2025 13:18

I think you need to pay before shopping. I think the system is that when a customer comes in and pays and says pump number 4, the system knows the live price on the pump.

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That makes more sense, but to me there’s still enough time while I’m reparking that someone could quickly fill up, we enter the shop at the same time, then maybe they are at a different till and the person in front of me takes a long time, and they end up at the till before me. Or they go to a self checkout, etc etc.

which is why I fill up, leave car at pump, pay, go back to car, repark, go in and shop. To me that’s the only way to ensure no one else is trying to pay for petrol from the same pump!

or, if as I suspect, you can’t actually use the pump until the person before has paid, the suggestion of reparking before paying so that the next person can drive in doesn’t really save them any time as they’ve to stand at the pump until it unlocks?!

I agree that blocking a pump to get shopping is a selfish thing to do so I always go in, pay, and then repark, but I’m still confused by the people who are suggesting you can repark before paying without causing some issue!

Original poster

Poonu · 23/06/2025 13:38

@Crikeyalmighty yes it was your comment!

OP posts:

notedbiscuits · 23/06/2025 17:44

queenmeadhbh · 23/06/2025 13:37

That makes more sense, but to me there’s still enough time while I’m reparking that someone could quickly fill up, we enter the shop at the same time, then maybe they are at a different till and the person in front of me takes a long time, and they end up at the till before me. Or they go to a self checkout, etc etc.

which is why I fill up, leave car at pump, pay, go back to car, repark, go in and shop. To me that’s the only way to ensure no one else is trying to pay for petrol from the same pump!

or, if as I suspect, you can’t actually use the pump until the person before has paid, the suggestion of reparking before paying so that the next person can drive in doesn’t really save them any time as they’ve to stand at the pump until it unlocks?!

I agree that blocking a pump to get shopping is a selfish thing to do so I always go in, pay, and then repark, but I’m still confused by the people who are suggesting you can repark before paying without causing some issue!

Edited

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But I think the staff can save drive offs - those forgot to pay - intentionally or accidentally.

If someone drove off without paying, came back to the PS saying “oh I filled up with unleaded at pump 4 at 10am this morning and it was around £42”, could they get this transaction back up on the system?

Suednymph · 23/06/2025 20:01

@queenmeadhbh @notedbiscuits yes at least in ireland wher i am they can as i did it myself only a year ago.

Tiredofwhataboutery · 23/06/2025 20:25

notedbiscuits · 23/06/2025 17:44

But I think the staff can save drive offs - those forgot to pay - intentionally or accidentally.

If someone drove off without paying, came back to the PS saying “oh I filled up with unleaded at pump 4 at 10am this morning and it was around £42”, could they get this transaction back up on the system?

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I once blankly drove off from my local petrol station. I’d meant to move the car and then go pay as lots of cars waiting and half the pumps 2/4 were closed. I went on autopilot and went to work and had an oh fuck moment later on. Anyway I went back, for drive offs they print off the unpaid receipt and fill out a form with vehicle details. This’ll be uploaded to a database so they don’t release the pumps for your registration and sent to police, they give it 48 hours though as people do sometimes just forget.

I suspect if you routinely did it you’d be barred but they just laughed and assured me it happened all the time and not to worry about it. I paid and that was that.