ARCO Schmarco

I woke up in such a great mood and excited to write my Monday morning blog post, but I had to run a few errands first.  I stopped at my local gas station that I've gone to one hundred times before. It's an ARCO so they only take cash or debit card. I went inside and handed the guy $55. Came back to start pumping and gasoline started bubbling out from beneath the safety seal onto my car. So I stopped, readjusted the seal, and tried again. Same thing. I walked inside and told the guy the pump was broken and asked if he could come out and look at it. A few minutes later, he still hadn't appeared. I was going to move my car to the next pump but the place was packed and anytime I attempted to do so, a new car would zoom in ahead of me.

Another customer at the station tried to be nice by helping me, but really he just insulted me more because he was treating me like I was some idiot little girl who didn't know how to pump gas. Of course, when he tried, the same exact thing happened.

Finally I went inside and said I just wanted my money back. Now the attendant decided he would come look. And guess what?!? Same thing happened to him! Shocking. He suggested I go to another pump and I said, no, I just want me money back.

So he goes in, subtracts the gas that I pumped (most of which was on my car, not in it) and hands me $34 in change. Incredulous, I looked at the receipt and realized he'd acted as though I'd given him $41 and not $55. My blood was starting to boil. He wanted to finish helping a few other customers first, but I said no, I want my money so I can leave. The attendant tells me I pumped $11 in gas total which still doesn't sound correct to me, and even if it was, it was madding since he and the other guy kept pumping my gas even after I had insisted that it wasn't going into my car.

Then this other female attendant appears and tells me that the pump isn't broken, it's just not compatible with my car and refused to give me my change. It was all so maddening, I can't even explain. I was shaking and I definitely lost my patience and I hate acting like that but it was so infuriating. If the pump's not compatible with my car, why take my money in the first place?!? And how would changing to a new pump have made any difference? I ended up with $44 back in my pocket and less than a half of tank of gas.

So now, not only is ARCO (which is part of BP) responsible for causing billions of dollars of damage in the gulf of Mexico thanks to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, it's also responsible for ruining my monday.

I hate you, ARCO