Sunoco - POS attendant and new policy alosteng the Ohio TP at the rest areas....

Be sure to let Sunoco know about this.

The attendant was only doing his job and doing what he is told to do by a supervisor.

The problem is not the $6.00 an hour puppet, it's some knot head @ corporate.

 

The attendant wasn't being reasonable. I hate people who follow the rules like robots without considering the circumstances. That rule is there to keep people from camping out on the fuel island, not from doing a quick check on their equipment when it isn't even holding others up.

I hope you don't normally buy your fuel at that Sunoco, though, because it will be hard to stick to your boycott. I tried to boycott Pilot once by not spending my own money there, but it didn't last very long. My company fuels there. And convenience won out over my little protest.

 

I learned a long time ago that some things call for a carefully worded email to certain higher-ups. We have to be understanding of why a company has a policy, and if they are upholding the policy in a practical manner. If they are being unreasonable, let upper management know. If all of these sorts of incidents are "reported", maybe the management will see a trend and realize that just maybe their people are not being reasonable and in fact may be running off business.

Voicing your opinion to the attendant was like talking to a fence post insofar as potentially changing their policy. I can count on more than 2 hands the positive responses I've gotten over the many years where I voiced a carefully worded complaint in an email a few days later when I had the time, and the incident still seemed way wrong in my mind of reason. Upper management is very aware of the internet and how bad news can spread like wild fire and they ultimately want to strike a balance between profitability and reasonable customer service and don't want to be perceived as unreasonable by many with access to a keyboard and widely read forums.

 

It makes no sense to blame the clerk. Clerks are at the bottom of the chain and often do not have the authority to override company policy. It is like blaming the waitress because the restaurant is cold, and dirty, and the food tastes bad.

 

I would have told him that I was planning on buying fuel as soon as I was finished doing what I was doing. Then finished the task at hand. Then moved my truck.

 

Don't deal with Facebook or any of the other "social media" outlets. Go to the corporate website and look for a "Customer Relations" and/or perhaps a "Regional VP" email contact and start there.

 

Did this happen at the Service Plaza around Mile 76, westbound side??

I stopped in at the westbound service plaza at about mile 76 (5 miles before 280 and TA/Petro/Fly J truckstops) a while ago and pulled around back to use the RV dump. Halfway thru using the RV dump, the gas station attendant came around my truck all excited about me not obeying the "RV Only" sign. I told him kindly that my truck was kind of like an RV. I said, "I have a bathroom, microwave, refrigerator, and a bed". Well, he kind of flipped out and went on a tantrum and even brought up the fact that he already called the State Police and that they are in route. I said, "Great, I hope the Trooper shows up right as your cursing the heck out of me!!" The attendant walk away and just for craps and giggles, I pulled up the the fuel island to buy fuel (yup, I had a motive).

So I pumped in about $400.00 worth of fuel and went to pay the bill. Same gas attendant that yelled every curse word in the book to me about 15 minutes earlier was now a nice kind person. I kept my cool the whole time. I get my receipt and look it over very close. I ask if the name and number on the receipt was his name and employee number. He says, "yes" with that "oh crap" look on his face. I also asked if he lied to me about the state trooper being called. He admitted he lied about calling the ST, but never apologized for cursing the heck out of me.

I called the gas stations manager the next day with all this info and the manager said he would look into it. Before they remodeled that service plaza, I continued using that same one because of the convenience of the RV dump and I never had one issue since.