Who knew that taking a quick trip to a gas station could be so exciting?

I had a meeting at WKAR today at noon, and it got done a bit earlier than I expected so I decided to take the time to run to Speedway to get gas, buy some food for lunch, and buy a lottery ticket – great use of a few spare minutes.  I get to Speedway and I pull into the driveway and I see a pump that’s open (which is good since this tends to be a busy gas station), I wait for a car driving across where I need to go to get to the pump and after they cleared I pulled up to the pump.  As I get out of my car I hear the guy who just drove past where I was going say to me “I was going to back in to that pump.”  I apologized and said I thought he was driving through and then proceeded to start getting my gas.  A little later he had opened his door or window and said “you should wait to see what people are going to do.”  I just ignored it because I’m not going to stop in the entrance to a gas station and wait for all cars to be done moving to see where they are going before continuing.

So I finish filling my tank and I hurry into the store, since now someone else is waiting behind me to use the pump I used – waiting patiently as far as I could tell.  I quickly get the items I want so I can get back to my car to free up the pump.  I take my items and go to the checkout and tell them I had gas on pump 4.  I slide my Speedy Rewards card and my payment card and take my receipts while he gets my lottery ticket and rings that up and I pay for that as well.  I gather my items, go back to my car, get in, and leave so I can free up the pump.  I always write down my gas purchases, but decided to wait until I got back to work so I wasn’t blocking the pump.

So I get back to work and go to write down my gas purchase and I look at the receipt to get the amount and gallons bought, and it wasn’t on there.  The clerk either didn’t hear that I said I had gas or didn’t get it entered.  So (being raised the way I was) I decide to call the station wanting to make sure I don’t get turned into the police or something.  I call excepting them to thank me for my honesty and tell me not to worry or take a credit card number over the phone.  Nope – they ask if I can come back to pay for it – I tell them I could after work.  Not sure what they would have done if I said I couldn’t make it back.

So, after work I drive back there (out of my way mind you) and go in to pay for it.  They take out their “Drive Off” book to see how much it was and I pay for it.  I get back to my car and realize that because of how they rang it up – it didn’t credit me my Speedy Rewards points – so now I have to try to get those points!

Once again – being honest and trying to do the right thing turns out to be a lot more hassel than it was worth.  They didn’t have my license plate or even a very accurate description of my car, I probably could have just ignored the whole thing and had a free tank of gas.