This rant isn’t about gas prices themselves — we all know prices are ridiculously high, and we’ll probably never see them go below $3.00/gallon ever again. The problem I have, is with one of the nasty side effects. When you go to pump gas… the total goes up so fast, it’s becoming harder and harder to stop at an exact amount.
Say you want $15.00 and that’s it. Nothing’s worse than stopping at $14.98, only to have that extra little squeeze go to $15.01. That’s why, in the picture at left, I tried for the next “round number” at $15.50. Nope, screwed again! The price is so high, the pump sometimes actually SKIPS numbers.
And it’s not like you can give them back the extra cent of gas or “rely” on the cashier just letting it slide. Sometimes they don’t care (especially if it means they don’t have to dig out 99 cents to give back in change), but some are very strict about that penny.
There are some places where you can type in an amount before you begin, and the pump will automatically stop at that amount. This is a great feature, but it’s usually only available in places where there’s “full” serve, or where you have to prepay because they’re paranoid about everyone stealing gas. It should be available everywhere, so you don’t have to worry about going over by 1 or 2 cents… especially considering it’s only going to get more and more difficult to stop on an exact amount as prices get higher and higher.
Well that’s why they don’t care, because those few pennies adds up and if you take away the few pennies you could potentially take away thousands of dollars. Just think if everyone in the state had to pay 2 cents extra every time they pump… that adds up.