Never had this happen gas station ran out of gas while dispensing

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Getting gas on my way home from work and about 3 gallons in the pump starts slowing down and then stops, and people at other pumps start getting confused/upset.

Go up to talk to the attendant and turns out the station literally ran out of gas. Never had this happen before or seen it happen. Crazy!
 
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Originally Posted by EchoWars
I could tell you tails from 1974...


I remember well.
 
That's pretty wild. I've seen broken pumps with the yellow bag over the nozzle, but never had a station run out of gas.
 
Hopefully you didn't pump too much sediment in your tank, then again I suppose that whats the fuel filter is for.
 
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Hopefully you didn't pump too much sediment in your tank, then again I suppose that whats the fuel filter is for.


Gas pumps have spin on filters
 
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Originally Posted by EchoWars
I could tell you tails from 1974...
we had another around 79 or 80. My mom had a friend that worked at a small airport nearby and we ran our cars on 110LL!

No problem buying gas at the airport instead of the odd/ even plate thing.
 
Originally Posted by simple_gifts

Quote

Hopefully you didn't pump too much sediment in your tank, then again I suppose that whats the fuel filter is for.


Gas pumps have spin on filters


Yup. Located inside the panel usually at the bottom of the pump. One key opens it, and a spin on filter is right there. Two if it's a double sided pump. The ones I've seen working at fuel stations in the past are usually Baldwin, Donaldson, or Luber Finer filters. These were either Gilbarco or VeederRoot pumps.
 
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The station I was at was an older-than-dirt Marathon that had late 80s/early 90s era Gilbarco pumps with the dim green vacuum fluroescent display and the thingy you flip up to choose the grade of gas.
 
Originally Posted by dishdude
That's pretty wild. I've seen broken pumps with the yellow bag over the nozzle, but never had a station run out of gas.


I have. They run out periodically in my area. They have gas stations on every corner around here, so they have a hard time keeping them all stocked with fuel sometimes.
 
This happened a lot at a station on my home from work a few years ago, stopped in on a weekend and the place was super busy and everybody seemed upset.
Started to pump and it was super slow...I was really low on gas, so I waited a long time until I got a few gallons so I could get home and then go to another station the next day without feeling worried.
Went into the store and it seemed like people were getting basically nothing out of the pumps when I came out. Can't remember if it was every single pump or just particular banks...
A few other times around then when I stopped there, the scene looked similar or all the pumps had bags over the nozzles and I just moved on to another station (a PITA from there without any local competition).

This has been my go to place for several years, but I'm going to change that.
They seemed to have solved their gas supply problems, but they have been really bad about filling their windshield wash reservoirs and having paper towels out by the pumps all summer.
They have a car wash I like, but it has been broken half the time for a couple of years now.
Their reward program is pretty mediocre and it seems like my balance on it will reset back to zero without me getting any reward at times (not a store issue, of course).
As the last straw, I stopped there 5 minutes before closing to get a drink, had my drink in maybe a minute and then stood by the register with everybody ignoring me until it was past closing.
Finally a punk came over and started laying on the 'tude.
"Oh, we didn't know there was a customer here because the sensor shuts off when the lights at the pumps turn off."
I wasn't buying gas and didn't notice those lights were off...it was before closing time and there were several cars out front. They didn't need the customer "alarm" because more than one employee made eye contact with me while I was waiting.
"Usually people notice that one of the doors is locked."
I happened to grab the other door that was open....the lights were on and people were in the store, right??
"Be sure to use the door on the left when you leave, the right door is locked."
Yeah, you already mentioned that the door I didn't enter through was locked.
"I guess you have to expect a wait when we're all busy closing the store."
It wasn't like I walked in one minute before closing and ordered a sandwich....they had 5 minutes to go and I just got a drink as fast as I could. I looked at my cell after I had already stood at the register for quite a while and it was still a minute until closing time.
I'm sorry that guy had to work a crappy night job at a gas station, but he was just over the top, passive aggressive, and insulting. I'm sure all the people working there thought they got to leave exactly at closing time rather than taking care of customers until then and shutting down the store afterwards.
This station hasn't been able to keep its stuff in general together for a while and clearly can't attract decent help (more than one person ignored me), so I'm going elsewhere. Too bad because this place is convenient, but there is a Shell I can get to without too much trouble. Actually have a 7-11 on the way where the employees are always amazingly helpful (I know, hard to believe), but I don't think that brand is top tier and it is sort of cramped by the pumps, so I haven't been crazy about buying gas there.
 
Originally Posted by simple_gifts

Gas pumps have spin on filters

Yes I've seen the store clerk change them. During her smoke break. Multitasking!
 
Originally Posted by mk378
Originally Posted by simple_gifts

Gas pumps have spin on filters

Yes I've seen the store clerk change them. During her smoke break. Multitasking!

Did she use the dirty filter as an ashtray and put her butt our in it???
;^)
 
Originally Posted by mk378
Originally Posted by simple_gifts

Gas pumps have spin on filters

Yes I've seen the store clerk change them. During her smoke break. Multitasking!



My kinda girl. Lol
 
Kind of why I like to go to high volume, newer, top-tier gas stations like the Shell stations owned by a company called True North. They own a bunch of stations and when they renovate a location they put in new underground tanks.

Also one time I saw a non-Shell tanker truck refilling their tanks. I emailed the president of the company and he got back to me with an explanation about it. They own their own fleet of delivery trucks but sometimes when they can't keep up with demand they will have the fuel delivered but it's the same stuff. Was basically the summation of what he said if I remember correctly.
 
Funny this happened to me today as well but I was pumping diesel in a truck with a cp4 injector pump. To say I am stressed is an understatement. I was also 250 miles from my house
 
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