Here are six of the best photos that readers added to the Consumerist Flickr Pool in the last week, picked for usability in a Consumerist post or for just plain neatness. [More]
gas pumps
Walmart Ditching Murphy USA After 20 Years; Will Run Its Own Gas Stations Going Forward
By 2.4.16
Stop by just about any Walmart and you’re likely to see several fuel pumps in the front or on the side of the store. For the last 20 years, those gas stations have been operated by another company, Murphy USA, but that’s about to change. [More]
Oregon Drivers May Soon Be Able To Pump Their Own Gas In Remote Areas
By 5.7.15
If you meet someone who doesn’t know how to pump gas, it’s likely due to one of two things: Either they’ve never driven a car/don’t have a license because they live in a city where it’s unnecessary, or they’re from either Oregon or New Jersey, where it’s illegal to pump your own gas. That could be changing for Oregonians soon, at least to a certain extent. [More]
Robotic Gas Pumps Mean Never Leaving Your Car (And That The Computers Have Won)
By 1.24.14
It’s no secret that the robot revolution is coming, when our machines achieve self-aware intelligence and rise up against us as our new overlords. But really, we’re letting it happen because it’s just so much easier to let a robot pump your gas. Especially in the winter when the car is so toasty warm and the pump is so icy cold. Brrr.
[More]
How I Was Overcharged $23.42 For Gas At The Circle K
By 4.12.12
The problem seemed easy enough to solve. SMM asked a Circle K cashier to pre-pay $20 on a gas pump using his credit card. Only the pump didn’t stop at $20 like it should have: it kept going until it reached $23.42. No big deal: SMM headed back in the store to pay the extra three and a half bucks. That’s when he learned that somehow, the first $20 he paid didn’t count. [More]
Skimmers Found Installed Inside Gas Pumps. Inside!
By 5.18.11
If you’re the type of person who already reflexively jiggles every card slot and looks for pinhole cameras whenever you go to swipe your card, despair. There is no 100% foolproof way to protect yourself, as proven by a pair of banditos who stole 3,600 card numbers after installing a credit card skimmer inside several gas pumps, reports the MountainView Voice. [More]
Faulty Check Valve Sometimes Cheats You, Sometimes Gas Stations
By 4.28.08
Meet the faulty check valve, a little gremlin that lives inside the gas pump. It could be pilfering your pennies. Or it could be pilfering the gas station’s. It really doesn’t care. According to an AP article, a faulty check valve inside a gas pump is difficult to diagnose and often goes ignored. The pricing errors it produces could either be in favor of the gas station or the consumer. How does this work?
When Warmer Temperatures Throw Off Gas Pumps, Consumers Pay
By 7.9.07
“In the summer time fuel gets hot and as the fuel gets hot the volume expands, but the energy does not,” says a new report from NPR. The basic idea is that while the volume of fuel expands and contracts, the amount of potential energy within the gas stays the same. A gallon of gas at 80 degrees won’t push a car as far as a gallon of gas at 60 degrees.
