The Ti Tree Incident
There was a second service station ahead of me on the left. No signs with prices. I went to have a look on the pump there: $1.98. Then one gets that moment of decision making with mostly weirdly constructed thoughts. One cent per litre. Worth it? I decided I did not like the feel of this one (whatever that may be...) and turned to the road to the cheaper one. Well...
The man greeted me enthusiastically at the pump and told me that the dial would only count to 99 dollars but if I then hung the trigger back and restarted at zero to continue it would all work out fine. I jokingly mentioned to him: 'bit of competition going on with your diesel price, hey?' He nodded. I tanked 70.24 litres (obviously past the 99 dollar mark) and went inside to pay.
Whenever I fill up I ask the attendant for a tax-invoice which shows the litres and litre price etc. A normal request that is mostly easily met with. The lady attendant instantly snapped at me that I had to pay first...(it certainly did not feel as if she was joking). Paid, got the tax invoice, asked for the toilet, after which she pointed me in the direction 10 metres away. Signs in front of toilet doors. Out of order, please ask for key for the staff toilet. I walked back to the counter starting to feel some annoyance rising. Another lady was there which apologised and gave me a key. Alas there was no toilet paper, no towel or something to dry my hands with. Ah well...
Back in the car I started writing the details of the transaction in my little book. Then I saw the litre-price on the docket:
$2.05
Annoyance level: up.
I stormed back inside, scanned the shop, saw more customers (good) and raised my voice.
The girl that served me said matter-of-factly that it is the beginning of the month and the price had risen per the first. Signs hadn't been adjusted yet.
Annoyance level: code red.
THAT IS NOT GOOD ENOUGH. I WANT MY MONEY BACK.
She walked to the tiller and did something important with the screen for a while. I grabbed a pen and a piece of paper to calculate the difference myself, hoping and praying that I wasn't cooking up a storm for less than a dollar here.
After some fumbling the matter-of-factly girl came with her verdict: that will be three litres then.
Annoyance level: turning into humorous situation
I smiled and repeated: "Three litres".
She must have realised that something was not quite adding up here, excused herself ("one moment") and went into a back room.
The queue was increasing behind me with people holding a drink, a sandwich. I was not going to go anywhere and was still calculating. In comes the man I spoke with originally, the owner obviously. I briefly repeated stating my case (the conversation about the stiff competition, we're three days into a new month now) and we both came to the same amount ($5.63). He offered me 6 dollars back, apologies and a free meal or drink. I settled for a bottle of water and went back to my car.
As always happens to me, it's the moments after that I realise what I should have done. I should have insisted that the man adjust his signs NOW, so that the next customer would probably go to the opposition instead. Mind you, it will always remain a guess what the 1.98-servo would have charged...
As I heard afterwards, the $1.98- service station at Ti Tree is refusing to replace their unleaded fuel with Opal fuel, thus helping petrol sniffing to continue (In some areas in the Northern Territory of Australia service stations are required to replace unleaded fuel with Opal fuel which does not give sniffers a high).
Well, the legs were stretched indeed and the tank was filled with diesel. And, on top of that: did I have a story to tell!
