'He panicked when I told him': Gas station attendant allows insistent customer to pump his own gas, customer ruins his boss's tractor

Author image for Remy Millisky
Remy Millisky • Writer and Editor
Sep 18, 2023 11:00 AM EDT

You want to learn the hard way? So be it. 

When you first begin working at a customer service job, you want to help every customer, and help them have a positive experience at your store. Once you've been there a while, and talked to a Karen or 3, you begin to realize that many people simply cannot be reasoned with. You might be a perfectly logical person, with a perfectly reasonable answer to the customer's queries, but they will not care. Customers will still blame you for things that aren't your fault. 

This person knows that all too well after dealing with a dude at the gas station. As a gas jockey, the OP shares that people are allowed to pump their own gas, but the OP tries to help people since some of the pumps are tricky. This one customer wouldn't listen to common sense, and as a veteran customer service worker, the OP simply stepped back and let the scene play out. 

You can read the entirety of this great malicious compliance story below, plus comments from people who enjoyed the OP's ideas. Then, put away your books and take out a pencil, class: here are some memes for the most studious scholars out there.  

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  • 01
    Wheel
    via Clint Patterson on Unsplash
  • 02
    Font - Won't let me pump the diesel in your boss' tractor? Have fun! M I finally remembered one for this glorious sub! Sorry for any format issues, I'm on mobile. TL;DR at the bottom
    via u/twelveinchmeatlong
  • 03
    Font - So this takes place many years ago when I used I work at the only gas station in this little nook of a place that a lot of cottages and year round houses are. I was the gas jockey at full serve gas station but if people wanted to pump their own it was fine. Just I always tried to pump the diesel for customers because the diesel pump's handle was finicky and tended to overflow (the overflow shutoff never worked properly).
    via u/twelveinchmeatlong
  • 04
    Font - Cue Local D (LD). He rolls in with what a John Deere tractor and parked it next to the diesel pump while I was with another car that was for a fill up so I just flicked the lever to keep the gas flowing while I went to see LD.
    via u/twelveinchmeatlong
  • 05
    Font - Me: Hey LD, nice tractor I didn't know you had one of those, how much do you need? LD: It's not mine, it's my bosses but I'll pump this, she's empty and you've got a car anyway, so I'll be a while. Me: It's no problem, this pump can be a bi and sometimes won't shut off when it's full, I don't want any to spill (I could tell by the noise it made if it was about to overflow or not) LD: No I said I got it, I'm in a hurry anyway (In a f you type of tone) Me: You sure? LD: YES! Me: Ookaay then
    via u/twelveinchmeatlong
  • 06
    Font - So I went back the car I was with because their pump was finished and I took their card in to do the payment and when I came back out, the smell of diesel was unmistakable. I looked over and sure enough LD wasn't paying attention and let it overflow a lot. Since this was a pretty big tractor, and it only took me like 2 minutes to run the payment back and forth, I knew something was wrong.
    via u/twelveinchmeatlong
  • 07
    Font - As I walked up to him and asked why it was done so fast, he started to panic about the spill all over his boss' tractor. So went to clean it up from where it overflowed and I noticed not only wasn't he paying attention to the pump, the reason why it happened so fast was because he mistook the radiator cap for the diesel cap and filled the rad with diesel. I don't know why he was able to get so much diesel in there, I guess it was low on coolant.
    via u/
  • 08
    Font - He panicked when I told him and he asked me what he should do about it. I told him that I didn't know, I just know where to put in fuel, and maybe next time let me do it. He even asked if he should move it out of the way and I said NO! Turns out he had to leave the tractor there and someone had to come and drain and flush the whole system. I never saw LD back there again in that tractor.
    via u/twelveinchmeatlong
  • 09
    Font - TL;DR: Local Di told me not to pump his boss' tractor, proceeds to cause big spill that I warned him would happen, pumped the radiator full of diesel instead of where it's supposed to.
    via u/twelveinchmeatlong
  • 10
    Font - ✪ [deleted] I've never worked with a tractor, but how does someone make this mistake? Isn't a rad cap covered by a coolant symbol and warnings not to open it while hot or under pressure??
    via u/deleted
  • 11
    Font - browner87 I was expecting the spill, or maybe putting the wrong fuel in somehow. But filled the rad with diesel?!? That's amazing.
    via u/browner87
  • 12
    Font - willieD147 When I was working construction, the guys filled a Bobcat hydraulic reservoir w/ diesel. I had to call service and say-you arent going to believe this but...
    via u/willieD147
  • 13
    Font - SeanBZA Or the fire fighters who filled a portapck hydraulic pump with ATF, instead of the correct hydraulic fluid. Every hose, every seal and every piece of the rescue equipment had to be opened and have all rubber parts replaced, as the fluid from the one had contaminated every tool as they tried them all out. Turns out the seals do not like ATF too well, and either disintegrated or swelled up till the unit was seized.
    via u/SeanBZA
  • 14
    Font - I think the problem is that you addressed him as "Local D". This may have annoyed him. 43 ↓ Reply Share MrZJones! He preferred "Local Richard".
    via u/MrZJones
  • 15
    Rectangle - gravekeepersven He got destroyed by karma
    via u/gravekeepersven

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boss workplace-stories jobs tractor work stories fuel job vehicle malicious compliance gas work malicious-compliance-reddit gas station workplace
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