Lately all of the gas stations in my home town, and actually greater city area, have become over run by young teenage employees, or employees who do not speak English. Either way it becomes extremely frustrating for me. Typically when I go into the gas station, and there is a teenager, or some one in their early 20's working, I have an awful experience. They tend to either ignore the customers to continue a text message conversation, or they are rude. Frequently I have been treated as though it is an inconvenience for me to go into the gas station to pay cash for gas. The other frustrating experiences I continue to have involve people how do not speak English. It is difficult to communicate effectively when the employee does not understand the language enough to fully understand what you are saying. Although, my encounters involving employees who are not fluent in English, are generally more pleasant when I have to deal with a young kid who does not even really want to be at work. Is this a common experience for everyone else too? Or has this just become a problem in my city? It has gotten to the point where, I almost want to start learning foreign languages, to make my day to day adventures run smoother.
Well where I live Spanish is just as much the main language as English and as I am bilingual I really don't mind this aspect of visiting a gas station but I do agree with you on the fact that the younger employees are becoming very rude. I myself am in my 20's but I take my job seriously and would never be rude to a client the way young people my age are nowadays. Its a huge lack of work ethic but I come from a family of hardworkers so my raising was probably way different than theirs.
I am lucky there. Where I live we have Americans who work at the stations and this really helps me avoid any of the problems you are having. I know this sounds bad, but I do hate it when the teens are working because it usually ends up them chomping on the gum and totally ignoring me as a customer when I want to pay for my gas!
I personally HATE getting gas and having to go inside to pay. I would much rather pay at the pump or buy an all-electric car to prevent having to go to get gas all together.
I usually try to just pay at the pump, too. We did have an incident this past weekend when we traveled out of town. We stopped at a gas station to get fuel and decided to pay inside and get something to snack on and something to drink. We bought enough snacks and drinks that it would have been hard to carry it all without a bag. Normally the clerks will bag this many items but this young guy wasn't going to. We asked if we could have a bag. You'd have thought we asked him for his right arm or something! He just handed the bag to us and turned around and talked to his buddy. We had to bag it ourselves.
I try to pay at the pump, too. Most of the people who own our local gas stations are Indian or Middle Eastern. Most of them speak English, but there are a few places where they do not. I don't mind the no English thing (though it can be frustrating). My big issue is that some of them are rude to women. I just avoid going to those. My favorite gas station down the road from me has a new owner and the guy who runs the counter will wait on every guy in the place before he'll wait on the female. I haven't stepped foot in there ever since. But I consider that a character flaw with that particular person, not some kind of crazy cultural thing.
Thankfully, I have not had to deal with that yet. I go to a few different gas stations in my city and so I've been given good service and the workers are very nice and helpful. Although, I don't think I've seen a teenager or young adult working at those stations. But that's probably because I don't stop by the stations when they are working. My favorite gas station is the AM/PM near my workplace. I work at 5 in the morning and I frequently go to there before work to pick up snacks and drinks. It's gotten to the point where the guy that works that shift knows what I usually buy. I've gone to that station at various times and so far all of the workers are really friendly.
I worked at a gas station for about a year and a half (Shell). Only 3 people worked there all together including myself. We were attached to a McDonald's so they thought it was fine to have me work nights alone. I did not agree, McDonald's staff/managers did not agree. I never got to take my vacation (I got fired for something I didn't do.. long story) because not enough people worked there and they wouldn't hire anybody. I do agree, gas stations are more and more teenagers who don't care about customers. I always got yelled at by the manager for being too helpful. I also got yelled at for going out to help at a gas pump because it wouldn't shut off (the person didn't really tell me they just left), so I got yelled at for leaving the store. They said somebody could've come in and robbed us. Let them. I don't want the place blowing up. If teenagers didn't hang out at the pumps smoking, etc I wouldn't have cared but I could see one of them throwing their cigerette and the place going up in flames. Not on my watch. I think teenagers, most of them anyway, aren't helpful and don't care about anything other than themselves. They always think they are right and are rude to the customers. There was a teenager after I left and the store actually lost A LOT of business because of the way he acted. He wasn't professional at all.
Gas stations are definately a job that younger people get because they don't have careers. The bad thing is they are not focused and prefer to do what they want. I have had my experience with people either completely ignoring me or making me wait why they are on their phone. There's nothing you can really do except call and complain to a manager.
Here in Florida I feel your pain my friend. Every time I walk into a gas station i'm always tended by a rude teen.
Gas stations are another entry level position in which you can expect people of the dynamic you described to be employed. You can not expect fantastic experiences in this case.
I pay at the pump as well and rarely go into a gas station to purchase anything as the prices are sometimes ridiculous. I guess that would depend on what you are buying. I have a couple that I go to on a regular basis and stick with them.
You're right, they are very rude and the station owner need to train them on how to be a good customer service person or else don't hire them and all should complaint about the services that they receive from there. After all the people are stressed about the price of the gas already. Why should they be rude to the customers? If they don't want to work there why don't they just go home if they can't manage to be friendly and polite to the customers. We are the ones keeping them open and operating.
While it isn't right that employees act this way, I'm more surprised that you weren't expecting this kind of experience. This has been happening for years. Just start using a debit card instead of cash; essentially the same thing except you don't have to go inside. Faster too. To tell you the truth, I don't even remember the the last time that I went into a gas station to pay for my gas. I've stopped in there for drinks or 5 hour energy's, but that was out of convenience.
