I’ve had enough of these people. I take my scooter to the petrol station and say “Fill it up” in Chinese. It doesn’t mean fill it up until it spurts out of the floor your f**kwits.
Jesus, this happens every single time I go to buy petrol! They just kind of look at you as if to say " Well it’s full ain’t it" sometimes they try to apologize, never try to clean up the mess in the bike. Is there away I can stop them from overfilling it?
Today I lost my rag and was angry at the attendant. What’s the best way to deal with it? What would you do?
do you know how much you approx. need to fill the tank. if not in $$ (which fluctuate), then in liters? maybe use this to tell them how much you want, especially if you drive it to the red line every time b4 filling up.
or try another station. never really have that problem here - more often they only fill my bike half full …
Look, this is just a historical problem that hasn’t quite gone away yet…In the days of old there weren’t gas stations every 50yards like there are today, and because of this a common mentality still exists to fill the tank right to the brim…
I wonder if a 1920’s model T driver back home would have done the same thing?
I don’t see it much anymore, but awhile back everyone would jump up and down on their bumpers to try and squeeze a few extra NT in…
A good attendent should know how much your scooter will take, but so should you…
Lastly, don’t say “man” in fourth tone or they’ll think you are telling them to hurry…And you might end up with gas from head to toe.
Most scooters will take over 100NT$ so just tell them you only want eebai and that should solve your problem. I’ve actually had the opposite experience and they are always super careful not to spill a drop.
Petrol pump attendant is a crap job in any country. It is the equivalent to working in some franchised American fast food chain where I come from. I lasted two hours in that occupation. Limey, be thankful the petrol went into your bike and not on your clothes(I mistook a guy’s work pants for the gas tank). I chose not to show my face for work at the petrol station again.
I lasted two weeks at on of the american fast food places.
I know my Cygnus takes $150NT to fill when I ride it all the way to the red line. So I just estimate how much gas I need, and tell them the price amount. I have given up on saying fill it up. On my big bike I learned from Mordeth that if you ask them politely they will let you pump it youself. I guess they know that a big bike cost 2-3 years of their salary, so they rather not take the risk scratching your shiny expensive tank so let you do it yourself. I suggest finding out how much it cost to fill up your tank, and remember how much money will get you how much gas, so from now they won’t over fill it.
Ahh, yes another reason to get annoyed. I’ve been sprayed with petrol before. Can you imagine if you were at home and overfilled your car, you’d feel a right tit. You just don’t do it. What annoys me most is that they don’t seem to care…do they always overfill thier own bikes?
Anyway, looks like the yi2 bai2 kuai4 option seems the best.
[quote=“Limey”]What annoys me most is that they don’t seem to care.[/quote]At NT$50 or 60 an hour, they aren’t being paid enough to care.
I do wish the gas stations would either offer better service, or none at all. Self-serve works fine, why they need attendants at all is beyond me. I also use the strategies above. The car gets a fixed amount like NT$1000. My bike I insist on filling it myself, and they are usually intimidated enough by it that they don’t argue with me. It also helps that my gas cap is at head height for some of these kids. :happybiker:
I get pissed off when they don’t fill it up. My scooter takes almost 150NT worh of petrol when it’s near empty. They don’t like gettign change, so they make it a nice round 100NT. Just means I have to fill up more often.
beyond us all mate… it’d be ideal, I cannot imagine why there isn’t at least a self service pump option at every gas station… although doing away with jobs for highschool dropouts is something the govt. seems terminally unkeen on… eg. gas station attendants, toll booth xiao jie’s, taxi drivers, police officers, legislators etc…
I think I’m going to have to impliment that system myself after some silly teenage bitch missed the filler hole entirely on my GS slamming the nozzle down into the edge of the gas cap surround denting it and buggering the paint… although like you say the tanks at about eye level on her…
[quote=“plasmatron”]…doing away with jobs for highschool dropouts is something the govt. seems terminally unkeen on… eg. gas station attendants, [b]toll booth xiao jie’s[b]…[/quote]You know that they all had to pass to the full civil service exams to get those jobs right?
Yup, you can see that the ability to recite the Chinese classics is essential to do that very complex task…
[quote=“Bu Lai En”]I get pissed off when they don’t fill it up. My scooter takes almost 150NT worh of petrol when it’s near empty. They don’t like gettign change, so they make it a nice round 100NT. Just means I have to fill up more often.
Brian[/quote]
I agree with this. I usually have to bitch at them to “繼續,繼續, 還沒加滿!” to get them to go from 100 to ~140. If they fill it up that extra 30-40NT each time, then I have to stop for 30-40% fewer fill-ups.
Yeah, my roommate had an incident with his nice scooter (has custom paint and decals) where he told the attendent girl that he would pump the gas himself. She wouldn’t let him, he argues for a short time…she still won’t let him. Fine…so she does it…and yep, you guessed it. Gas all over his new paint job and custom decals. He let her have it. And then when he got home I let him have it for allowing her to do it.
I usually ask them to let me do it by myself and then say something like “I sometimes over fill my bike, too. But if I do, I get angry with myself…and that’s better than me getting angry with you.” I say this politely with a smile…I think it makes sense.
I think the reason they don’t have self serivce pumps. Is because locals here often seem bewilderd with things they don’t have a degree in and I can imagine someone spraying gasoline all over the place and then trying to sue the gas station for not having someone help them do it. Hmm, hope that doesn’t sound too negative.
Before they start, just point to the coloured plastic sleeve on the nozzle where it says in Chinese and English “Do not top off” and say “Kan de dong ma?”
