Many years ago I was a manager of a large petrol station. I had a standard employment contract, but we also had additions specific to our station regarding discounts and freebies etc. One of the clauses was that petrol was not to be discounted, and we were to pay the full pump fee, just like a regular customer.
As often happens, petrol prices fluctuate, and we had to adjust the prices on the computer which controlled the prices on the pumps every few days, a few cents up or down.
Our computer system was very old, as were our pumps. It could sometimes take up to 15 minutes for the pumps to display the new prices.
This meant we had to close the station during the update. One day I was on the forecourt while the prices were updating, so picked up a pump to check if the update was complete.
I immediately ran to my car and pulled it up to a pump to fill my tank.
It turned out that when the update was, well, updating, the prices on the pumps defaulted to 5 cents per litre. I filled my tank for $6. It should have been more than $100 Once the tank was empty, I tried again, and it still worked. The time after that I tried the premium performance petrol. Same price.
I didn’t spend more than $100 IN TOTAL in the rest of my time there after that.
Before anyone suggests I was stealing or defrauding the company – I wasn’t doing either. My contract specifically stated I had to pay the price displayed on the pump, and that is exactly what I was doing. My loophole was knowing when the price would be lower and taking advantage of that.
Two nights ago SCENIC WRITER’S SHACK attended the Brisbane concert of ahead-of their-time-but-now- cult-retro-band DEVO (formed in 1973) I’ve been seeing a few live acts recently, I know right?
Me and 1200 other fans grooved along (may as well go retro in the description stakes as well) to every catchy-song-moment of this show. Highlight? Probably the song THAT’S GOOD (originally released 1982). For a bit of fun, here’s a kids version of this song performed by DEVO tribute band DEVO 2.0. They were a thing for a couple of years around the mid 2000’s.
Thank you for curating Quora – that’s a public service. And thank you also for introducing me to Devo 2. Watched the video over breakfast – great kickstart to an icy December morning
That Devo 2.0 is indeed a cute, toe-tapping video, I reckon Bridget.
Over here in Australia it’s stinking hot – not an icy December morning to be seen anywhere!