I pumped my own gas!

[Laurie]

Also, how can someone pump gas "wrong"? Do they take the hose and spray gas all over the car and light a match or something...?

[Omar]

Also, how can someone pump gas "wrong"? Do they take the hose and spray gas all over the car and light a match or something...?

[Emily]

it's law, but some people just do it themselves. in that case it depends on the attendant and how controlling they are of their pumps. i've seen some people attempt to do it themselves and get shut down - always funny. "but i'm just trying pump my own gas!" (usually out-of-staters). me, i don't even try to squeegee my own windows because the attendants always freak out "no no no I'll do it" and i'm rarely in the mood get that "suit yourself lady" look, so i concede (i've been meaning to buy my very own squeegee to avoid this, but i keep forgetting). as for tipping, i'll only do it if something under my hood is smoking and a kind attendant offers to investigate.

as for doing it wrong, its not so much in the pumping, but i've seen attendants forget to put the cap back on the gas tank, or forget to close the little door.

[Chris L]

Gas pumping gone horribly awry:

[johnfgillson]

Yeah that's true. If I wasn't given the option to eat at a buffet or fast food I wouldn't tip either. A long time ago I worked at a car wash at an Acura dealership and we washed the customers car if they had any work done even if it was just an oil change. I think I received three or four tips the entire two years I worked there. But, I guess I can understand that if you weren't asking for the service you shouldn't feel obliged to tip the worker. But, you know a bunch of people went there just because they got a great car wash with their oil change- with no tip involved. Just another reason why I hate the "tipping rules". There are people who deserve those tips but there are just as many people working twice as hard making minimum wage with no tips whatsoever.

[Denim Gremlin]

I have never had somebody pump my gas. Up near Bemidji, MN where my in-laws live my mother in law went to a full service gas station and I felt guilty to have some guy pumping the gas while I sat in the car. What's next, having some guy shine my shoes? I know there are tips involved but I still feel guilty.

I pretty much gave up on tipping in NJ gas stations.  There's not really any point.  It's not like you have the option of pumping your own gas.  Or at least I didn't think so.  However this venison88 character seems to think otherwise. Is there a choice?  I thought there was a law against pumping your own gas in NJ.

I'm pretty sure there is a law.

I pumped gas in high school, tipping is practically non existent. I mean, I think waiting on tables is the only job where you get tipped for just doing your job. (that statement has nothing to do with reservoir dogs.)

honestly though, I don't think people who pump gas really deserve a tip. It's the easiest job in the world, it's boring but simple. you spend 75% of your work day sitting down waiting for customer's to show up.

I was only tipped once I think, it was like the middle of winter and some guy gave me a dollar and told me to "go get a cup of coffee." does that count as a tip?

[TL]

When I first started driving (and probably the first time I got gas on my own), I got all confused about whether to tip or not once, so in a fluster, I told the guy to keep the change.  He looked at me like I was crazy and said, "Really?  You want me to check the oil or something, too?"  I felt like an idiot and haven't tipped since.

[Sarah]

Though a generous tipper, I hate the practice of tipping.  It's degrading for the tippee and awkward for the tipper.  That restaurateurs are permitted to pay waiters considerably less than minimum wage on the understanding that tips will make up the difference makes me sick.  It's not quite so bad when the tip is automatically figured in, but it's still a way for bosses to get out of paying decent wages.

A nice illustration of the evils of tipping:  On the boat (Italian) my family took to England in 1969, tipping was an important source of the stewards' income.  They thus behaved like sycophants to up their takes (all the while despising the passengers, I'm sure--and with good reason, since wielding the power of the tip made many people behave like jerks).  On the Russian boat we took from France to the U.S. in 1977, tipping was not allowed.  The stewards could hold on to their dignity, and the passengers didn't think they had the right to treat them like servants.

[Shaggy 2 Grote]

As someone who was a waiter/bartender for almost the entire period between undergrad and grad school, I totally agree with Sarah.  The worst thing about the tipping practice was that it made me see people in terms of how much I was likely to get from them, an attitude that brought out the very ugliest stereotypical notions even in lefty old me.  The whole ritual robs everyone involved of their dignity.

I also pumped gas in NJ a few different times (the jerk who owns the Exxon station on Valley road in Upper Montclair, if it even still exists, still owes me like $35 for an unpaid day's work) and I think I maybe got $1 worth of tips in that entire sub-career.

[johnfgillson]

Wow, usually when I go off on tipping (and I do it often) I get somebody who's worked in the service industry pretty ticked off. But tipping is definitely my pet peeve. But, I do tip right when I do go to a restaurant or a barber or whatever. I just try to avoid them as much as possible.

Just think if you went by this guideline (http://www.findalink.net/tippingetiquette.php). What idiots. I have better things to do with my life than think about who I should and shouldn't tip. Like complain about tipping on message boards....

[John Junk]

I hate the entire concept of Valet parking.  I guess on the rare occasions when I've absolutely had to use valets I've tipped them, but I've usually gone to great lengths to avoid the whole process, because it is a shady, shady business.  Not only do you have to give your keys to someone you don't know in order to keep your car safe (can you say ironic??) but those guys often take public parking spaces and corral them for their own commercial purposes, which strikes me as a whole lot of not fair and not legal (or it shouldn't be anyway). 

I try and give like 20 per cent tips at restaurants these days, unless someone really sucks, then I'll give like 15 or so.  I try not to think about restaurant tipping too much.  I am inclined to obsess over things, and I try not to obsess over the quality of my service when I'm doing something that's ostensibly supposed to be relaxing.

[mike a]

Congrats, Susannah!  I too never pumped my own gas until well after college.

I don't ever remember tipping a gas station attendant when I lived in NJ.  It definitely wasn't expected.

[buffcoat]

I hate the entire concept of Valet parking.  I guess on the rare occasions when I've absolutely had to use valets I've tipped them, but I've usually gone to great lengths to avoid the whole process, because it is a shady, shady business.  Not only do you have to give your keys to someone you don't know in order to keep your car safe (can you say ironic??) but those guys often take public parking spaces and corral them for their own commercial purposes, which strikes me as a whole lot of not fair and not legal (or it shouldn't be anyway). 

I try and give like 20 per cent tips at restaurants these days, unless someone really sucks, then I'll give like 15 or so.  I try not to think about restaurant tipping too much.  I am inclined to obsess over things, and I try not to obsess over the quality of my service when I'm doing something that's ostensibly supposed to be relaxing.

I also try and give like 20 cent tips these days.  Why do I get such lousy service the next time I come in?

[John Junk]

I hope your not ribbing me for separating the "per" and the "cent" because everybody knows there's supposed to be a space there damnit.

[Fido]

For some reason, I am completely comfortable with having station attendants in NJ pump my gas.  I guess I think it's just an odd part of the Garden State's inexplicable, many-faceted charm.  But I don't tip them, never have.  And I am a New Yorker who has grown comfortable with tipping practically anybody who provides me a service in any way.  I guess I think that it's the fact that I don't have any practical choice about having my gas pumped for me in NJ, there's nothing I can do about it, and it is a pretty easy job.  Not much "value add" there, in the awful parlance of our times.