2012-03-14 09:36:43

GetGo With The Program!

How many of you get your gas from GetGo? All of you, right? Why wouldn't you? You shop for groceries at Giant Eagle and earn FuelPerks then you get gas at GetGo and earn FoodPerks. It's a never-ending cycle of savings. Plus, I find that I get better mileage from GetGo gas than Sheetz. I have no clue why that's the case, but it is. As awesome as it is, it seems that with every update to the gas pumps GetGo adds more steps to pumping gas.

There are sooooo many steps to do in order to pump gas. Add to that the annoying number of on-screen button presses and I want to punch the gas pump every time I'm there. Though, I think better of it knowing that I am not the Thing and my fist will end up a bloody mess if I attempt that. Anyway, here is the basic rundown of what it takes to pump gas now:

1. Scan Advantage Card
2. Press YES/NO to use FuelPerks
3. Swipe payment card
4. Press CREDIT/DEBIT
5. Press fuel grade button
6. Pump gas
7. Press YES/NO for a receipt
8. DONE

Phew! That was a workout! What's with all of those button presses? Shouldn't they be able to assume certain defaults and only make you press buttons if your answer is in the negative? You'd think so. Actually, I made a little flowchart that fixes this whole mess. The common case (green lines) only involves a single button press during the entire process. It is only if you choose non-standard choices that you have to press other buttons.



Isn't it beautiful? A single button press for the default case. Let's walk through this... First, you have two possible starting points, scanning your Advantage Card if you want to use your FuelPerks or just swiping your payment card if you don't. Let's assume that we want to start from the beginning. I would walk to up the pump and scan my Advantage Card. The screen would tell me that I have $0.20/gallon in FuelPerks. If I want to use it I can just continue by swiping my payment card. There is no need to press a YES button. YES should be inferred by my completing the next step. It is only if I don't want to use them that I have to press the NO button.

Next we come to the payment card. Both Debit and Credit cards can be charged as a Credit card. There is absolutely no need to offer us the choice of charging as Debit or Credit. None. So the charge doesn't appear on your bank statement within 30 seconds... who cares!? The pumps should just charge every payment card as Credit. You shouldn't even have a Debit card anyway...

NOTE: It is MUCH harder to get back your money if someone steals your Debit card and makes fraudulent charges. Because Debit cards are directly linked to your bank account, that money is instantly gee-oh-enn-ee GONE! Credit cards, on the other hand, have the 2-3 day clearing time for charges in addition to the monthly payment cycle within which you can work. Because the money hasn't physically gone anywhere it is easier to recover, unlike Debit cards where your money is immediately physically moved out of your account. Do yourself a favor; cut up your Debit card and only use Credit cards hence forth. If your first thought is that now you have to worry about making payments on time, maybe you shouldn't be allowed to have money in the first place.

Next, you press the button for the grade of gas and continue to pump your gas. Once you're done, if you're a normal person who hates receipts, you can just leave. The pump will reset itself in 10 seconds so the next person in line can't do anything malicious like print your receipt or try to pump gas on your dime. If you are a horrible person who loves to kill trees, you can press the YES button within 10 seconds and a receipt will be printed.

So there... it's fixed. A super-efficient way to pump gas at GetGo, designed for the common case. Now how do I get GetGo to implement this....

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