Now, I’m 30 years old so I’ve been driving for 13 years. I always pay with my debit card. They take the card, pump the gas, then give me back the receipt and the card when the fueling is done and I’m ready to go. I’ve never had an attendant not follow this procedure…not the case today. The guy took the card and began fuleing. HE cam back a few minutes later with the receipt and the card. I signed, he said thank you, then walked away. Since this is how it always works, I started my car and pulled away. CLUNK Pulled the hose out of the pump. No gas was lost, but the hose was clearly broken, as is the receptacle on my fuel tank. The boss at the station said I owe $300 to replace the hose- which I did not pay- because the $20 for gas was all I had till my next paychek. As soon as I told him I’d like to call the cops and my insurance company, he decided that he could just take my name and number and told me to come back to pay. I’m going to go back, but I’m pissed about having to pay. I realize that I pulled away and broke the hose, but in 13 years of filling my gas tank weekly, I’ve never had an attendant give me back my card before it was okay to leave. I really don’t feel like this was my fault.

Most station owners should be using a “breakaway” on each hose. It disconnects the hose from the pump in the event a drive away happens. Most breakaways are reconnectable and very little fuel should be lost when an occurance happens.

Now, sometime the breakaway is damaged in a way that it cannot be used and the hardware on the pump (hose, nozzle, breakaway) is expensive and may need to be replaced. In some areas, $200 would not be an unreasonable price for replacement. I could understand a station owner trying to recoupe this cost from the person who drove away.

If a station does not use the breakaway and you find yourself in the situation of having driven off without removing the nozzle, the station owner should pay the costs of replacement. He should have invested in this system to begin with. That is why the breakaway is used!!!

After all, when this happens, it is an accident (I would hope). A responsible station owner would invest in breakaways for each hose to protect his customers, employees and his investment in the dispensers.

This is my opinion only…

i got out like OOOOO SH*******
started laughing with my lil bro, the lady was chill about it, just took down ALL my info and said my insurance may call me :/

I started to pull away, then saw him running towards me getting sprayed with gasoline (which shut off almost instantly). He pointed to another hose on the ground near the one hanging out of my car and said that someone earlier that day had done the same thing. He called his boss, who started screaming at him. When the attendant handed the phone to me, the boss flipped out and said he was taking $200 out of the attendant’s paycheck or I could pay for it. I told him that it wasn’t the attendant’s fault – that I had just misunderstood him. He cursed at me and told me to give my name, phone and license plate number to the attendant. I did, but also said that I would have to talk to my husband and lawyer.

It’s a new gas station. How is it $200 worth of damage? It looks like the hose would just screw right back onto the top of the pump.

I was in New York photographing a wedding, but I live in Santa Barbara. I’ve never seen this happen before, but everyone at the gas station was staring at me and I didn’t feel stupid at all!

I used to work at a full-serve gas/car wash a few years back. Customer asked for a fill up and wash. She heard the pump stop (which caused a hard jerk) and assumed I had taken the pump out and shut the fuel door. As I walked up, she immediately started the car and began to pull around to the wash. Unfortunately, the hose had a very strong auto re-coil line, and as the top of the nozzle broke off into her fill pipe, the rest of the hose and handle came flying back at my head. It missed me, but not by much.

It was not something I’d like to repeat.