Idk if this is the right instance for this, but how fucking tired of these forced ads at gas pumps is everyone else?

I’m paying 4 bucks a gallon to have you shove advertising down my throat like an erect cock?

What the actual fuck

Anyone have any good ad blocking practices for this?

I’ve seen duct or painters tape covering the speakers…

You can press a button next to the screen to mute it, but this doesn’t work at all gas stations. (Usually its the 2nd from the top on the right side)

I guess its just time to gettoblast music every time I pump gas like back when I was 19…

147 points
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117 points

One time I put in my card, but the pump couldn’t show me an ad because it crashed. My card was stuck in the pump. The guys inside tried resetting the pump but that didn’t work, so they said it’d be a week before someone came around to fix it. I had to cancel the card and get a new number. All because I couldn’t watch the ads.

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75 points

I hope you paid them for the lost ad revenue you caused them to suffer.

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6 points

I’ve never seen a pump that took a card inside it like an ATM; did you mean the transaction was stuck or the physical card?

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19 points

I’ve seen a lot of those. The card gets physically stuck until the machine decides that the payment is completed.

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15 points

I’ve been to many a pump that instructs you to insert and leave your card, then ‘latches’ onto the card once you’ve inserted it, locking it into place until the authorization for the transaction is complete. I’ve seen them in Florida, Georgia, Oklahoma, Texas, and Louisiana.

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2 points

Pliers woulda worked (from experience). I always keep a pair handy for this and other more practical reasons.

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16 points

The one thing that would push people to electric. At least then you can charge at home and avoid gas stations.

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23 points

Don’t worry; they’ll just start playing ads in the car itself before you are able to shift gears to drive.

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7 points

Discounted electric rates on your ad-supported charging plug…

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4 points

I am pretty sure this already happened to me. Had to wait before prompted to enter payment. :(

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3 points

And then once enough people buy the premium membership they’ll start putting ads on those, too.

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3 points

Costco has no ads for the time being, and I can’t see it going with ads because they can only slow the sale of gasoline that people already line up for after paying to access the ability to buy it.

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2 points

Stahp

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1 point

Shhhh! Don’t give them fucking ideas!

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123 points

This is one of those American absurdities that thankfully hasn’t made its way over to Europe yet, at least to my knowledge. I hope I have an electric car by the point they start introducing these here.

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44 points

In Finland our equivalence to Wal-Mart also sells cheap gas and they have ads on their pumps advertising their own products but it’s just on the display and there’s no sound with it.

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83 points

That is how it started here. Then they got loud.

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15 points

And now when I get gas I gotta listen to them hawk some shitty podcast from a washed up morning host. No! I don’t want to know about Hoda Kotb, I just want gas!

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16 points

Would be nice if the gas was less expensive at the stores with ads. At least that’s not the case in my area. 5 min down the road the same company has pumps without ads for the same price.

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8 points

You’d think it should be less expensive.

But then you’re not thinking of increasing shareholder value.

How dare you!

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15 points

Oh yes they tried. The damn thing scared me when that ad started playing. I haven’t been back at that station again. Some other stations do have ads playing but those are silent, so I guess they do learn customers don’t like the loud ads.

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10 points

Huh, I guess living in a small town with gas stations that have had the exact same pumps for many decades has its perks.

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3 points

Yeah, I’ve only seen these near big cities and major highways.

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2 points

Find the old gas station

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11 points

We’ve got some in the UK, like this one at the Shell petrol station at S60 5ND (pic from Oogle Gearth)

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6 points

Is that a scale so you can weigh your gas?

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4 points

“Place your GASOLINE in the tank”

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2 points

A shell in Australia is the only place i’ve seen this as well. They will not be getting our custom.

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1 point
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3 points
*

I’ve been driving an EV for a few years, but I flew out of state and had to rent a car recently. I’d never experienced this before then. It was one of the most dystopian experiences ever, leaving me feeling dirty and used.

I don’t think I could keep myself from vandalizing those things if I had to do that constantly.

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3 points

get an e-bike :)

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2 points

Why do you think charging stations will be immune? Plus with all the ‘smart’ ‘connected’ cars it’s not impossible for them to push ads directly to your car.

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4 points

What sucks about charging stations is they don’t have:

  • trash cans
  • squeegees to clean my windshield
  • a portico to keep the rain off my head
  • a little convenience store with coffee and snacks
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2 points

EV charging doesn’t require you to stand around for 5 minutes holding a handle to fuel up. The charging times are longer, but once plugged in your need to stay anywhere near the vehicle is zero. And plugging in usually takes less than 5s.

So even if someone came up with a system whereby they expected you to watch an ad before the power would flow, you could always just plug in and walk away. How are they going to know you’re physically there?

As an EV driver I haven’t been to a gas station since I started driving it, but AFAIK this advertising hasn’t come to Canada — and hopefully it never does.

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3 points

So even if someone came up with a system whereby they expected you to watch an ad before the power would flow, you could always just plug in and walk away. How are they going to know you’re physically there?

How about a button located near the ad screen and speaker that you have to hold like at least 80% of ad duration. If you failed to reach 80% it would reset to 0 and show you another ad so you can try again.

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1 point

There are some of these pumps in France. It infuriates me. The sound is horrible.

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80 points

Anyone have any good ad blocking practices for this?

Don’t buy gas from places that do this. Hasn’t failed me yet and if more people did it maybe they’ll stop.

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38 points

They’d just blame millennials for ruining buying gas and double down on the ads.

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More that I don’t know of a single gas station without ads

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4 points
*

Yup. The “free” market says that if everyone does the same shit, you have no choice, and they still make more money.

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4 points

As you are able I’d highly recommend going electric. Then you don’t even have to go to gas stations. If you’re able to charge at home (which I’m aware many are not) it’s even better because anytime you leave the house you can have a full tank.

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-1 points

I have an electric car and the result is a loss of 20% of my income in the form of time spent twiddling my thumbs while the thinks slowly accumulates charge.

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5 points

What job do you do where you can only charge it during work hours, yet the 30 minutes it takes to charge account for 20% of that work time?

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1 point

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74 points

"People are taking the piss out of you everyday. They butt into your life, take a cheap shot at you and then disappear. They leer at you from tall buildings and make you feel small. They make flippant comments from buses that imply you’re not sexy enough and that all the fun is happening somewhere else. They are on TV making your girlfriend feel inadequate. They have access to the most sophisticated technology the world has ever seen and they bully you with it. They are The Advertisers and they are laughing at you.

You, however, are forbidden to touch them. Trademarks, intellectual property rights and copyright law mean advertisers can say what they like wherever they like with total impunity.

Fuck that. Any advert in a public space that gives you no choice whether you see it or not is yours. It’s yours to take, re-arrange and re-use. You can do whatever you like with it. Asking for permission is like asking to keep a rock someone just threw at your head.

You owe the companies nothing. Less than nothing, you especially don’t owe them any courtesy. They owe you. They have re-arranged the world to put themselves in front of you. They never asked for your permission, don’t even start asking for theirs."

– Banksy

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14 points

Interested in a Adam Curtis video on the merger of psychology, marketing, and politics?

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2 points

That’s why my hobby is firing infrared lasers at soviet early launch warning satellites.

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73 points
*

The ones here, you can’t mute. Pisses me off so bad I will refuse to back to a gas station. I have even pulled up seen the ads on another pump and drove off. I’m not a fucking captive! Congrats on losing money greedy fucks!

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Push and hold the left and right top buttons to put it in maintenance mode. You can do everything normally, but no sound.

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15 points

Does this work universally or is there a particular station you frequent that it works at?

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11 points

Depends on the model of pump. Some of them you push one of the unlabeled buttons a few times (my local Shell it’s the 2nd one down on the right)

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15 points

Are there any potential repercussions for sticking a utility knife into the speaker grill?

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22 points
*

Mild electric shock and a vandalism charge if caught. Worth it? I don’t know but I’m getting sick of the fucking ads

Edit: So stab then pump, instead of the other way around to avoid boom boom?

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12 points
*

Most gas stations are monitored with cameras (often times with facial recognition), so they will be able to see your face and license plate, then charge you with vandalism.

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6 points

In another thread someone said they carry a sharpie marker with them and label the button(s) you need to press to mute the audio for future people.

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6 points

I also always have a sharpie on me and often use it to fix the missing labels on these pumps.

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