More than you ever wanted to know about the internal workings of a gas station....
Today at work was insane, with a capital "N". :-P It all started when some guy wanted to do a prepay for $20 on his credit card. I rang it up, but the pump flashed me a "Fuel Coms Error", which means it's ignoring commands from the system for some reason. So it ate the prepay and refused to give it back, refused to refund it, and refused to do anything else with it. So I set the guys gas on another pump and mutter nasty things at the paperwork this mess will have generated. Luckily nothing unfixable, and mostly not even my headache to worry about. What bugs me is that this isn't the first time...the system likes to randomly eat credit card prepays. I guess that and the people who prepay and then forget to fill before they drive off make up for all the negative drive-offs we have. So we get the guy his gas, then I go into the back to reset the pump. Somehow everyone always knows which pump is malfunctioning and automatically go to it. So 10 minutes without a hitch later, I finally am able to flip the reset switch on pump 1/2. *bam* Every gas pump in the whole of 44 Quick Stop shuts itself down and resets. It takes 5 minutes of angry, freaking customers before the stupid things get the DCR loaded. And even then, 10 minutes later random pumps are flashing me DCR status messages. This has happened before. Technically we're required to go out to the pump and pull the plug there to reset it, but it makes no difference ay all. One time I was out resetting 5/6, and all the pumps crashed. Again. Bob and I were both very not happy by this point, but are reassured by the fact that nothing else could possibly go wrong. Have you noticed that whenever you say that, reality takes it as a personal challenge? Barely were the words out of my mouth than the receipt printer for my register starts randomly flashing the error light and disengaging itself from the network. This, too, has happened before. A couple days ago on the other register. You give it a good swat and it behaves. This time it didn't. This time it started declining transactions because the printer was offline. I finally swat it in the right spot and it behaves for the rest of the night. By this point I've actually listened to the printer, and have recognized it as the very same malfunctioning printer on the other register a couple nights ago. I'd complained to management, and apparently their solution was to swap printers and hope it goes away. *sighs at certain computer-illiterate people that are in charge of certain computer-intensive aspects of the gas station* It should be mentioned that discounting the printer that needs replacing, all these problems could be fixed with Flash BIOS updates. Which the boss flat out refuses to do because it was so complicated last time he attempted it. I'll do my best to behave and not point out that a three year old with an abacus is more computer literate than the company's tech and field support, and that Ross is even less so, and what they need to do is ask someone who can tell a computer from a cucumber (namely, me) to do it for them.
*deep breath* Anyhow, Bob said at this point that nothing else could go wrong, and indeed, he was mostly right, because there was nothing unusual about the check machine declining people's transactions, no matter how much they swear there's enough money in the account. And, of course, this only happens when they've bought food items and other things that are difficult or not allowed to be put back on the shelves, and of course, they always storm out in a huff, leaving all their stuff on the counter. That's not at all unusual, I'm afraid. Nor are the people who chew us out because the check machine requires a driver's license and a phone number. It's not like every other check-cashing place in the country requires all the same information. We're actually petty lenient about it. We don't have check maximums, we allow cash back (up to a point), and we (the machine, rather) only require a DL# if it's $40 or more. So besides the check spazzing thing, things were going well. I'd noticed the ice was low in the machine, but didn't think that much of it. I'd check again later. Sometimes it gets a bit of ice stuck up n the sensor so it thinks it's full when it's not. Though I did check, and the sensor was clear. It wasn't until nearly closing when Bob noted the same thing that we figured out something was wrong. It's tripped a breaker. Again.
So, the only electronic things at work that did not fail last night were the registers themselves, the cameras, and the cooler. I had to replace two light bulbs in the hot case and one in the freezer. And there's always something wrong with the microwave. Oh, and the fuel storage tank didn't blow up. I almost wish it would, except that I need the money. At least I'd be able to laugh as the stupid register system fried its stupid little brains to infinity.
*deep breath* Anyhow, Bob said at this point that nothing else could go wrong, and indeed, he was mostly right, because there was nothing unusual about the check machine declining people's transactions, no matter how much they swear there's enough money in the account. And, of course, this only happens when they've bought food items and other things that are difficult or not allowed to be put back on the shelves, and of course, they always storm out in a huff, leaving all their stuff on the counter. That's not at all unusual, I'm afraid. Nor are the people who chew us out because the check machine requires a driver's license and a phone number. It's not like every other check-cashing place in the country requires all the same information. We're actually petty lenient about it. We don't have check maximums, we allow cash back (up to a point), and we (the machine, rather) only require a DL# if it's $40 or more. So besides the check spazzing thing, things were going well. I'd noticed the ice was low in the machine, but didn't think that much of it. I'd check again later. Sometimes it gets a bit of ice stuck up n the sensor so it thinks it's full when it's not. Though I did check, and the sensor was clear. It wasn't until nearly closing when Bob noted the same thing that we figured out something was wrong. It's tripped a breaker. Again.
So, the only electronic things at work that did not fail last night were the registers themselves, the cameras, and the cooler. I had to replace two light bulbs in the hot case and one in the freezer. And there's always something wrong with the microwave. Oh, and the fuel storage tank didn't blow up. I almost wish it would, except that I need the money. At least I'd be able to laugh as the stupid register system fried its stupid little brains to infinity.