Service (not) station

A creature of habit, I plan my journeys down the M6 from Edinburgh to London around a break at Killington Lake service station - pleasant atmosphere, nice views. I did so in July 2004, stopping for breakfast at around 0900. I then, as usual, went to fill up the car with fuel.The pumps were all but deserted. I found that the pump I selected (diesel) constantly cut out frustratingly, and would only deliver fuel at a tiny trickle at best. No adjustment to the nozzle made the problem disappear. After about five irritating minutes, during which I had been able to intermittently put only about £8-worth of diesel in the car, I gave up, and went to a) pay, and b) report the pump to the person at the till. At which point insult compounded injury. As I approached the till, not best pleased but not aggressive, I said to the - ahem - well-padded young man behind the till: “That pump of yours is a joke; it keeps constantly cutting out.” In reply came, word for word: “It’s the angle you put the nozzle in.” “But I’ve tried every possible angle and it still doesn’t work.” “There’s nothing wrong with our pumps, sir, it’s USER ERROR.” I paid grumpily and left, vowing never to use BP again. As I have been putting fuel into cars with (I can say modestly) a high degree of success for over 35 years, I found the experience of this plump young man telling me I don’t know how to do it extremely unsatisfactory. I don’t need to tell anyone what good customer handling might have sounded like. “I’m sorry, sir, I’ll get that pump looked at straight away.Do you want to try another?” would have been good to hear. But no, “It’s USER ERROR”. Or, decoded, “It's YOUR FAULT…sir, you IDIOT.”

As contra-evidence of my actual capability I can report that at the next service station – sadly also BP, so immediately upsetting my planned boycott – I successfully managed to put a full tank-load of fuel into the car without cut-outs, problems with nozzle angles or discernible USER ERROR. But frankly, even if I wrestled daily to get half a litre of fuel into my car, it's not on for a representative to dismiss customer complaints as he did. If someone reports a possible problem, it should be taken seriously. Did I recommend this young person be sent on some form of remedial customer service training? You bet I did. I didn't take the guy's name, but he was physically unmissable, being extremely large in circumference.