Submitted 2 weeks ago by moseschrute@lemmy.world to mildlyinfuriating@lemmy.world
I’m from a US state where we don’t pump our own gas. Since I don’t pump my own gas regularly - only when I’m out of state - I’m not exactly sure when this happened, but all gas pumps seem to play ads now while the pump runs. At least the states adjacent to mine. Like can I not even pump gas in peace? Stop trying to manipulate my purchasing decisions 24/7.
You sound tired. You should try Lipton ‘pick me up’ teabags. A refreshing way to soothe the soul. Available now at most retailers. /s
Sounds like you need Ketchup, packed with natural mellowing agents.
…where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above-average…
Ads are like a gas (the physics kind). They expand to take up all available space.
You said ads, but I think you meant “late stage capitalism”
True. That is the generalization of this rule.
And that’s why vandalism to destroy them is ethical.
Please don’t do this
It won’t end well for you. A better option is a boycott
So, most pump POS used to have a labeled or unlabeled mute button. That has become rare.
So far, I’ve been able to kick all of them into a diagnostic/trouble menu by pressing pairs of keys on each side of the monitor in sequence from the top.
Some of them have a timeout on this screen, but the counter resets when you hit a key.
Passwords can be entered from the keypad, with ok/enter also working. I bet the passwords are the manufacturer default, probably a 5-7 digit number. I was able to find partial training manuals and setup docs from one of the POS vendors but I didn’t find a default password or deeper technical docs for the one brand I looked into.
Fucking ads in my face fucking piss me off.
12345 works as a default a surprisingly large amount.
2580 is another one I’ve used with success.
Had an Android tablet that sat in a lost and found for like three years with no claims. Finally decided to mess around with it. After charging it up there was a password screen. Tried 1234. No dice. 2580 and it opened right up.
12345 works as a default a surprisingly large amount.
That’s amazing! I have the same combination on my luggage!
I just have a rubber handle icepick in my glove box that works wonders on gas station speakers.
Can’t play an ad if there isn’t a speaker.
Very true, and more efficient.
For now, I can mute all that I’ve found, it also looks like the pump has crashed, which is fun.
It quits working, I may adopt your method.
I never see ads when pumping gas because all the gas stations that have ads that play on their pumps have been vandalized so the screens don’t work lol
The entire US is a lesson on the consequences of barely-regulated rampant capitalism.
Weirdly enough the PNW just has normal gas pumps that don’t have screens or sound
I’ve def seen them in Seattle
Circle K here in Burien just outside of Seattle,WA has them.
I’m from a US state where we don’t pump our own gas.
You can just say New Jersey. After Oregon lifted its ban in 2023, there’s only one left!
Yes, just say “I’m from the best US state” next time instead, OP, people will know what you mean.
We’ll just have to observe him carefully and see if he’s able to complete a left turn without assistance. That’ll tell us for sure.
??? I was just in NJ for the first time earlier this week and I pumped my own gas.
That’s funny. Maybe they just didn’t notice? When I was there and started to pump my own gas (being from out-of-state), they stopped me and took over, but it wasn’t like the pumps were locked or anything. I did see that stations turned off the pumps after-hours, when they didn’t have anyone to pump fuel…
Then they weren’t paying attention or didn’t care.
Do petrol station attendants who have to pump fuel get paid better than those who don’t? I’m assuming that they need some kind of license?
Bro they are lucky if they get paid at all.
That’s funny. Maybe they just didn’t notice? When I was there and started to pump my own gas (being from out-of-state), they stopped me and took over, but it wasn’t like the pumps were locked or anything. I did see that stations turned off the pumps after-hours, when they didn’t have anyone to pump fuel…
One of the side buttons mutes it. It varies though as far as I know.
A lot of them have been updated so that no longer works.
I bet a piece of duct tape over the speaker would work. Also, whatever money they are paying the gas stations, they would probably still get that money even if you manually muted the speaker. Really feels like a win win 😀
Well fuck. That’s terrible news.
Yep. Most of the time someone has marked it somehow because it’s immensely annoying. That being said, there are a few stations that aren’t able to be muted, so I intentionally make a point to note whatever is being advertised and never buy it.
The speakers are often easy to bust by jamming a key through the slots ☺
I try to only get gas at one specific local gas station that doesn’t do ads.
Ever came across something you really really wanted to buy, but it was “noted”?
That’s no longer a universal thing.
The gas station I prefer has a mute button labeled on the pumps. Their ads are also less annoying because it’s mostly just promos for stuff in store.
Or… hear me out here … we could weaponize them. Most of them are operated by a company called GSTV who sell the ad slots. They could be purchased by activist groups to un-brainwash people who can’t mute them. They could read banned books out loud. Teach science. Explain what’s wrong with the electoral college.
GSTV also offers very precise targeting at specific zip codes or stations. So you could play an ad at your local station about whatever stupid thing your HOA is trying to do.
“We are sorry. We cannot show your video as it against the terms and conditions. Please note we will keep your money though”
Have them play cgp Grey and kurgzkazat videos and the world will become a better place.
What do you do for a living?
I’m not sure I have that kind of cash
Lol, imagine thinking you’re allowed a momentary reprieve from advertising in this hellscape of a world we’ve built.
Good god… Worst I’ve seen so far here in Canada (granted I’m on an island stuck 20 years behind everyone else) was the pump screen flashing to show a loyalty program like AirMiles or PC Optimum or something and none of them have audio.
No audio is horrible accessibility! What about the blind drivers who need to hear the ads?
/s, in case it’s not obvious
I could almost stomach the ads if they weren’t blasted at max volume; it’s like being assaulted at the pump. I feel sorry for anyone who lives in proximity of those stations and have to hear this crap at all hours.
Most have a mute option it’s hidden but every one I have seen has a mute button… You might have to press some random button… Pro tip have a sharpie so you can label said mute button
They used to, not so much anymore. Most of them I’ve been to (I travel A LOT for work) no longer mute at all no matter which button you press.
Get an EV. Charge at home. Watch YouTube ads while you wait.
What are YouTube ads?
#AndroidUser
What’s youtube? Signed, a Nebula user.
ps. Ik ik tell me I should use PeerTube.
Used electric cars are some of the cheapest you can buy with the lowest total cost of ownership. If you have to drive, at least spare yourself the awful experience, cost, and pollution of gas stations.
Grab a screwdriver and stab the shit out of the speaker, that shuts them up fairly reliably.
But in all seriousness I refuse to go to a gas station with ads on the pumps because fuck that shit. Old gas stations are the way to go (for now).
The US never stop to amaze me
They’ve stopped using exposed speaker grilles so you can’t shove a screw driver into the speakers anymore :(
Ad blaring pumps are in Canada too. Shell is the most obnoxious.
Is gas less expensive compared to pumps where they don’t do that?
Typically the button on the right, second from the top mutes. It depends on the model, but it works on some.
I have like a 70% success rate with this trick
When the 2nd from the top on the right doesn’t work I proceed to hit all of them. Normally that works
I’m from Washington and occasionally drive in Oregon, which is one of those states.
welcome to like ten years ago?
yes it’s awful. Everything is awful.
you can mute them or turn down their volumes. The buttons are there so you can press them.
if it’s not on the pump: yeah that’s truly evil.
late stage capitalism, in some cases, is still capitalism. You could tell the station worker or owner you don’t like that and it’s bad. But good luck with them not spitting in your face in return.
do you live under a rock? Are you so isolated somehow that the GAS STATION is your only exposure to this bullshit? Tell me your secrets, I need that level of peace in my life.
I kinda set a no ads tolerance policy for myself. I pay for some services (e.g. $5/month for Nebula, I donate monthly to Lemmy, etc). YouTube is the main area where ads tend to creep in since iOS doesn’t have an ad blocker. My goal was to totally ditch YouTube for Nebula, but they are missing some creators I like.
You’re going to hate this response, but if you’re already paying to avoid ads, you could get YouTube premium. I got grandfathered into it from Google Music and honestly I feel it’s absolutely worth it. It’s about the same cost as Spotify and comes with YouTube music that works just as well. So I look at it like paying for Spotify with the added bonus of no ads on YouTube and being able to play videos in the background. I also tend to watch a ton of YouTube videos and often use the to fall asleep to.
At this point, it’s the only subscription service I still pay for. I’ve ditched all the others, but that one has stayed. Anytime I see someone watching YouTube without it, or without a good quality ad blocker, I’m horrified. So. Many. Ads. I don’t get how anyone can watch anything like that.
But I get it; most people would rather drag their ass through a mile of broken glass than pay YouTube a dime, and I totally respect that. Just sharing my experience.
Protip: moving to a place where it takes effort to understand the language turns ads into a dadaist experience.
The local one doesn’t play ads. They get my business for it. I live in a not so good place. I’ve had weapons pulled on me several times. The ads make me jumpy.
Yep doesn’t work anymore. There’s probably some series of buttons you can push to put it into settings mode, but I imagine it’s different by model.
If you can’t mute it with software, then the only remaining way is via hardware. Carry some packing tape in your car and slap it over the speaker - wipe fingerprints off just in case.
I vote with my money. If they have ads I go somewhere else. I tell the employees why. I also pay with cash. Ads don’t work on me. I’m too poor for their products anyway.
There’s one near my house, and it has no mute button whatsoever. No buttons at all, in fact. You tap your card to the reader, then lift the pump of whichever variety you need, and that moment the ads start. With sound on full blast as well.
I’ve left a negative google review and make sure to update it monthly so that it stays on top, and drive to another station quite a bit further off just to avoid this crapshoot.
I’m boycotting Valero because of it. None of the gas stations around me seem to do it, it’s just them. So fuck them.
Almost two decades ago, I worked at a network service provider who had as a customer a company that provided the technology for serving those gas pump ads.
At each gas station they had a VSAT, a router and of course the digital signage boxes on each pump.
They fed the ads to thousands of pumps via a single T1 to HughesNet in Atlanta. They’d multicast the ads, and have a local cache at each pump that would receive the stream, cache it and serve it.
It was one of the most elegant setups I’ve ever seen, and should serve as a case study in multicast for efficient bandwidth utilization across an expensive data transmission medium.
The button second from the top on the right hand side of the screen is the mute button(usually).
If not, try all of them, one usually mutes it. If not, hold the top two for ten seconds to force the pump into maintenance mode, gas pumps as normal, then times out eventually to the main screen.
Most of them in my area have disabled that. There is no non-destructive way to mute them.
Yes, the chopstick-to-the-grille is plan B.
If I can’t mute them (usually one of the unlabeled buttons on the right), I’ll go to another station. I really hate those. God damn Cheddar TV or whatever. Fucking Maria Menounos, ugh.
Second button from the top on the right will mute the ad.
They’re loud as hell too. Makes me want to put a shishkabob skewer through either my eardrum or the speaker. That my be an exaggeration, but I’m not exaggerating when I say that I actively the avoid gas stations in my city that have this “feature”.
In my neck of the woods, gas station owners have sharpies which of the 10 buttons is the mute button.
So as soon as the ad plays you just press mute.
It is God awful though.
One of the unlabeled buttons on the side of the screen should mute it. Whenever I find it, I’ll take a pen or sharpie and mark which one is the mute button for future people who don’t want to be subjected to that shit.
Never understood this. Sincerely hope that any place trying out here is shunned.
EVs will hopefully put the tactic out of business forever. ‘Plug in and fuck off somewhere else for half an hour’ is not a position you can really advertise in.
Unless it becomes ‘watch ad to enable charger’ 😬
Well, sure, but not on our gas pumps. Only on TV and radio. And in magazines and movies and at ball games, on buses and milk cartons and T-shirts and bananas and written on the sky. But not on gas pumps. No, sir-ee!
You can just say you’re from NJ lol, it’s not like any other state has an employment scam where you’re legally required to hire people to perform the simple, relatively safe act of pumping gas. At least not since WA finally trusted people to pump their own gas a few years back.
obsidianfoxxy7870@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 weeks ago
I HATE this if I am PAYING for a product then I shouldn’t get a god damn ad.
joyjoy@lemmy.zip 2 weeks ago
Paying customers/additional ad revenue
Image
Default_Defect@midwest.social 2 weeks ago
Because you’re not PAYING enough, now go INSIDE and buy some FUCKING BANANAS.
Vanilla_PuddinFudge@infosec.pub 2 weeks ago
Use ads negatively, it makes ads fun.
See an ad? Pledge to never buy that product. My black book is full of spite.
ggiesen@lemmy.ca 2 weeks ago
Unfortunately gas stations don’t actually make much money from selling you fuel. Most of the money is made from the attached convenience stores.