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Wednesday, February 3, 2010

Too Good to be True

I've been in Australia for nearly 11 months. And for 11 months I have been queuing up inside the petrol station whenever I need to fill up my tank. That's right, there is no pay at the pump in Australia. You can imagine what a pain this is, especially for those of us with kids.
And then today, while driving home from the SupaCentre, the low fuel light went on in the car. I pulled into the nearest petrol station and was shocked to see something called ePump! Yes, there were what appeared to be credit card machines attached to the pumps. I was so excited!
However, as I read the instructions I realized that I had gotten my hopes up for nothing. The ePump only works with their special everyday money credit card! All the poor saps (like me) with regular old bank credit cards are completely out of luck.


So, after all that, it really was too good to be true. I had to stand there, pump the petrol (by the way there are no little levers you can use to hold the pump for you either), and then go inside to pay for the fuel.
The only person happy about this arrangement was the Little Buddy, who scored a pack of gum from the mini-mart.
No pay at the pump- just one more reason why I try to get my sweet husband to fill up the car as often as possible!

4 comments:

Robot Dad said...

Sorry that I was not there to pump your petrol. Maybe you should hire a "petrol boy" to help you. This would be in addition to Raul, the new pool boy.

Wait... we don't have a pool.

Why do we have a pool boy????

Carole said...

Hi Jenny,

I have really enjoyed reading your blog and your families adventures. I am the community manager at Expat Focus and wondered if you would like to complete an Expat Experience Interview?
Pls email: carole@expatfocus.com

NXG said...

Hi. Stumbled across your blog while researching stuff to do with kids in Sydney - we just moved here a couple of months ago. Thanks for sharing some of the great tips and ideas!

Most of the gas stations by us (Artarmon/Willoughby) seem to have "pay at the pump" - just used one today in fact, and it works with my regular bank card.

Cheers,
David.

Sandra said...

Hey, I am quite new to your blog but I am catching up. I live in Slovenia (Europe) and we always have to put the gass in than go in to pay. There are a few completely self service gas stations when you can pay with the credit care. When we were in France, you could only pay with a French isued card. We just have to embrace the differences. And we have Smarties, instad of m&ms too:)
I have never been to Australia but it's my dream destination so I am more than happy to learn more about this great country.
Sandra from Slovenia

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