Texaco Air

flyton5 · 28-01-2013 08:36PM #1

Pulled in Texaco in Rathfarnham earlier to top up the tires on my motorbike. Turns out they've installed a new air machine and are charging €1 for 5 minutes of air. They've also cut the hose on the old air machine. Now I'm pissed off for two reasons:

1. It's a safety issue. Surely if I have low pressure in my tires I'm putting myself and other road users at risk?

2. The air machine makes more in an hour than I do.

I'm cranky enough to never buy my petrol there again.

E.S.T. · 28-01-2013 08:41PM

Invest in your own compressor if you feel so strongly about it and a private company is not responsible for road safety.

Reg'stoy · 28-01-2013 08:41PM

Put an extension lead outside your front door offering free mobile phone charging and see how long that attitude lasts.

Ghandee · 28-01-2013 08:41PM

flyton5 wrote: »

Pulled in Texaco in Rathfarnham earlier to top up the tires on my motorbike. Turns out they've installed a new air machine and are charging €1 for 5 minutes of air. They've also cut the hose on the old air machine. Now I'm pissed off for two reasons:

1. It's a safety issue. Surely if I have low pressure in my tires I'm putting myself and other road users at risk?

2. The air machine makes more in an hour than I do.

I'm cranky enough to never buy my petrol there again.

I bet the air machine doesn't get lunch breaks, coffee breaks, and as favourable working conditions as you do OP?

You haven't said what you do for a living, so implying that the poor air machine might be overpaid is short sighted IMO. That air machine might well have studied hard for many years to get into that position.

More data required OP.

Air machines are people with feelings too ya know. :mad:

wilkie2006 · 28-01-2013 08:43PM

flyton5 wrote: »

Pulled in Texaco in Rathfarnham earlier to top up the tires on my motorbike. Turns out they've installed a new air machine and are charging €1 for 5 minutes of air. They've also cut the hose on the old air machine. Now I'm pissed off for two reasons:

1. It's a safety issue. Surely if I have low pressure in my tires I'm putting myself and other road users at risk?

2. The air machine makes more in an hour than I do.

I'm cranky enough to never buy my petrol there again.

It's not really Texaco's responsibility to ensure that your bike's safe...

Rastadoyle · 28-01-2013 08:44PM

more like toxico

Bad Santa · 28-01-2013 08:45PM

Buy yourself one of these. They work well. Or at least mine does.

CreepingDeath · 28-01-2013 08:46PM

flyton5 wrote: »

1. It's a safety issue. Surely if I have low pressure in my tires I'm putting myself and other road users at risk?

You drive a motorbike.. you're probably doing that already.

Sinfonia · 28-01-2013 08:47PM

flyton5 wrote: »

Pulled in Texaco in Rathfarnham earlier to top up the tires on my motorbike. Turns out they've installed a new air machine and are charging €1 for 5 minutes of air. They've also cut the hose on the old air machine. Now I'm pissed off for two reasons:

1. It's a safety issue. Surely if I have low pressure in my tires I'm putting myself and other road users at risk?

2. The air machine makes more in an hour than I do.

I'm cranky enough to never buy my petrol there again.

If you needed to use the air pump for 30 mins every day, then I could see how it'd be a problem. It's €1 every what, three months? I think you can rise above the red mist here.

Pilotdude5 · 28-01-2013 08:48PM

Many WMD's were invented, puppet dictators installed, and wars fought to get that cheap air to your forecourt OP.

cantdecide · 28-01-2013 08:49PM

They have the safety of motorists but particularly us bikers in their hands. A bad reading could contribute to an accident in which fatalities could occur.

The convention is that they provide service stations provide air FOC. They shouldn't treat people who are leaving a lot of money with them at the fuel pump with contempt by charging them for what is a simple but crucial service.

flyton5 · 28-01-2013 08:50PM

E.S.T. wrote: »

Invest in your own compressor if you feel so strongly about it and a private company is not responsible for road safety.

They seem pretty happy with the free advertising they get when the RSA give them a shout out for giving fatigued drivers free coffee.

Reg'stoy wrote: »

Put an extension lead outside your front door offering free mobile phone charging and see how long that attitude lasts.

An uncharged mobile phone is less likely to lose control and crash into a school bus full of orphans!

Fighting Irish · 28-01-2013 08:50PM

flyton5 wrote: »

Pulled in Texaco in Rathfarnham earlier to top up the tires on my motorbike. Turns out they've installed a new air machine and are charging €1 for 5 minutes of air. They've also cut the hose on the old air machine. Now I'm pissed off for two reasons:

1. It's a safety issue. Surely if I have low pressure in my tires I'm putting myself and other road users at risk?

2. The air machine makes more in an hour than I do.

I'm cranky enough to never buy my petrol there again.

Do you want them to give out free mars bars as well?

Chips Lovell · 28-01-2013 08:52PM

"It's a safety issue. Surely if my brakes are shagged I'm putting myself and other road users at risk if Texaco doesn't repair them for free?"

3ndahalfof6 · 28-01-2013 08:54PM

On board bicycle pump up grade, motor bicycle pump, how the fook is it someone elses fault if you got a puncture, prepare, be aware, I might get a puncture, that is all.

LordSutch · 28-01-2013 08:55PM

flyton5 wrote: »

Pulled in Texaco in Rathfarnham earlier to top up the tires on my motorbike. Turns out they've installed a new air machine and are charging €1 for 5 minutes of air. They've also cut the hose on the old air machine. Now I'm pissed off for two reasons:

1. It's a safety issue. Surely if I have low pressure in my tires I'm putting myself and other road users at risk?

2. The air machine makes more in an hour than I do.

I'm cranky enough to never buy my petrol there again.

Well I'm with you 100% on this one, on principle I just wouldn't pay to put air in my tyres.

So my advice would be to just boycott that petrol station, and hopefully if enough people do the same, Texaco will get the message.

Big Nasty · 28-01-2013 08:57PM

Every cent matters in business these days.

They have to pay for and service the compressor and also a new gauge every time some tosser drops it on the ground after use and drives over it. Garages make SFA on fuel and rely on their shop and additional services to meet the bills.

sidcon · 28-01-2013 08:57PM

The machines are a service provided by a private company, a air gauge cost just under €500 to fix if broken. Considering most motorists don't bother hanging them back up and the next person comes along and drives over the hose/gauge you can imagine the amount of money the company pays for this "free" service. Companies cannot absorb them costs any more hence why you now pay for the service of your vehicle. 5minutes normally is given which includes air, Hoover and fragrance.

TheUsual · 28-01-2013 09:02PM

It's not just Texaco that charge for air nowadays. A lot of them have none.

Go to Halfords car shop in Blanchardstown and invest 30 euro in a footpump (Michellin I got) and a digital pressure guage 10 Euro.
Best things I ever bought - seriously I should have done it years ago.
You tend to do it more often as it's in so handy, and with the digital gauge it's a million times more accurate than the garage pumps - how often are they callibrated ?

amacca · 28-01-2013 09:03PM

On the one hand i would be pissed off with this

ffs its just air why the fcuk am i being charged for it, it should be provided for free as i am bringing valuable custom here

on the other hand I know as a franchise owner you have to sell a hell of a lot of litres of petrol/diesel and stay open for a hell of a long time in order to make a profit and when you do provide these things people/gobsh1tes/scumbags etc tend to treat them with disdain instead of respect and expect you to foot the bill when they knot up the hose and leave it in the path of cars, yank the hose out of its housing, fcuk the pressure gauge anywhere when they are finished with it etc

the best solution to the problem I can see at the moment without outright scabbily charging you for the air to cover costs incurred due to scumbags that dont give a sh1t are the ones that require you to put a coin in a slot (similar to trolleys) to get the gauge and when you actually go to the trouble of replacing the gauge where it should have been you get your fcuking money back.....these also retract the hose (but not like the crappy tesco ones that require you to preselect pressure and then suck hours/well minutes [long long minutes on your hunkers] of your life away getting to that pressure)

Where To · 28-01-2013 09:04PM

It's up to you to ensure your bike is roadworthy, not Texaco.

Sinfonia · 28-01-2013 09:07PM

You're not being charged for air.

somefeen · 28-01-2013 09:13PM

I hate this ****e myself but in fairness its not JUST air.
Its air thats been pressurised and filtered to remove moisture etc.
Compressors aren't exactly easy on the electricity either.

A euros a bit steep though most places I've seen its about 50c.

LordSutch · 28-01-2013 09:13PM

Pulled up at a petrol station the other day and the machine needed a refundable €1 coin to release the chain attached to the air-line > fair enough.

I didn't have a €1 coin, but I did have a Tesco trolley token which came in very handy

3ndahalfof6 · 28-01-2013 09:17PM

amacca wrote: »

On the one hand i would be pissed off with this

ffs its just air why the fcuk am i being charged for it, it should be provided for free as i am bringing valuable custom here

on the other hand I know as a franchise owner you have to sell a hell of a lot of litres of petrol/diesel and stay open for a hell of a long time in order to make a profit and when you do provide these things people/gobsh1tes/scumbags etc tend to treat them with disdain instead of respect and expect you to foot the bill when they knot up the hose and leave it in the path of cars, yank the hose out of its housing, fcuk the pressure gauge anywhere when they are finished with it etc

the best solution to the problem I can see at the moment without outright scabbily charging you for the air to cover costs incurred due to scumbags that dont give a sh1t are the ones that require you to put a coin in a slot (similar to trolleys) to get the gauge and when you actually go to the trouble of replacing the gauge where it should have been you get your fcuking money back.....these also retract the hose (but not like the crappy tesco ones that require you to preselect pressure and then suck hours/well minutes [long long minutes on your hunkers] of your life away getting to that pressure)

Charge 150 percent, you get 75 percent back if you comply, the machines need to be paid for, the only air that is free is the air we breathe, to put a price on this will deplete the human race by the billions it has grown,

no doubt this will happen in the future, try to save the air that is escaping so we do not have to pay for the air we are breathing, that is all, we are creating our end, if our beginning knew how we were going to go about it they might of taken a different path, folly to chance.

cantdecide · 28-01-2013 09:20PM

sidcon wrote: »

The machines are a service provided by a *private company, a air gauge cost just under €500 to fix if broken. Considering most motorists don't bother hanging them back up and the next person comes along and drives over the hose/gauge you can imagine the amount of money the company pays for this "free" service. Companies cannot absorb them costs any more hence why you now pay for the service of your vehicle. 5minutes normally is given which includes air, Hoover and fragrance.

€500? You'd buy an industrial compressor for that. The basic inflaters you see everywhere cost less than a tenth of iirc and are serviceable.

Any conscientious garage or manager owner a) needs a compressor for other equipment such as cardboard compactors and b) with minimal expense and effort, maintain the service if he give a fcuk about doing it c) can install a coin return chain which ensures their customers must hang the inflater back up and are saved from *d) this racket of private companies charging for the most trivial of services as a courtesy to their paying customers

somefeen · 28-01-2013 09:22PM

3ndahalfof6 wrote: »

Charge 150 percent, you get 75 percent back if you comply, the machines need to be paid for, the only air that is free is the air we breathe, to put a price on this will deplete the human race by the billions it has grown,

no doubt this will happen in the future, try to save the air that is escaping so we do not have to pay for the air we are breathing, that is all, we are creating our end, if our beginning knew how we were going to go about it they might of taken a different path, folly to chance.

What?

flyton5 · 28-01-2013 09:29PM

CreepingDeath wrote: »

You drive a motorbike.. you're probably doing that already.

Don't think I've ever seen someone texting or doing their makeup while driving a motorbike.

3ndahalfof6 · 28-01-2013 09:29PM

somefeen wrote: »

What?

Yes.

3ndahalfof6 · 28-01-2013 09:32PM

flyton5 wrote: »

Don't think I've ever seen someone texting or doing their makeup while driving a motorbike.

Interesting, your not sure.

TheUsual · 28-01-2013 09:41PM

flyton5 wrote: »

Don't think I've ever seen someone texting or doing their makeup while driving a motorbike.

You haven't lived darling.

Texaco Air

Comments