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.
Edit: ok I get it, there’s a mute button. I appreciate the tip, but people are already reporting that it only sometimes works. Knowing there’s a mute button that sometimes functions doesn’t make me less infuriated
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Around here they played audio very loudly for about a year and then they all stopped with the audio. Most still play a video, although they seem to mostly be for the convenience or grocery store that the pumps are at.
Drove out of state recently and there were pumps that still played the noise, so I pushed the one button that was well worn and it muted the sound.
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, it’s the only one left!
??? 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.
Yes, just say “I’m from the best US state” next time instead, OP, people will know what you mean.
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.
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.
Do me a favor, when you’ve got a minute, go by a Wawa and grab an Italian hoagie and enjoy it for me? I miss them every day, man. Gas pump ads, shitty gas station hoagies, it’s rough movin across the Sheetz/Wawa line
I will buy 2 and pour one out for you
Oh man, do I miss Sheetz and Wawa, especially the fried Mac n cheese, pretzel bun sandwiches, and Hoagie Fest.
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.
They will just disable the mute buttons. It happens around here all the time, marking them accelerates it.
I now avoid any gas station with immutable ads. But if I am in a pinch. The longest sharpest key on your key ring can slide right in and puncture the speaker, thus solving the issue more permanently.
They have even been removing the mute where I’m at
Is this a euphemism for farting?
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.
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).
Am I the odd one out, because I find it incredibly easy to ignore ads.
Yes, you are the odd one. Ads are literally designed to be difficult to ignore.
Get an EV. Charge at home. Watch YouTube ads while you wait.
What are YouTube ads?
Signed, an 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.
Yep. And a lot of the gas stations in my area have the auto-hold latches busted or removed, so you have to stand there and have a super loud ad screamed in your face. Which is why I now have a pack of reusable zip ties in my car that I will slap on the fill handle if I come across a pump like that. And no, that’s not dangerous - the stop mechanism in the pump handle operates such that the handle depresses further when the auto-shutoff engages, so it does not disrupt the safety of the filler mechanism.
I just jam my gas cap in the handle.
The screens on the pumps (around me at least) have a mute button on the screen.
Second button from the top on the right will mute the ad.
This works on most I’ve encountered, but not all. New gas station near me built less than 2 years ago has no mute button, and the ads play 24/7 whether someone is there or not. If you are pumping gas late at night with nobody else around you get to hear 10 pumps all blaring ads to nobody and each milliseconds out of sync. It’s totally fucked.
Yo fuck that shit… Playing 24/7? Is the speaker visible at all or hidden in the machine?
I’m glad I sold my car.
So will sticking a needle into the speaker.
Pretty sure that would just make the speaker slightly buzzy.
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.
Have them play cgp Grey and kurgzkazat videos and the world will become a better place.
“We are sorry. We cannot show your video as it against the terms and conditions. Please note we will keep your money though”
