01 March 2010
At the gas pump today, I was once again confronted with the conundrum of which way to insert my check card. There’s a handy little diagram etched on the panel, but for some reason, my mind always flips it, and I can’t see which way it goes. It’s like one of those optical illusions where you can’t determine which way the stairs are facing.
The screen on the pump asks if I’m a “Rewards Member.” Yeah, I am, though I hate joining those corporate clubs, but hey, I gather points and one day I can trade them in for free gas. The really creepy thing, however, is that once I’ve swiped the card, the screen reads “processing loyalty.” I can’t really express it in words…but something’s just doesn’t feel right about having my loyalty “processed.”
I made a post a few weeks ago about a new wallet I purchased. It was only over the past weekend that I finally got around to shifting the contents of my wallet from the old one to the new. (I needed to see the new one on a shelf for a while so I could warm up to it.) Overall, I like it better, but at the pump today, I discovered a problem: less compartments for cards means I have to search through more cards. What I mean is, I know which compartment had my check card in it, but I have four cards in there now instead of two, so, you know, more work.
Yeah, I’m relieved that I’m not the only one who has trouble swiping credit cards at the gas pump. I stare at the little diagram for which direction my card should go in, but I still often put it in backwards.
By the way, any gas station who processes your loyalty is creepy.
Yeah, I also mess up on the icons at cash registers. I swipe my card, then stand there waiting for something to happen until the cashier says: “I think you need to turn your card around.”