Idk if this is the right instance for this, but how fucking tired of these forced ads at gas pumps is everyone else?

I’m paying 4 bucks a gallon to have you shove advertising down my throat like an erect cock?

What the actual fuck

Anyone have any good ad blocking practices for this?

I’ve seen duct or painters tape covering the speakers…

You can press a button next to the screen to mute it, but this doesn’t work at all gas stations. (Usually its the 2nd from the top on the right side)

I guess its just time to gettoblast music every time I pump gas like back when I was 19…

    • @Rolando@lemmy.world
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      1178 months ago

      One time I put in my card, but the pump couldn’t show me an ad because it crashed. My card was stuck in the pump. The guys inside tried resetting the pump but that didn’t work, so they said it’d be a week before someone came around to fix it. I had to cancel the card and get a new number. All because I couldn’t watch the ads.

      • @4am@lemm.ee
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        88 months ago

        I’ve never seen a pump that took a card inside it like an ATM; did you mean the transaction was stuck or the physical card?

        • Refurbished Refurbisher
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          198 months ago

          I’ve seen a lot of those. The card gets physically stuck until the machine decides that the payment is completed.

          • @Baku@aussie.zone
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            28 months ago

            I’ve never seen one in Australia. We don’t really prepay for petrol here. Some servos in the dodgiest suburbs do make you between certain hours, but I’ve never seen one that makes everybody always prepay or one that actually takes your card. Most of the time you’d go inside to prepay anyways, but on the few pumps I’ve seen that do have card payments on the physical pump it’s either tap or swipe, no insert, and no holding cards hostage

        • @colforge@lemmy.world
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          158 months ago

          I’ve been to many a pump that instructs you to insert and leave your card, then ‘latches’ onto the card once you’ve inserted it, locking it into place until the authorization for the transaction is complete. I’ve seen them in Florida, Georgia, Oklahoma, Texas, and Louisiana.

      • ɔiƚoxɘup
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        28 months ago

        Pliers woulda worked (from experience). I always keep a pair handy for this and other more practical reasons.

    • @Frozengyro@lemmy.world
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      178 months ago

      The one thing that would push people to electric. At least then you can charge at home and avoid gas stations.

    • @heysoundude@derpzilla.net
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      38 months ago

      Costco has no ads for the time being, and I can’t see it going with ads because they can only slow the sale of gasoline that people already line up for after paying to access the ability to buy it.

    • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod
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      38 months ago

      And then once enough people buy the premium membership they’ll start putting ads on those, too.

  • DdCno1
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    1258 months ago

    This is one of those American absurdities that thankfully hasn’t made its way over to Europe yet, at least to my knowledge. I hope I have an electric car by the point they start introducing these here.

    • @Thorny_Insight@lemm.ee
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      448 months ago

      In Finland our equivalence to Wal-Mart also sells cheap gas and they have ads on their pumps advertising their own products but it’s just on the display and there’s no sound with it.

        • @NegativeInf@lemmy.world
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          158 months ago

          And now when I get gas I gotta listen to them hawk some shitty podcast from a washed up morning host. No! I don’t want to know about Hoda Kotb, I just want gas!

      • @Pwnmode@lemmy.world
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        168 months ago

        Would be nice if the gas was less expensive at the stores with ads. At least that’s not the case in my area. 5 min down the road the same company has pumps without ads for the same price.

    • @SlopppyEngineer@lemmy.world
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      158 months ago

      Oh yes they tried. The damn thing scared me when that ad started playing. I haven’t been back at that station again. Some other stations do have ads playing but those are silent, so I guess they do learn customers don’t like the loud ads.

    • @letsgo@lemm.ee
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      118 months ago

      We’ve got some in the UK, like this one at the Shell petrol station at S60 5ND (pic from Oogle Gearth)

    • NιƙƙιDιɱҽʂ
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      8 months ago

      I’ve been driving an EV for a few years, but I flew out of state and had to rent a car recently. I’d never experienced this before then. It was one of the most dystopian experiences ever, leaving me feeling dirty and used.

      I don’t think I could keep myself from vandalizing those things if I had to do that constantly.

    • @shadycomposer@lemmy.world
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      28 months ago

      Why do you think charging stations will be immune? Plus with all the ‘smart’ ‘connected’ cars it’s not impossible for them to push ads directly to your car.

      • @intensely_human@lemm.ee
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        48 months ago

        What sucks about charging stations is they don’t have:

        • trash cans
        • squeegees to clean my windshield
        • a portico to keep the rain off my head
        • a little convenience store with coffee and snacks
      • @Yaztromo@lemmy.world
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        28 months ago

        EV charging doesn’t require you to stand around for 5 minutes holding a handle to fuel up. The charging times are longer, but once plugged in your need to stay anywhere near the vehicle is zero. And plugging in usually takes less than 5s.

        So even if someone came up with a system whereby they expected you to watch an ad before the power would flow, you could always just plug in and walk away. How are they going to know you’re physically there?

        As an EV driver I haven’t been to a gas station since I started driving it, but AFAIK this advertising hasn’t come to Canada — and hopefully it never does.

        • @siipale@sopuli.xyz
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          38 months ago

          So even if someone came up with a system whereby they expected you to watch an ad before the power would flow, you could always just plug in and walk away. How are they going to know you’re physically there?

          How about a button located near the ad screen and speaker that you have to hold like at least 80% of ad duration. If you failed to reach 80% it would reset to 0 and show you another ad so you can try again.

            • @siipale@sopuli.xyz
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              28 months ago

              The idea I had was just so ridiculously evil I just had to teil about it 😄

              If you think about it the rock and tape hack can be easily prevented, but I’m not going to elaborate any further as to not give them more ideas.

  • @zaph@sh.itjust.works
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    808 months ago

    Anyone have any good ad blocking practices for this?

    Don’t buy gas from places that do this. Hasn’t failed me yet and if more people did it maybe they’ll stop.

        • @fsxylo@sh.itjust.works
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          8 months ago

          Yup. The “free” market says that if everyone does the same shit, you have no choice, and they still make more money.

            • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod
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              48 months ago

              They will get the market share of us few weirdos who haven’t just accepted this shit. They will lose out on advertising revenue, have to charge more for gas, and will go out of business.

              • @BearOfaTime@lemm.ee
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                18 months ago

                And that ad revenue is probably significant. While consumers of commodities don’t really have much selection.

    • @Dramaking37@lemmy.world
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      78 months ago

      As you are able I’d highly recommend going electric. Then you don’t even have to go to gas stations. If you’re able to charge at home (which I’m aware many are not) it’s even better because anytime you leave the house you can have a full tank.

  • @Lexam@lemmy.ca
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    8 months ago

    The ones here, you can’t mute. Pisses me off so bad I will refuse to back to a gas station. I have even pulled up seen the ads on another pump and drove off. I’m not a fucking captive! Congrats on losing money greedy fucks!

        • @4am@lemm.ee
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          118 months ago

          Depends on the model of pump. Some of them you push one of the unlabeled buttons a few times (my local Shell it’s the 2nd one down on the right)

      • Promethiel
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        8 months ago

        Mild electric shock and a vandalism charge if caught. Worth it? I don’t know but I’m getting sick of the fucking ads

        Edit: So stab then pump, instead of the other way around to avoid boom boom?

      • Refurbished Refurbisher
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        Most gas stations are monitored with cameras (often times with facial recognition), so they will be able to see your face and license plate, then charge you with vandalism.

      • @AtariDump@lemmy.world
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        68 months ago

        In another thread someone said they carry a sharpie marker with them and label the button(s) you need to press to mute the audio for future people.

  • @Ultragigagigantic@lemmy.world
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    718 months ago

    "People are taking the piss out of you everyday. They butt into your life, take a cheap shot at you and then disappear. They leer at you from tall buildings and make you feel small. They make flippant comments from buses that imply you’re not sexy enough and that all the fun is happening somewhere else. They are on TV making your girlfriend feel inadequate. They have access to the most sophisticated technology the world has ever seen and they bully you with it. They are The Advertisers and they are laughing at you.

    You, however, are forbidden to touch them. Trademarks, intellectual property rights and copyright law mean advertisers can say what they like wherever they like with total impunity.

    Fuck that. Any advert in a public space that gives you no choice whether you see it or not is yours. It’s yours to take, re-arrange and re-use. You can do whatever you like with it. Asking for permission is like asking to keep a rock someone just threw at your head.

    You owe the companies nothing. Less than nothing, you especially don’t owe them any courtesy. They owe you. They have re-arranged the world to put themselves in front of you. They never asked for your permission, don’t even start asking for theirs."

    – Banksy

    • @BillDaCatt@lemmy.world
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      218 months ago

      I do this too. Speedway and Shell play video ads on their pumps with no obvious mute options. I don’t buy gas there.

      • Eager Eagle
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        108 months ago

        good time to switch to organic, gluten-free, vegan, open source, self-hosted and family-grown biomass fuel

    • Possibly linux
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      18 months ago

      Its always the one gas station that is a little run down and is the common place for violent crime

  • @Mostly_Gristle@lemmy.world
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    548 months ago

    I wish advertisers would realize that forcing me to watch their ad against my will makes me actively hostile against their brand and/or product. If I remember their brand name from an intrusive ad I will not only not buy their products, I will go out of my way to give my money to their competitors.

    • @Thorny_Insight@lemm.ee
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      8 months ago

      Advertising is among the most studied psychological phenomenoms in the world. It’s not so much about getting you to buy their product but more about you remembering the brand. Ads work. That why they’re everywhere.

      Sure I can name several brands that I’m not buying from either because of their ads… …but I remember the brands.

      • @micka190@lemmy.world
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        248 months ago

        Whenever someone brings this up, someone also brings up the fact that ads are proven to work in general not on everyone. So I guess it’s my turn today.

        • @jkrtn@lemmy.ml
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          108 months ago

          Yes, but in the context of whether or not to be scumbags about the gas pump they only care about the aggregate behavior. “I wish they would realize I make a mental note to never buy,” they do, tho. They don’t care because it convinces two or more other people to buy. Ads will continue getting worse because none of us will do collective action about it.

      • @Mycatiskai@lemmy.ca
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        68 months ago

        I likely wouldn’t buy a diamond ring but I most certainly not buy one from a certain diamond store that has fucking annoying ads. They know who they are and if you are in Lower Mainland of BC, you know who I’m talking about. They can blow and choke on a red hot cock shaped metal rod. I’m glad I moved so far north that I won’t get any ads for them ever again.

      • @ProfessorProteus@lemmy.world
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        58 months ago

        I’ve also cone to realize that this is the real purpose of ads.

        Mostly_Gristle@lemmy.world, you have the right idea, but the other key thing you should remember is to never talk about the corps to anyone, even if you’re dragging their name through the mud. “No such thing as bad press,” as they say.

        It’s good to denounce the practice, but it seems naming and shaming specific companies just doesn’t work anymore at this stage.

  • @4am@lemm.ee
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    488 months ago

    Second button down on the right side of the screen, press it (up to) 4 times and it mutes that shit

    • @remotelove@lemmy.ca
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      238 months ago

      Since we are sharing…

      Holding down 1-5-9 or 3-5-7 can drop a POS card reader into debug mode, but it’s brand dependent. (I have had it also crash the host terminals in some cases as well.)

      • @BaumGeist@lemmy.ml
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        98 months ago

        also want to say that this is illegal in most places. The store may or may not press charges, but they have the right to and they will win that case if they do. So only do it if you know you can get away with it or have permission or don’t mind having the stain on your legal record and whatever fine they hit you with

        • @remotelove@lemmy.ca
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          58 months ago

          It’s not destructive, nor can it really be considered illegal access. I suppose there is something illegal about it if it’s classified as a DoS, I guess. There isn’t much on a payment PED aside from an encryption key and maybe some network information.

          Entering your PIN and accidentally hitting 3 buttons hardly seems like something to get charged with. How you leverage that for other things could easily be a problem.

          All I am saying is that the likelihood of serious repercussion is very low. Still, I have to agree: Only do it with permission and with purpose.

    • Bone
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      58 months ago

      Ohhh maybe it’s the multiple presses that are needed

    • Ech
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      218 months ago

      The brain implant will be more like “adplus” of it ever catches on. I guarantee it.

        • @ulterno@lemmy.kde.social
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          8 months ago

          I have a feeling that Surgeons will be made to sign contracts instructing them to refuse BYOC (bring/build your own chip) implants.

          Otherwise, just make your own chip. You decide the materials, you decide the process. You decide each and every part (alright, maybe just as much as you can fathom) of the circuit.
          You decide how powerful the feedback is and what functions it provides. So you are not paying for the risk of features other than the ones you want.

          • @quicksand@lemm.ee
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            88 months ago

            I feel like there’s very few people who could design and build their own brain implant chip. Even in the far future

            • @ulterno@lemmy.kde.social
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              8 months ago

              I feel like if (the de-techification of general public doesn’t take place in the future) && (I were to be born in the future); then
              I would probably giving free chip-design customisation services to friends and family, using some open source chip design as a base.


              But then again, there’s already a very few number of ppl like me…

              • @quicksand@lemm.ee
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                38 months ago

                It’s just not something you can do in your garage these days (or for the past few decades), even if the designs were open sourced. I like your idea and wish there was less concentrated power in chip manufacturing, I just don’t think it’s very feasible.

                • @ulterno@lemmy.kde.social
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                  28 months ago

                  Well, designing and manufacturing are 2 different things.
                  You’re right as in we will still have to rely on some Workshop having a million dollar fabrication setup with at least half a dozen experts working, to do the manufacturing part.

                  Furthermore, said setup will have to be optimised not for scale (as in workshop mode and not assembly line mode), focusing on getting one-shot success rather than mass-manufacturing and getting yield %ages. So, we won’t really benefit from things like Intel opening up their fabs, since they still expect a bulk order.


                  We still always have FPGAs.
                  Just need one with an open source VHDL compiler.

          • @qwertilliopasd@lemmy.world
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            48 months ago

            Surgeons already aren’t allowed to put non FDA approved things in you. You would go to a tattoo/piercing shop for that sort of thing.

            • @ulterno@lemmy.kde.social
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              18 months ago

              Ooh, that would be hard.
              Now you would have to make sure that the tattoo guy has enough time and drive to put the effort into understanding your custom chip design and know which probe to connect to which neuron.

    • @JonEFive@midwest.social
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      88 months ago

      I mean… It’s Las Vegas. You don’t go to Vegas expecting a vacation experience free from the perverse corruption of money.

  • @chiliedogg@lemmy.world
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    318 months ago

    Most of them the second button down on the right is mute, though I’ve been running into some recently that disabled the mute.

    Anyway, I sharpie a “mute” next to the button on stations where it isn’t labeled for other people. It’s one bit of graffiti that I’m not at all conflicted about.

      • Billegh
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        28 months ago

        I’ve had the exact opposite experience. Only once has the second button down from the right not worked. But in that instance it was the bottom right button.

        • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod
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          18 months ago

          Neither of those work at the gas station nearest my house. In my frustration I began running my fingers up and down the buttons and found that if you press the second from the top on both sides you get into an administrative screen. Pump still works fine and the ad is muted, and it resets when I leave.

  • @eltrain123@lemmy.world
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    238 months ago

    Get an EV and you’ll never have to go to a gas station again. None of the chargers I’ve seen have ads on them.

      • The Pantser
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        98 months ago

        Maybe public ones but the good thing about electric is you plug in and either walk away or sit in your car you don’t need to be outside near the pump to charge.

        • @ElJefe@lemm.ee
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          8 months ago

          Watch them start making chargers that hook up to your infotainment system and run ads all the way through your charging session.

          Edit: period.

        • @grue@lemmy.world
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          08 months ago

          That’s an interesting way to spin the fact that it takes so long to charge that it’s impractical to stand there and wait for it to finish.

          If you turned the gas pump down to make it pump slowly enough, you could walk away from it while you wait, too.

      • Luke
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        38 months ago

        I don’t even have an EV and I have to see the ads on the chargers because they’re in front of the store I’m walking into. So far, I’ve only noticed that at grocery stores, but it’s annoying.

    • m-p{3}
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      58 months ago

      They target the most common denominator. Once EVs are everywhere, look at the chargers getting filled with ads.

      • @jballs@sh.itjust.works
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        58 months ago

        Maybe, but I don’t think it’s worth it. With a gas car, you stand idle at the pump for a few minutes making sure that nothing bursts into flames or gas doesn’t overflow. Charging an EV isn’t like that. They’ve got about 5 seconds of your time at the most.

          • @zurohki@aussie.zone
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            68 months ago

            Well, Toyota’s claims about batteries are intended to convince people not to buy EVs yet. They’re going to be SO much better real soon now so just buy another Toyota gas car and think about EVs next time.

            It’s just another flavour of the anti-EV FUD Toyota has been spewing for a decade now. They’re also saying that hydrogen is the future and that gas will always be 70%+ of the car market, so you have your choice of anti-EV FUD. Consistency doesn’t matter when you’re running a disinformation campaign.

          • @jballs@sh.itjust.works
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            28 months ago

            Lol that would be the ultimate first world problem. Charging so fast it makes more sense to stand at the plug than go into the store to pee.

    • Volta has level2 free chargers in some of the grocery stores in my area. Pretty big screens. I don’t pay attention to them when I’m charging while shopping.

  • @xia@lemmy.sdf.org
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    238 months ago

    I avoid those stations i know have ads, and if surprised… i’m happy to know of the hidden mute button.

      • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod
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        38 months ago

        Your money is the squeak of a mouse against the thunderclap of advertising money.

        If they lose a couple weirdos like us but get to sell eyeballs, they’ll do it.

      • @intensely_human@lemm.ee
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        18 months ago

        In that case I reward the one that did the thing last.

        For instance, when Safeway removed my ability to mute the self checkout instructions, I stopped shopping there and only went to King Soopers.

        KS decided to also remove the mute option, but I’m still loyal to them because fuck Safeway for moving first on that.

        • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod
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          18 months ago

          Voting with your money sounds about as effective at influencing things as actual voting.

  • Strath
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    228 months ago

    For the pumps that the mute button doesn’t work: carry a small screwdriver, 1/8", flat blade, insert into center of speaker then pull sideways to severe the coil wire.

    • @SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world
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      508 months ago

      Great idea, it’s not like every single gas station is riddled with cameras and you have a license plate they can track you with or anything….

      • Strath
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        18 months ago

        It doesn’t effect the operation of the pump and takes a three second poke and twist. With no legitimate use of the speaker it would be months before it is noticed. Think they would scrub through tens of thousands of interactions with the pump and find that one person who leaned in a bit? Doubtful, and if so, minor vandalism charge and a small fine for months of quiet peace. Worth it in my book.

        • @SchmidtGenetics@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Some electronics have a way to test the system if the speaker is functional and can potentially kill the system, so that’s not even remotely true. Also, maybe they have to manually check the pump every morning when they turn the pumps on as part of their start up process.

          You are a fool if you think stuff isn’t able to verify and test itself in todays age or they don’t have an employee checking stuff semi frequently…

          In either case it wouldn’t be hard to go through a days footage, even easier if the system self tests and tells you when/if the problem occurred.