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

  • @viking@infosec.pubEnglish
    17•3 days ago

    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.

  • @the_riviera_kid@lemmy.worldEnglish
    22•3 days ago

    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).

    • sunzu2
      40•4 days ago

      Look at this pedon thinking that he is entitled to dignity

      Cute

    • @ggiesen@lemmy.caEnglish
      2•3 days ago

      Unfortunately gas stations don’t actually make much money from selling you fuel. Most of the money is made from the attached convenience stores.

  • @Vespair@lemm.eeEnglish
    27•3 days ago

    Lol, imagine thinking you’re allowed a momentary reprieve from advertising in this hellscape of a world we’ve built.

  • @marzhall@lemmy.worldEnglish
    6•3 days ago

    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

  • @ggiesen@lemmy.caEnglish
    15•3 days ago

    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.

  • @BMW_stick@lemmy.worldEnglish
    83•4 days ago

    You sound tired. You should try Lipton ‘pick me up’ teabags. A refreshing way to soothe the soul. Available now at most retailers. /s

  • @SCmSTR@lemmy.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    20•3 days ago

    I’m from Washington and occasionally drive in Oregon, which is one of those states.

    1. welcome to like ten years ago?

    2. yes it’s awful. Everything is awful.

    3. you can mute them or turn down their volumes. The buttons are there so you can press them.

    4. if it’s not on the pump: yeah that’s truly evil.

    5. late stage capitalism, in some cases, is still capitalism. You could tell the station worker or owner you don’t like that and it’s bad. But good luck with them not spitting in your face in return.

    6. do you live under a rock? Are you so isolated somehow that the GAS STATION is your only exposure to this bullshit? Tell me your secrets, I need that level of peace in my life.

    • @moseschrute@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      11•3 days ago

      I kinda set a no ads tolerance policy for myself. I pay for some services (e.g. $5/month for Nebula, I donate monthly to Lemmy, etc). YouTube is the main area where ads tend to creep in since iOS doesn’t have an ad blocker for YT. My goal was to totally ditch YouTube for Nebula, but they are missing some creators I like.

    • @Corn@lemmy.mlEnglish
      7•3 days ago

      Protip: moving to a place where it takes effort to understand the language turns ads into a dadaist experience.

  • @Machinist@lemmy.worldEnglish
    58•4 days ago

    So, most pump POS used to have a labeled or unlabeled mute button. That has become rare.

    So far, I’ve been able to kick all of them into a diagnostic/trouble menu by pressing pairs of keys on each side of the monitor in sequence from the top.

    Some of them have a timeout on this screen, but the counter resets when you hit a key.

    Passwords can be entered from the keypad, with ok/enter also working. I bet the passwords are the manufacturer default, probably a 5-7 digit number. I was able to find partial training manuals and setup docs from one of the POS vendors but I didn’t find a default password or deeper technical docs for the one brand I looked into.

    Fucking ads in my face fucking piss me off.

      • Possibly linuxEnglish
        3•4 days ago

        Please don’t do this

        It won’t end well for you. A better option is a boycott

        • @xtr0n@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          2•2 days ago

          I default to having a meltdown, smashing the screen, yelling “where is the goddamn mute button”.

          Is this unhinged, yes. But if we all did it, they would eventually get the message.

          Really though, I mostly get gas at Costco cuz it’s cheaper and they don’t do that shit.

          • Possibly linuxEnglish
            2•2 days ago

            I think the credit card frees are now a percentage

            I like the way you think though

        • 🍄🌵Psychonaut1969🌵🍄 English
          1•3 days ago

          If you can’t boycott, maybe some noise canceling headphones to wear while you pump, and Instead of looking at the screen, wash your windows, and dump all your car trash into their bins.