I had three different conversations, and several e-mails, with a guy at Pilot about the pump start. It began when I had it with the only Flying J card, and when I moved all my points and stuff to the new style card, pump start instantly disappeared. But a lot of the discussion was how pump start works. Sometimes I'd fill out back, sometimes I'd fill out front, but if pump start worked out front, it didn't out back. They'd have to turn it on out back, and the very first time I used it out back, pump start out front was locked out. Sometimes I'd pay with Comdata, sometimes with debit card, sometimes with cash, it all depended on which one I wanted to use, and sometimes on which place had the shorter lines.
They couldn't understand why I'd want to fuel in both places instead of always one or the other, nor why I wanted to pay using different methods of payment. That's because they have big trucks on the brain. I couldn't get them to understand that expediters, vans especially, often fill in both places and used a wide variety of different payment methods, and that as long as we pay for the fuel, it shouldn't matter in the least how we pay or where we fuel.
But it's a software issue as much as anything else. The expedite van is the one category that they can't figure out how to deal with from a software standpoint. The software and how it works was explained in quite some detail, so I understand it. They had a couple of different options on software. One would handle the van problem fairly easily, including multiple payment methods and pump start, with only minor modifications, but it really didn't properly handle some of the other, more frequent types of big truck transactions and loyalty tracking, and would have taken more modifications. The other package handled the meat and potatoes of their overall business better, but can't handle the vans without a major overhaul of the code. Both software packages are insanely expensive. At this point, I think they've given up trying to deal with the vans, as evidenced by the loyalty program now firmly in place.
Fortunately, I have an older Sprinter with the large filler pipe, so filling out back is quick and easy, no muss no fuss.
