It makes no sense at all. As soon as you input payment it should output gas. There's really no need for buttons or a screen at all (well, maybe except for entering a zip). If they really have to show all that stuff, it can come after I have my gas.
Note: languages aren't slow, it's the programs that are slow.
It's also extremely annoying when driving in the states as a Canadian, since our postal codes don't follow the same format. Canadian postal codes are six character alphanumeric strings with alternating letters and numbers, so you can't enter them on the keypad.
The trick, which isn't obvious, is that you're supposed to drop the letters from your postal code, leaving three digits, and then append two zeros to the end. For example: K9Z 2P7 -> 92700.
In Canada we don't have to deal with this, since pretty much all our pumps have supported EMV chip cards for years.
On that note, I just used a pump with EMV for the first time, (US, in Delaware) which didn't ask for zip. I guess they're just starting to get deployed.
I think it's just fraud protection, but data farming makes sense too... It's only required some times at some stations it seems. At the station that I frequent I don't have to enter a ZIP, but other stations owned by the same company just miles away require one.
I'm a bit surprised to see the comments here on automated gas station pumps. I've used quite a few different ones in a few different countries of Europe (where I go outside Europe, usually the stations are not automated so I can't compare) and I have never had this kind of slow experience.
Here in Belgium I don't even get asked if I want a receipt, I can just ask it afterwards if I like (just like for the rewards card). The worst I've had were in store French supermarket stations where for a while they had audio ads playing while you were filling up, that was absolutely horrible and I stopped going there. Eventually those things went away.
But the interface itself always asks for the least possible things. Diesel/gasoline 95/gasoline 98 then the card PIN, and you can fill up.
In the US there are separate buttons to select the grade of gasoline (I always push them to see if I can just bypass all the nonsense, but alas it doesn't work that way). The screens are an add-on gatekeeper that disables the grade selection until all its questions have been answered (NO, NO, NO, NO).
My process has been pick up the handle, hit the grade button, attempt to start pumping since the pay at the pump machines started to roll out a couple decades ago.
This used to work for probably better than half of them due to the fact that they had pay after pumping policies for the cash customers. Hardly ever works anymore, but I keep doing it and sometimes am surprised, while on a road-trip out in the country, when it works. OTOH, I also tend to stop at old crotchety gas stations on principal and have been known to make a U turn if a station has pumps that look like they are older than a couple decades. A few years ago, I stopped at one where there was a $3 taped over one of the digits. I asked the owner about it, apparently his pumps could only charge .01-$1.50 (or some range like that) so every-time gas prices went over or under some threshold he had to physically flip some mechanical gear in the pump and get the state to come back out and recertify the pump. This of course apparently cost more than the poor guy was making in gas, so he was saying that likely the next time it happened he would simply shutdown.
I'm surprised to see that you (and obviously lots of other people) were able to affect a reduction in advertising by boycotting ad-playing stations.
I wonder if it would work here... I live in Minnesota and I'm pretty limited on where I can fill up with 98 RON (called 93 Pump here in the US for some reason...). A lot of stations play video ads with sounds while you stand there.
Well, for a long time the population as a whole in the US managed to kill pay first gas stations. Pretty much everyone just kept driving when they saw the "pay first" signs and the pumps refused to just pump gas. The inconvenience of guessing how much gas you need give the attendant a $10 or $20, pump gas, go back and collect your change was a far worse experience than pump the gas, pay whatever you owe.
Wouldn't surprise me if the ad based gas stations just lost a 10-20% drop in customers if there was an alternative nearby without the ads.
I'm in BC, Canada, and I think it's all pay-first here. On the other hand, some places will accept debit cards at the pump, and it just pre-authorizes some set amount before permitting me to fill the tank. Of course, I'm only charged for the amount dispensed.
This strikes me as a reasonable solution, in that it removes the need to guess how much I need beforehand.
It makes no sense at all. As soon as you input payment it should output gas. There's really no need for buttons or a screen at all (well, maybe except for entering a zip). If they really have to show all that stuff, it can come after I have my gas.
Note: languages aren't slow, it's the programs that are slow.