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Self-pay gas station pumps break across NZ as software can't handle Leap Day
- dang 3y agoRelated ongoing thread: Ask HN: Did you encounter any leap year bugs today? - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39554539 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39554539 - Feb 2024 (85 comments)
- rekabis 3y ago[flagged]
- ipqk 3y ago[flagged]
- kevin_thibedeau 3y agoThis is a predictable outcome of the rise of scripting languages that operate on date strings or permit illogical manipulations of broken down time. There's something going for a simple integer epoch that sidesteps this altogether.
- HPsquared 3y agoMaybe last time, the company had someone on staff who knew the appropriate workaround.
- pants2 3y agoGas stations in New Zealand are interesting because for the majority of them you fill up before paying inside. They trust you not to drive away with their gas. Self-pay gas stations are relatively new.
- wtk 3y agoI don't think it's uncommon in Europe. I've never had to pay upfront here in Poland. CCTV will record your plates if you drive away without paying.
- chimpansteve 3y agoI've had a driving licence in the UK for 26 years, and have never once paid for my fuel before filling up. This is normal everywhere in Europe at least, to the point where I suspect the US is the outlier
- someotherperson 3y agoIt's not uncommon in Latin America, too, at least.
- theultdev 3y agoThat used to be normal in the US, nowadays most pumps are automated. You can fill up 24/7, even if the store is closed.
- AdamJacobMuller 3y agocries in new jersey
- lsllc 3y agoI make it a point when driving through NJ to fill up with gas before crossing into NJ (or making sure I have enough to get through it). I made the mistake once of needing gas on the NJ Turnpike, stopping at a rest area and having to wait for 45 (yes FORTY FIVE) minutes while the ONE attendant operating both sides of a single pump slowly worked his way through a massive line of agitated motorists. Never Again.
- vinay427 3y agoI’ve driven in the US and the UK (among other countries) and haven’t paid before filling up in either. Is this a result of paying with cash or other non-card methods, as pumps in the US seem to require inserting the card first probably as an authorisation? I also don’t drive that much these days so may be misremembering things. The only issue I had with payments was in a station in a small town in Italy which refused to accept most foreign cards (ant least based on other people around me also struggling) and was the automated no-human type of station so there wasn’t an easy solution.
- throwaway11460 3y agoI drive all around Europe and if they asked me to pay first I'd suspect it's some kind of a scam. I used an unattended gas station for the first time few weeks ago and it took me 10 minutes to figure out why the diesel isn't flowing... Though I didn't even notice it's unattended at first.
- berkut 3y agoThat used to be the case, but definitely Pak N Save and Gulf stations you pre-pay (at least put your card in and approve it) before hand...
- kiwijamo 3y agoYep this is the case at most (if not all) the brands e.g. Z, BP, Mobil, etc. But it does vary by site (and possibly time of the day and/or whether they have enough staff to monitor etc). In my experience pay-after-fill has not been the norm here in New Zealand for quite some time.
- jopsen 3y agoYeah, I was shocked how many gas station are manned. In Denmark they are almost all unmanned, and if manned you still pay at the pump with a credit/debit card. The manned gas stations are for serving hotdogs :)
- Ekaros 3y agoSame for Finland. Even those manned stations have terminals there. I think there are few, but I don't think I have ever paid for gas at the till...
- dbetteridge 3y agoPay before fill is predominantly an American thing. Australia, NZ, UK and most of Europe all operate on a fill then pay. Some stations in Australia at least are an exception that open 24/7 and have no employees and are prepaid and some manned stations where they charge at the pump during night hours for safety reasons.
- kiwijamo 3y agoMany fuel stations here in NZ have switched to pay first then fill for cash payments. Most stations I go to have signs saying 'Please go inside to pay first' or words to that effect on the pumps. However many chains have introduced self-payment card terminals, payments via app, etc so it's not a hassle if you can use these other options.
- dbetteridge 3y agoThat's a new one since I last visited, but I guess it has been a few years
- LinearEntropy 3y agoMany say this, but not once have I ever had to do it. Lift the pump and wait for the attendant to approve. Then pay after.
- ripjaygn 3y ago> Pay before fill is predominantly an American thing Huh? Every gas station I've seen in the US is fill before pay. Except in NJ where there's an attendant.
- Arrath 3y agoAre you posting from an alternate universe? Or the 1950s?
- earthling8118 3y agoAs recently as 2019 I would refuse to purchase gasoline at a station that was pay-before-pump. There were enough options. This is no longer the case sadly.
- phire 3y agoIt's not a huge amount of trust; They have your number plate on camera. These days, most petrol stations do keep the pump disabled until a human inside presses a button. I assume the staff member is doing a quick visual check to check for anything suspicious or unsafe. And it's not like you can't pay at the pump, most petrol stations have supported it for ages, it's just that most people in NZ would rather pay inside. I suspect the historic "fill up before paying" experience is just so streamlined that nobody bothered learning how to pay at the pump, no need to guess how much petrol you will need or risk needing a refund. And if you were going to buy anything else from the shop, it's actually faster to pay inside.
- wanderingmind 3y agoIts just a dark pattern to make you walk into store and buy junk. Remember the most profit in gas station is in store inside and not in selling gas.
- ls612 3y agoThis confused me greatly last year when I visited and was standing around after filling up very confused as to what to do next.
- sonicanatidae 3y agoI'm sure leap year didn't exist when that code was written, or something. smfh.
- crtified 3y agoLooking back at the recent history of the company involved, Invenco, the main foundational change since the last leap year occurred (2020) is that they were sold in 2022 to a United States-based global industrial tech company Vontier. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/472444/ivenco-sold-to-us-tech-firm-for-128m https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/business/472444/ivenco-sold-to-us... (sic) There is a certain pattern there, of home-grown startup, mentored through internal growth and success - then sold off, at which time all sorts of the usual merger weirdness and slipping-through-cracks happens.
- sam_bristow 3y agoPretty sure I interviewed with this company about 10 years ago. Their software stack was all assembly on the embedded side. They were in the process of developing an new hardware with a soft-core processor because the original hardware was all end of life.
- kiwijamo 3y agoAnother reason to use exisiting date/time libraries instead of rolling your own.