by Dr Jim Saleam
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Today I committed a crime. By law, I stole a banana. And the law is the law.
Tomorrow, I intend to surrender myself to lawful authority (sic). After all, a banana is an important thing and taking one without paying is an act of criminality.
How did all this happen? What were the preceding facts? Should I ‘pay’ (sic) for stealing this banana?
A couple of days ago, I drove into a trusted Australian AMPOL petrol service station and put $20 of fuel in the tank.
I went to pay, since like most I had no cash. I used EFTPOS inserting my card and selected ‘Savings’.
AMPOL’s EFTPOS system asked: Cash out? (what a waste of time?) I told the attendant ‘NO’, and she pressed ‘NO’.
Instantly, my transaction is “declined”.
Mmm
Now, I knew I had sufficient funds in my savings account to cover this transaction. So I try again, and again, and again.
AMPOL Response: “ declined”
In the end, I go to AMPOL‘s in-store ATM and withdraw $20 and pay cash.
I then ask the attendant what the problem was, since I obviously had funds, but she cannot say.
Mmm
..Then again today, I went to another trusted Australian AMPOL service station. But alas, I copped the same EFTPOS technical silliness with my bank card.
So instead, I pay by credit card. I left that AMPOL and as I approached the AMPOL from a couple of days back, I decided to pull in again.
Wary this time, I went to the ATM and first withdrew $20 and kept the receipt so that I can show have the cash in my Savings account.
I went to the fruit display and selected a banana. $1 said the price.
I went to the attendant, who just happened to be the same person from a couple of days ago. I tried to pay from my Savings. But the same result.
At this point, she remembered me. A conversation ensued. I told her I wanted to pay by EFTPOS with my bank savings. I did not wish to pay cash and I did not wish to pay by credit.
I said you have advertised that I can pay by Savings because your EFTPOS machine allows it, yet it won’t take my payment by me selecting my Savings account.
So, I said I am going to take the banana and not pay. I am going to leave the store with the banana. I am stealing the banana. You may contact the company. I showed identification and reminded her of the cameras and the ATM transaction.
“You may contact the police”.
Take the banana, she said. No, I said, you cannot give away the company’s banana. At that point, I walked out, one banana happier.
What is AMPOL up to? – this re-branded CALTEX now multi-national?
But AMPOL is owned by
Matthew Halliday, current Managing Director and CEO of reborn AMPOL since 29 June 2020. He looks Australian (or American) – may be how he got the plumb job. But AMPOL is owned by American multinational Pioneer International headquartered in Joliet Illinois just outside Chicago. AMPOL has not been Aussie since Caltex bought it outright in 1988.
Was this some sort of computer glitch? Each time the EFTPOS machine asks cash out? and the attendant clicks ‘no’, it declines the transaction?
Or is it perhaps some ruse to compel people to pay by credit card, so that some company turns a special profit and gives a kick-back? Or is it part of the game to ‘force’ people towards credit cards?
Frankly, who knows?
We all know that AMPOL (reborn) trades on being some sort of ‘Australian company’ with a long Aussie history. Yet AMPOL is not. It is part of world parity fuel pricing and living memory recalls that AMPOL indeed shut down most of its Australian oil refining. A good dose of nationalization of the oil industry might make sense?
So, we go from high economics to the simple personal want for a banana. I will surrender myself with all this in mind! Hopefully, the good Sergeant will grant self-bail.
