Generally, paying at the pump or carwash by credit card works well. I go out of my way to avoid it…read morebased on the staff/service over the past decade, but do go several times per year.
Today, it was sunny, I decided to stop for an express wash. I did not buy gas. The machine accepted my money, said to wait for wash to be available. Later the door opened, a car was in there, backing up, then forward, and the driver was waving their hand out the window, but then the door closed again. The front door was already closed. The machine no longer said to wait my turn, it said to pay for a wash. I parked my car by the store, in case the driver inside could not pull out forward after their second (my) wash was done, I didn't want to block their ability to reverse out of the wash. I went in and explained the details, and asked for the wash I paid for. The young lady and older man, both explained to me how a car wash works, then told me I need to wait for my turn, they told me to drive back to the car wash, which I did. I thought they would enter a code to let me get the express wash I paid for after seeing for themselves that it wasn't telling me to wait my turn. Instead the lady asked if I had a receipt & shrugged and told me I could pay again for a wash. i left without a wash, and now I have to dispute the charge with my credit card company, but not until the original charge clears, as it's still a hold on my card. I can take cashiers who seem irritated to work or are sometimes rude once In a while to buy my kids a treat, but for them not to give me the service or my money back is plain stealing. idk whether the door malfunctioned, the driver in front was daydreaming and missed their chance, or something else, but the workers (i think the owner) were unwilling to resolve the problem, just told me to leave and go back to wash, then once there told me told me to pay again.