Bandit

On Monday, October 19, a gentleman lost five dollars in the Payquick machine at the Arco gas station located at 1817 Euclid Avenue. He went inside to report the defective machine, and both the cashier and then the manager said there was nothing they could do and that he would have to leave his contact information to be reimbursed on Wednesday, when the machine was next serviced.

What made the man’s situation even worse is that the he originally came in with five dollars in change but the cashier would not take the change and sent him to the bank across the street. The five dollars were the last he had until he receives his next unemployment check.

I witnessed the incident and gave the man my number if he needed a witness. It seemed to both of us that he wasn’t going to get his money returned, but he did get reimbursed on Thursday, October 22.

I went to another Arco station to find out if customers had to wait days in some cases to get reimbursed for money lost in machines, and they confirmed that that’s the procedure.

The gentleman’s advice to San Diegans is to stop using the “bandit” (his term for the Payquick machine).