Reply #12: First "pump" was empty?

[RoyGBiv]

What grade of gasoline were you using?

Unless this was a really large station, it probably only has one or two tanks that hold the low-grade gasoline and very likely only one for high-grade. Maybe one for mid-grade, but some localities allow for mixing the low and high grade gasoline at pumping time.

In any case, it would be very unusual for a particular pump to be "empty" since most stations (all of them that I've ever known anything about actually) have systems set up so that all pumps draw from the same tanks.

What some stations will do when their tanks are low, however, is limit the number of pumps that can be used, decreasing the pace of sales while they wait for a tank to deliver more gasoline. This is, indeed, a bad time to buy gas from that station. The only time that would be worse is immediately after a delivery of gasoline to a station. The dumping process stirs up all the bad nasty crap in the tank and lets it be delivered right to your car. If you *ever* see a delivery being made at a station at a time you're thinking of filling up, avoid that station right then.