Tipping gas station attendants?

I’ve pumped my own gas since I started driving.
Full service gas stations are rare to non-existent around here.
To answer your question, yes. I believe that it is proper tipping etiquette to tip the gas station attendant.

Usually not, unless they do something like wash the windows.

Haven’t lived in a state with full service since I was a child, but my parents always tipped the attendants. They probably make miserable wages.

Never, and I live in a state where you can only get gas pumped. It isn’t done here.

I will tip if it’s cold outside or really nasty weather. Why not? The $1.00 is not going to make a difference to me but will mean a lot to the attendant – who is likely working at minimum wage and not home collecting unemployment while stuffing his face with Cheetos as he watches the Maury Show on his wide screen TV from Rent-a-Center.
In fact, here’s another buck!

Only if they clean my windshield. I have CA plates but have a house in Oregon where you’re not allowed to pump your own gas. I think they are extra nice to Californians because a lot of us assume we are supposed to tip.
Growing up in Oregon we never tipped.

I’ve never even seen a full-service gas station, so no. I’d feel incredibly lazy letting someone else pump my gas.

lol @LuckyGuy You are not that father!
Yeah, I watch Maury from time to time. The entertainment value is priceless.
Somebody please!!!!! tell me how somebody can possibly make 10 appearances on that show and still not figure out who the baby daddy is.

Ok, back to the topic at hand. I remember when I was a child going to full service stations with my parents. They always tipped. I’m not sure about other states, but in MI the attendants always cleaned the windshield and checked the oil.

Growing up when full-service was routine, I never saw anyone tip. There are very few full-service stations here anymore, so it doesn’t really come up.

There was one odd time that I pulled into a self-serve place and an older gentleman came out of the office area and offered to pump my gas for me. I told him I thought it was self-serve only, and asked how much extra full-serve would cost. He said it was self-serve, but he’d pump it for me anyway, at no extra charge. While he was pumping, we talked. He told me he was the part-time caretaker at the church across the street, didn’t have much to do in his off-time, and that the station owner let him do odds and ends at the station to earn a little extra money. That he enjoyed doing it. I tipped him five bucks.

Whoa, I haven’t seen a gas station attendant for so many years I almost forgot about them. My folks always used to tip the workers while they washed the windshield, checked the oil, and pumped the gas. It was amazing.

When a cashier had to help me with my credit card purchase last week, I tipped her, but I hardly ever see a worker at the gas station.

Tipping cows, yes. Gas handlers, not so much.

Back in ancient times when I was a teen, an attendant or several of them would automatically come to your car and pump the gas, clean the windshield and side mirrors, check everything under the hood, and top off tire pressure—oh, and by the way, gas cost a buck per gallon or less—even after all that they didn’t get tipped.

It’s no wonder that kind of service vanished along with the dinosaurs!

@Pachyderm_In_The_Room,
My dad used to ask for a dollars worth of regular and nobody laughed. He still got his windshield washed and his oil checked!

Our last full service gas station shut down last year.

Those were the days, @Judi! Where I lived, gasoline stations had periodic “gas wars” in which they competed to have the lowest per-gallon price, and sometimes that got as low as 17.9 cents! Of course, to a kid my age, a tankful of gas even at that price meant having to “borrow” from my dad.

Never needed to because those were extinct years ago.

If the attendant is a young cute guy, he may get a dollar.

If he’s not a cute dude, @jca, does he have to give you a dollar?

Thanks guys.. Your right there aren’t too many full service gas stations around anymore. I personally like to pump my own gas only because i know im not going to spill the gas all over my car. When im in a hurry i use the one by my house which is full service. I will continue to tip, only because i see it makes him happy..

@Emt3225: Please be aware that Fluther mods like to see proper capitalization (for example, you use “i” instead of “I”). Just a warning that the way you have written your post sometimes gets modded.

@jca thank you for the heads up.