Pilot flying j issue

[Wandering_Storm]

Traveling to Florida , I decided to use pilot flying j for gas because of the discount. I received a message from my card company that Pilot had put a 500 dollar hold on my account rendering the card non usable for several days. Pilot has no business screwing with my account. Good Sam ought to inform members that this scenario exists. I will no longer purchase gas from them because I don’t need the grief while traveling. My credit is excellent and I’m ready to tell all of the above to shove it.

[magicbus]

Cocky_Camper wrote:
Our local Flying J started doing this too, but only on the RV lanes or diesel only lanes. If you get gas for the personal auto lanes, the hold it $75 or $125.

Maybe they should train their people to mention this.

Personally I like the fact that my CC company watches out for my card. The fact that I could go across the street and have no issue points me to FJ needing to address the issue either with the CC companies by separating their front pumps from the truck lanes or train their register people to steer people to the car lanes if they want.

Dave

[delwhjr]

soren wrote:

Ductape wrote:

magicbus wrote:
...Bank of America was calling but my phone was in the RV. FJ lost my business, just not worth the hassle...

In that situation I'd switch banks. I quit using Citi because they flagged it every time I filled up the MH.

Before heading to Alaska, as per their detailed instructions, I sent an email to the Wells-Fargo fraud department listing every state, province and country I would be traveling through. In the Yukon, I put several hundred bucks worth of gas in the MH, after being told it's a pump THEN pay station. Yep, the card was declined. I got on the Wells 800# for a bit of chat, since I was really pissed. The woman explained that I was making an "international" purchase, which was the reason for the fraud stop on the card. I asked her to read my email, and she did. When we got to the part about Canada, I stopped her and said, "I am in the YUKON. She was still confused, and I then asked it Canada had recently sold the Yukon to somebody else? That's when I knew it was time for a new bank.

That's the same bank which created false accounts for customers. They know how to cheat but don't know their geography. :B

[soren]

Ductape wrote:

magicbus wrote:
...Bank of America was calling but my phone was in the RV. FJ lost my business, just not worth the hassle...

In that situation I'd switch banks. I quit using Citi because they flagged it every time I filled up the MH.

Before heading to Alaska, as per their detailed instructions, I sent an email to the Wells-Fargo fraud department listing every state, province and country I would be traveling through. In the Yukon, I put several hundred bucks worth of gas in the MH, after being told it's a pump THEN pay station. Yep, the card was declined. I got on the Wells 800# for a bit of chat, since I was really pissed. The woman explained that I was making an "international" purchase, which was the reason for the fraud stop on the card. I asked her to read my email, and she did. When we got to the part about Canada, I stopped her and said, "I am in the YUKON. She was still confused, and I then asked it Canada had recently sold the Yukon to somebody else? That's when I knew it was time for a new bank.

[delwhjr]

I don't know what others have experienced but I have never paid more at FlyingJ/Pilot than the other stations around them. This has been in Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Georgia and Florida. With the Good Sam discount, I usually pay less. I also don't have to worry about holds or other credit issues since I use the Flying J card which has no preset limit.(at least on mine)

[Ductape]

magicbus wrote:
...Bank of America was calling but my phone was in the RV. FJ lost my business, just not worth the hassle...

In that situation I'd switch banks. I quit using Citi because they flagged it every time I filled up the MH.

[ependydad]

magicbus wrote:
She asked how much I wanted and I said fill it up. She said I can't do that, she needs an amount.

That's actually very common at big stations/truck stops. They won't just hold your card like a smaller station would.

It's never been a problem for me estimating how much I need. I take the percentage of the tank multiplied by the tank size multiplied by the rounded up cost of fuel.

They automatically refund any excess when you're done.

Easy peezy, lemon squeezy.

[Cocky_Camper]

Our local Flying J started doing this too, but only on the RV lanes or diesel only lanes. If you get gas for the personal auto lanes, the hold it $75 or $125.

The reason that this is done is because they don't know how much fuel you are getting, and they have to make sure you have enough of credit available to cover the amount of fuel that you are going to get.

I see several people mentioned Flying J prices being higher than other gas stations, that is NOT the case of gasoline here. They have they typically have about the cheapest gas prices in the county, even competing with multiple QT's. But Diesel is a little higher at flying J than across the street.

[1968mooney]

I wish all you FJ/Pilot haters would quit parking at the RV pumps and blocking access. We customers can hardly get in to get our fuel.

[Matt_Colie]

We now travel in a classic (if not antique) little gasser. We used to use FJ (iirc) a lot because many had RV lanes and some of those had fuel water, dump and propane. That was great, but with the change to a gasser and three occasions where we were stuck waiting for the RV lane to open up while the driver had some extended business inside and the introduction (to me) of GasBuddy, that has ended.

Mary drives in daylight, and I use GasBuddy to search for gas at a time when we will want it, I look at the stop on Google Earth and then I make my mind and load the stop into Mary's GPS. Cabela's has water and dumps, U-hauls often have propane. And we save money for more travel.

Matt

[soren]

magicbus wrote:
Not to re-beat a dead horse but went to a Flying J yesterday and swiped and was told to go inside. I did (in the rain) and they said they put a $500 hold unless I come inside. She asked how much I wanted and I said fill it up. She said I can't do that, she needs an amount. I went across the street and filled up without having to get wetter.

The issue was not credit limit it was unusual activity. Bank of America was calling but my phone was in the RV. FJ lost my business, just not worth the hassle. Interestingly enough, I had no problems at the Pilots I visited and I think they are now the same company.

Dave

Far too many are blaming FJ when it's other issues, like your bank, and confusing purchasing gas at the RV or small vehicle islands, with puchasing diesel in the truck lanes, when it comes to $500 holds. When I was running a diesel MH, I could not use a Wells-Fargo CC at the truck lanes. The card would reject the $500 hold (which has been Flying J policy, at the truck lanes, for MANY years) as fraud. A second swipe would shut the card down. The bank refused to address this issue, as I had no history of large fuel purchases at FJ.(think about that circular logic for a bit, LOL) The solution was to join the millions of customers who abandoned Wells for real banks and credit unions, that treat customers as an asset.

I also find the whole claim of wildly overpriced FJs to be entertaining. As a gas MH operator, I apparently drive in a different universe, where most, but not all, FJs are very competitive, and my loyalty card drops that price even lower. Dedicated RV pumps, propane and dump station are real assets to me.

[PghBob]

I generally use Flying J. Since this thread was started, we completed a round trip to Florida and back. We were using I95 for most of trip. Since many posters indicated they bought "cheaper gas" across the street from Flying J, we carefully checked the other stations' posted prices before pulling in for gas. During this trip, the best we found were that stations across the street matched the Flying J prices. Did not see any cheaper. If you have a Flying J discount card, you get another $0.03/gallon off the posted price making it cheaper than the others. Of course, other roads, geographic areas may have different prices/results.

[Lynnmor]

magicbus wrote:
Not to re-beat a dead horse but went to a Flying J yesterday and swiped and was told to go inside. I did (in the rain) and they said they put a $500 hold unless I come inside. She asked how much I wanted and I said fill it up. She said I can't do that, she needs an amount. I went across the street and filled up without having to get wetter.

The issue was not credit limit it was unusual activity. Bank of America was calling but my phone was in the RV. FJ lost my business, just not worth the hassle.

I never have problems with Flying J, tried it a couple of times and now I too cross the street where fuel is cheaper.

[magicbus]

Not to re-beat a dead horse but went to a Flying J yesterday and swiped and was told to go inside. I did (in the rain) and they said they put a $500 hold unless I come inside. She asked how much I wanted and I said fill it up. She said I can't do that, she needs an amount. I went across the street and filled up without having to get wetter.

The issue was not credit limit it was unusual activity. Bank of America was calling but my phone was in the RV. FJ lost my business, just not worth the hassle. Interestingly enough, I had no problems at the Pilots I visited and I think they are now the same company.

Dave

[beemerphile1]

armyeng wrote:

fj12ryder wrote:
I never use a debit card, period. I insist on an ATM card and not a debit card. They usually look at me really funny though.

Of course they do since an ATM Card and Debit Card are the same thing

Nope, not the same thing. ATM card can only be used at ATMs. A debit card can make purchases at millions of places in addition to ATM use.

If you go online to your bank account, some have the option of disabling your debit card into only being used as an ATM card.

[R_E_Baird]

I use Pilot/Flying J fairly religiously. I also use the Pilot RV Plus card as it gives me a discount per gallon, usually less per gallon than surrounding stations. I use both car and truck lanes with no issue. Just my $.02 worth.