I can honestly say this was a first.  Never before could I claim to of crashed the firmware of a gas pump, but from this day on, I now have this distinction. Being the geek I am, I of course find this hilarious, and a real accomplishment.

    It began as the usual trip to the gas station.  I swiped my card, and began the fill up like I always do.  Everything is going fine to this point.  The only oddity was the fact that the pump was running at like half the speed it usually does. I really should have seen this as an indication of things to come, however I figured what the hell, it is 20 degrees, that might have something to do with it. 

    After the pump finally topped off my tank, I hung up the nozzle, and tended to the gas cap. The pump registered that I was finished, and prompted me if I wanted a receipt or not.  Me being me, I always get a receipt, mostly for "just in case" purposes, so I pressed yes.  Well, apparently this is the point where the pump got completely confused.  It beeped once, but the screen never changed to the expected "Printing Receipt" screen.  I figured it was either being slow, or there was a printer error, as sometimes it just takes awhile.  I waited about 30 seconds before the WTF? phase set in.  At this point, no matter what button I would press, no sounds would be emitted from the pump.

    Being the cautious guy I am, I walked into the store to find out what was up.  I figured they would just spit out the receipt inside, and I would be on my way.  Of course, this was a no go.  Apparently the pump was still reporting that I was still fueling, which everybody agreed that I wasn't.  At this point the attendant had no clue what to do.  He attempted to reset the pump a few times, but it wouldn't respond to any requests. 

    A quick call to HQ revealed no other known procedure as to what to do.  Apparently this is not supposed to happen. The pump was convinced that I was done fueling, the controller was convinced I wasn't, and there was a complete deadlock.   At this point they wrote me a handwritten receipt and told me not to worry about it.   I can't help but wonder how they will actually resolve the issue.  I'm guessing they will power cycle the pump, but what will happen to my transaction?  That is for them to worry about though.   I have my receipt for my $21 of gas, and the gas is in the tank, that's all that matters to me.