I’ve done the same.

I’ve done the same. Need to really check the window to complete.

I guess some of the station owners are complaining about the conditions of the pumps after we remove the stickers. I don't know what caused it, but the rubbing alcohol seems to have made a mess of their painted surface on the pumps that we did. I used ONLY rubbing alcohol and the plastic scraper blades to avoid damaging the surfaces. I got an email from the MSC showing me a pic of one of the pumps we completed. the paint changed colors and it's dull.

I promised to get some goo gone for the rest that I do.

Uh, oh.

Back in the day I worked in a stockroom for a while, We used mineral spirits to remove stickers and the accompanying goo. It worked like magic, and did not damage anything. Even with paper or cardboard packaging , the mineral spirits evaporated without leaving a trace. The downside is that is basically like paint thinner, and has fumes, but it has such a low evaporating point it was not that much of an issue. If I end up doing any of these for real, that is what I will use.

that's a great Idea, mineral spirits aren't expensive either. And I have lots of spare spray bottles.

@Morledzep wrote:

I guess some of the station owners are complaining about the conditions of the pumps after we remove the stickers. I don't know what caused it, but the rubbing alcohol seems to have made a mess of their painted surface on the pumps that we did. I used ONLY rubbing alcohol and the plastic scraper blades to avoid damaging the surfaces. I got an email from the MSC showing me a pic of one of the pumps we completed. the paint changed colors and it's dull.

I promised to get some goo gone for the rest that I do.

Here's the thing tho. If they did not specify the use of tool, rubbing alcohol should not be an issue, their job is to remove sticker and the goo, that you did your job. If they want us to use specific tool, they should either have it listed in the guide and possibly compensate us for the purchase of the required item.

Instructions specifically recommended, "rubbing alcohol (or any non-acetone remover like Goo Gone)."

@nellybean212 wrote:

if they are already off before you get there, I'd take a photo and mark that in the survey. why do more work?

That's interesting!
Do you mean that if the stickers are gone and the glue is left, you just take the single photo and call it a day?

Another thing. Many of the stations I know of have a separate diesel area. I wonder if those should be counted as pumps to have their stickers removed.
As for the "Goo Gone" stuff - it has not worked for me - I've given up on using it and just use the alcohol. Typically, I remove the stickers first and then do 4 pumps at a time. I spray the glue stuck on each pump, four total, and then go back to the first one and start removing the glue. It seems that just getting some alcohol on the glue aids in removing it quicker.
But, I've also noticed that for some stations they must have used an additional glue or that the sticker was applied years ago and the glue has aged in - making its removal much, much more difficult.

BTW, I've not seen any of the pumps I've cleaned having a faded paint after removal.
Its okay work on a sunny day, not in the heat and not when the temps drop - that is arriving very soon here!

No, I did not leave the adhesive on the pump, we scraped it all clean and with the plastic blade on the scraper, and then wiped it all off afterward. I don't know why the rubbing alcohol made the paint cloudy. My son is going to do at least one more tomorrow, he bought some mineral spirits and goo gone, or something of that nature, some rags (we used a tea towel I had in the car the other day), and the new scrapers I bought on Amazon, with a metal blade on one end and a plastic blade on the other, and it comes with a total of 80 refill blades, both plastic and metal.

If the stickers and dots have been removed but there's still glue residue I leave it alone. If the station employees who removed the stickers are okay with leaving the glue it's not my business to interfere.

Three stations popped up in my area, including an address I distinctly recognize as a location which was previously on the board a few weeks ago and I passed on. I'm fairly certain the station about a mile away from that one was on the board at the same time, too. I passed on them as I was busy with clusters of stations elsewhere in that city. They're all eight-pump stations, so I claimed them.

@CoolMusic wrote:

@scottsteg wrote:

It appears that the remaining removal jobs have been increased to $18 each.

Not in a considerable amount of my searching. Found a remote one still at $16, with the Site Experience now up to $100. Go figure!

Snagged the SE for the hundo. Sticker gig is now @ $18. If stickers don't exist when I get there I'll snag it, if not, I have better things to do with my time.

Did five stations yesterday and today. First four stations only had grey circles. Last station is a Citgo across the street from my last Mobil, so even though it's half pay it wasn't out of the way.

There is one last station remaining in my area, but too far for me to do it on its own. Maybe I'll do it with some site experience shops if I can make a decent route out of it.

@sestrahelena wrote:

If the stickers and dots have been removed but there's still glue residue I leave it alone. If the station employees who removed the stickers are okay with leaving the glue it's not my business to interfere.

When I review the guidelines, they say this:

" If the stickers are present, remove them and any residue or adhesive. Always be careful not to scratch the pump. Do not remove any other stickers or decals from the pump!
If regulatory decals are covering stickers, remove as much as you can without touching the regulatory decal.
If only a portion of the sticker is present on the pump, it still needs to be removed.
If you see a white circle sticker under the GPay/AppClip stickers, remove those circles too.
If you arrive and only see white circle stickers, take a photo and then remove the white circle stickers.
Take a second photo of the fueling position, showing the stickers and any white circles,
residue or adhesive have been removed."

The way I read this is that they are asking for stickers and/or the residue or adhesive to be removed.

The MSC in the guidelines also suggests using Goo Gone or Goof Off or any other type of non-Acetone remover for the process.

For me, rather than parsing the guidelines, specifically, I'll continue to remove the traces of the stickers whether they are there or not - meaning, of course the adhesive residue.

It doesn't seem that difficult.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/05/2025 09:07PM by French Farmer.

Okay, so I've been doing these sticker removal shops for a few weeks now and have noticed the crazy, silly things that customers and employees say or do:
I'm wearing medical exam gloves and a safety vest, using a plastic putty knife and removing the stickers on a pump. Plus, I have the alcohol remover and a cloth rag.
A customer comes up to me and says something like, "honey, are you supposed to be doing that?" or "OMG, what are you doing? Do they know you're doing that?" Or, "what's this all about? We use those QR codes to buy gas! You shouldn't be doing that!!" (it was my understanding that those QR codes on the stickers were phased out years ago)
Do they think I'm some lunatic scraping of QR code stickers on pumps?

Or, I'm cleaning up the last pump, readying myself to take the "after" photos and book, go home, have a big glass of wine. A lawn service truck and trailer pull up, blocking the pumps. I have to wait because they're so close that I cannot get a good photo.

Or, last of all, I arrive right before a shift change. I present the LOA sheet to the employee, he/she says go ahead, no problem. But then, deep into the removal process, a different employee rushes out and asks me, "just what the F@@K do you think you're doing (or a variation of the language of cussedness)?" Quite obviously, the first employee never told the new shift employee what was going on.
I go through the explanation, they tell me to stop while they call the owner, manager, etc to get the okay. I just want my glass of wine!

I could go on!


Merde!

Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 08/05/2025 09:42PM by French Farmer.

"Honey, are you supposed to be doing that?"

"OMG, what are you doing? Do they know you're doing that?"

"What's this all about? We use those QR codes to buy gas! You shouldn't be doing that!"

I'm sorry, but in my mind, I can picture all of the above being said at a suburban gas station. LOL

I might have approached you and asked, "Good lord! Do you need some help with that?" "By the way, it's nice to meet a fellow competitor. I mean colleague." *wink, wink*

My son was talking to a customer at one of the Exxons we went to tonight. He said to me that he knew we were up to something, but he was laughing.

I got a product called goof off from Amazon that made a HUGE difference in getting all of the sticker residue off without any problem and the paint is undamaged and unchanged. Working together we got each of them done (10 and 8 pumps) in less than 15 minutes. It was FAR better and easier than using the rubbing alcohol.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/06/2025 06:01AM by Morledzep.

This week's latest customer craziness:
A day or so ago, I was working on sticker removal at a 16 dispenser site. As I neared pump 1, I could smell gas and heard a splashing sound.
There, at pump 1 was a late model Audi, unattended with gas was pouring out of its filler. Obviously, the owner assumed that it would automatically shut off - it did not.
I ran over, wearing my medical exam gloves (thank the gods) shut it off and pulled out the nozzle. The pump total was near $150 (obviously it was premium).
The driver was actually in his car. He got out of the car, smart phone in hand, stared at the mess and then, at me. Then he says, "aren't they supposed to automatically shut off when the tank is full?"
I just said, "I don't know", shrugged my shoulders and went back to work.
He closed the gas filler cover, got in his car and zoomed away. Didn't even bother to tell the employee on duty of the hazard.
I sighed, went inside and told the employee what had happened. They came out and poured absorbent on the huge gas spill and then, went back inside.
Yikes!
So now I've noticed this customer behavior at other stations - they put the nozzle in their car tank filler and then go inside the store or get back in the car, trusting the pump to shut off when full.
I say again - Yikes!

Oh, and another little story:
I was busy cleaning up the sticky glue at another station, using alcohol, etc.
After cleaning 3 pumps, it was then that I noticed the little Asian man, about 5'1", following me, watching me.
I thought to myself, "okay pervert, you get any closer and you're gonna get doused with alcohol and then kicked where it counts!
About then, he says to me "you do good job cleaning!" I clean pumps for (the owner's name - Nin or Nawn- whatever)."
"Oh", I said, somewhat relieved. "You work here? I am cleaning this for the company, pointing to the Mobil name".
"Yes," he says. "You do a good job!"
He gives me a thumbs up and leaves.

I guess I overreacted!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/07/2025 08:25PM by French Farmer.

Looks like they are now a whopping $18 across the board, with plenty of locations left to be done.

My last 2 Site Experience shops on Thursday were sans stickers, so I snagged them puppies. Knocked out the 2nd one in 7 minutes as I knew the entire report, so combined with the $200 fee for the SE, it was nice way to end my day.

Both locations had pristine pump facings, without the usual pump number decals, or even the Exxon/Mobil QR code.

Other Exxons on my route had pumps where the sticker job had been done, and some quite poorly.

I've done a few Site Experience shops today, and the last one I did had many white and grey circles left on the pumps. The others had some full grey circles remaining. Last week I did four shops which had similar circles left behind, so maybe these stations will become available again as sticker removal shops.

As of now there is just one lonesome sticker removal shop in the two county area I cover, and it's way to the northwest, so it won't be done by me unless something comes up to pair or group it with.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 08/09/2025 09:00PM by retrodaddy.