Community Forums

mrblanche · 09-14-2009, 05:54 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GaryKD

Hi mrblanche,
I'm not sure about the time frame you speak about in your post. Since 2005 I have use the J almost exclusively for fuel (truck pumps). If stopping for fuel around a meal time, I eat at their restaurant. The sit down restaurant not the fast food. I am please with their food service, cleanliness (even had a coach rally dinner at a J restaurant) and their food. It is comfort food. But sometimes that is what we need. I've eaten at quite a few Js around the country. I have not been disappointed yet.

Did you use a ComData card? No, I don't guess you did, because although it is the single most commonly used and accepted truck fuel card, Flying J doesn't accept it. Hasn't since they essentially dumped all their ComData customers in the late '90's.

And their restaurants were bad when they started, got a little better, then went downhill. They've used the buffet to try to get completely away from service. But they've been skimping on that. Their failure is directly related to their business model, which depended on undercutting other truck stops. When their refinery closed, they had to pay the same amount for fuel as everyone else, and they could no longer operate under their basic plan.

I have a long knowledge of Flying J. I've been to almost all of them, including the original ones (Ogden and SLC) when they were merely a regional fuel stop with one significant franchisee, Broadway, who operated four or five stops in Washington and Oregon. The Broadway stops were much nicer, and refused to go along with Flying J when they dropped the card BEFORE ComData, whose name I can no longer remember.

Just as K-Mart has failed to learn, low prices can only go so far in customer loyalty.

But, as I said, we'll see if the new ownership thinks the RV market is worth it.

hamguy · 09-14-2009, 11:32 PM

BW was statutory agent for F-J liquor licenses in AZ. She got to know them pretty well.

GaryKD · 09-15-2009, 05:22 AM

Hi mrblanche,
Thanks for letting us know your dislike for the J is due to experiences in the late 90s and not accepting the type of payment you prefer. If a vendor does not serve a customer's needs then the customer should go elsewhere. As long as the J serves my needs, I will continue to patronize the brand. For me, the J offers (assuming one uses the RV Value Card for various J discounts):

easy in and out, no need for last second decisions on if one can use the fuel stop
competitive net priced fuel (not always the lowest) For me, this price reflects the cash price minus J discounts, minus the 5% I receive from my CC company.
a clean comfort food style restaurant
convenient place to park the coach/toad while dining
consistent (across all locations) fueling & payment process
at the RV island no need to go into the store for receipt
at the truck islands only one trip into the store (for receipt)
receipts are usually on a carousel so there is no wait to get receipt
many locations, allowing for maximum distance between fuel stops

The value of the J, for me, includes many different components. Price is one component.

Triker56 · 09-15-2009, 09:08 PM

Filled up today at I75 Exit 201 GA. for $2.509 diesel
The same station on May 2nd was $1.989 when I filled up then.

Baby Bear · 09-16-2009, 08:56 PM

We just came back from a 5000 + mile trip and used the J most of the time. Unfortunately I didn't know all of the little details associated with the RV card.
You are limited to 300 gal of fuel/100 gal gas per month, reguardless of the amount you spend inside their stores. Go over that amount of fuel/gas and you get NO discount!
I was always under the impression that you should take care of your better customers, but, in talking with Flying J I get the impression we don't matter. They feel they have the RV business tied up as no other company out there has an RV card, RV islands, propane and dumps.
In reading some of the other comments posted here I can verify the food and service has definately gone down yet I got the story from Flying J that nothing has changed. Seldome did I see more than 3 people working the fuel counters and the truck drivers were just as disgusted with their service as I was.
They claim Pilot has no influence over their operation or business plan even though Pilot has a vested monatary interest in Flying J. I won't argue with that statement, but, it appears they are allready headed down to Pilot's level of service. Personally I will not go to a Pilot as some of their stations are so dirty, both at the fuel islands and inside their stores I don't want to track dirt/Fuel into my MH.
We had a great trip but learned a lesson about customer loyalty. From now on I'm going to base my fuel purchases on PRICE.
By the way, you people in the upper midwest, Minnesota to Idaho, south to Kansas, have a great supplier by the name of Connoco. Never had a problem with their fuel, more than I could say about Flying J, and they have great service. (without RV islands)
Thanks for letting me vent my fustrations with what used to be a good company.

RedneckExpress · 09-17-2009, 12:37 AM

Ya know what would be great? A mandated nation-wide single website service that every filling station would be required to be connected to that lists their prices and if they charge a different price based on use of a credit card, what their credit card limits are, and their hours that had to be updated in real time by the owners if they changed their price at all during the day.

Then one would simply only need to fill in a city and get a full report of all the prices for all the pumps, their location, hours, etc....

Gasbuddy and the lot are great, but they're not realtime and their prices can be days, or weeks out of date.

It wouldn't require the installation of any new hardware other than one internet capable computer. All updates could easily be done via a website form with each station being issued an ID #.

However, it would take a national mandate to make it work right, with penalties for inaccurate filings, otherwise, fraud and falsification could easily run rampant.

Triker56 · 09-17-2009, 06:10 AM

That 100 gal limit on gas RV is a bummer as I use to have one of those 6 MPG MH's.
That limit would only be good for 2 days of 600 miles total. Easy to do.

But 300 gal. of diesel will take me over 3,100 miles. A lot more then I will ever drive in a month.

And to spend $50 in the store doesn't compute in my calculator to get much return for the extra 1/4 of a cent discount. And If I had a gas MH I would run out of my 100 gal. limit. Before I would get 1/2 way to the $50.

Connoco name just happens to be the name posted at the last 4 Flying J I have stopped at in the last 4 days on my way home.

In over the last 12 years I have never had a problem with any Flying J gas or diesel product.

Granted your experience may be different then mine has.

Also if you buy less then 20 gal. at a fill. You won't get the discount. Yesterday a Pilot was at a exit 5 miles from the Flying J in GA.
Cash price was the same at both.

JackHammr' · 09-17-2009, 01:47 PM

redneck , that'll never fly , cause it's a brilliant idea , makes too much sense ..

Theberrys · 09-17-2009, 03:49 PM

As RV drivers we don't represent a very large segment of the fuel buying public. My Motor home is a 1999 and has @ 50K miles. Compare this to Trucks and Cars and I'm surprised Flying J cares about us at all.
Pilot in my experiance has always had higher prices. I'm in the SW and I'm sure the east is not the same, just another example of fuel prices being what the market will bare.
We just don't have a very loud voice in this market.

Dick

RedneckExpress · 09-18-2009, 05:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JackHammr'

redneck , that'll never fly , cause it's a brilliant idea , makes too much sense ..

One can always dream...... Personally, I'd like to see it mandated because Fuel is a necessity to our nation, not just a commodity.

Gary RVRoamer · 09-18-2009, 11:21 AM

Quote:

A mandated nation-wide single website service that every filling station would be required to be connected to that lists their prices and if they charge a different price based on use of a credit card, what their credit card limits are, and their hours that had to be updated in real time by the owners if they changed their price at all during the day.

Granted it would be convenient for travelers, but would probably add $0.01/gal to have somebody always submitting updates to a web site. And the site staff to do updates in real time. Not to mention the cost of the fed bureaucracy that actually built and maintained the site and enforced compliance.

JackHammr' · 09-18-2009, 03:01 PM

give it to dept of energy , it's been here 32 years , it's original inception was to free us from foreign oil dependence , has failed at that , maybe it can do this ...

smittyjr · 09-18-2009, 08:32 PM

Enjoy Flying J now because when Pilot get finished with them fuel prices will be higher and fast food will take place of the sit down restaurant.

justimagination · 09-18-2009, 09:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Triker56

Taxes make 4.4 cents of the difference.
Gas tax GA. State 12.4 cents + 18.4 Federal
Gas tax SC State 16.8 cents Federal 18.4

Triker56, thanks for your input, and we are all aware of TAX STRUCTURES in different states. My point being, while in Myrtle Beach S.C. on Labor Day and the following week, we saw the Gas prices change @ some places in excess of 0.10 cents a gallon, this is not due to Taxes.
Just today while going to Dr. appointment, we saw a variation 0f 0.05 cents a gallon deviation in two company stations (Q-Trip) less than 5 miles apart, in the same zip code. Now to top that off, in less than 2 hrs.while returning the same route, the price at the higher price station had went up again, WOW JUST IN TIME FOR THE 5:00 traffic of people getting off of work. This is simply wrong to put it mildly, I call it gouging the consumer. JMHO,
David G.