Silver Spring Metro Exxon

It’s a pretty standard Exxon. The pro is that it is one of the cheapest gas stations I’ve found in the DMV area. The con is that they spent two months being unable to print receipts, and the employees just kind of shrugged it off. But then again, who goes to a gas station for customer service?

It’s not every day you get excited about a trip to a gas station. It’s one of those places that most people dread stopping.
If you’re like me, you forget that your car actually runs off of this stuff called «gas» until you have none.
So, when I stopped at this location, I threw some gas in my car; they have those pumps where after you take the handle off of the black holder dealy– you actually pop the black holder thing up to start the pump (like in the olden days). 90 percent of those black holder dealy things are now screwed onto the gas pump. They punk me everytime. «oh, you’re trying to pull up my thing, you dumb #$%^&*. Think again!» That’s what they say… yes, I’ll make an appointment with the doc.
So, I go into the convenience store portion of the station and that’s where my journey really gets magical.
«Hey there, do you have any electronic cigarettes» I say with angst in voice
«Yeah we do, we have blus right over here– and we also have the NJoy’s» the gas station attendant Andre kindly points out. Andre stands close to 6 foot three inches tall with a friendly face and a welcoming warm attitude.
Even though the blus tend to last much longer, I opt for the NJoys cause of flavor preference. A young man who was chatting with Andre when I came in remarks the same exact thing I was thinking as I ask Andre for the «full menthol Njoy’s.» He took the words right out of my brain.
Andre remarks, «but you gotta watch out for those, there are a lot of duds»
I respond quickly «yes yes, I had to return one to 7 – 11 not more than a month ago because I took two puffs and it was done.»
Andre comes back «you’re lucky you’ve only gotten one dud, I get them back all the time– you might want to try this one out before you leave the station.»
I’m so excited at the fact that Andre wants to make sure the product I get from his gas station is in working order.
I purchase the NJoy while telling Andre that I have a theory on why a lot of them are broken, «Ya know, a while ago they had this program where you send in 7 used Njoy’s and they would send you one new one in the mail, I think that they’re using old batteries and that’s why so many of them are failing»
«Well, that would explain a lot» he says with surprise. At that point, he starts ringing up another customer but says an aside to me, a second time, before I leave: «Yo, you really might want to try that out before you leave though.»
I had actually just tried it out while he was busy with another customer, he didn’t see. «It’s working great, thank you so much»
And that’s how you provide amazing customer service in the most unexpected of situations. Thank you Andre!

Beware of Exxon gifts cards from this station. I received an Exxon gift card for $ 25 purchased here and went there to use it. Upon swiping it the pump said «Unable to read card, see attendant». I took it inside (along with the gift receipt) and told the guy behind the counter it wouldn’t work at the pump. He said they don’t work at the pump, even though on the back of the card it says it will. He also could not get it to work on the card reader. Upon which he gave it back to me and started serving people in line behind me, ignoring me. After the 4^th person served I told him I was there to get gas like everyone else and to please help. He said he had no computers there to look up the card value (the unique account no. is on the back) and that I would have to go home, look up the account no. on the Exxon website, and bring him a printout to prove the card’s value. There were 3 guys in there, a second guy who the receipt said sold the card (we think he did something wrong when selling it), and a third older guy sitting behind the counter fiddling with another machine and no one was interested in addressing this issue. One would think with having the highest gas prices in a 25 block radius they would want to give better service. I returned the card so the gifter’s money could be refunded.

Standard Exxon plus car wash. Good location, but customer service is non-​existent and station is often dirty.