One can get gas by either paying before pumping or after. If I intend to pay inside, say after picking up a cup of coffee, I will get the hose and wait for the clerk's approval. Then pump gas, go inside and pay. If you pay outside, you wait for the transaction to be through. Under prompt "get hose and select grade", you continue. The guy's bad luck may come when the transaction was lost right after he pushed the "no" to receipt and he picked up the hose without waiting for the prompt. And the clerk mistaken him for "paying inside".