Out of Gas

I have come to expect that about once a week my car will be out of gas. That is predictable, that is expected. What I did not expect was that my running out of gas would coincide with the gas station I stopped at to get gas running out of gas. I pulled into the station, pulled out my credit card, swiped the card, selected the grade of gas, pumped exactly 1.172 gallons, and then watched as the pump just stopped. I pressed the help button only to have the display tell me to go inside to see the cashier (not sure why I needed a button to tell me that). The cashier assumed that it was an issue with the pump or that I really didn't need that much gas, but after assuring him that I indeed was on empty, he charged $20 to my card and sent me out to try again. On the way out I ran into a guy who was also having no luck getting gas. Undaunted I returned to the pump to verify that indeed nothing was to be forth coming, so I returned to the cashier to inquire if indeed they actually had any gas. Nope, they did not. So tell me this, if I driving a car have a light that tells me when I am about to run out of gas, would it not make sense for there to be some light or other way of letting gas station employees know that they have run out of gas. It would only make sense to me that they would. The upside is that 1.172 gallons was the first gas I have been able to get for $1.999 in a long time. The downside is that the remaining 12 gallons we a dime per gallon more costly.