Narrative:

We were scheduled to depart ZZZ at xa:50. We were already facing a delay as our flight attendants had not yet arrived. They were coming in on a delayed flight. At departure time we had not yet been fueled so I called operations to advise them of the situation. Fueling began at approximately xb:05. After seeing that fueling had begun; I went up to speak with the gate agent and advise her the fuelers had arrived and to inquire as to the status of the flight attendants. When I returned; I noticed the fueler had only put an additional 2000 pounds on. A few minutes later; fueling resumed. By this time; the flight attendants had arrived and boarding began. The gate agent advised us we needed baggage handlers to load some bags from the jet way. Unfortunately; they were nowhere to be found. Operations could not raise anyone. It took several minutes to finally get all the ground personnel in position. During all this; we had a passenger misconduct issue requiring law enforcement; distracting us further. The whole evening was nothing but distractions. We finally departed at xc:25; 1:45 late. Climbing through 11000 feet msl; we received a fuel altitude xfr fault ECAM. Performing the ECAM procedure resolved the problem. After arriving in ZZZ; we referenced operations manual volume 1 & 2 and upon further review; realized the aircraft had been improperly fueled. The two acts (additional center tanks) had fuel in them without the center tank being full. I believe this caused the ECAM.there was a recent change regarding act fuel that got overlooked in myriad of unfortunate events that took place that evening. I truly feel it was significant that this flight was scheduled to depart [while everyone was distracted]. No one in philadelphia had their minds on their jobs. What would have caused the fueler to incorrectly configure the fuel panel and then just leave without telling us? Add to this our inability to locate a tug and push crew; find the baggage handlers; and have to deal with an unreasonable; irate passenger. While we took our time doing the flows and checklist; I completely missed the center tank not being full (it had 7560 in it). There was 3120 in each act and considering we were going transcontinental with significant headwinds; I didn't think anything of it. Pay much closer attention to the center tank fuel configuration for the [aircraft] during preflight!

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Original NASA ASRS Text

Title: Air Carrier flight crew reported being fueled improperly leading to a fuel balancing issue in flight.

Narrative: We were scheduled to depart ZZZ at XA:50. We were already facing a delay as our flight attendants had not yet arrived. They were coming in on a delayed flight. At departure time we had not yet been fueled so I called operations to advise them of the situation. Fueling began at approximately XB:05. After seeing that fueling had begun; I went up to speak with the gate agent and advise her the fuelers had arrived and to inquire as to the status of the flight attendants. When I returned; I noticed the fueler had only put an additional 2000 pounds on. A few minutes later; fueling resumed. By this time; the flight attendants had arrived and boarding began. The gate agent advised us we needed baggage handlers to load some bags from the jet way. Unfortunately; they were nowhere to be found. Operations could not raise anyone. It took several minutes to finally get all the ground personnel in position. During all this; we had a passenger misconduct issue requiring law enforcement; distracting us further. The whole evening was nothing but distractions. We finally departed at XC:25; 1:45 late. Climbing through 11000 feet msl; we received a FUEL ALT XFR FAULT ECAM. Performing the ECAM procedure resolved the problem. After arriving in ZZZ; we referenced Operations Manual Volume 1 & 2 and upon further review; realized the aircraft had been improperly fueled. The two ACTs (Additional Center Tanks) had fuel in them without the center tank being full. I believe this caused the ECAM.There was a recent change regarding ACT fuel that got overlooked in myriad of unfortunate events that took place that evening. I truly feel it was significant that this flight was scheduled to depart [while everyone was distracted]. No one in Philadelphia had their minds on their jobs. What would have caused the fueler to incorrectly configure the fuel panel and then just leave without telling us? Add to this our inability to locate a tug and push crew; find the baggage handlers; and have to deal with an unreasonable; irate passenger. While we took our time doing the flows and checklist; I completely missed the center tank not being full (it had 7560 in it). There was 3120 in each ACT and considering we were going transcontinental with significant headwinds; I didn't think anything of it. Pay much closer attention to the center tank fuel configuration for the [aircraft] during preflight!

Data retrieved from NASA's ASRS site and automatically converted to unabbreviated mixed upper/lowercase text. This report is for informational purposes with no guarantee of accuracy. See NASA's ASRS site for official report.