All Service Centre articles
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AnalysisService Centre: Jac Roper relates readers’ Coronavirus lockdown experiences
Turned upside down by Covid-19 Tom Dant, managing director of Lincolnshire-based Gill Marsh Forecourts, sent in the observation that everybody is finding that times are strange. He says: "For us our best- performing site is now our worst- performing site, and our worst site is now the best!" Fuel sales ...
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Service Centre: Jac Roper on Co-op and Nisa price problems; and an epos dispute ends
Unrest on an uneven playing field A forecourt operator sent me an anonymous update on the Nisa/Co-op situation re price differences (last raised in this column in October). He began by posting some copy from another retailer that had appeared on the Nisa retail online forum. It went ...
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Service Centre: Jac Roper on a car wash crisis plus a warning about slick salesmen
Not measuring up Last summer Khalid Mohammad agreed to purchase a Christ Aquatus Prime C168 car wash with Codax system, including till interface and under-chassis wash for £89,000 plus VAT from Wilcomatic for his Lenton Boulevard Service Station in Nottingham. He also bought year-two and year-three service contracts for ...
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Service Centre: Jac Roper on a jamming ATM; chasing money; and a bad start
One jam too far for Shahid’s forecourts Shahid Hussain, who runs Petro Express in Glanamman, South Wales, has just come out of his contract with NoteMachine for both of his forecourts. He says he has had them for 10-15 years under their various owners and it was never ...
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Service Centre: Jac Roper starts the year with a couple of feel-good stories and a not-so-good one
This sales drive took a wrong turn Happy New Year and I thought it would be nice to start 2020 with a couple of feel-good stories which although didn’t start happily ended in a satisfactory way. Mohammed Nabi contacted the helpline to say that he took part in ...
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Service Centre: Jac Roper on protocol, pumps and putting 2019 behind us
An issue with protocol In the April issue I aired some of Deen Yacub’s problems with TLM’s evoPOS system at his Station Road Service Station in Ashby-de-la-Zouch. It was all resolved nicely. But by mid-October he emailed again: "Again we are facing the same issues. The amounts showing ...
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Service Centre: Jac Roper on ATM fees, an epos solution and phone cost conundrum
It’s not a level playing field Changing ATMs from free-to-use to charging models has been a bone of contention for many. Ismail Bhattay rang to complain that he had previously switched to NoteMachine because Cardtronics was going to switch his cash machine to a fee-charging one. In September ...
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Service Centres: Jac Roper reports on a rebates row, more system problems and Co-op/Nisa row
Is this the power of the press? Hassan Mohammed copied me in on one of many emails he had been exchanging with Costcutter over the fact that they owed him £2k in rebates for his two sites in Greater Manchester (Limes Service Station in Walkden, Salford and Howich Service ...
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Service Centre: Jac Roper on even more problems with technology systems
Losing faith in the system Some of you may remember coverage of complaints about TLM’s evoPOS system earlier this year. Unfortunately for Andrew Wallace the situation remains unsatisfactory. He had the system installed last year at his Newton Gardens Service Station in Dumfries, but found he was making ...
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Service Centre: Jac Roper on PayPoint mix up; more on ATMs; and a request for help
A really big misunderstanding Thair Majid, who runs several stations in London, got in touch on an issue he had with PayPoint. He says: "Currently at two of my sites, we make approximately £15-20 a month in profit from our PayPoint unit, as commissions have reduced significantly." His ...
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Service Centre: Jac Roper on technical misery for one retailer and no cash for another
Where is the back up for the back office? It’s been technical misery for quite some time at Huw Griffiths’ Llantwit site, where he has five Htec tills which previously had a Flow back office. Huw says: "Flow was replaced with an ITS back office in January 2018. ...
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Service Centre: Jac Roper on more complaints about epos and the ATM minefield
Even more epos teething troubles A new whizz-bang bit of kit really won’t do it for you if you are unlucky enough to get the apparently duff one... the one where the teething troubles are such that they add up to a new set of dentures. So unhappily I ...
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Service Centre: Jac Roper on irksome ATM deal; and flower shortage for Nisa stores
CashZone’s one-sided contract As many of you are finding to your cost, CashZone has been switching indies from free-to-use ATMs to fee-paying ones. Joe Brough rang from Offerton Green Service Station near Stockport to, as he put it, "vent his spleen re CashZone’s behaviour towards its customers". The ...
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Service Centre: Jac Roper on more epos woes, late newspapers and court update
They took it very seriously I was quite surprised to receive a second complaint about TLM’s evoPOS system within a fortnight. I would have been less surprised if it had happened after Deen Yacub read last month’s issue where we featured Andrew Wallace’s account of the problems he had ...
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Service Centre: Jac Roper on a big system error plus more support for subpostmasters
It’s not all systems go in Dumfries Andrew Wallace, trading as Newton Gardens Service Station in Dumfries, had TLM’s evoPOS installed in May 2018 after being convinced that it was the best system out there. From day one there were problems. There was a big problem with the ...
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Service Centre: Jac Roper on going back to Londis; two become one; and a fond farewell
A remarriage of convenience Once upon a time Mandeep Singh’s site, Hillcrest Filling Station in Huddersfield, had been a Londis store but they had parted company it was a sort of square peg in a round hole situation. When he first contacted me a year or so ago, he ...
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Service Centre: Jac Roper on Horizon in the dock; and warranty woes
Is there justice on the Horizon? Some 560 retailers (the ’claimants’) are hoping that their group action against Post Office Ltd (POL the ’defendant’) will bring them justice retailers who lost their livelihoods, reputations and in extreme cases their lives over accusations of false accounting using the Horizon system. ...
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Service Centre: Jac Roper on inheriting a horrendous bill and cashing in on cashback
An ’inheritance’ he could do without This is a story full of twists and turns with one consistent note. Scottish Power has so far not been able to provide Central Avenue Service Station in Nuneaton with either an electricity meter that works or an appropriate bill although it has ...
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Service Centre: Jac Roper on how One Stop threatens retailer with bankruptcy order
When One Stop was not the answer This is a sad story about a garage that is no more. Well, it’s still there, in Wales, waiting to be re-activated, more of which later. It goes back a year or more to the previous owner, who wishes to remain ...
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Service Centre: Jac Roper on poor customer service and canopy carnage from HGVs
A big complaint and a big response A poor service record can cost you customers. Jon Brownsey, who runs Fordingbridge Service Station in Hampshire, sent me a subject that he said was beyond a joke for him: pump maintenance, or lack of it. He writes: "For some time now, ...
