All Service Centre articles – Page 10
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News
Building with bricks
Just enough space left to tell you about a nifty little service you can register with, for free, which passes on an interesting range of ideas/thoughts/opinions to nearly 10,000 small business owners who have already subscribed. Run by the government-funded Small Business Service, ‘Business Bricks’ is written and sent out ...
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Keeping track
f you sell newspapers supplied by John Menzies and are trying to keep manual track of sales and returns you have probably noticed that the handy diary and sales control annual is no longer available from them. Richard Webb, who runs Abbeygate Garage in Norfolk says Menzies has been helpful, ...
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A widening gulf
One might say that the gulf has widened in the dispute between retailer Owen McKay and his supplier. In our November issue I recounted the story of a strained relationship between Owen, who runs Smithy Garage at Warrington in Cheshire, and Gulf Retail. Owen had nothing but praise for the ...
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Watch your backs
I’ve written a couple of reports on the success of Kent Police’s Forecourt Watch scheme – and went so far as to ask why can’t the rest of the country follow such an impressive example. As a result I got a call from Terry McCormick, Neighbourhood Watch liaison officer with ...
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A streamlined scam?
It will be interesting to hear if anybody else out there has had an experience similar to Adrian Moore, who runs Grizebeck Filling Station at Grizebeck in Cumbria. He suspected a scam when he got a phone call from someone purporting to be from an investigation unit at Streamline asking ...
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A token gesture
Don’t you wonder where they go? Like odd socks, like teaspoons, like the half dozen biros you bought last week, air and water tokens just gradually disappear into thin air, don’t they? I am a bit wiser having discussed this mystery with National Car Wash. Director David Henshaw told me: ...
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Dealing direct
I do hope this isn’t opening a can of worms, but is anyone else having problems getting their money back from Our Price? James Robertson, who runs JR’s Filling Station in Fife, sent back 15 DVDs to Our Price in September and was promised his money (£112.50) back. He has ...
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Stamp duty
Another complaint about the Royal Mail. As I’ve reported previously in this column, the margin on first class stamps may have gone up to 7%, but the reduction on second class stamps to 3% has really put some of you off. Tim Neal rang from West Coker Garage, near Yeovil ...
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Wrong data
Some information I passed on in the last issue about Data Protection wasn’t quite the full ticket. I pointed out a refinement to the Data Protection Act 1998 which excuses retailers from registering if they have static cameras which don’t particularly target anyone. David Cuckson, of Parkside Service Station in ...
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All pull together
There’s never been more attention paid to low-level crime (litter, graffiti, drive-offs as opposed to shotgun-up-your-nostrils) by the authorities. The government has its anti-social behaviour orders and most communities have some form of crimewatch. But most impressive of all is Kent Police. I’ve reported on the success of their Forecourt ...
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What’s the real deal?
How important is price? What a question to ask retailers. Owen McKay, who runs Smithy Garage at Warrington in Cheshire, thinks that image is important but that it is inextricably linked to price. His business is quite comprehensive, offering car sales, MOT, bodyworks and a Londis shop. “People in this ...
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The choice is yours
Or is it? The grocery supply chain is generally thought to be a fairly free and fluid thing. You can more or less buy your baked beans from anybody. The government hasn’t had to intervene the way it did with banks to make it easier for you to shop around ...
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Change for the better
There’s been a refinement to the Data Protection Act 1998 which means that retailers with basic CCTV cameras – the type that cannot zoom in and out – no longer have to register with the Information Commissioner. The thinking behind this is that you are not ‘targeting’ anyone with a ...
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And he spoke too soon
While having a satisfying rant over stamps, Steve had tempted fate by saying that at least the reduction on margins for phone cards had finally stopped. Oh dear. Five days later, down they went again. His next delivery from Dextra Solutions revealed margins reduced to as low as 3.5 per ...
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Stamping out profits
Do you sell stamps? If so you’ve probably noticed the reduction in margin on second class stamps to three per cent. Were you informed? I must admit, if there was a whole heap of hype as claimed by Royal Mail, I missed it. Steve Dyer, from Thornfalcon Garage in Taunton, ...
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It’s free - but there’s a catch
Here is a bit of a masterclass on ‘free’ drinks coolers. When Mohammed Arif bought his filling station and store two months ago in Cannock, Staffordshire, he thought he had bought all the fixtures and fittings as part of the deal. He renamed the business Top Shop Services, filled the ...
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Code cracking
Ever wondered what the various phone codes represent and whether you are being ripped off or not? I’ve been in interesting email discussion with regular correspondent Dave Moss (Alfington Stores and Service Station, Devon) who has made a study of them, fired by an abiding passion to expose BT for ...
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Don’t disable your business
The deadline for offering a user-friendly environment becomes official on October 1 when Part 3 of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 comes into play. A most timely call on this subject came from Raj Patel, who runs RP Service Station in Manchester. He was about to have work done on ...
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For whom the tills roll
It’s an old rep’s trick, the agreement-seeking question: ‘You DO want to buy this, don’t you?’ Mike Cheskin was on the receiving end of a variation on this theme recently at his forecourt, Chatfield Service Centre in Gloucestershire. Merchant Retail Suppliers (of York and Canada apparently) rang up and cheerfully ...
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Stamp, stamp, the sound of jackboots
Trading standards officers in Norfolk would appear to be armed with magnifying glasses and an I’m-going-to-get-you-no-matter-what attitude. This story is breathtaking. John Collins runs Parkside Garage in Norfolk. When the TSO showed up John wasn’t in the least bothered and told him to help himself, have a good look round ...