All Service Centre articles – Page 11
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News
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 ...
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No longer a ’Hot Shot’
A couple of retailers have rung to ask what’s going on with Hot Shot Beverages, supplier of the ‘Shake and Stir’ tea and coffee machines. They had been promised sale or return on unused product and weren’t getting any joy from the company. I enquired at head office and Robert ...
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Where is the loyalty?
This question was posed by Asif Kassam, who runs KP Hill Service Station in Manchester, and who was royally ticked off with PayZone because the company had just installed a competing terminal next door to his own. A few years ago I used to get bitter complaints from retailers who ...
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A cheap shot
Hello, have you got a minute? (Or 20 as it turned out.) Would you like cheaper phone calls? Well, yes, who wouldn’t? The company that phoned Barry Chandler up at his service station in Walthamstow in London’s East End, offered to send him a welcome package introducing him to more ...
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It’s a people business
Often described as ‘your best asset’, staff can also be a pain in neck (or much lower down, as this retailer put it) and not to put too fine a point on it, they can also be crooks. My caller wanted to know what he could do about a youngish ...
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A result
I’ve had some satisfying feedback from Dave Moss in Devon on his quest for business rates relief. For those who missed the last issue, Dave, who runs Alfington Stores and Service Station, was horrified when his business rates demand arrived this year in all its crippling glory and with no ...
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In for a penny...
Can I pay someone off in pennies asked a bitter retailer who is facing a nightmarish £50K bill involving a sub-lease/tenant legal wrangle. It started out at a lot less than £50K but barristers got involved along the way. The retailer, who doesn’t want any publicity, had some sublet property ...
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The hottest new scam
News comes from the Federation of Small Businesses of fraudsters claiming to regulate Health and Safety legislation. A swathe of official-looking letters have gone out to small businesses demanding registration payments of up to £249. The conmen are using the titles Health and Safety Enforcement Agency, Health and Safety Registration ...
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There’s a relief - maybe
They say that the only sure things in life are death and taxes. Both are sometimes mysterious as well. Certainly there is a bit of a mystery concerning Alfington Stores & Service Station in Devon. Dave Moss sent me an urgent query on business rates relief. For several years Dave’s ...
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Internet cons
I got a badly-worded email on April 14, full of what journalists call ‘screamers’ (exclamation marks!! to make the contents seem important!!). The email informed me, as a “dear client of Barclays Bank” (I’m not), that the night time safety system had been cracked!!! To prevent any problems would I ...
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Age sensitivity
Retailers often ring up after the ‘sting’. Trading standards officers wear quite a few hats these days (not as many as you, but enough for them to turn up in a different guise on any given day). Sometimes they will use entrapment techniques. They like to call it ‘test purchasing’ ...
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News
Joined forces
I’ve had some interesting feedback since reporting on Thumbs Up Security’s thumb-print kit, which tackles both the inability to pay problem that besets some customers, and the fraudulent use of cheques/cards. Margaret Reid, managing director of Thumbs Up Security says she has been inundated with requests for the cheap (£3.60) ...
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News
Water, water, everywhere...
For those who get off on schadenfreude, the news that Coca-Cola has withdrawn ‘Sidcup tap water’ over bromate levels will have also brought an I-told-you-so to many minds. You can’t quite unscramble the Dasani label to spell ‘disaster’ but many will see it that way. For at least one forecourt ...
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News
Mystery of Direct Cash
ATM supplier Direct Cash owes a few retailers some money. Karlos Ambrus of Knowehead Filling Station at Harthill in Lanarkshire, is among them. He paid £475.13 for three months rental upfront to Direct Cash to get an ATM installed, which came with PayPoint as part of the deal. He was ...
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Priced out of market
No petrol retailer will be unfamiliar with price wars. But Allan Broughton, from Fisher’s Motor Centre at Sutton in Ashfield, was totally ticked off when he discovered that his local competitor, a symbol c-store, was selling newspapers for 10p less than cover price. “I don’t mind competition on a level ...
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News
Giving it the thumbs up
Here’s the theory: if a customer has forgotten his/her cheque book/cards and promises to come back later, they will do so unfailingly if you have taken their fingerprints. Furthermore, if you take their fingerprints even when the cards are present, they won’t be engaging in fraudulent practice using duff plastic. ...
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News
Am i breaking the law
Roger Smith, who runs Bapchild Service Centre at Sittingbourne in Kent, got quite wound up when he read the ‘No ID, No Sale’ info packs left by his cigarette merchandiser as part of a campaign to stamp out sales of restricted goods to the under-aged. The fact sheet spells out ...
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Making your own luck
The world divides into the reactive and the proactive. Sebastian Nonis, who runs Forfar Road Service Station in Dundee, is not the sort to take things lying down. I know this because I have a file This Thick on my desk illustrating the lengths that he will go to promote ...
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The silver lining is Jet
Still on the above subject, January comes and I get a calendar through the post. It features a fine picture of Forfar Service Station, brightly branded Jet and with the message that the business is sponsoring the Dundee Tigers under 16s ice hockey team. It had all happened very fast. ...
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Take the bull(ring) by the horns
A Birmingham retailer rang with an average tale of woe – roadworks had re-routed business for a while, general competition was up, place needed a facelift but he couldn’t afford it. I say an ‘average’ call as I do get many like this. It doesn’t compare with the ones I ...