All Service Centre articles – Page 3
-
News
Service Centre: Jac Roper on the unfair ratings game and a plea for a recommendation
The way rates are calculated is wrong In our April issue, I recounted Thair Majid’s view that the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) got its sums wrong when calculating business rates Thair put it down to the percentage the VOA takes on tobacco. John Stevenson, MD of Stevenson Group, headquartered in ...
-
News
Service Centre: Jac Roper on heavy-handed Horizon dealings and a name game
Lawyers acting on behalf of more than a thousand former subpostmasters are asking for others who ever had issues with Post Office Limited’s (POL’s) Horizon accounting system to come forward and join their Group Litigation Order. Some of their stories, such as the following one, are truly shocking. Phil Cowan ...
-
News
Service centre: Jac Roper on business rates rage and a lottery turn off
At this rate... there’ll be no profit left Business rates, as a topic, is all the rage (and there’s plenty to rage about) at the moment. According to Thair Majid, the devil is in the detail and he is doing his best to publicise the fact that the Valuation Office ...
-
News
Service Centre: Jac Roper on seeking compensation after no power for nine days plus more NWF woes
Literally absolutely powerless Can you imagine having your petrol station and adjacent MOT business and car wash being without power for nine days? Nine hours is crippling enough. Adam Patel runs Leyland Garage in Castleford, Wheldale, in West Yorkshire, and is the landlord to the MOT test centre and car ...
-
News
Service Centre: Jac Roper on a solution to an epos problem and reporting non-compliance
When things aren’t going with the Flow: What a labyrinth it can be when companies hive bits off here and there so that your supplier/service support becomes owned by another company. They will usually all claim business as usual but for those on the receiving end when it goes wrong ...
-
News
Service Centre: Jac Roper with a tip on reducing your water bill plus some happy endings
Going with the flow: Here’s a happy new year tip from my regular tipster Steve Vaughan, Handbridge Services, Chester. He knows first hand that forecourt operators are more than happy to make any and all savings possible. And lately he’s been looking at wait for it water. Sounds straightforward, simple, ...
-
News
Service Centre: Jac Roper talks about the auto-enrolment pension trap plus the worst service ever
Auto-enrolment nothing to do with cars: Anyone who knows Londis retailer Steve Vaughan (Handbridge Services, Chester) knows that he likes to pass on useful tips. In 2015 he recommended AEclipse, a company that will set up a pension scheme for you without ripping you off. (And as we all know, ...
-
News
Service Centre: Jac Roper on treating staff correctly and a fuel agreement that went sour
You need to treat your best asset in a very civil manner I’m going to keep this anonymous because it has now been sorted and I really wouldn’t want to rock the boat further. A member of staff at a service station in the Midlands was working on a Sunday. ...
-
News
Service Centre: Jac Roper on an epos integration problem sorted plus a costly banking issue
A question of integration and co-operation: This one was a really very different case for me involving as it does, some fast-moving technology and two big organisations. Imran Khan runs St Giles Filling Station with a Costcutter convenience store in Durham. He rang me with what appeared to be a ...
-
News
Service Centre: Jac Roper on forecourts boycotting The Sun and how to build a business
Total eclipse of The S*n: That’s not my headline it belongs to Liverpool. There is currently one helluva campaign going in the Speke area in Liverpool to boycott The Sun newspaper. If you want to see some colourful comments have a look at the public Facebook group called Total eclipse ...
-
News
Service Centre: Jac Roper writes about an unwanted switch of power plus PayPoint delivers good news about
An unexpected and unwanted power struggle How’s this for bare-faced cheek? Yogesh Chag, who runs Craven Park Service Station in Harlesden, north-west London, had his energy supply transferred from Extra Energy to npower without his knowledge. "Has anybody else had this problem?" he asks. I said I would ask in ...
-
News
Service Centre: Jac Roper on an insurance policy issue plus a £6,000 theft from within
Make sure you cover your back: When Jagdish Radia rang me from Leaway Service Station in Birmingham, in late April, he had been without insurance cover for over a month: a shock-horror story if ever I’d heard one. He had a big problem with his (now ex-) insurer. For the ...
-
News
Service Centre: Jac Roper on more energy bill problems plus a supplier who would not supply
Energy firms that are not fitting the bill: In the last issue I marvelled at Extra Energy’s inability to bill Huw Griffiths for his electricity supply for 10 months. Huw had been putting the money aside in a big tin as he reckoned the bill was around £20K. This prompted ...
-
News
Service Centre: Jac Roper talks about a service issue; having to chase for a bill; and unwanted stock
Where was the customer service when it was needed? When you pay £3,000 a year for a service contract you rather expect a bit of prompt attention when things go wrong. In mid-February, I got a call from Khalid Mohammad who runs Shelfield Service Station in Walsall in the West ...
-
News
Service Centre: Jac Roper looks at dealing with debt collectors; a fuel pricing puzzle; and a makeover
Chasing after the money: I expect some of you have been chased by debt collectors. Not pleasant is it? Even if you do owe the money. But when you don’t owe it, it’s a very bitter experience. In mid December I was contacted by Diyan Patel, who runs Gilwern Garage ...
-
News
Service Centre: Jac Roper talks about a run-in with the council and an ATM that’s well out of order
How do you deal with such a petty bureaucrat? Gill Marsh Forecourts cannot be the only company to have had a run-in with the local council following bogus complaints about noisy remote refrigeration. It’s a bit of a saga. Tom Dant, managing director, believes it all stems from an earlier ...
-
News
Service Centre: Jac Roper talks about a Sage saga; the pros and cons of an ATM; and edible insects
Not a very good start: Sharon Collins, from Saffrons Garage in Bodenham, Hereford, is kicking herself for signing up for a Point Four epos system. She did so because she believed that it could handle a link into Sage and fuel card bunkering, whereas her old system could not. She ...
-
News
Service Centre: Jac Roper on two money stories - one with no cash and the other no collections
A cash point with no cash is no joke. You offer extra services, on top of your normal marketing mix, in order to draw in the punters and to make a bit (never very much) on the side. All very well when it’s glitch-free, but a pain when it isn’t. ...
-
News
Service Centre: Jac Roper talks about a canopy problem sorted; a possible ’insurable peril’; and cash is in
Booker’s been in the news a lot lately and it’s all been good. But for one retailer there had been a lot of frustration although nothing to do with Booker’s offering, which he is quite happy with. Around six months ago a new Booker delivery man managed to back onto ...
-
News
Service Centre: Jac Roper talks about a cycling update, more Allstar One trouble and a big con trick
In my last column I reported on the huge upheaval that Kumar Selvakumar’s Black Horse Service Station in east London’s Walthamstow had undergone due to roadworks. These were not just any old roadworks. It was a £30m programme to turn the area into a ’mini Holland’ with cycle paths ...