All Service Centre articles – Page 5
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News
Service Centre: Jac Roper deals with an insurance query, a helping hand and a handy short cut
Is this really such a risky business? Where do you buy your insurance? Do you switch very often? Does it go up by much when you renew? How about when you make a claim? Have you got a good broker? I would really like to know if you think you ...
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Service Centre: Jac Roper starts the New Year with good news as well as lots of wise words
The loan arranger good guys This column is kicking off the New Year with some good news. It comes via Steve Vaughan, a Londis retailer who runs Handbridge Services in Chester. He is no stranger to this column having recommended a tax savings company (Wilmslow Tax Solutions) which saved him ...
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Service Centre: Jac Roper writes about a computer catch-up; a worrying scam; and Christmas cheer
Are you up to speed on technology? I must congratulate Tony Barlow, who runs the Mount Service Station in Shrewsbury, for employing such an observant cashier named Robert Fox. Robert works for Tony during the week and for another business, called Claremont News, on a Sunday. On Tony’s urging, Robert ...
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Service Centre: Jac Roper on The hot topic of hot fuel plus tips on relaying your store on a shoestring
Do you really get what you pay for? How do you know if the amount of fuel ordered is the amount delivered? How much of a hot topic is the temperature of fuel? We have all read those consumer stories about, for example, people in the tropics who don’t realise ...
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Service Centre: Jac Roper on a duty rebate that doesn’t work and a case where common sense prevails
What’s the real price of petrol? The price of petrol is a perennial headline grabber. You would think, by now, enough journalists reporting on the subject would have ’got to the bottom of it’; ie the public would know that the retailers have nowt to do with the price at ...
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Service Centre: Jac Roper on retailers having a run-in with the planning office... and problem staff
Get approval before you improve Sometimes there is no pleasing the local authorities. Linda Sheppard tells a cautionary tale that anyone who is thinking about making improvements should read. Linda and Richard have run R&R Motors in the village of Rampton in Nottinghamshire for some 40 years. Their son and ...
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Service Centre: Jac Roper looks at computer headaches, a welcome refund and advice on staff
You really don’t need crashes After 18 months of firefighting with a system that is meant to help him run his business, Jon Brownsey says he is beyond angry now. He first got in touch with Forecourt Trader last September over ongoing problems at his Fordingbridge Service Station, Hampshire, with ...
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Service Centre: Jac Roper highlights problems when a supplier goes bust; and saving money on cards
How you can optimise your losses Here’s a cautionary tale for you. Back in March 2010 James Henderson, managing director of Cohannon Inn Ltd (which includes a filling station in Dungannon, County Tyrone), was approached by Energy Saving Company, an approved agent for Carbon Trust. It offered to supply electricity ...
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Service Centre: Jac Roper delves into employee contracts, extra services and snow
Look after your assets Here’s a cliché question for you Mr Forecourt Boss: what’s your best asset? I’m sure you have many but full marks if you said ’staff’ unless, of course, you spend every working hour right there on the till. Staff represent you. They are your stand-in. Okay, ...
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Service Centre: Help and advice from Jac Roper
A pain in the cashflow Quite an Easter wasn’t it? What with a hole in the wall cash machine being blown up into a much larger hole at a petrol station in Weyhill, Hampshire, while Steve Jones was busy getting sued by a policewoman after the poor dear tripped on ...
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Service Centre: Jac Roper discusses credit card charges and electric car charging
Do you take plastic? Of course you do You’d probably have to go as far as Germany to find a forecourt that doesn’t accept cards although I haven’t been to Germany lately so I don’t know if their ’cash only’ policies still apply. Now, how closely do you examine your ...
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Service Centre: Jac Roper looks at Hassle with fuel cards plus a staff problem of a more unusual nature
Allstars? Nul point more like A number of Texaco retailers have given ’no stars’ to Allstar fuel cards following its migration of all card and IT systems from its previous owner’s platforms (Arval) to the new platform (Fleetcor) the weekend before the start of the New Year. The dealers complaining ...
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Service Centre: Jac Roper sorts your problems, including the rules on splitting up multipacks
Always check out the label ’Freddie’ rang up. As you may have already sussed, that’s not his real name. He believes that a nearby competitor may be trying to stitch him up but didn’t want to ID anyone for obvious reasons. A customer, whom he is fairly certain also shops ...
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Service Centre: Jac Roper on the New Year starting with problems with diesel tanks and cash machines
A second quote saves the day Happy New Year to all. Right, that’s enough joy; now back to the problems. Garry Gibson, head of operations at Cooper Bros in Wishaw, Lancashire, certainly had a time of it last year. Last summer a flashing alarm light indicated a problem with a ...
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Service Centre: Help and advice from Jac Roper
Stand off at the pumps Tony Barlow, whose business trades as Local Service Stations in beautiful Shrewsbury, had an adventure at the pumps one Saturday that you could all do without. He says: "Just after opening up, a small white lorry pulled up to the diesel pump and the driver ...
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Service Centre: A headache is cured and Jac welcomes new blood into the forecourt world
A chronic headache When Jon Brownsey rang me in mid September from Fordingbridge Service Station in Hampshire he said he had had "a permanent headache for 10 days". The headache was called Torex. In the week prior to his call, the site lost the ability to take ...
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Service Centre: Jac Roper covers a rave review; a rant about superstores; and yet another scam
A real five-star retailer review Most of the calls I get on the helpline are for assistance in sorting supplier problems, moans about red tape, dust-ups with cowboys, wrangles with ’solutions providers’, dodgy equipment and so on. So it is a real pleasure when I hear about something ...
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Service Centre: Jac Roper looks at two-tier pricing and who is willing to lend money
Texaco deal fuels debate My caller, accusing Texaco of two-tier pricing, requested anonymity because he still has some time to run on his contract. He says that he had high hopes for Texaco when it was taken over by Valero last year but he has since become very ...
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Service Centre: Jac Roper reveals problems with pumps, plus does it pay to put yourself out for customers?
Having a breakdown When you buy the best your expectations are high. But high-profile retailer Jonathan James says it didn’t go that way and that he would like to share "the total nightmare" that he encountered having installed Tokheim Quantium 510 pumps to his brand new site at Littleport ...
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Service Centre: Jac Roper reveals an extra happy ending for one Forecourt Trader reader
Credit where credit is due Cardsave finally came good for Asif Kassam so credit where credit is due. I featured the struggle Asif was having in our June issue. It started 10 months ago when Asif noticed that all the fuel cards had the same authorisation codes. He ...