All Service Centre articles – Page 9
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News
Service Centre: Pinning it down
I took an awareness trip in December deep into the murky world of Chip & PIN courtesy of Gerald Wooding who is responsible for card acceptance across the Texaco network. The trip was prompted by retailer Mike Andrews who felt that his forecourt at Maiden Newton had suffered an “absolute ...
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Pinning down fraud
Pinning down fraud It might be happy Christmas any minute but this is an early Valentine for you. If you are not Chip and PIN compliant by next February 14 you will have to carry the can for any fraudulent use of credit/debit cards. I know, it’s not the most ...
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Service Centre
An abuse of power? I gather that electrical disputes are not uncommon. Khalid Mohammad was left disillusioned and distinctly unhappy with his bill after a Yorkshire-based company conducted a site test for the annual renewal of his petroleum certificate. They gave him an estimate, came and did the ...
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Service Centre
FACT-FINDING MISSIONS I got an apposite email, in the week leading up to the petrol-price crisis that coloured much of September, querying ways to improve shop profits. Jayne Stokes writes: “We would like to take a business trip to look at ways we could supplement the petrol income. Where would ...
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Service Centre
Driving up crime Adrian Walker has added his voice to the argument against government moves to downgrade drive-offs to a civil matter unless they are ‘aggravated’. “The only way I can see it being aggravated is if I try to stop the car leaving, so if I get run over ...
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News
This should keep you posted
You would think that, if you had the best convenience store in town, with a forecourt to boot, plus parking, plus a customers’ petition supporting your application, that you would get the sub post office when the sub postmistress in the village decided to retire from her little ‘centre-ville’ shop. ...
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News
A good result
In the April issue I carried the tale of Andrew Fraser who works at a couple of Hills Garage’s forecourts in the Northwest. He was about to be taken to court by Cumbria trading standards – along with a load of others in the area – after the TSOs had ...
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News
Tampering with the brakes
My piece in the July issue about police efforts to put the brakes on drive-offs brought a bit of a scoff from a retailer who runs a filling station in Plymouth but wishes to remain anonymous. He writes, via email: “If we are not careful, petrol station operators could see ...
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News
Licence to print money
The deadline for applying for your expensive new off licence ‘grandfather’ rights is now approaching swiftly. But it isn’t just retailers dragging their feet – a lot of councils aren’t up to speed either. Susan Young from Nantybuch Service Station at Tredegar, Gwent, was the first petrol station retailer in ...
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News
Phoney phone card service
Nailesh Gokani, who runs Empire Service Station in North London’s Enfield, has had a bit of a saga with O2 top-ups. Early on May 9 he took £10 from a customer, swiped the card and got the receipt through. Soon afterwards the customer got two text messages saying there was ...
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News
Putting the brakes on those drive-offs
Maybe one day fuel will have a built-in ‘activation’ capsule in it, or somesuch, that will only be switched on when the customer actually pays for the stuff. If I knew how to do it I would patent it. Meanwhile many of you are stuck with drive-offs and dud cheques/cards ...
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News
Watchful retailer feeling off-colour
Here’s the scenario: retailer has a drawer-full of crime incident reports of drive-offs and has instructed staff to ask for payment upfront at their own discretion, either when they don’t have a good view of the registration number or if the car matches the description of a recent drive-off.Ayub Karmada, ...
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News
Hi there…bear with me while I burn
In the last issue I asked if anyone had ever witnessed a mobile phone blowing up on a forecourt (because the government has pronounced them safe). This prompted a call from John Dalton, manager at Watling Tyre Service, Southbank Garage in Margate, Kent.He has a friend in the United States ...
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News
who will supply?
You would think that oil companies would be tripping over themselves to supply Malcolm and Sue Bodell’s Londis store. They took over an old village inn and transformed the dance hall into an all singing-dancing c-store. In a bit over a year, their turnover has tripled. There isn’t much the ...
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A hot topic
I think we would all agree that Pot Noodle would taste terrible without the addition of hot water (and I’m not going to make any cheap jibes here even though their press office didn’t ever get back to me despite their voicemail promises and me leaving three messages).The Pot Noodle ...
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News
Hello! I’m at the petrol station!
A new study by Dr Adam Burgess entitled ‘Cellular Phones, Public Fears and a Culture of Precaution’ says claims about risks of using mobile phones on forecourts have crossed into ‘the realm of urban legend’. There is no risk. According to The Observer, BP fire safety officer Richard Coates agrees: ...
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News
How was it for you?
Was it a cuddly Budget or did you see it more on the dark side, ie Michael Howard’s way? Leaving aside the freeze on petrol duty and oil companies having to cough up sooner to help cash flow, there was one very interesting announcement in the Budget. Finally there is ...
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News
Watch out - jobsworth are about
Give somebody new responsibilities, new powers, and they will probably be out to prove something. Prove they’re up to it. Get results. Be a jobsworth in many cases. Unfortunately this seems to apply to a lot of trading standards officers who have been given the responsibility for ‘policing’ licensing. Most ...
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It’s enough to make you sick
We are all more or less used to the try-it-on culture but when customers return stuff along with threats “to report you”, you are bound to look over your shoulder.I had a call from Hari Singh, who trades in Liverpool, concerning a customer who brought back an empty packet of ...
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Driving down drive-offs
I must put my hand up and say that I did a drive-off the other day. However, it was at my local station and I did wave at the checkout a lot as I drove very slowly out and point to the husband who was waiting in the queue to ...