Steve Singh wrote to say that he had “been trying to get the lottery in my shop since the Post Office stopped doing it. I filled in the original forms but never got the lottery”.
He explained: “I was going through mental health issues and depression so did not file my accounts on time and the company got struck off.”
His accountants have now got all his accounts up to date and the company is back trading and all his tax affairs are up-to-date.
He added: “I have contacted Allwyn several times and keep applying online but they never get back to me in any way.”
Steve says he has traded at the premises (Convenience Store Ltd in Blackburn) for 33years and has never had a issue but now he was finding that not having the lottery was affecting his trade.
I contacted Allwyn to ask if they believed in second chances and a spokesperson replied: “We’re sorry to hear that Mr Singh has been going through a tough time. My colleagues have looked into his account and can see that he attempted to reapply to become a National Lottery retailer before six months had passed since his original application had not been successful. We understand that retailers’ circumstances can and do change, and that’s why our policy is to allow reapplications after six months – allowing time for applicants to address issues with their credit file. Mr Singh would have been made aware of this by email following his most recent application in April. However, as it has now been over six months since Mr Singh’s original application, we will be in touch with him about starting a new application with us and very much hope that he’s successful this time around.”
I sent this to Steve with the opinion that it sounded like a good outcome but he wasn’t so sure. He said: “Thanks for your help but they haven’t said yes. I doubt if they will, but I hope they will. They never replied to my application I never received any reply from them via email.”
He even told Allwyn that he would pay a £10k deposit “in case things go wrong”.
I waited a while before checking back with Steve and he said: “It is progressing but very, very slowly.
“I was told a month ago that they would ring to me an installation date, which nobody did. I constantly tried calling Allwyn and they never gave me a straight answer, even got told to re-apply online, left numerous messages for [a member of staff] to contact me. He would send a message saying he will call me on another day because he was in a meeting then I would hear nothing but I got hold of him this Tuesday and he told me that things are moving in the background but I’m still a long way from getting a terminal. Advised that I will get a DD form to fill in and sent back to which I replied I have already done that and got confirmation this morning the DD is set up from 18th September 2024.
“Also got told to send a picture of the property to see where they can put the dish. This is all very time-consuming considering I still have the old terminal here, the dish still up, etc etc.
“Perhaps a chase up from you may move the matter on further as I have no idea how long I’m going to wait.”
So I duly chased up and Allwyn replied to my follow-up: “Colleagues were in touch with Mr Singh again yesterday, and have been regularly in contact with him since 20 August. The National Lottery terminal onboarding process involves a number of steps – involving third parties, various checks, site assessments, training and input from the retailer at certain stages – so the average timeframe for this is 60 days. We are at the final stages of the process and Mr Singh now requires an engineer visit, which we’ve managed to fit in as early as possible next month after freeing up some resource. We really appreciate Mr Singh’s continued support and obvious keenness to get up and running as soon as possible.”
The latest from Steve was that he had been forwarded a training manual and completion tests. “I completed these yesterday and now await next step.”
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