Latest from Dear Jac – Page 52
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Binoculars trained on the Horizon
The Justice for Subpostmasters Alliance (jfsa.org.uk) is making progress with its fight with the Post Office over flaws in the Horizon accounting system. Recently circulated was an email with updates on a meeting held with Edward Davey, Minister for...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Who is this being ‘fair’ to?
The new coalition government goes on a lot about fairness. So, here's a story regarding Camelot that a lot of you may regard as very unfair. This is an excerpt from an email from Praful Shah of Queens News, Herne Bay in Kent, to Camelot...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Out of space? Here’s a new sweetener from Mars
Kamlesh Patel from Fulford Road PO and KP Newsagents, Hartcliffe, Bristol, says he used to regularly get £16 reward vouchers from Mars for following a planogram, but lately it had halved (and that was after he negotiated it up from £6 to £8). The...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: The final note on music licences
Many of you have called both the helpline and the C-Store office querying our legal guide's view on PPL/PRS licences for in-store music (C-Store October 1, p28). There was an error in the copy. Contrary to what was stated, you do indeed...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Get out your stopwatch
Some councils must give their officials magnifying glasses. In September, someone from the council arrived at Minaxy Patel's store Dayatri News in Eastbourne, East Sussex at 6.45am and questioned one of the news delivery boys standing outside. He...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Where’s the sting in the tale?
Jas Dhesi, who runs Dhesi Stores, has sent me a cutting from his local Tamworth Herald about a series of police and Trading Standards operations at four locations across the town to stop adults buying alcohol for children. In one area it took...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: It’s not all milk and honey
Bharti Maisuria has been accepting milk tokens, for no profit, for the past 24 years, with only the odd voucher going missing when she sent them in for redemption. But now she's missing £420-worth with the Post Office managing to lose 110 vouchers ...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Raise your glasses!
Brian Corby rang from the Wood Green Community Shop in the New Forest. A lady had come into the store and said that someone had sold Ben Shaws Shandy, which says 'made with real beer' on the label, to a young person. Brian's wife is the licensee...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Best…worst…what to do about the date?
Back quickly to best-before dates (Sept 17 issue). Manjit Sokhal is trying to do the decent thing. "We do sometimes eat out-of-date stuff but there's only so much you can store." She considered giving it away, but of course, "Customers would quickly...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Upping the return on a winning draw
Rajan Jhangee, of Paradise Stores, Brentwood, Essex, has asked why Camelot limits the commission it pays out on winning tickets. He understood that small stores could give out Camelot prize money up to a limit of £200 and that they would receive 1%...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: A waste of time and money? No comment
You wouldn't really switch your rubbish collection unless it was going to save you money, would you? Stupid question. Vipul Pabari, who trades as Connaught Rd PO in Leicestershire, says that the price quoted to him by the PHS Wastetech...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Not toxic perhaps, but unacceptable
My 'wee' story in the last issue has prompted several people to get in touch telling me that urine is 'sterile-ish' stuff. But that doesn't mean people should go around weeing wherever they like. The retailer who first contacted me says she has now...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Beware the roll over
Alan Taylor, director at energy broker Utilities Savings Corporation, was very disappointed by this column two issues back which featured Zac Hussain's complaint that his energy bill went up instead of down after using its NFRN-recommended services....
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Penalty shoot-outs
Every month I hear from retailers realising belatedly what they signed up for. Shaid Hussain emailed me to say that he has been overcharged by his photocopy supplier for the past seven years. When he contacted the company to complain he...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: A wee problem turns nasty
We've had rude customers (conducting the entire transaction while still yakking into their mobiles), threatening customers and hold-your-nose smelly customers all making appearances in this column. Now, for the first time, I bring you...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Paying for mistakes shouldn’t be this costly
"We made a mistake," says Tasnim Aslam, who runs The Right Place in South Shields. She is halfway through a seven-year contract with Bank Machine, which installed and supplies an ATM. She gets 15p on all transactions, rising to 25p on transactions...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: In competition with its own network?
I've had an email, from a sub-postmistress of long standing, accusing the Post Office/Royal Mail of being the main competition out there. She writes: "An office can expand its work via many of the Post Office-driven items. However, each and every...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: Are you on their list?
Dear old Britain is getting on, and so are many of its buildings. And English Heritage likes to do that preserving thing by listing buildings. But if you haven't worked out whether your bricks and mortar are worth preserving, it could cost you.
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: What really is the ‘worst after’ date?
Rajan Jhanjee rang from his Paradise Stores CTN in Brentwood, Essex, with that hairy old question about 'best before' dates. We know that retailers can sell items past that date, but what constitutes a reasonable amount of time; ie what is the...
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Dear Jac
Dear Jac: When paying online isn’t an option
Are you doing your VAT online? Alvin Wilkinson isn't. A bit of a reactionary is Alvin. No computer, no epos, no mobile phone. But his store, Countdown in Hornsea, Yorkshire, does very nicely thank you and he pays his considerable VAT on time. Or...