Cash payments

[dmm]

agent down the road from me got a sh!tty phone call and snotty letter about using his own card. Told if he does it again it'll "jepodize his agency"

You've been warned

[blindmansam]

dmm said:

agent down the road from me got a sh!tty phone call and snotty letter about using his own card. Told if he does it again it'll "jepodize his agency"

You've been warned

Hey , lazy .

How did that happen ?

I have used My Card in all cash transactions in the past year and earned £127 from a certain Credit Card Supplier for it!

Its a Sure fact Hillarys get thier monies quick and fast , there's no fraud taking place . Just 're-routing' the way the money flows.

Is this just hear say - was it Credit Control ? FSM ? or What ? or just to scare us all once again . If they wanna terminate ? well let ,em ! It would be THIER LOSS .

[loneranger]

On several topics ...

I had this same conversation with my FSM recently. I had got behind with my admin and pay ins and, having spent 45 minutes on the previous occasion queuing in the Post Office, I looked at the length of the queue the next time and decided to pay the money into my bank account and send off a personal cheque. Bad person !!! "This shows us that you kept the money and spent it and that's theft." Bull nuts. What does it matter how they get the money. I know an agent who has been doing it routinely for years.

Third stage bonus. Not quite a secret, but there are still several agents on this deal. The idea was that it was awarded to agents who wished to go full time to recognize there additional commitment to the job. Historically, based on several factors (advertising spend, lead effect, discounting, sales figures etc) you can be paid a further 1% to 5% of the net sales value for the month. Most agents use this to pay a fitter. The fact of the matter is that this deal is no longer offered to anyone wishing to go full time and will not be. The reality is that Hillarys would love to eliminate it altogether. Recent changes to the criteria for payment of the bonus supposedly make it easier to calculate but the targets being set make it virtually impossible to achieve bonus (I have heard figures in the region of £39,000 + VAT). If you miss your target over three consecutive months you will be removed from the bonus scheme. Mission accomplished, the reduction of the number of stage 3 agents.

New agents are being added to the territories where existing agents have been working for up to 20 years. It is, of course, a game of numbers. If the overall sales for an area increase by 20% as a result of the new agents, then Hillarys have gained 20% income. Never mind the established agent who will see his figures reduced by maybe 25% (and , therefore, his income). "You'll just have to work harder" one was told.

Like us all, I took on the agency on the basis of "Work for yourself, run your own business, be your own boss". God knows, they are still using the same spiel in their recruitment adverts last week. How many of you can say that you are doing any of that when everyone at Hillarys from the office girls right upwards perceives themselves to be your boss?

I was (allegedly) a full time agent and very rarely could say that I was being supplied with enough leads to justify my full time status. Over the years I acquired various other pieces of merchandising work to slot in around the blinds to supplement my income. This all worked fairly well until the advent of centralised diary booking where Hillarys decided when and where I would be working,making it more difficult to arrange my own time. As a result of incurring the displeasure of the Hillarys "management" team and being totally stressed out trying to keep all the balls in the air, I have now parted company with them. I was fortunate that a local blind company was looking to recruit at the time and I elected to apply to them for part time work and have been selling their range of blinds for several weeks now. They are perfectly happy to let me work around my other commitments and, thus far, I am earning around £300 -£400 per week in addition to the £11,000 - £13,000 that I earn from freelance merchandising work. The only draw back is that I am having to learn a new range of products .... 4 vertical books, 5 roller books, 3 ranges of wooden blinds (all including the Hillarys trade book, Arena, by the way) not to mention a willingness to make blinds to the customers' requirements .... non-standard scallop? no problem, just draw what you want. I hadn't realised how limited the range actually was. Also, I don't spend any time explaining why 3 for £99 is not going to happen for them. And I am enjoying kicking the crap out of Hillary's. I took an order this morning for £950 from a previous customer..... lovely.

This is not sour grapes. I do feel a sadness at the end of 15 years being the Hillarys man but, thank God, there is life after Hillary's, and don't lose sight of that, please.

blindmansam said:

dmm said:

agent down the road from me got a sh!tty phone call and snotty letter about using his own card. Told if he does it again it'll "jepodize his agency"

You've been warned

Hey , lazy .

How did that happen ?

I have used My Card in all cash transactions in the past year and earned £127 from a certain Credit Card Supplier for it!

Its a Sure fact Hillarys get thier monies quick and fast , there's no fraud taking place . Just 're-routing' the way the money flows.

Is this just hear say - was it Credit Control ? FSM ? or What ? or just to scare us all once again . If they wanna terminate ? well let ,em ! It would be THIER LOSS .

[blindmansam]

loneranger said:

On several topics ...

I had this same conversation with my FSM recently. I had got behind with my admin and pay ins and, having spent 45 minutes on the previous occasion queuing in the Post Office, I looked at the length of the queue the next time and decided to pay the money into my bank account and send off a personal cheque. Bad person !!! "This shows us that you kept the money and spent it and that's theft." Bull nuts. What does it matter how they get the money. I know an agent who has been doing it routinely for years.

Third stage bonus. Not quite a secret, but there are still several agents on this deal. The idea was that it was awarded to agents who wished to go full time to recognize there additional commitment to the job. Historically, based on several factors (advertising spend, lead effect, discounting, sales figures etc) you can be paid a further 1% to 5% of the net sales value for the month. Most agents use this to pay a fitter. The fact of the matter is that this deal is no longer offered to anyone wishing to go full time and will not be. The reality is that Hillarys would love to eliminate it altogether. Recent changes to the criteria for payment of the bonus supposedly make it easier to calculate but the targets being set make it virtually impossible to achieve bonus (I have heard figures in the region of £39,000 + VAT). If you miss your target over three consecutive months you will be removed from the bonus scheme. Mission accomplished, the reduction of the number of stage 3 agents.

New agents are being added to the territories where existing agents have been working for up to 20 years. It is, of course, a game of numbers. If the overall sales for an area increase by 20% as a result of the new agents, then Hillarys have gained 20% income. Never mind the established agent who will see his figures reduced by maybe 25% (and , therefore, his income). "You'll just have to work harder" one was told.

Like us all, I took on the agency on the basis of "Work for yourself, run your own business, be your own boos". God knows, they are still using the same spiel in their recruitment adverts last week. How many of you can say that you are doing any of that when everyone at Hillarys from the office girls right upwards perceives themselves to be your boss?

I was (allegedly) a full time agent and very rarely could say that I was being supplied with enough leads to justify my full time status. Over the years I acquired various other pieces of merchandising work to slot in around the blinds to supplement my income. This all worked fairly well until the advent of centralised diary booking where Hillarys decided when and where I would be working,making it more difficult to arrange my own time. As a result of incurring the displeasure of the Hillarys "management" team and being totally stressed out trying to keep all the balls in the air, I have now parted company with them. I was fortunate that a local blind company was looking to recruit at the time and I elected to apply to them for part time work and have been selling their range of blinds for several weeks now. They are perfectly happy to let me work around my other commitments and, thus far, I am earning around £300 -£400 per week in addition to the £11,000 - £13,000 that I earn from freelance merchandising work. The only draw back is that I am having to learn a new range of products .... 4 vertical books, 5 roller books, 3 ranges of wooden blinds (all including the Hillarys trade book, Arena, by the way) not to mention a willingness to make blinds to the customers' requirements .... non-standard scallop? no problem, just draw what you want. I hadn't realised how limited the range actually was. Also, I don't spend any time explaining why 3 for £99 is not going to happen for them. And I am enjoying kicking the crap out of Hillary's. I took an order this morning for £950 from a previous customer..... lovely.

This is not sour grapes. I do feel a sadness at the end of 15 years being the Hillarys man but, thank God, there is life after Hillary's.

blindmansam said:

Hey , lazy .

How did that happen ?

I have used My Card in all cash transactions in the past year and earned £127 from a certain Credit Card Supplier for it!

Its a Sure fact Hillarys get thier monies quick and fast , there's no fraud taking place . Just 're-routing' the way the money flows.

Is this just hear say - was it Credit Control ? FSM ? or What ? or just to scare us all once again . If they wanna terminate ? well let ,em ! It would be THIER LOSS .

This message has been printed , framed , and now on my wall ! Very true and pertinent info contained.

Can't wait to read other comments on this .

Look out here they come ..............................

[dmm]

blindmansam said:

dmm said:

agent down the road from me got a sh!tty phone call and snotty letter about using his own card. Told if he does it again it'll "jepodize his agency"

You've been warned

Hey , lazy .

How did that happen ?

I have used My Card in all cash transactions in the past year and earned £127 from a certain Credit Card Supplier for it!

Its a Sure fact Hillarys get thier monies quick and fast , there's no fraud taking place . Just 're-routing' the way the money flows.

Is this just hear say - was it Credit Control ? FSM ? or What ? or just to scare us all once again . If they wanna terminate ? well let ,em ! It would be THIER LOSS .

Not hearsay, know him well - in fact he got the idea from me which is why he warned me. and who came out with the cr@p that we're stealing there money? They're getting it quicker and cheaper, they're just to stupid to see it.
Im using morgan stanley but the b@stards are introducing a £20 fee, so now lookin for another one

[RED]

dmm said:

blindmansam said:

Hey , lazy .

How did that happen ?

I have used My Card in all cash transactions in the past year and earned £127 from a certain Credit Card Supplier for it!

Its a Sure fact Hillarys get thier monies quick and fast , there's no fraud taking place . Just 're-routing' the way the money flows.

Is this just hear say - was it Credit Control ? FSM ? or What ? or just to scare us all once again . If they wanna terminate ? well let ,em ! It would be THIER LOSS .

Not hearsay, know him well - in fact he got the idea from me which is why he warned me. and who came out with the cr@p that we're stealing there money? They're getting it quicker and cheaper, they're just to stupid to see it.
Im using morgan stanley but the b@stards are introducing a £20 fee, so now lookin for another one

Yes, I had the same letter. My local post office is known as pensioner alley and they take it over all week.
Funny thing is I have used a personal cheque or card for years to avoid the queuing and never had a problem.
I have never done it with a cash back card, but maybe someone can answer this for me.
If you had a cash back card and paid Hillary's using your all-pay card but using your credit card to pay it would this work.
I understand they want us to use the all pay card to try and streamline things, but what does it matter which way this is paid.
Maybe they just dont like any one making that extra 1.5%.
I hope they don't ask us to start logging all the serial numbers on the notes soon.
Oooopss, I have just given some jobsworth an idea.

[*Star*man*]

In the past i have recieved letters from Hillary's telling me NOT to use Personal cheques for payments.

All i did was leave it a few weeks - then continue as always . s0d them!

[gloryboy]

they are probably monitoring your allpay accounts.
if there are no transactions on it they'll think something dodgy is going on. put through the odd one or two to give the account some movement and it won't get highlighted!

[hereticus]

gloryboy said:

they are probably monitoring your allpay accounts.
if there are no transactions on it they'll think something dodgy is going on. put through the odd one or two to give the account some movement and it won't get highlighted!

I don't think that's the answer, because I do both.

I generally pay in larger amounts through Allpay (say £ 100.00 +) but for smaller amounts I tend to send a personal cheque - it saves me queueing at the post office and also saves me going to the cashpoint for personal drawings, so I'm saving time twice over, thus making more time available for sales appointments and fits.

The point is that I use both - probably an average of three Allpay transactions every week - yet I also got a snotty letter about using personal cheques. I really don't understand what their problem is - I've been doing it for years without any comebacks.

A few hints with Allpay - avoid post offices on Mondays, avoid early mornings, avoid the first half hour after their lunch break, and definitely avoid 4.00 pm onwards when businesses are taking in all their post for weighing. Also, use rural sub post offices if you can - parking is easier and queues are generally shorter.

[thelloydgang]

gloryboy said:

they are probably monitoring your allpay accounts.
if there are no transactions on it they'll think something dodgy is going on. put through the odd one or two to give the account some movement and it won't get highlighted!

I've never used my Allpay...........don't even know where the card is!

K ;D

[Blind Scout]

hereticus said:

... A few hints with Allpay - avoid post offices on Mondays, avoid early mornings, avoid the first half hour after their lunch break, and definitely avoid 4.00 pm onwards when businesses are taking in all their post for weighing. Also, use rural sub post offices if you can - parking is easier and queues are generally shorter.

I bank cash only weekly, and use a sub office that is open until 7 p.m. on a Thursday, although I usually get there about 6:40. normally no Q but I have had to wait in a small Q of 1 occasonally. Then a run round to the local delivery office where their last collection is 7.30 p.m. so Hillarys should get the paperwork on Friday, then off to Choir practice for 7:00. If I bank before 5 p.m, the lass even puts it into her mail bag to save the trip to the delivery office. Works for me! Agree with most of your times to avoid, especially at main offices, although I don't suppose it is any worse than when we had to go to the bank.

[RED]

hereticus said:

gloryboy said:

they are probably monitoring your allpay accounts.
if there are no transactions on it they'll think something dodgy is going on. put through the odd one or two to give the account some movement and it won't get highlighted!

I don't think that's the answer, because I do both.

I generally pay in larger amounts through Allpay (say £ 100.00 +) but for smaller amounts I tend to send a personal cheque - it saves me queueing at the post office and also saves me going to the cashpoint for personal drawings, so I'm saving time twice over, thus making more time available for sales appointments and fits.

The point is that I use both - probably an average of three Allpay transactions every week - yet I also got a snotty letter about using personal cheques. I really don't understand what their problem is - I've been doing it for years without any comebacks.

A few hints with Allpay - avoid post offices on Mondays, avoid early mornings, avoid the first half hour after their lunch break, and definitely avoid 4.00 pm onwards when businesses are taking in all their post for weighing. Also, use rural sub post offices if you can - parking is easier and queues are generally shorter.

I think a lot of it comes down to who does your paperwork once you have sent it in.
If you are lucky you will get someone who knows what they are doing and has been with them a while. If you are unlucky, you will get a jobsworth doing it, that follows every rule to the letter and probably enjoys his/her little bit of power over the adviser.
More than likely was a traffic warden before joining Hillary's. ;D