Argos shenanigans

[brucemillar]

I'm not too sure what the hassle or difficulty is either. If one of our customers asks for an invoice or copy of one. We email it over as a PDF in seconds. We are a tiny little small business & have a miniscule amount of resource, money & systems in comparison to the likes of guys like Argos. All this PayPal this, Apple Pay that and fasttrack order system & they can't even give you a simple VAT receipt....bonkers!

Back in the day.... We called it "Sales Avoidance Technique" It worked wonders on many companies,trashing their sales figures and putting their 'practitioners' of the "technique"out of a job.

Not wishing to hi-jack the post here. I have just gone through a similar avoidance program, with Bunnings/Homebase/whoaretheytoday. They seem unable to price articles that they have on-sale in their shops. Three separate visits to a Bunnings 'Out of Town' Megastore and three separate discussions with their sales staff, saw Bunnings, unable to give me a price for a tool-chest (it was £550) and I found it myself by searching their Australian Web Site. I called and almost had to beg to buy the thing.

You may, as I did, think this to be a one off? WRONG undaunted by my first three trips and having eventually purchased what I wanted, I returned to buy a KInchromec 4 drawer oddments chest. They have these on display in the store. What they did not have on display? Was the price. That took another three telephone calls to the store manager to illicit that information. I did not buy the thing and told then why. I also explained politely to their Manager how they could improve sales by selling stuff to willing punters. That fell on deaf ears. The suggestion being that "they were doing just fine, thank you" the reality is,that they appear? To being sold back to Homebase and incurring substantial losses.

Bonkers.

 

[TheFoX]

Listening to Radio 2 can be quite interesting. Apparently, 40% of a company's workforce does 100% of the work, while the other 60% sit around doing nothing productive. The bigger the workforce, the more people sat around doing nothing. The poor sods who suffer when a company fails are those who actually do something.

Roles that have no real world meaning include a 'compliance manager'.

It's no wonder that companies are going to the wall. They have a habit of creating lucrative roles that pay a handsome salary for effectively doing nothing.

Getting a VAT invoice should be the easiest thing in the world, yet bureaucracy created by a bunch of guys who's sole job is to create bureaucracy means that getting a simple invoice is a complex thing to do.

Too many companies have gone by the wayside because those charged with running the company have been sitting on their hands doing nothing. If your company starts losing money, you streamline, not sit there hoping the next quarter is better.

There must be a Gordon Britas in every organisation.

 

[markjay]

The lesson is that if as a business you buy from a retailer that focuses on selling to consumers then you may have some bureacratic problems because it's not what their front systems are designed for....

Agreed.

It's just that I have bought from retail chains before and never had an issue with obtaining a VAT invoice.

At PC World for example you pay at the till, then take the till receipt to the Customer Services counter and they issue a VAT invoice on the spot. Etc.

I guess I should not have assumed that all retail outlets are geared to support business sales.

 

[E53AMG]

Next time you need some IT kit drop me a line, I will be cheaper than Argos, will issue a VAT invoice and can deliver NBD....

Sent from my SM-G955F using Tapatalk

 

[Deleted member 6183]

Listening to Radio 2 can be quite interesting. Apparently, 40% of a company's workforce does 100% of the work, while the other 60% sit around doing nothing productive. The bigger the workforce, the more people sat around doing nothing. The poor sods who suffer when a company fails are those who actually do something.

Roles that have no real world meaning include a 'compliance manager'.

It's no wonder that companies are going to the wall. They have a habit of creating lucrative roles that pay a handsome salary for effectively doing nothing.

Getting a VAT invoice should be the easiest thing in the world, yet bureaucracy created by a bunch of guys who's sole job is to create bureaucracy means that getting a simple invoice is a complex thing to do.

Too many companies have gone by the wayside because those charged with running the company have been sitting on their hands doing nothing. If your company starts losing money, you streamline, not sit there hoping the next quarter is better.

There must be a Gordon Britas in every organisation.

 

[Dryce]

I guess I should not have assumed that all retail outlets are geared to support business sales.

My view is that every till receipt should have a VAT number and VAT amount.

I think if VAT had been introduced within the last 20 years then the EPOS systems would all do this and we wouldn't expect it any other way. But VAT was introduced back in the days of mechanical tills and hand written VAT receipts. So the tradition is that till receipts often just total VAT inclusive prices.

One of my gripes dealing with expenses is that till receipts are different. Different locations for dates and locations, some mark VAT able goods and provide a VAT number and some don't.

It's also a pity credit card companies don't tie in VAT information with credit card transactions - then if you run a company credit card for expenses you'd get statement that could provide a simple VAT summary.

As regards Argos - I have no beef with them as I've never had problems with what has been supplied or warranty or returns. However I do think that they are sloppier than they used to be with product descriptions and images - and you get situations where product Q&A and reviews bring up repeated issues with product descriptions over an extended period of time that just don't get corrected or clarified. That to me signals an organisation that is not on top if its game.

 

[219]

Agreed.

It's just that I have bought from retail chains before and never had an issue with obtaining a VAT invoice.

At PC World for example you pay at the till, then take the till receipt to the Customer Services counter and they issue a VAT invoice on the spot. Etc.

I guess I should not have assumed that all retail outlets are geared to support business sales.

Just out of curiosity , I went to the Argos website and went through the motions of ordering an item that might be bought for a business ( in this case a £10.99 cash box ) : I stopped short of putting in my payment details and cancelled the order , but at no point was there anywhere asking for business details or VAT numbers - so I don't know how you would have been meant to provide that information at the online ordering stage ?

I did , however , trawl through the small print at the bottom of the page , and there is a link to the following page

Argos Business - Full Argos Product Range, Gift Cards, Business Experts

 

[markjay]

Just out of curiosity , I went to the Argos website and went through the motions of ordering an item that might be bought for a business ( in this case a £10.99 cash box ) : I stopped short of putting in my payment details and cancelled the order , but at no point was there anywhere asking for business details or VAT numbers - so I don't know how you would have been meant to provide that information at the online ordering stage ?

I did , however , trawl through the small print at the bottom of the page , and there is a link to the following page

Argos Business - Full Argos Product Range, Gift Cards, Business Experts

Before placing the order, I opened an account online with Argos, then placed the order while logged-in to my account.

I usually do this when ordering online, because it allows me to keep track of my order history, e.g. for warranty repairs or for reordering items etc.

When opening the account, I provided my name and home address, but I did not mention the company name. This is what the call handler was refereeing to when saying they can't issue a VAT invoice "because it's a residential address".

 

[219]

The residential address thing is a croc because loads of self employed people work from home and are VAT registered.

 

[Deleted member 6183]

The residential address thing is a croc because loads of self employed people work from home and are VAT registered.

They could give their accountant's address.

 

[Deleted96908]

On the subject of corporate VAT liabilities, there is something called VAT grouping whereby a network of parent - child companies can request treatment as a VAT group, allowing them to temporarily amortise VAT liabilities in certain circumstances. The intention of this is not to reduce the amount of tax paid, but to ease the in and out cashflow of group companies. But with with retail margins being eroded by the day, you can imagine circumstances whereby more 'profit' is delivered by creative group accountants than by head of sales. Which reminds me, what a great book, The Smartest Guys in the Room. (Enron).

 

[219]

They could give their accountant's address.

No doubt they could , but in the case of a lot of ‘one man band’ sole traders who legitimately work from home , why shouldn’t they use their home address and business address which are the same ?

 

[Deleted96908]

No doubt they could , but in the case of a lot of ‘one man band’ sole traders who legitimately work from home , why shouldn’t they use their home address and business address which are the same ?

Waterfall software development. Specced up front and unchanging for years. Literally a case of computa says no

 

[Deleted member 6183]

No doubt they could , but in the case of a lot of ‘one man band’ sole traders who legitimately work from home , why shouldn’t they use their home address and business address which are the same ?

They can use whatever address they like but if they want documentation then they might need to lay along.

Of course, they could also refuse to cooperate, dig their heels in and cause a lot of work for everyone else around them.

Then there's the ones that use their accountant's address to deliberately hide their real address, can't have it both ways.

 

[markjay]

And... (drum roll).... A VAT invoice landed in the post today!

It was sent-out one working day after the purchase was made.

The invoice is made to my name at my residential address, which is fine.

That wasn't so difficult after all, was it Argos?

 

[Deleted96908]

That wasn't so difficult after all, was it Argos?

Now go back and demand your Green Shield Stamps...