At 7 a.m. yesterday morning, I stopped at Welcome Break's South Mimms Service area on my way to Cambridge; I'm particularly watching for price changes with the VAT drop - to see if we can continue to pass on savings, or if our various suppliers have quietly put their prices up, forcing us to do so once we get fresh stock.

<rant>

Muffin and Coffee ... £2.99. Hmm - signs a bit dusty; doesn't look like they have changed. My VAT receipt duly says 15% ... so that means that the base price has gone up - Welcome Break are pocketing the Chancellors's reduction and not passing it on.

And when I asked ... what a web of misleading information.

"We haven't put our prices up" says the young lady on the till. "Look - if you're VAT registered you can still claim back 39p"

"Our prices haven't changed for years"

"What you have bought would have cost you more if you had bought the two items separately"

"We have 24 sites - we can't change the prices all at once" (yes, but you changed the VAT!)

"It's been the weekend - we can't get staff at the weekend to do it"

Oh ... and just one honest answer that started with "Don't quote me but ...", so I won't quote it, nor give you any clue as to which employee it was who came over and had a quiet chat ...

</rant>

Wouldn't it have been nice to have been given a nice, honest "we haven't changed our prices [yet]. We're keeping the extra money and not passing it on". I might not have approved, but I would have respected the business decision.

Following on during yesterday, I bought Fish and Chips from a corner chippie, and booked into a small hotel. Both appear to left their gross prices unchanged and used the VAT reduction as a quiet way to put prices up by a couple of percent. Perhaps the government is more clever than we thought and that the real reason for the VAT reduction was to allow the retailer who is at the final stage of the supply chain to increase his margins in these hard times, and to put a brake on potential price deflation. This behaviour of our suppliers does make me question our own decision to hand back the difference to our customers - in some areas it may need to be a short-lived gesture on the proportion of our business in which we buy in and are just a part of the supply chain.
(written 2008-12-02)

 M401 - Well House Manor - Seeing how others do it
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  [514] Crazy Day-sies - (2005-12-02)
  [619] If its Sunday, it must be the Norland - (2006-02-23)
  [693] The on line booking experience - (2006-04-21)
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  [714] Room for Octopuses - (2006-05-08)
  [736] New Tape Librarian - (2006-05-28)
  [966] CSL, KISS and RTFM - (2006-12-05)
  [1011] Well House Manor and Beechfield House, Hotels, Melksham - (2006-12-29)
  [1026] The Wheatsheaf 2, The Bell 0 - (2007-01-09)
  [1091] The Psyche is all wrong. - (2007-02-24)
  [1205] Arrival and Departure experiences - another hotel - (2007-05-26)
  [1287] Work and play at Well House Manor - Football and Shell Shortcuts - (2007-08-02)
  [1301] Plastic or China - (2007-08-12)
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  [1347] Wireless Internet Access at hotels - an update and some pitfalls - (2007-09-12)
  [1354] Match the Bedroom to the Hotel - (2007-09-17)
  [1356] Crystal Ball - How long do I need to be online? - (2007-09-18)
  [1374] Maidenhead Coffee Challenge - (2007-10-02)
  [1406] Away or home - which do I prefer? - (2007-10-25)
  [1413] The little gestures that can really count - (2007-10-27)
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  [1458] The wrong way to put up prices - (2007-12-05)
  [1525] Just one thing let the service down - but that is my memory - (2008-01-31)
  [1547] New bathing idea for hotels from Hotelympia - (2008-02-20)
  [1597] Comparing hotels - as a guest and from the proprietors view - (2008-04-01)
  [1672] The Composting Cone Challenge - (2008-06-10)
  [1758] Lindors Hotel, near St. Briavels, Wye Valley - (2008-08-18)
  [2007] Launch of Melksham Food and Drink Festival - (2009-01-24)
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  [2127] Call in the professionals! - (2009-04-12)
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  [2311] Floor to ceiling - (2009-07-30)
  [2413] Sanity checking the price, and selling up to increase income - (2009-09-21)
  [2441] Not your cup of tea? - (2009-10-08)
  [2502] Monday night, Tuesday night - (2009-11-13)
  [2885] Twenty Questions - (2010-07-24)
  [2911] Feeding the Grockles - (2010-08-09)
  [3054] Longhope Hotel - (2010-11-16)
  [3333] Honesty and a friendly welcome goes a long way - (2011-06-25)
  [3368] Well House Manor hotel, Melksham - recommended to you by our customers - (2011-07-23)
  [3754] Eyes Wide Open - (2012-06-06)
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  [3900] The Xxxxx Guest House in Xxxxxxxxxxx - my stay reviewed - (2012-10-20)
  [3963] National TV - Melksham - 9th January 2013, Pre-alert. - (2012-12-27)
  [3970] Comparing four VERY different places to stay - (2013-01-11)
  [3975] Being an amateur hotel inspector helps me run a professional hotel - (2013-01-14)
  [4058] The highs and lows of customer service - Cheltenham - (2013-04-03)
  [4081] Pushing down the advertised price, pushing up the total price charged. - (2013-05-08)
  [4091] A reminder of why we opened Well House Manor for our customers - (2013-05-17)
  [4093] More things to make sure that we do NOT do ... - (2013-05-18)
  [4109] What might you find at a tiny bed and breakfast? - (2013-06-03)
  [4177] Setting and publishing your hours to suit your customer base - (2013-09-18)
  [4245] It always happens to me when I'm in Borehamwood! - (2014-03-06)
  [4255] Making a personal gain from a more expensive business hotel stay - (2014-04-02)
  [4321] Are administration / review charges on hotel guests acceptable? - (2014-11-20)
  [4348] Taking my life in my hands in Swansea - (2014-12-11)
  [4373] A long and disappointing evening - (2014-12-30)
  [4443] Seventh stay away this year - and it's still only February! - (2015-02-25)

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