We are issuing a Red Card via this blog. This means we are blacklisting Oaks Vehicle Service Centre in Hersden, a village just east of Canterbury in Kent. This is because they are not, and never have been, a FOXY Lady Approved garage, despite pretending to be by carrying our logo at their website without our permission.
Earlier this year they signed and completed an order form to subscribe to our female friendly garage network. After we’d checked their IMI credentials we set up their FOXY Page and Club listing before issuing our invoice, payable within 30 days.
After 30 days, we nudged the garage for payment several times, by email and phone, without success. This is a rare instance for FOXY because garages usually pay us promptly to get their Subscriber Pack which includes Female Friendly Approved promotional materials and online gift memberships of FOXY Lady Drivers Club for female customers.
Finally we caught up with their elusive business manager and requested a card payment to speed matters up on both sides. We were given card details but the card failed when the bank declined this later on.
FOXY is blacklisting Oaks Vehicle Service Garage in Kent
Having exhausted every reasonable method to obtain payment for their order or to obtain an explanation for a delayed/failed payment, FOXY’s Area Manager referred this to me.
I then left an ansafone message and emailed the business manager, asking for a final explanation or rectification of the situation.
We are not unreasonable people here but we are professionals. Clearly a business that would pass off membership of our scheme and treat FOXY this badly is not one we’d want to introduce to women in Canterbury even when we are perfectly within our rights to insist on the full subscription payment.
After an email explaining Oaks’ options, including our issuing a Red Card within The Club, the garage’s business manager offered to pay our bank charges (an estimated £20) for the failed card payment and remove the FOXY Lady Approved logo from their website.
I agreed to this so we could all move on. We re-invoiced the garage by return (that’s ten days ago now) and requested this payment and the removal of our logo from their website by 18 April 2017.
A week later this second invoice remains unpaid and our logo is still in place at their website.
This constitutes ‘passing off’ in law and we’ll be reporting this to Trading Standards.
Their business manager is also a member of the IMI (Institute of the Motor Industry) which means he has signed the same ethical business promise as I have.
But he has not honoured his by
1) placing a sales order and failing to pay for this
2) using the FOXY Lady Approved logo without permission/purporting to be a member of this scheme when he is not
3) failing to do what he said he would do ie not paying a revised invoice or removing our logo as requested
so we’ll be reporting him to the IMI accordingly.
Fortunately the issue of a Red Card is a rare occurrence for FOXY but I have no hesitation in issuing one to Oaks Service Centre on this occasion because of their evidently premeditated and cavalier commercial behaviour in their dealings with us.
FOXY Lady Approved garages in Canterbury
To avoid any confusion, our FOXY Lady Approved ie female friendly garages in the Canterbury area are
Protyre Canterbury
Dargate MOT Centre
Six Mile Garage
Female Motoring feedback
If you’d like to tell us about a female friendly UK motoring business that isn’t on our FOXY Lady Approved network yet please do so here.
FOXY