Get your licence from your LOCAL (small) post office

[rickster]

jeepster:

 

jeepster:

if the shop is not profitable then it will close down. Its a business so its all about making money. they wont keep throwing money at a losing cause.

Sad as it may seem but thats the be all and end of all in business.

we're not talking about shops, we're talking about post offices, a valuable service in rural areas, not profit making enterprises. sure they try to make money from other sides of the business (most of them are small shops too now) but the post office side of the enterprise is judged on number of transactions / customers not turnover

Nope since the post office got privatised its a shop, business, got to make money or the big wigs will close it. Dont get me wrong, i know the are a vaulable asset in any area. Im just stating the fact that even if we all get our licenses from local post offices, its not going to stop them " streamlining" there business. Its a fact in modern retail world

[davidP]

Paul_D:

It's the net for me unless they let tackle dealers sell them again.

Ain't gonna happen in anything other than the odd case. Do you remember what used to happen when you bought one? The money went in a tin under the counter with minimal recording. That tin then got raided for change, or got lost, or got stolen. The money sat with the dealer until he got around to sending it in maybe once or twice a season, and quite often it was wrong owing to miscalculation, loss of licence books, attempted fraud etc. Or the shop went out of business without paying the licence money to the EA. And then to top it all the tackle dealers started to complain that they didn't earn enough commission. For a national legally-binding licence the system was a shambles and was costing the EA a lot of money and their cash flow was unpredictable.

 

The PO was the obvious choice as a replacement as they did this kind of thing already. At the time they were in the process of installing a new automated system, and they were able to easily add fishing licences to the system and so offer it at a very reasonable commission rate (I tested the system - if it wasn't for me you'd be buying a 'course' licence). The system keeps accurate records, will issue receipts if requested and the PO will hand over all the collected money on time.

 

Also at the time of installation there were aproximately 19,300 post offices which is a hell of a lot more outlets than were available before. I'd go so far as to say that the ratio is probbly even higher now as athough a lot of POs have closed I suspect a higher proportion of tackle shops have shut down. A quick look in my Yellow Pages (Slough/Windsor/Maidenhead/Bracknell) shows I have 68 Post offices in my area against 11 tackle dealers. And let's not remember that not all tackle shops sold them. I'll also bet it's actually faster to buy a licence at the PO than it was at a tackle shop. The difference is at the PO you're stood in a queue with nothing to do whereas in the tackle shop you're wandering round viewing stuff, waggling rods, drinking coffee, waiting for the owner to finish his latest tale etc, so it doesn't feel like waiting.

 

Paul_D:

The only reason post offices sell them is because the government asked them to andin the hope of  secondery sells, stamps etc etc.

It was the EA who approached the Post Office because the PO will sell them for less, will pay on time and keep accurate records. Government had nothing to do with it.

[Paul_D]

quote:

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The PO was the obvious choice as a replacement as they did this kind of thing already. At the time they were in the process of installing a new automated system, and they were able to easily add fishing licences to the system and so offer it at a very reasonable commission rate (I tested the system - if it wasn't for me you'd be buying a 'course' licence). The system keeps accurate records, will issue receipts if requested and the PO will hand over all the collected money on time.

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Unless of course you wanted to 'nip out' at lunch time or anytime on a Thursday to buy your licence and you would find your local post office shut. Sorry, not good enough service in my book. Legacies of being a monopoly? Change or die.

[Bradford Angler]

I am a little lost here . . we are discussing the benefits of using post offices for licence renewal as it has potential of saving lots of small outlets and jobs ..

 

however . . if we were the interested in British commerce . . why are we all here and not down our local tackle shop "callin" and buy bit's n pieces and keeping them going too ??

 

How many tackle shops have closed over the last years due to internet shopping and lack of "need to pop in for knowledge etc . .." ??

[Bradford Angler]

now to be really clever as a tackle shop owner .. why not get online in the shop and put a sign in the window . . Rod licences on sale here . . that way you could register customers at the shop with a credit card . . take their cash . . having it in your bank till the visa bill came in . .

 

now that is a slick idea . . does anyone out there do that ??

 

and think of the all the pre-season tackle you could flog when they came in for the new year . .