New Notemachine ATM commissions a joke
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Gehngus
Posts: 51 Forumite
I own a building in a small (remote) town that hosts a hole in the wall accessed via an internal security booth.
It's quite a big booth and takes a good bit of the property up but the payments made it worth while and it enabled me to let the rest of the building as a PostOffice at an affordable rent.
The ATM is the only one in the town and it exceeds 5000 transactions a month.
Initially the ATM was provided by Natwest after they closed the bank down (there are no banks left in the town). Notemachine took over the natwest contracts.
I was offered a new 5 year contract with notemachine last year offering a fixed amount of £496 per month and took it (after them working out exactly what it was worth to them all things considered etc..).
A letter arrived last month explaining about changes to the interchange fees going down by 20% over 4 years so I would be getting less and it included a contract to sign. I did not sign this contract as I was under the impression that a remote/rural ATM would be exempt from these changes.
Today notemachine sent £138 for 5300 transactions instead of £496.
I phoned Notemachine and explained that this amount would not even cover electricity to the booth let alone the space it takes up and it would make it totally unsustainable. I was told there is something in the current contract that allows them to do this. That if it hadn't hit 5000 transactions I would have got nothing and if i want to contact my solicitor no problem, have a nice day.
I cant belive a 5% drop just now can allow Notemachine to drop their payments by 75%.
The truth is, with this amount coming in I will be running at a loss and would be better off without (the rental income and the ATM income combined will cover a half of the the loan repayments on the property). It is the only ATM in the town and it would be devastating to the town to lose, but I can't run at a loss.
I might have expected a possible cut in payments (possibly 20% over 4 years) but not such a drastic fall.
So.. What are my choices here?
I have phoned my solicitor (waiting for a call back) and will be asking how to get out of the contract just in case.
I have also explained the situation to the current shop tenant if he would be willing to buy the building if I make it available to him. He is going to ask Postoffice ltd what comision he will get on 5000 transactions if somehow i can break the contract (or if the contract ends when i sell up).
I'm looking for options really before going to the solicitor about this but I'm still too shell shocked to think about it properly. Either way I want nothing else to do with Notemachine (preferably without waiting 4 years for the contract to end).
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you
It's quite a big booth and takes a good bit of the property up but the payments made it worth while and it enabled me to let the rest of the building as a PostOffice at an affordable rent.
The ATM is the only one in the town and it exceeds 5000 transactions a month.
Initially the ATM was provided by Natwest after they closed the bank down (there are no banks left in the town). Notemachine took over the natwest contracts.
I was offered a new 5 year contract with notemachine last year offering a fixed amount of £496 per month and took it (after them working out exactly what it was worth to them all things considered etc..).
A letter arrived last month explaining about changes to the interchange fees going down by 20% over 4 years so I would be getting less and it included a contract to sign. I did not sign this contract as I was under the impression that a remote/rural ATM would be exempt from these changes.
Today notemachine sent £138 for 5300 transactions instead of £496.
I phoned Notemachine and explained that this amount would not even cover electricity to the booth let alone the space it takes up and it would make it totally unsustainable. I was told there is something in the current contract that allows them to do this. That if it hadn't hit 5000 transactions I would have got nothing and if i want to contact my solicitor no problem, have a nice day.
I cant belive a 5% drop just now can allow Notemachine to drop their payments by 75%.
The truth is, with this amount coming in I will be running at a loss and would be better off without (the rental income and the ATM income combined will cover a half of the the loan repayments on the property). It is the only ATM in the town and it would be devastating to the town to lose, but I can't run at a loss.
I might have expected a possible cut in payments (possibly 20% over 4 years) but not such a drastic fall.
So.. What are my choices here?
I have phoned my solicitor (waiting for a call back) and will be asking how to get out of the contract just in case.
I have also explained the situation to the current shop tenant if he would be willing to buy the building if I make it available to him. He is going to ask Postoffice ltd what comision he will get on 5000 transactions if somehow i can break the contract (or if the contract ends when i sell up).
I'm looking for options really before going to the solicitor about this but I'm still too shell shocked to think about it properly. Either way I want nothing else to do with Notemachine (preferably without waiting 4 years for the contract to end).
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you
0
Comments
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I would try and find out exactly what is in the current contract that allows them to do it, without this info no one can help and it might make the solictors job more straight forward if you know exactly where the issue is.
Only a thought, but why send a new contract for you to sign if the old one covers them reducing the payments? I think solictors are your best route at this point to try and get out the contract.People don't know what they want until you show them.0 -
As said above, you need the wording of the original contract.
But, regardless of that, don't cut off your nose to spite your face. If you ditch the cash machine, the post office will probably close, as it's probably the cash machine driving customers to your post office. Then, you'd be left with no income, neither from the cash machine, nor the post office rent. So you have to think about the consequences of that. If you could sell/rent the property for other purposes, i.e. residential conversion, then fine, but if not, you could be left with an empty shop you can't rent out meaning no revenue at all.0 -
Many thanks.
I have dropped the contract off at the solicitors today. I am also looking at other ATM companies (including the Post Office ltd via the current post master).
If there is a way to ditch Notemachine and keep the ATM up and running that would be my best course.0 -
Possibly, but all companies presumably have to deal with the change in interchange fees. If you can get out of this contract you need to be sure that other contracts are better and don't allow unilaterally changing fees and conditions.If there is a way to ditch Notemachine and keep the ATM up and running that would be my best course.0 -
As said above, you need the wording of the original contract.
But, regardless of that, don't cut off your nose to spite your face. If you ditch the cash machine, the post office will probably close, as it's probably the cash machine driving customers to your post office. Then, you'd be left with no income, neither from the cash machine, nor the post office rent. So you have to think about the consequences of that. If you could sell/rent the property for other purposes, i.e. residential conversion, then fine, but if not, you could be left with an empty shop you can't rent out meaning no revenue at all.
Or the Post Office may do more business as many can do over the counter cash withdrawals. Worth checking out for sure.0 -
Hi
I have found myself in the same predicament and wondered if you had any news from your solicitors on this matter0 -
Sorry For jumping on this thread but we are livid about this company.
We have had one of there ATMs in our shop for 5 years, when they installed the ATM they removed a huge window and cut our Electric shutter in half to enable people to use it at night.
We asked the sales rep at the time if we decided to finish the contract what would happen regarding the window etc and she told us nobody normally ends there contract but yes they would make it right.
We now have a few months left of the contract and have just been told they will only board up the hole.
They said they have no obligation to put it right.
After 5 years we have only earned £190 in total from the machine as the rep mislead us about cash points in the area being removed so the machine never met its targets to get any comission, and now we discover we will have no window or shutter..0 -
Hi what happened to your cases with note machine , don’t pay commission and now won’t pay buissness rates ....0
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