8:20 am, April 3, 2021
A dealership has defended a £5 surcharge a nurse was asked to pay for PPE equipment that staff needed to wear while they serviced her car.
The woman said she was surprised at first by the request by Robins & Day in Leicester then angered that people were having to pay a cost that other companies were absorbing, reported Leicestershire Live.
The nurse, who asked not be named, said her car’s contract stipulated that the vehicle had to have a service and that she also had to use a Peugeot garage.
But she added that the dealership later offered to deduct the fee. Robins & Day also said that a lot of garages were similarly charging for PPE.
She was quoted as saying: ‘The man on the phone told me the amount it would cost plus the £5 charge, which I was told covered personal protective equipment.
‘I was a bit taken aback. He then told me, “I can take it off for you if you want.” I said not to bother.
‘Then I got put through to someone else so I could pay and they said the charge was for them to wear PPE, clean the car down before the service and then again before they give it back.
‘I’d had a bad day at work and didn’t want to start an argument but I couldn’t believe it. It’s ridiculous charging for it. It just seems astonishing.’
She told Leicestershire Live that she saw up to 15 patients a day and cleaned her car between each appointment as well as using PPE.
In response, Robins & Day issued a statement saying: ‘In order to ensure that we protect our customers and our staff from Covid-19 when customers are visiting Robins & Day, we charge £5 on the invoice of all vehicles coming into our service departments.
‘This is to cover the cost of the additional sanitisation applied to their vehicle and their surroundings when in with us.
‘Robins & Day are part of Stellantis, a global group which has a strict group policy on running and operating in a Covid-secure business which is enforced in every market.
“The Stellantis regulations which we adhere to can be more strict than the UK government Covid protocols in certain instances.
‘Many garages are operating a charge for PPE.
‘As we operate under strict Covid-secure health and safety standards, we want to reassure our customers that we have worked within the group Covid protocols and this is why a £5 charge is recorded on the invoice as PPE.’
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