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Bag man takes offence at ActewAGL’s fence

ONE Canberra business owner is sick of a small, fenced-off construction area that has been right outside his Civic shop for over six weeks and, he says, dramatically affected the shop’s turnover.

For the past two weeks there’s been no sign of any work being done at the site in Petrie Plaza, directly in front of discount luggage store Bags to Go, according to the managing director of the company that owns the store, Andrew Keogh.

Andrew Keogh. Photo by Brent McDonald.
Andrew Keogh outside his shop. Photo by Brent McDonald.
Mr Keogh said his staff had repeatedly called him since the work began on May 24 to say the store was “dead quiet” and that they believed the fencing right outside the door, which is the responsibility of ActewAGL, was the main cause.

“I understand that works need to be done, but it’s been over six weeks,” Mr Keogh said yesterday. “Obviously they’ve got to do these works and they don’t generally come and see you [to notify you], but generally it’s a week or two and they’ve packed up and gone away.”

The shop owner said his staff had called ActewAGL many times over the weeks that the work has dragged on, and that when he recently spoke to a customer liaison manager from ActewAGL, he was referred to the Territory and Municipal Services Directorate (TAMS).

“I’ve spoken to ActewAGL and they put it back on TAMS, who want the paving done a certain way,” Mr Keogh said.

He said he had only contacted TAMS yesterday and had not received a response as of yesterday afternoon.

A spokesperson for TAMS said that ActewAGL would need to replace the surface in accordance with the city’s design standards, but that TAMS has nothing to do with the construction site at all.

“ActewAGL says they’re waiting on pavers and it could be six weeks more; meanwhile, last month we were down about 50 per cent on turnover,” Mr Keogh said.

The businessman, who opened his first Bags to Go discount luggage store in Fyshwick before expanding to other parts of Australia and also owns the Lifestyle Bags & Luggage and Trend Bags stores, said he would “absolutely” attribute most of the downturn in sales to the fencing.

“You compare it to our big Fyshwick store and we’re getting pretty good growth in that store … while this one has struggled, especially in the last month,” he said.

“I think it just blocks the direct access and if people can’t easily access you, they walk around or they don’t bother coming in. They might see you there but it’s just a little bit too hard to get to.

“With the fence directly in front of us and the whole way along our shopfront, it’s having a dramatic effect.”

UPDATE, Wednesday July 10:

ActewAGL’s general manager of network services, Robert Atkin, said the pavers had to be dug up to fix a fault in high voltage underground electrical wires on May 24, and that power was restored in less than two hours.

Mr Atkin confirmed that the replacement of the surface was delayed due to a wait for the pavers, which are expected to arrive by July 24.

“Prior to this, ActewAGL had to wait for the quote to be provided by the contractor and the landscaping specifications to be provided by the ACT Government,” he said.

He added that ActewAGL had been given the contact details of the contractor who did the original paving work by the ACT Government, and had engaged the same tradesman for the restoration job.

Mr Atkin also said that ActewAGL had kept two nearby businesses informed about the work.

“The work was unplanned. Where the work is planned, ActewAGL is required to inform customers in writing,” he said.

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7 Responses to Bag man takes offence at ActewAGL’s fence

Kevin says: 10 July 2013 at 10:13 am

So let me get this right. ActewAGL has been told to do works to a standard defined by TAMS and in order to do this they have to wait for the right pavers. ActewAGL are an electricity company, they don’t make pavers so I’m guessing the paver issue is out of their control. In the meantime they are supporting countless community activities, the centenary celebrations, sporting clubs and associations across the territory and generally being good corporate citizens. Seems like the City News and this fellow are simply looking for a headline and a moan if you ask me.

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Ted says: 10 July 2013 at 4:56 pm

Oh Kevin, you didn’t get it right?
It’s the first time I’ve ever heard of any utility company in the world described as “good citizens”.
They have subby landscapers, tree surgeons, builders….anything to with installing and maintaining electricity supplies in public areas, far more than leccy company. So why this lazy mess; it’s appalling for something to be out of action for 6 weeks that is so easily fixed….this isn’t the 3rd world for goodness sake!
They could easily do a temporary fill to get the public footway re-opened to the public, then return and do the job to a proper standard afterwards.
It would take a day to get the spec off TAMS (which is basically just a manufacturer and a colour). Just how much common sense would that take? Are they also paying to rent the fencing..barmy ?

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Mark says: 11 July 2013 at 9:37 am

For some reason this story keeps popping up in my news feed so I’ve read it a couple of times and it seems to change every couple of hours. I noticed that they mention a guy called John Atkin and it just so happens I received an outage notification from someone called Rob Atkin with exactly the same job title today. To me this just looks like shoddy reporting with sketchy details, misleading statements and general truth twisting all for a headline. I wonder what will change next. Have we got a homeless lady with three kids under five we can drag out for the front cover?

And Ted, seriously? You just sound like a do gooder corporate basher to me. You make a blanket statement ignoring any real reference to the community support this company offers and then expect it to carry weight? They’re waiting on a third party so they can do the job to TAMS specs. And while we’re at it do you know that TAMS responded within the day? For real? They’re a government department for crying out loud, they probably took at least a week!

And if, as you suggested, ActewAGL did the job twice they’d have to pass the costs onto us and I bet you’d be the first to complain. Haters gonna hate…

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Stephen Easton says: 11 July 2013 at 11:19 am

Hi Mark,

You’re right, this story was updated several times after publication. Primarily this was done to include ActewAGL’s response, which is also why it was reposted on Facebook, but there were also changes made to more accurately reflect the time of publication.

The only important detail of the story that was changed is that ActewAGL’s response was originally attributed, incorrectly, to the spokesperson who sent the response instead of to Robert Atkin, who the statements were and still are attributed to. Of course CityNews would always prefer to quote a senior staff member rather than a spokesperson and this was a simple oversight.

The name “John Atkin” was a regrettable second mistake, a typo that happened while changing the spokesperson’s name over to the correct name. It was up there for less than 10 minutes and I fixed it as soon as it was brought to my attention.

Another small and unrelated change was made to remove the name of a different ActewAGL staff member, who had spoken to Mr Keogh over the phone, at ActewAGL’s request. The fact he had spoken to the shop owner was not in dispute, and nor was Mr Keogh’s recollection of the advice he was given. I removed this name as a courtesy to ActewAGL’s public relations staff, who asked me to remove the man’s name. I did so because I had no strong desire to keep it in, and they seemed to strongly desire its removal. This change did not affect the story’s accuracy.

Thanks for reading,

-Stephen Easton

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Ted says: 11 July 2013 at 12:05 pm

Hi Mark.
Haters gonna hate? I’m afraid i’m not a Belieber so can’t relate to you there, but isn’t this normally used as a defence by the morally bereft against valid criticism?
You have a small business being adversely affected by what seems to be a non-responsive, poorly processed, sluggish behemoth.
Who in ActewAGL has got the initiative and foresight to actually try and do a responsive job for this community member and not hide behind blaming process? This isn’t 1979.
Surely a small business is a member of the community and poor performance shouldn’t be excused just because ActewAGL supports charities? Even Mussolini made the trains run on time…what’s your point? They can afford to work inefficiently because they sponsor the cricket? Purrlease, you’re not that backward, or am i really watching Yes Minister?
I’m not a corporate basher but i don’t like to see poor performance excused. 6 weeks to leave a fence outside a private business in a public area is just too long. They need to do better and take some responsibility here…this is not best value for anybody.

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Graham says: 11 July 2013 at 11:36 pm

I find it funny that the only people being held to account are ActewAGL. They seem to have responded in an appropriate manner by doing the job once and doing it right rather than wasting our money by doing it twice and then copping flack for high electricity bills. I honestly don’t think they can win.

As far as this guys business goes it doesn’t sound like he is struggling because of this. He already admitted this store was failing and now he is looking to blame someone else. If he had such a good offering I’m sure people would walk around the fence. He should keep struggling on the income of his other stores around Australia. And from his Lifestyle stores. And from his Trend stores. Poor fella.

Maybe ActewAGL should stock some pavers on the one in a million chance they’ll need them. Maybe TAMS should? Maybe the government chosen contractor should? Maybe the paver supplier should learn to work faster? Maybe people should realise this is a storm in a teacup and could well be described as a first world problem.

ActewAGL isn’t perfect but I’d bet money this guy isn’t a saint either. But that wouldn’t be a good headline would it. I mean who really wants to pick on a no name guy who is simply looking for a bit of publicity so people feel sorry for his failing business, you know, that one store that is doing it a little hard while his others are incredibly successful and his empire expands across the nation. Much more fun to try and slay the corporate giant in the territory. And let’s face it, in a town full of public servants and no real private sector worth speaking of that only really leaves ActewAGL. I don’t exactly envy them…

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Jerry says: 22 July 2013 at 2:55 pm

Everyone having time to comment I would presume are public servants… Get back to work and stop wasting our money.

Reply

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