TREADMARKS #232 MATDA Board Of Directors Keith Christensen- President Commercial Tire Center, Salina, Ks Scott Woellhof - Vice President Champlin Tire Recycling, Concordia, Ks Brent Colgrove - Secretary Farmers Co-op, Plymouth, Ne Steve Burhenn - Treasurer Becker Tire, Great Bend, Ks Julian Albers Mitten Inc., Oakley, Ks David Brown David’s Tire, Wichita, Ks Justin Glasgow Performance Tire & Wheel, Topeka, Ks George Hoellen T.O. Haas Tire Co., Lincoln, Ne Dave McMannis Canton Service Center, Canton, Ks Diane Miller M & M Tire, Abilene, Ks DECEMBER 15, 2013 Convention Dates and Location Set Mark your calendars now! The MATDA Board has selected The Drury Plaza Hotel at Broadview Place in Wichita, Kansas. Friday, March 14th to Sunday, March 16th, 2014. Please make a point to join us. Reservations may be made by calling 1-800-325-0720 and refer to the group number of 2189763. Also be sure to find the applications to nominate the Industry Service Award and Employee of the Year Award. It’s a great honor for recipients. Nominate someone today. We’re planning a great lineup of speakers. However if you have a suggestion or request don’t hesitate to contact Shawn Herrick, MATDA Executive Director at 785.286.1110. This event will be “All The Luck You Need!” for a great 2014. Look Who’s Sharp The Safety and Health Achievement Recognition Program (SHARP) provides incentives and support to small, high-hazard employers to work with their employees to develop, implement and continuously improve the effectiveness of their workplace safety and health programs. Scott Osment Hesselbein Tire - Tulsa, Ok SHARP Business T.O. Haas Tire - All Four Kansas Locations in SHARP Mike Riddle American Tire Distributors, Wichita, Ks Congratulations to T.O. Haas Tire who as of November 2013, has 14 stores who are part of the Safety and Health Achievement Recognition Program (SHARP). All four of their Kansas locations are part of SHARP: Junction City, Colby, Hutchinson and Medicine Lodge. Tony Thompson Thompson OK Tire, Beloit, Ks Mike Vondenkamp Tire Dealers Warehouse, Wichita, Ks Jeff Webster Take Ten Tire, Ponca City, OK The T.O. Haas safety initiative has allowed the company to save thousands of dollars per year in workers' compensation insurance premiums. The recordable injury accidents have improved from a high of 21 in 2005 to just 2 through November of 2011. The company has earned many awards in its 64 years of service, but according to Randy Haas, Safety Director, the company "considers its SHARP achievements to be at the top of the list." “Treadmarks” is published monthly by the Mid-America Tire Dealers Association, 7321 N.W. Rochester Rd. Topeka, Kansas, 66617. Appearance of Advertisements in “Treadmarks” does not constitute endorsement by MATDA of the products or services advertised. For further information concerning “Treadmarks” or the association, contact Shawn Herrick, Executive Director, at the address above or 785.286.1110, fax 785.286.0611 or e-mail - [email protected] TREADMARKS, MATDA WWW.MATDA.ORG TREADMARKS #232 DECEMBER 15, 2013 THANK YOU TO THE GOLF SPONSORS AND PLAYERS! CONTACT ME FOR A SCHOLARSHIP APPLICATION AT [email protected] A Big Thank You to the Sponsors! Our Scholarship Golf tournament was held in Marion, Kansas at the Marion Country Club on a Sunday, September 22nd. Thank you to sponsors as well as golfers. We raised enough money to allow scholarships to be awarded at the Annual Convention. And the Scholarship Applications are with this newsletter. Sponsor an applicant and send it in. Kelle Oil! ! ! ! BF Kris Kroen! ! ! TCI! ! ! ! ! Champlin Tire Recycling! TO Haas Tire! ! ! Federated! ! ! ! Hey Mach! ! ! ! Hesselbein! ! ! ! IMT! ! ! ! ! Kansasland!! ! ! Myers Tire Supply! ! Rod's Tire! ! ! ! Rudolph Tire! ! ! Tech!! ! ! ! Thompsons OK Tire! ! Yokohama! ! ! ! Performance! ! ! M & M Tire! ! ! ! Prairie Ag! ! ! ! Farmers Coop ! ! Federated ! ! ! ! Yokohama !! ! ! TREADMARKS, MATDA Two Hole Sponsor Hole Sponsor Hole Sponsor Bev Cart Sponsor Contest Sponsor Contest Sponsor Hole Sponsor Two Hole Sponsor Hole Sponsor Lunch Sponsor Contest Sponsor Two Hole Sponsor Hole Sponsor Hole Sponsor Two Hole Sponsor 19th Hole Sponsor Two Hole Sponsor Two Hole Sponsor Two Hole Sponsor ! Contest Sponsor Goody Bags for all! 48 doz balls! The Winners! We don’t want to forget the players either. Some guys appeared to be having a rough time of it. But were out there having fun anyway. It was a beautiful day. Longest Putt Hole #9 Winner Rick Sprueill Closest to Pin Hole #12 Winner Randy Shumway Longest Drive Hole #6 Winner Jamie Shepard Longest Drive Hole #13 Winner Dan Mize 1st Place Team with a 56 - Steve Burhenn, Randy Shumway, Joe Unrein, Mike Hammeke 2nd Place Team with a 57 - Dave Haskins, Daniel Mize, Brandon Smith, TJ Harold 3rd Place Team with a 57 - Mark Miller, Jamie Shepard, Jeremy Head and Rick Sprueill Thank you to all the teams for playing. A huge thank you to Mike Vondenkamp who pretty much put this tournament together single handedly. It was a beautiful course, very well organized and the food was wonderful!! WWW.MATDA.ORG Speck's Tavern owners lose $16K in credit card charges made by trusted Customer By Megan Hart [email protected] Former Topeka police officer used prepaid card with no value. While shuffling through a stack of papers Thursday afternoon, Debbie Maichel, owner of Speck's, and Brian Harrod explain how credit card fraud lost them nearly $16,000. The owners of Speck’s Tavern say they lost $16,000 in an unusual case when a longtime customer presented a credit card that had no value. Debbie Maichel and Brian Harrod, owners of Speck’s Tavern, said a customer they knew well charged about $12,000 in food and drinks in the first six months of 2013. The charges appeared to go through, and the problem only became clear when the money and $4,000 in fees disappeared from their account. The Topeka Capital-Journal typically doesn’t identify crime suspects until charges have been filed. Maichel said they received the first chargeback related to the customer’s Visa card in March. A chargeback is when a card issuer seeks the return of funds from a merchant, usually due to customers disputing whether the merchant actually performed a service or because of fraud, according to Visa’s website. A representative of Sunflower Merchant Solutions, a company they contracted with to process credit card charges, spoke to the customer in question and assured the owners the problem had been addressed, Maichel said, so they continued to allow him to use his card through June. They had to hit a button to “force” the charges when the machine declined to take the card, she said, but they continued to receive payment for the charges and thought the issue was resolved. TREADMARKS, MATDA Brian Sloop, president of Sunflower Merchant Solutions, confirmed he had spoken with the customer in question. The customer placed a call to what he said was his card issuer, Sloop said, and told him there had been a problem with the card and the issuer had resolved it. He isn’t sure if the customer actually did call a bank. In June, the owners planned to renew their business license and pay insurance premiums, Maichel said, and discovered $16,000 had been removed from their account without notice. It turned out their customer had been using a prepaid card, which only can be used until the money loaded onto it is exhausted, as if it were an ordinary credit card that could continue to run up charges, she said. “We didn’t know it was prepaid,” she said. “It looked just like an ordinary Visa card.” They then received a large stack of chargeback reports, Harrod said, and had to fill them out with an explanation of the charges and an argument they at least shouldn’t be charged the $25 fee for each incident, which pushed their losses from $12,000 to $16,000. “Not only did we get frauded, we got ripped off by the credit card company for another $4,000,” he said. “A lot of small businesses couldn’t take a hit like that. It would shut them down.” WWW.MATDA.ORG TREADMARKS #232 Maichel estimated they also spent about $200 making copies of receipts and mailing forms to dispute the chargebacks and had to switch to a new company after Sunflower Merchant Solutions shut down their account. They were able to shift money from other accounts to carry on business after the $16,000 was withdrawn, she said, but had to deal with the inconvenience of temporarily losing the ability to take credit cards. Sloop said a large number of chargebacks indicated a business was a relatively high risk. “A large number of chargebacks are going to signal a risk that most of the time, that underwriting bank is not going to want to continue,” he said. Harrod said they trusted the customer because he was a regular and because he had previously worked as a police officer in Topeka. The customer explained the amount of time he was spending in the bar by saying he was in town temporarily to testify in existing cases before moving to a new job, Harrod said. In retrospect, he said, they shouldn’t have continued to force charges. “The whole time he was ripping us off and smiling and shaking our hands,” he said. “Maybe we didn’t do everything perfect, but we didn’t fraud anybody.” DECEMBER 15, 2013 Monday Morning Motivation: Champion Mindset for Success ! In my Pinnacle Performance customer service training, clients learn the ‘Power of Positive’ and how, conversely, having a negative attitude repels and creates negative responses in both internal customers (co-workers) and external customers (those fine folks that pay your bills). Negativity is also a major deterrent in achieving success. In short, negative thinking leads to negative results. To achieve and sustain success the belief in yourself is paramount. Many individuals fall victim to negative thinking about themselves, believing they are ordinary, or worse, inferior to others. This counterproductive thinking ‘positions you to fail’ and, sadly, many lads and ladies accept this fate and lock themselves in to maintaining mediocrity. As soon as you say (or think) “I’m just a (fill in the blank)” you’re stuck in the mud. Champion ‘Pinnacle Performers’ believe they are the best every day and behave accordingly. Simply put, to achieve ‘World Class’ performance you must first believe you are World Class. Topeka police Capt. Scott Conklin confirmed police have an open case related to the alleged fraud at Speck’s but said police need to speak to the suspect. Believe To Achieve…MISSION I’M-POSSIBLE Choose to Accept It He also confirmed the suspect had been employed at the Topeka Police Department. The suspect “separated” from the department in September 2011, Conklin said, and is believed no longer to reside in the Topeka area. Steveferrante@Sale Away LLC - Steve Ferrante 1-866-721-6086 ext 701 Harrod said he doesn’t expect to get back the value of the food and drinks the customer purchased, but he hopes to regain the chargeback fees. “Some of the swipes weren’t even $10, and we get a $25 fee,” he said. TREADMARKS, MATDA WWW.MATDA.ORG Are You Ready for an I-9 Audit? Every employer, no matter what size, has to deal with human resource issues, regulations, and employment law changes. Contact your local marketing representative to learn how Federated Insurance can provide you with resources to help with employment law issues like harassment, discrimination, hiring and firing practices, and employment eligibility documentation. Visit www.federatedinsurance.com to find a representative near you. *Not licensed in the states of NH, NJ, RI, and VT. TREADMARKS, MATDA © 2014 Federated Mutual Insurance Company WWW.MATDA.ORG TREADMARKS #232 DECEMBER 15, 2013 MATDA MISSION On The Light Side ...Tire Dealership in Missouri Customer: “They charged me $110 for working on my car?!” Tire Dealer: “What did you have done?” Customer: “I just came because the car said service was needed on the car.” Tire Dealer “Yes, you got an oil change and tire rotation, state inspection and a car wash.” Customer: “Tire rotation? Aren’t they always like, rotating as I drive?” Tire Dealer “Yes, but the tires are removed and swapped, the tires on the rear are moved to the front, and the fronts to the rear. It’s to help the tires wear out evenly.” Customer: “They wear out?” Tire Dealer “Eventually, yes. They do.” Customer: “Why?” (try to describe traction, friction, and the breakdown of soft compounds like tire tread over concrete.) Customer: *blank stare* “Isn’t my car pretty?” (As the customer leaves, they pull on the door about three times before they see the push sign.) The mission of the MATDA is to promote closer cooperation and better understanding between the tire dealers of Kansas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma; to provide professional lobbying and governmental relations; to provide effective training and education to enhance members’ business acumen and help them better serve the consumer; to promote public understanding of the industry’s concern for the environment, and to provide such services and activities that are proper and necessary to achieve these mutual goals. 7321 NW Rochester Topeka, Ks 66617 p 785.286.1110 f 785.286.0611 [email protected] www.matda.org SAVE THE DATE: • MATDA Convention and Trade Show March 14-16, 2014, Wichita, Kansas CHAMPLIN TIRE RECYCLING, INC. Tire collection and processing Trailer placement Licensed in KS, NE, MO, IA, CO, SD Used tires Playground/Landscaping mulch Recycled picnic tables and park benches 800.295.3345 www.champlintirerecycling.com TREADMARKS, MATDA WWW.MATDA.ORG