Rohitkumar Gudka got in touch over his Camelot terminal which appeared to be faulty (play slips not always going through on first attempt) and he wanted to know why he was told that there would be a callout fee of £195 plus vat if the problem was his fault (as he maintained he had followed instructed procedures correctly).

This got sorted quite easily and Rohitkumar was not charged, but Camelot did explain that there could be instances where a retailer might be charged, so I thought I would pass these on.

“In most cases, we provide free maintenance for our retailers,” says a spokeswoman. She explained that retailers are warned in advance that a charge could be applied.

She adds: “A retailer may be charged if they fail to cancel an engineer visit, should the fault resolve itself before the visit is carried out. It could also be that a charge is incurred if the engineer cannot find any fault with the equipment, if for example, there is a loose connection that should have been identified when trouble-shooting with the Retailer Hotline, or the terminal simply required plugging in.

“Charging for engineer callouts helps cover our costs in cases where equipment has been damaged, lost or incorrectly moved, or is not working due to a faulty power source - essentially elements outside of Camelot’s control and not a cause of faulty equipment.”