Why we vet operators, and what we turn down

A centre is not relying on a machine. It is relying on a party that will still be answering the phone in the third year of a licence.

The panel is deliberately narrow. That is a commercial cost to us, and the reason we carry it is straightforward. Every placement we broker takes our name into a centre we want to work with again. A weak operator does not damage a deal. It damages the relationship that produces the next twenty.

What is actually being tested

• Whether the party can carry an obligation. Standing, cover, and the capacity to answer for a fault nobody anticipated.
• Whether there is a service function or only a sales function. Many applicants can place a unit. Fewer can maintain one at distance, on a schedule, indefinitely.
• Whether the product mix survives contact with a family audience and a centre's own presentation standards.
• Whether the reporting exists. Where trading and uptime cannot be shown, they cannot be managed, and a centre cannot be told the truth about its own floor.

What gets declined

Some categories are declined as a matter of course rather than on their merits. Anything requiring an age check we cannot enforce reliably in an unattended unit. Anything where the product claims outpace what the supply chain can evidence.

What we ask in return

That a centre holds us to the standard we apply to others. Name the response time we promised and test it. Ask for the reporting rather than accepting the summary. Raise a tired unit early rather than at expiry. A panel is only as good as the party willing to check it.