Do I have to have a 'Business' phone/broadband account for my shop?

[koolkitten]

Hi everyone,

I am in the process of opening a shop and am looking at phone plans and broadband for me to use there. Do I HAVE to take out a business broadband and phone plan? Or could I set it up as a personal account and pay for it myself and then charge it to the business as an expense? The personal plans all seem more affordable and can't see the benefit of paying more for a business plan if I dont need to.

Any thoughts and advice gratefully received!

Kate

 

[Lee Jones Jnr]

You can't have a residential line in a business premises I'm afraid. Also your business won't be listed with directory enquiries if it isn't a business line. If you shop around you can get a cheap enough deal anyway.

 

[deadgoodundies]

Nothing to stop you having a business phone line though and residential broadband although personally I have found that having business broadband that when things go wrong they generally are fixed a lot quicker.

 

[14A]

Few years back I had a business from the spare room in my house, now there was a problem locally with the Sky broadband and it was off for few hours (maybe even a day or two I cant remember) and when I complained and said I may have lost customers due to this, they replied that the residential broadband is not for business use and they can not compensate 'lost' orders or any additional costs occured with the business.

While I did get some money back for the inconvience, it was purely for domestic use and was around £5 - Had it been a business broadband line, I'd have guessed it would have been something more but due to it being for personal use they assume me being on YouTube or whatever is something I could do without and not vital.

Might be something to take into consideration.

 

[koolkitten]

Thank you all for your replies. Lots of good points there that I hadn't thought of, think I'll play it safe and do it all in a 'business' package but shop around to get the best deal.

Much appreciated!

Kate

 

[My Owl 1]

I dont know whether I can assist you with this. But we do a Broadband and Phone line, which does not tie you into a contract, we just ask you stay with us for a year or pay a small exit fee. Broadband and phone line rental combined is £25.
pm me if you would like to know more.

Good luck with your business
Best wishe

Avril
Helping Businesses to cut Utilities costs and bank charges too.

 

[Lee Jones Jnr]

I dont know whether I can assist you with this. But we do a Broadband and Phone line, which does not tie you into a contract, we just ask you stay with us for a year or pay a small exit fee. Broadband and phone line rental combined is £25.
pm me if you would like to know more.

Good luck with your business
Best wishe

Avril
Helping Businesses to cut Utilities costs and bank charges too.

'Ask you to stay with us for a year' and then charge you if you want to leave -sounds like a contract to me.

 

[snakeeyes121]

I dont know whether I can assist you with this. But we do a Broadband and Phone line, which does not tie you into a contract, we just ask you stay with us for a year or pay a small exit fee. Broadband and phone line rental combined is £25.
pm me if you would like to know more.

Good luck with your business
Best wishe

Avril
Helping Businesses to cut Utilities costs and bank charges too.

I find being honest with potential customers is a number one priority.
Saying its not a contract and you 'ask' them to stay for a year or receive termination fees isnt being honest, it is a contract however you try to explain it. What other things have you 'forgot' to mention about the service you provide?
Shame on you.

 

[My Owl 1]

I find being honest with potential customers is a number one priority.
Saying its not a contract and you 'ask' them to stay for a year or receive termination fees isnt being honest, it is a contract however you try to explain it. What other things have you 'forgot' to mention about the service you provide?
Shame on you.

I should have been clearer, and Yes you are right being honest with potential customer is my prioirty. Other providers charge customers who leave the rest of their contract which is usually a year, eighteen months or longer. We do not do that, but we do state in our terms that we will charge the equivalent of the set up fee we are charged for the broadband service. That I think you will find is not a contract. I have not forgotten to mention any other things about the service I provide, and resent your "Shame on you"!

I inform my customers on all aspects of their service or services and like it or not the customers who "Try" us usually stay with us.

Stats are UW 94 out of 100 stay with us, the rest between 60-70 out of 100, I think that speaks for its self.

Avril

 

[Lee Jones Jnr]

I should have been clearer, and Yes you are right being honest with potential customer is my prioirty. Other providers charge customers who leave the rest of their contract which is usually a year, eighteen months or longer. We do not do that, but we do state in our terms that we will charge the equivalent of the set up fee we are charged for the broadband service. That I think you will find is not a contract. I have not forgotten to mention any other things about the service I provide, and resent your "Shame on you"!

I inform my customers on all aspects of their service or services and like it or not the customers who "Try" us usually stay with us.

Stats are UW 94 out of 100 stay with us, the rest between 60-70 out of 100, I think that speaks for its self.

Avril

When you are working in a heavily regulated industry such as telecoms it really isn't on to 'forget to mention' things - that surely equates to mis-selling?
UW has a reputation for agents stitching up their own friends and family which may help explain the high retention rates as it certainly isn't down to professionalism, service or price.

 

[My Owl 1]

When you are working in a heavily regulated industry such as telecoms it really isn't on to 'forget to mention' things - that surely equates to mis-selling?
UW has a reputation for agents stitching up their own friends and family which may help explain the high retention rates as it certainly isn't down to professionalism, service or price.

I would like to point out that I am not any agent, and that I DO NOT MIS-SELL. I am proud of MY Business and keep my professionalism to the highest credibility.
I did not think that it was good manners on this forum to be so damn scathing. Our service in most cases is excellent, although as with ALL business there can be errors... we are all human arent we!? As to price, for telecoms and energy we are extremely competitive, sometimes not the cheapest, but I have never elluded to that either.

I would like to just repeat that I did not "forget to mention", and once again take your attitude as being arrogant.

Avril

 

[Lee Jones Jnr]

I would like to point out that I am not any agent, and that I DO NOT MIS-SELL. I am proud of MY Business and keep my professionalism to the highest credibility.
I did not think that it was good manners on this forum to be so damn scathing. Our service in most cases is excellent, although as with ALL business there can be errors... we are all human arent we!? As to price, for telecoms and energy we are extremely competitive, sometimes not the cheapest, but I have never elluded to that either.

I would like to just repeat that I did not "forget to mention", and once again take your attitude as being arrogant.

Avril

These are you words:
"I have not forgotten to mention any other things about the service I provide"
which surely means that you did 'forget' to mention something?
Think I am arrogant if you wish but at least have the good grace not to deny saying something that is still visible for all to see.

 

[Lee Jones Jnr]

You'd also better take control of your business if you don't claim to be the cheapest because I have been promised by 3 different people wandering in to my shop that UW will never be beaten on price.

 

[My Owl 1]

You'd also better take control of your business if you don't claim to be the cheapest because I have been promised by 3 different people wandering in to my shop that UW will never be beaten on price.

If three people have been into your shop, claiming that "UW will never be beaten on price" for telecoms, then what they should have said is we are competitive to other providers and cheaper than BT. There are companies like CJD's that provide very good cost effective VOIP, but not everyone wants to go down that route and you do need broadband for that. And I have referred customers to CJD on principle, when that is the better service for the customer.

I do not feel that I need to get into a justifcation banter with you about the way I run my UW Business. Of course there will always be people in every business that are not ethically minded. And I know that this happens in all professions, even the fitted kitchen industry!!!

However, I do stick by my own ethics of honesty and integraty, and will always challenge my peers in UW if they are not doing the same. After all I want to succeed with my business and keep all my morals and of course my customers happy.

That we have been awarded the Financial Times Company of the Year Award (2009) are in the FTSE 250(one of the few shares which is stable in this recession), and are "Which" magazines Best Buy services, most of us Distributors and our Company must be doing something right!

Avril

 

[Lee Jones Jnr]

If three people have been into your shop, claiming that "UW will never be beaten on price" for telecoms, then what they should have said is we are competitive to other providers and cheaper than BT. There are companies like CJD's that provide very good cost effective VOIP, but not everyone wants to go down that route and you do need broadband for that. And I have referred customers to CJD on principle, when that is the better service for the customer.

I do not feel that I need to get into a justifcation banter with you about the way I run my UW Business. Of course there will always be people in every business that are not ethically minded. And I know that this happens in all professions, even the fitted kitchen industry!!!

However, I do stick by my own ethics of honesty and integraty, and will always challenge my peers in UW if they are not doing the same. After all I want to succeed with my business and keep all my morals and of course my customers happy.

That we have been awarded the Financial Times Company of the Year Award (2009) are in the FTSE 250(one of the few shares which is stable in this recession), and are "Which" magazines Best Buy services, most of us Distributors and our Company must be doing something right!

Avril

I missed the part where you admitted to your 'forgetful' nature so I'll assume it was implied.
Yes there are lots of people in the fitted kitchen industry who mis sell and will say anything for a sale, but there are none in my business. UW agents - your business - are amongst those who are not abiding by the rules your industry adheres to.
The post about getting control of what people are saying whilst representing your business was absolutely meant at face value but if you are happy having people mis sell in your name then that's fine.

 

[allsquare]

which does not tie you into a contract, we just ask you stay with us for a year or pay a small exit fee. Broadband and phone line rental combined is £25.

:|

I thought it was a £50 disconnection fee within the first 12 months but I may be wrong?

 

[KidsBeeHappy]

I am a fan of BT - Not many of them out there I know. However, I do find that simply having it all with BT, as a business customer, does get me a very good level of service and support. I can say that I have never ever lost even a minute of service through any of those stupid debates between BT and ISP where both argue that its the line/ISP at fault and everything's fine at their end. Also, having all my spend in one place means that i get good capped rate calls (5p an hour for landlines/25p an hour for mobiles), and best of all, I have a BT business centre, staffed by real local people, who deal with everything - sales/faults/billing etc, - so no more overseas call centres.

I have had this set up for 5 years. And I have never had any faults/issues etc. And When i recently moved all of this proved to be priceless, and I had not a minute of downtime on telephones and broadband, between the two locations. The service was truely perfect.

And all the "I can save you money" sales people suddently loose interest when I mention that i have fixed hourly rate capped calls.

But then, I live in Scotland, Not London. There aren't many truely viable alternatives for a proper business setup. But I can say that BT has worked well for me, and maybe the line rental is a couple of quid more than I'd pay elsewhere - but I've saved that money back tenfold.

 

[My Owl 1]

:|

I thought it was a £50 disconnection fee within the first 12 months but I may be wrong?

Correct. The line and broadband rental is £25.

 

[My Owl 1]

I missed the part where you admitted to your 'forgetful' nature so I'll assume it was implied.

Firstly, I do not forget anything in my initial post.

Yes there are lots of people in the fitted kitchen industry who mis sell and will say anything for a sale, but there are none in my business.

I cannot comment on your business and would not do so on line. I would do it directly.

UW agents - your business - are amongst those who are not abiding by the rules your industry adheres to.

As I mention previously. If I did know of any UW distributors, breaking the rules and regulations of our business I would have no alternative than to report. them to our HQ.

The post about getting control of what people are saying whilst representing your business was absolutely meant at face value but if you are happy having people mis sell in your name then that's fine.
Of course I am not happy for people to be misselling

Please do me the courtesy of reading my posts properly.
Avril

 

[My Owl 1]

I am a fan of BT - Not many of them out there I know. However, I do find that simply having it all with BT, as a business customer, does get me a very good level of service and support. I can say that I have never ever lost even a minute of service through any of those stupid debates between BT and ISP where both argue that its the line/ISP at fault and everything's fine at their end. Also, having all my spend in one place means that i get good capped rate calls (5p an hour for landlines/25p an hour for mobiles), and best of all, I have a BT business centre, staffed by real local people, who deal with everything - sales/faults/billing etc, - so no more overseas call centres.

I have had this set up for 5 years. And I have never had any faults/issues etc. And When i recently moved all of this proved to be priceless, and I had not a minute of downtime on telephones and broadband, between the two locations. The service was truely perfect.

And all the "I can save you money" sales people suddently loose interest when I mention that i have fixed hourly rate capped calls.

But then, I live in Scotland, Not London. There aren't many truely viable alternatives for a proper business setup. But I can say that BT has worked well for me, and maybe the line rental is a couple of quid more than I'd pay elsewhere - but I've saved that money back tenfold.

And belief it or not if I met with you and saw you were having a good value service, saving as much as you are then there is no business for me there, as I would not be helping you.

Where I have saved people money is when they have a contract for their phones with "X" and they are paying on a business plan ( sigining up to a contract that asks them how much they think they will be using and then charging them that over a year period). I have had one customer who was with "X" who had signed a contract saying they would use £3,000 of calls, but only used £1,200. They were charged £1,800 at the end of their 12 month period and then found to their horror that they were unable to get out of a 2nd year. They have now switched to us and are being charged for what they use not what they don't. Job done and if they find another provider they want to move to tomorrow then they can.

That by the way is 1 example of quite a few. i am just illustrating that savings or just letting your customer know what the true costs are is what it is about to gathering not hunting down customers and looking after them. Which I do.


Best wishes

Avril

 

[KidsBeeHappy]

And belief it or not if I met with you and saw you were having a good value service, saving as much as you are then there is no business for me there, as I would not be helping you.

Avril, not being in anyway curt, or offensive here, but my post was for the OP who was after some advice about business line rentals. It was simply to say that BT can sometimes be the right solution for some businesses.

It wasn't posted as a challenge to you, or in response to any of the posts about UW, misselling and all the other stuff that's appeared in this thread.

I believe that this thread was posted by a poster that had a query, and I don't believe that most of the posts and arguments have helped solve their problem in any way. It would be good to get this thread back to the OP's problem.

 

[Lee Jones Jnr]

Please do me the courtesy of reading my posts properly.
Avril

How confusing.
You seemed to be saying that you own UW and now say that if any other agents are mis selling and you knew you'd report them?

Is UW your business or are you an agent/distributor/whatever term you'd like to use?

 

[My Owl 1]

How confusing.
You seemed to be saying that you own UW and now say that if any other agents are mis selling and you knew you'd report them?

Is UW your business or are you an agent/distributor/whatever term you'd like to use?

I am a distributor and therefore have a business within Utility Warehouse. I have never said in any of my posts that I own UW. I would still report anyother agent if I knew they were misselling.

Avril

PS It clearly says i am a UK Independent Distributor at the bottom of all my posts

 

[My Owl 1]

Avril, not being in anyway curt, or offensive here, but my post was for the OP who was after some advice about business line rentals. It was simply to say that BT can sometimes be the right solution for some businesses.

It wasn't posted as a challenge to you, or in response to any of the posts about UW, misselling and all the other stuff that's appeared in this thread.

I believe that this thread was posted by a poster that had a query, and I don't believe that most of the posts and arguments have helped solve their problem in any way. It would be good to get this thread back to the OP's problem.

Totally agree with you.

Best wishes
Avril

 

[Lee Jones Jnr]

I am a distributor and therefore have a business within Utility Warehouse. I have never said in any of my posts that I own UW. I would still report anyother agent if I knew they were misselling.

Avril

PS It clearly says i am a UK Independent Distributor at the bottom of all my posts

No wonder UW has a bad reputation for misleading people.

Remember this?
"I would like to point out that I am not any agent, and that I DO NOT MIS-SELL. I am proud of MY Business and keep my professionalism to the highest credibility."

 

[My Owl 1]

No wonder UW has a bad reputation for misleading people.

Remember this?
"I would like to point out that I am not any agent, and that I DO NOT MIS-SELL. I am proud of MY Business and keep my professionalism to the highest credibility."

Remember this "UW has a reputation for agents stitching up their own friends and family which may help explain the high retention rates as it certainly isn't down to professionalism, service or price.

Of which I replied "I would like to point out that I am not any agent, and that I DO NOT MIS-SELL. I am proud of MY Business and keep my professionalism to the highest credibility" Meaning I am not "any" agent, and that I pride myself on the way I run my business. I get my customers like you, get paid like you for doing business with them.

YOU are misleading people with your stupid shallow comments. Get over it.
I am bored with this.

Sorry OP for all this pointless banter.

Avril

 

[Lee Jones Jnr]

Nope, I'm not misleading anyone sweetie pie. I'm also not 'forgetting' to mention things which I'm obliged to by virtue of industry regulation.

 

[My Owl 1]

Nope, I'm not misleading anyone sweetie pie. I'm also not 'forgetting' to mention things which I'm obliged to by virtue of industry regulation.

Please yourself. But I am certainly NOT your "sweetie pie".

By the way I thought you were in kitchens, not telecoms. Must be my mistake, Mr Free Member with attitude.

 

[Lee Jones Jnr]

Please yourself. But I am certainly NOT your "sweetie pie".

By the way I thought you were in kitchens, not telecoms. Must be my mistake, Mr Free Member with attitude.

Maybe you just 'forgot' again.

I cant afford to pay to be a member, Im very very poor.

 

[Bri]

Nope, I'm not misleading anyone sweetie pie. I'm also not 'forgetting' to mention things which I'm obliged to by virtue of industry regulation.

...in defence of Avril.

a)All industries have people who sell for them. b)All industries have people who sell for themselves. c)All industries have people who sell themselves.

Break that down a)salesperson b) cuthroat selfish individuals who will sell their mother to gain a bit of commission or earn their wages c) person who believes in the product and will not sell you the one thing you dont want or need.

Mr T/Post you have made your mind up which one Avril is in your own mind and have started to character assassinate her by your 'sweetie pie' comments which only goes to show how you treat your customers. In fact you're right about one thing she is sweet, charming and endearing and she takes immense pride in her UW business and her team, which wham bam I am a member of, and if she had six sides of A4 she would be able to discuss with you happily the merits and the possible reasons why you should deal with her and UW and reasons why UW might not work for you or anyone else which can only be condensed on this forum into soundbites. You see we both fall into category (c) above and respectfully I hope you do too(I actually know you do from previous posts). UW for some is a considered option as a sideline business to provide extra income.

You want to hear some real horror stories about energy misselling PM me and I'll tell you what my stepdaughter has listen to agents do in her job working for an energy provider, she is nearly ready to walk out of her job on principle.

Everyone has something bad to say about everyone and every service they receive, you cant please all the people all the time etc. I'm too old in the tooth to worry about it anymore.

But please oh please dont knock members here for what they do, or any spelling mistake, or syntax error because of the space of the little box we type in.

As for the OP please consider all options and as we are governed closely by legislation in all our industries whether it be kitchens or Sprinkler Systems or Telecoms we have to honour that.

 

[Lee Jones Jnr]

Mr T/Post you have made your mind up which one Avril is in your own mind and have started to character assassinate her by your 'sweetie pie' comments

Nope.
I say sweetie pie all the time, it is hardly a vicious turn of phrase. If you are so inclined you can read the other threads I have commented on and you will see if half a dozen times or more.
All I know of this Lady is what I have seen on here, and from that I have pointed out a few misleading/incorrect comments, including the part where she 'forgot', which she continues to deny for some reason despite it being clear to see.

 

[Bri]

Nope.
I say sweetie pie all the time, it is hardly a vicious turn of phrase. If you are so inclined you can read the other threads I have commented on and you will see if half a dozen times or more.
All I know of this Lady is what I have seen on here, and from that I have pointed out a few misleading/incorrect comments, including the part where she 'forgot', which she continues to deny for some reason despite it being clear to see.

Therefore by the same precedent go you, she has taken umbrage at something you have said for the same reason you have taken outrage at what she hasnt. Its this small box you see, we have a little time to condense or assimilate the given information.

Its a bit like not putting an kiss at the end of a text message its interpretation is misconstrued.

I have followed your posts previously as you have thanked me on occasion on some of mine and I bear no ill will to you, but we do have to have a decent argument now and then clears the air.

 

[Lee Jones Jnr]

???
I haven't taken outrage.

 

[kjmcculloch]

I'd give xln telecom a look. They offer a good deal on business phone and broadband.

 

[Vending Siting Services]

Please be respectful to others and keep your postings non offensive. I can feel this thread could get out of hand and it may have to be locked or deleted.

Thank you.

Barbara Fellowes
Moderator

 

[Bri]

Please be respectful to others and keep your postings non offensive. I can feel this thread could get out of hand and it may have to be locked or deleted.

Thank you.

Barbara Fellowes
Moderator

....debate and banter, thread was hijacked by us. Bit of horn locking is healthy sometimes.

 

[dynamic08]

that UW gets spammed on here alot!

 

[Bri]

that UW gets spammed on here alot!

Question is asked, an offer of help is given, an opportunity to trade.

Spam:Spam is the abuse of electronic messaging systems (including most broadcast media, digital delivery systems) to send unsolicited bulk messages ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spamming

BT also gets a lot of airtime on this forum too.

There are many other providers available too.

 

[My Owl 1]

'Ask you to stay with us for a year' and then charge you if you want to leave -sounds like a contract to me.

Just been announced that if a customer tries our Broadband and phone line rental service and decided to leave then they will now only be charged £10.

Avril