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plusnet account for a local charity

madjbright
Grafter
Posts: 184
Thanks: 2
Registered: ‎09-06-2007

plusnet account for a local charity

I currently host the domain for a local Pre-school, which is a non-profit making charity, on my plusnet web space, and provide them with a couple of mail boxes. My wife, who used to manage the Pre-school is no longer involved and I am working with the Pre-school to discuss alternative hosting arrangements. One option is that they install broadband at the pre-school, to give e-mail access into their office computer, and host the domain on their own web space. Would they be able to have a BBYW Option 1 or 2 account or would they have to register for a business account?
16 REPLIES 16
alanf
Aspiring Pro
Posts: 1,931
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Registered: ‎17-10-2007

Re: plusnet account for a local charity

I know of a small local charity with a Madasafish broadband contract that hosts a small, simple, low activity website (only 1000 file hits per day allowed so accessing a single page with several images counts as multiple hits). Madasafish also provided a free .org.uk domain name.  I am not sure if this would apply to new accounts.
Not applicable

Re: plusnet account for a local charity

You don't need to use a business account.
The main differences are in the way that traffic is prioritised, and the support team you deal with (also upload speed I suppose, and a few other bits and pieces)
If none of the extras that apply to business accounts are relevant or required, there's no reason you can't choose to use one of the packages targeted at residential customers.
Mal08
Rising Star
Posts: 562
Thanks: 6
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Registered: ‎20-08-2008

Re: plusnet account for a local charity

Plusnet advised me that you can only use home products on a residential line - i.e where someone lives.

So what premises does the pre-school use ??. - is there an existing telphone line there - and what type is it ?.
Not applicable

Re: plusnet account for a local charity

I'm pretty certain that this isn't the case - I'll prod a comms bod to see if they can shed some light on it (for all of us!)
pjmarsh
Superuser
Superuser
Posts: 4,030
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Registered: ‎06-04-2007

Re: plusnet account for a local charity

If it isn't now, it certainly used to be.  I wanted a residential account for our church.  Internet usage is extremely low, as it's just used for checking the odd email or a bit of surfing.  The signup process would only let us go for business products.  Dave T (back in his comms days!) tweeked the database so it thought the line was residential so we could go for a PAYG account.
Phil

Superusers are not staff, but they do have a direct line of communication into the business in order to raise issues, concerns and feedback from the community.

Mark
Grafter
Posts: 1,852
Registered: ‎04-04-2007

Re: plusnet account for a local charity

Phil is right.
A school is deemed as commercial premises and as such will be reflected as such in the db.
We'd be happy to look at your circumstances madjbright and see what we can do.
Spider
Grafter
Posts: 1,100
Registered: ‎05-04-2007

Re: plusnet account for a local charity

May be a business opportunity to design a Charity Package and promote it. this would have some of the benefits of business / residential products combined to make a unique product for charities.
James
Grafter
Posts: 21,036
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Registered: ‎04-04-2007

Re: plusnet account for a local charity

Nice idea, but for the amount of signups it would generate with the amount of work it would take (and cost of developers time) we'd be better off doing other things that would be beneficial for more customers.
Midnight_Caller
Rising Star
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Registered: ‎15-04-2007

Re: plusnet account for a local charity

Jameseh, I think you would find that it would be werf it, with you having a UK call center, I fink you would make a killing.  How much time would it take to set up a Charity Package?
I know of a number of charitys that are looking for a UK call center plus a discounted pakej, most of them can not afford business pakejs.
Mal08
Rising Star
Posts: 562
Thanks: 6
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Registered: ‎20-08-2008

Re: plusnet account for a local charity

I tend to agree with Midnight caller.
Difficult to quantify of course - as small charities can be somewhat invisbable to marketing mailing lists perhaps.
I know of quite a few who could benefit - but then of course the return on PN's time may not still make it viable. It would be a speculative punt.

Ianwild
Grafter
Posts: 3,835
Registered: ‎05-04-2007

Re: plusnet account for a local charity

To launch any totally new product would be in the region of 8 weeks development work (including testing), plus all the CSC training, marketing requirements etc. I would put the cost of launching such a product in the region of £25K not including any money we spent on actual marketing.
To justify that (especially over other work), we'd need to be forecasting sign-ups thousands of new sign-ups within 12 months. I just can't see that being the case?
That said, I'm sure we can find something suitable to meet this sort of requirement from our existing product range. We try to never turn away opportunities for new customers (provided they make sense). I'd always encourage people to ask us if there is something specific they need and we will do our best to accommodate.
Ian
Oldjim
Resting Legend
Posts: 38,460
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Registered: ‎15-06-2007

Re: plusnet account for a local charity

Ian,
What is the rational for refusing to offer a home product on a business line where the user doesn't want or need business level support for the broadband nor the higher upstream speeds.
Ianwild
Grafter
Posts: 3,835
Registered: ‎05-04-2007

Re: plusnet account for a local charity

Exactly Godsell.
A business account is certainly needed where people require the additional level of service support, usage profile, payment method or some other features not provided by a residential service. For a 'proper' business we do insist (like most suppliers) that an appropriate business product is taken. For a charity though I don't think that holds up, which is why I'm saying we'd find a way to sort out a situation where a charity really didn't need business support or some other feature of a business products.
The problem is that the phrase 'charity' covers such a wide range of organisations - some I would think absolutely do require a business account. That's why it always needs to be something we can make a call on based on individual circumstances.
Ian
atbs1
Grafter
Posts: 307
Registered: ‎14-04-2007

Re: plusnet account for a local charity

Hi Ian,  Charity means a registered charity, I think that you are referring to organisations such as amateur clubs, societies etc.  Moreover I think that a "charity" account is a good idea, with a thre or four page webite builder built in.