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| Quote from: Barry |
| Whilst not a specific quotation about SPF, it alludes to those types of records being able to be handled from Workplace once the new system is in place. The whole thread gives some more info. |
Thanks for the info Barry
| Quote |
| On a side issue - why are you currently unhappy with Plusnet? |
It could end up being a rather expansive side issue. I will for brevity ignore the historical glitches but they are obviously a significant influence on the long term contentedness curve.
There is no one reason. There are lots of little reasons which in combination undermine the confidence I had in Plus.net providing the QoS my customers need, so that I am able to sell them the service I provide. To sum it up, I believe Plus have gradually become detached from small business technology needs. By small business I specifically mean organisations of 5 to 50 users that are reliant on their networks for day to day productivity.
SPF is still not possible, despite the talk and despite the ever rising number of back-scatter attacks. Apart from having to suffer myself I am also denied the sales opportunity of offering to set it up for the customers I referred to plus.net. It reminds me of the promise to look into SMTP spam filtering which never materialised.
Some examples from threads I have just read here.
I see Plus informing me that the web space supplied with a business account is not suitable for business use. That is double-dutch if ever I saw it. You can look at it from your own point of view and fool yourself into believing it is all perfectly reasonable, but from the customers point of view it is wholly unreasonable.
Web sites being archived when the customer exceeds transfer limits. Exactly as the OP says Plus seem to have little concept of how much time and money the customer has to waste to sort it out. Small business customers generally lack the time and expertise to deal with the intricacies of a usage policy.
Rate limiting NNTP and P2P. Plus are claiming these are not 'Standard' business services. Who the heck are Plus.net to decide what is important for any particular business? Three years ago it made a lot of sense to limit a NNTP and P2P protocols to deter a minority of domestic users monopolising peak time bandwidth. Today, with everyone and his brother using high bandwidth applications like Skype, u-tube and iPlayer, picking on specific protocols is a bit arbitrary. It is not (to my mind) acceptable to pick arbitrary protocols and deliver them to business customers at speeds lower than dial-up in this day and age.
It is a fact that NNTP and P2P both have legitimate use in business applications. If Plus do not want to support those protocols fine. It excludes a proportion of business users from their potential customer base. And, because I am reliant on my Plus connection for project development, I am also excluded from servicing those customers.
Legacy product customers being exploited. It really is not on to leave customers on services costing 250% more then they could be paying. If it's a whole sale cost causing the disparity, you get nothing but bad will if you do not loudly an repeatedly urge customers to review their package. If it's not a whole sale cost then for God's sake reduce the price of the legacy package to bring it into closer alignment.
Small business managers do not spend any longer than they have to negotiating and reviewing their supplier contracts. They differ from domestic and corporates customers in this way. Their time is most profitable when it is expended on their own expertise. They want and need a one stop shop they can trust to get on with it without constant intervention and attention. That is the service I provide and I need exactly the same service from the ISP I choose to resell. The way it tends to work with small business customers is that when you fail to come up with a specific item you do not lose just that sale. You lose the customer entirely.
Spam filtering on SMTP provides an example of what can be done. I waited years for Plus.net to progress a decision as to whether they would do it or not. In the end I did what Plus.net should consider doing when they fail to DIY. I negotiated a service with a 3rd party provider, branded it and resold it - because my customers demanded it.
When I came to plus 5 years ago I was convinced they provided the most complete solution for a small business Internet requirements. When referring customers to Plus I was confident that I would not be left making excuses for them or backed into a corner unable to offer a solution. At that time my competitors were lager consultancies and I dealt exclusively with Microsoft and Novell networks hooked to the wide area by ISDN.
The market moves on though. My competitors are now 10001 man in a van 'experts' who have made IT their latest choice of short term career. I have to differentiate myself by keeping my skills a couple years ahead of them. I do as much work on Macs and Linux as I do on M$. Novell and ISDN routers are a faded memory.
I would have gone out of business years ago if I was not willing to adapt to my customers changing needs. Plus has also adapted but it has not adapted to my needs or those of my customers particularly. Small business customers go elsewhere when they are provided with sufficient reason to look for an alternative. That is what Plus have been doing, one small issue at a time. The referral payments keep me here to an extent but there will come a point when dealing with issues will outweigh the small financial benefit.
I suspect it is time to find a smaller, more responsive ISP that has a better understanding of my market. The gap Plus.net is leaving is being filled. I have already placed some new business elsewhere at lower cost and with pleasing results so far. Plus can keep coming up with perfectly reasonable reasons but ultimately they are just excuses for failing to provide the QoS a small business expects and other ISPs are providing (at similar cost). Unless something changes drastically with the attitude toward small business customers sadly I believe my relationship with Plus is nearing it's end.
Apologies. I seem to have produced a diatribe.
