Business Vs Residential Service

Hi,

I'm looking at the Plusnet Unlimited business deal and comparing it with the residential deal.

I'm not entirely sure what the benefits really are. I don't want hosting, I don't want Plusnet to have my line rental, customer service is pretty good on the residential side if the advertising is to be believed. Static IP address a bonus but far from essential.

Have I missed a benefit somewhere? I'm struggling to see what justifies charging nearly twice the rate for the standard broadband service and over double the rate for the business fibre.

Elevated traffic priority perhaps ? at the Wholesale network level.

Isn't the essential difference that you are paying for faster response times in the event of a failure somewhere?

Static IP is available on the residential unlimited products. A one-off payment of £5. You can't order it in advance, but you can action it immediately after connection.

I'm not sure what you are saying about the line rental. You don't have to have that with PN on residential broadband, but if you don't you have to pay the broadband setup fee applicable.

Yes, you are paying for elevated support, ie faster turnarounds. You do also get the other features you have mentioned, which is partly where the higher cost comes in.

Do note, however, that per the Terms and Conditions:
Plusnet Residential Standard Terms
What we provide


3. The services and equipment we provide to you under these terms must not be used for business purposes.


Hope that helps!

Working from home has never been considered a 'business purpose' by ISPs as far as I'm aware.

This doesn't justify the additional cost regardless. Strikes me as cynical profiteering to subsidise cheap residential products because BT Retail do the exact same thing, so it's clearly okay.

In reply to a post by yarwell:

Elevated traffic priority perhaps ? at the Wholesale network level.

Don't see any mention of that anywhere in the product description sadly.

In reply to a post by Ignitionnet:

Working from home has never been considered a 'business purpose' by ISPs as far as I'm aware.

So why would you look at a Business product (before complaining about the charges applicable) ?

In reply to a post by Ignitionnet:

This doesn't justify the additional cost regardless.

It's probably more to do with "market forces" and how some businesses would ignore a "too cheap" supplier, as well, on the grounds that the low cost means they are unable to provide a good service.

TalkTalk, under their business branding Opal (now defunct) used to offer 'unlimited' broadband for half price at a fiver a month for the first year, on condition one had their phone service.

There's no longer that low cost broadband from TalkTalk Business, and while an ISP wants to attract new customers, and market share, I seriously doubt the sales and support teams would be able to cope if tens of thousands of small business customers switched in the course of 2-3 months. I know there's definitely a separate business sales team, but I don't know offhand how support is handled (ie whether the same or different staff, as for residential).

As always, PN would take on extra staff, but there'd be a delay before they were up to speed on the business products and be able to assist fully. Have seen newspaper ad for Plus.Net aimed at smaller businesses, so know they are looking to get switchers, but perhaps not as fast as pricing the same as residential users would cause...

Also, I believe there may be a 'business' or 'residential' flag determined by postcode and while most times a business would want a business line, someone in the Business Sales team did provide a client of mine (a small charity on a military base) with service on residential rates, so they seem to have some flexibility there anyway.

Post deleted by MrSaffron

In reply to a post by ultra:

So why would you look at a Business product (before complaining about the charges applicable) ?

Because it's expensable without 40% tax being taken. I'll ignore the connotations from the unnecessary comment in the brackets.

In reply to a post by ultra:

As always, PN would take on extra staff, but there'd be a delay before they were up to speed on the business products and be able to assist fully. Have seen newspaper ad for Plus.Net aimed at smaller businesses, so know they are looking to get switchers, but perhaps not as fast as pricing the same as residential users would cause...

Also, I believe there may be a 'business' or 'residential' flag determined by postcode and while most times a business would want a business line, someone in the Business Sales team did provide a client of mine (a small charity on a military base) with service on residential rates, so they seem to have some flexibility there anyway.

Given there's no financial or other real benefit I'll likely just run with a residential service. Repair times aren't a major consideration as the solution to the home office will be resilient when completed anyway. If I want to spend extra I'll use it on higher care levels for the line the service will run on rather than a support team that can supply no better access to Openreach repairs.

Because it's expensable without 40% tax being taken.

Is that an in-house rule ? the law and HMRC are agnostic about product labels.

In reply to a post by Ignitionnet:

Don't see any mention of that anywhere in the product description sadly.

Me neither, best to ask them.

Perhaps they rely on their traffic management instead.

In reply to a post by yarwell:

Because it's expensable without 40% tax being taken.

Is that an in-house rule ? the law and HMRC are agnostic about product labels.

Agreed Phil. Though there are possible issues about Vat invoices that some ISPs don't give (by default) for residential services. I don't know if any of them will on request.

As the value is so low I just claim the included Vat anyway. IIRC the limit for that is far higher than a typical monthy sub.

In reply to a post by yarwell:

Because it's expensable without 40% tax being taken.

Is that an in-house rule ? the law and HMRC are agnostic about product labels.

I officially really, really like you Phil. I was misinformed but my eyes have been opened!

Nothing wrong with people having a point of view, just ensure it is made without the recourse to swear filter evasion or actual swearing