Using residential phone/broadband packages at a business

[Graham C]

I've been looking at cutting costs a bit and the phone line and broadband is an area we can save in and one of the providers has offered us a deal which is a residential package rather than business.   They said that it would be the best option and price wise I agree, but are businesses legally allowed to use residential packages? 

I'm only questioning it because our current phone provider is trying to keep us but they say there isnt' a business deal available for the price we've been offered and that they shouldn't have done it.

[lazaroonie]

i dont think there is anything wrong with it as it stands, but there are other things to consider.

-Business broadband generally offers much lower contention which can mean a more reliable service (subjective)

-depending on the terms and conditions of your business broadband you may have certain rights if the service goes down (loss of earnings, goodwill etc). There is no chance of this from a residential provider.

im sure there are other unseen benefits which I cant really think of at the moment.

[Dingdell]

You get better compensation when it goes wrong if you are a business and in my experience better call out times too. It also means you get listed int he phone book as a business and get your free yellow pages entry. Not sure how easy that is so do if you are not a commercial customer.

[lazaroonie]

You get better compensation when it goes wrong if you are a business and in my experience better call out times too. It also means you get listed int he phone book as a business and get your free yellow pages entry. Not sure how easy that is so do if you are not a commercial customer.

thats the one I couldnt think of - certainly with BT the broadband tech support and resolution is light years ahead of the residential product.

pm me with the price and details of what you are being quoted - I have access to bt wholesale broadband prices so can let you know if its reasonable.

[Graham C]

Thanks

The deal we've been offered is with Talk Talk, they said that the residential package would be best and fine, and for unlimited phone calls and unlimited broadband it's only £21.99 per month.

[kinboshi]

Have you not looked at VoIP as an alternative?

[Graham C]

Sort of, we have Skype but to be honest it's not that convienent for us.  I'm sure it can be jigged around for it, but it would be a lot of hassle.   Plus, I guess we'd need to get rid of our number and get a new one?

Anyway, I booted Talk Talk and got a deal from our existing peope for just £3 pm more than Talk Talk.  Trying to cancel with them was a horrible experience - press 1 to go to..., now press 1 to go to - this went on and on and finally when I spoke to someone, they admitted that it was mis sold and shouldnt have been, but the person who answered did so with a mouth full of lunch.   Pretty poor service and I'd only just started with them!     Too late to cancel the phone line being sent across apparently, but they have admitted that it shouldn't have been sold in the first place and will accept any charges to get it back to BT so that's fair enough.