AS a sole trader am I a business customer?

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lissie

495 posts

Ultimate Geek

#61333 14-May-2010 12:22

Is there any advantage declaring myself as a business customer to an ISP? Or does it just mean I get to pay more :-)

I am a sole trader work from home - only need a couple of laptops connected - don't need a ph (use skype) - but I always wonder when I am checking plans - would saying I was business actually get me faster speed or better service both of which I maybe prepared to pay for.

I help authors publish their books - DIYPublishing.co.nz

Paulthagerous

698 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#330072 14-May-2010 12:44

Short answer: It can depend, based on the providers you talk to.

A ccopuple of years ago my father was looking at changing his broadband from a residential account to a business one as he had just started his own business and was primarily using the broadband for work. As Gigabytes completely escape him he asked me to look for him. When I talked to people I basically said " He has a business and could put it under the company name, or can do it as a consumer". Everyone I talked to would have been happy with either, and it came down to the fact that the consumer deals were completely sufficient and I/he couldnt justify the extra cost that the business ones offered.

As far as quality is concerned, generally I found that actual speed wasn't much difference (particuarly for just 1 connection), more that there were better modems/better helpdesks/replacement modems promised within X hours etc. Given I have spare modems and could generally fix things, this didn't worry him.

Hope that helps!

oxnsox

1923 posts

Uber Geek

#330128 14-May-2010 14:19

Pick the best deal / plan for you and put it in the company name.

Most companies, including the Telcos, classify you either by size or spend.... in essence they respond to you based upon the value of your business to them. Soo at the end of the day it doesn't matter to them who you are.

Having said that, if your acct is in the name of a company you may have access to other Customer support channels which are often more responsive to customer issues than consumer channels. Perhaps because consumers often call with problems that may be 'operator related', where companies often have some sort of internal or external IT support who take care of these issues before they escalate to other service providers(????).

Ragnor

8219 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#330175 14-May-2010 15:53

Depends on the ISP

On some ISP's the business helpdesk has shorter wait times and you talk to a NZ based techs instead of a outsourced CSR's in a foreign country.

Some providers also separate business traffic from residential and give business users priority and lower contention.