Fax2Email - yet another distinguishing service bites the dust

[#1]

Again though townman, as someone who's business is hosting and web design using PN servers for hosting is not a great decision at all, hosting is so cheap with the big boys where you are getting the best tech and the best support is there really a need for PN hosing service? Especially if it is another cost for PN that only a small number of users take advantage of? Crikey you can have a windows and linux machine in the Amazon cloud completely free for 12 months and then very cheap after that.

[#2]

@PP,
It's to the same reason that I have my phone and broadband with a single supplier - one bill for the package.  If something is wrong there is just one tech organisation responsible for it.  There might well be a multitude of other providers of different services, but when things go wrong they can blame each other.
These are but more examples of services being demised.  If there are few users of any particular service then that is the direct result of those services being excluded to new users somewhere along the way.
You presume too much what my interests are.  The point is that for many purposes, the PlusNET offer was more than adequate for the needs of simple businesses / personal interests and is therefore an appropriate decision.  Sure multiple services are available wherever, but that complicates the solution (both technically and commercially), requiring continuing IT support which is beyond the ability (skill & cost) of many people / small businesses whose purpose in life is to run their business, not their IT.

[#3]

I understand what you are saying Townman and at the moment with these things coming to light virtually every day of the week then I can also see why it would be so frustrating especially when the services being axed are the ones you are using.
The only thing I would say is companies offerings evolve and mature as time goes by, what seemed like a great thing for Plus Net to offer years ago now has become not viable for whatever reason, I do not suppose there was ever any guarantee that PN would offer all these add on services forever. Maybe using PN for these services in the first instance was not the wisest of choices, who knows but it has happened and now you must seek an alternative provider for these services, if I can be of any help in that endeavour please just let me know.

[#4]

Quote

Same with VOIP, again I run a number of VOIP lines through soho66 and voipstudio these people do nothing but VOIP, their service is relatively cheap and extremely reliable, is it really that much of a big deal? If you want a residential VOIP line you can go to sipgate and get one completely free with a geographical number, it will not cost you a single penny for incoming calls and upkeep, these guys specialise in these services why would you not want to use a specialist for such things?

Because PN provide me with 120mins/month of free UK landline calls with my voip service. This means that I don't need to pay for an Anytime call package on my landline, I just have E & W/E to cope with long calls to family members and for ah hoc calls during the day the voip line suffices. Whilst the actual value of the 120mins voip is around £2/month, I'm effectively saving the differnec between the E & WE and Anytime packages of £3/month. I recontracted to PN in Oct last year and it was confirmed that my existing services would remain, so once PN have formally notified me of the loss of the voip service(they haven't yet!) I will be asking how they propose to recompense me for the loss of my service...  

[#5]

Unfortunately the broadband phone service, along with Fax-2-email were just not feasible to continue from our point of view. The number of customers using these services is a very small amount (although I am aware that the proportion of community forum users having these is much higher than the general userbase).
@MisterW I'm not sure if they've all been sent yet, I'll try and find out.

[#6]

Can we keep this thread specific to Fax-2-Email? Or maybe combine both into one thread as at the moment the questions and info are going to be very very similar between this and the VoIP thread here: http://community.plus.net/forum/index.php/topic,139791.new.html#new

[#7]

Hmmm?  I seem to be positioned squarely between Townman and Pembs Panther.
I selected Plusnet for my personal use back in the day when it was a very 'go ahead' ISP with a steady stream of innovative add-ons supported by some excellent technical guys.   I  could 'dabble' with Web desingn; VoIP; Fax to Mail and a range of other services.  It served me well for a few years, but then began the rot with services like VoIP and Hosting being dropped for new Users and a steady decline in support of the (deprecated) services for residual Users.  Like Townman I preferred the One Stop Shop billing.and a range of service options.
For small businesses I found the Plusnet offering not as attractive as other offers - particularly when use of VoIP was a significant need - so selected other suppliers depending on the client's needs.
Looking rationally at the current services being ceased I can see some accounting management benefits in their demise, but not necessarily such a strong business case?
What's going to be left next year?  
Time to review the options for renewal.
Maurice

[#8]

Maybe there's another share issue on the cards and they are reducing their overheads to be a more attractive investment. This makes sense to me due to the expansion of PN they got to get the money to pay for all the new hardware, contracts etc, from somewhere.
Edit: Spelling mistook

[#9]

Quote from: Chris

The number of customers using these services is a very small amount (although I am aware that the proportion of community forum users having these is much higher than the general userbase).

(quote added as new posts added during thread merge made this part unclear)
The higher proportion of forum users having Broadband phone may be due to both groups being associated with longer term customers?
Anyways, to me and clearly some others this is effectively a price increase, as the cost of the inclusive 240 minutes calls will have to be met elsewhere.


For those concerned about Gradwell - in many ways we effectively already have a Gradwell account, albeit administered as a white label for Pn, I would be very disappointed to hear of any costs associated with retaining the account but moving it to the Gradwell name.
I've had a separate Gradwell 'Single user VIOP' account for over 18 36 (can't count!) months and they've been great - It's £4.00 + Vat (=4.80) a month and their CS has consistenly been excellent - way better than you'd experience in contacting PN these days. I've no idea where the idea of compulsory equipment costs or upfront charges comes from - it's just straight PAYG for call costs with a monthly fee?  If they have a 'migration' offer which beats that I might be very interested to hear about it!

[#10]

Moderator's Note
VoIP and Fax-2-Email threads merged and title changed accordingly.

[#11]

Quote from: Mook

Maybe there's another share issue on the cards and their reducing their overhead to be a more attractive investment. This makes sense to me due to the expansion of PN they got to get the money to pay for all the new hardware, contracts etc, from somewhere.

Or will Plusnet be reversed into EE once that take over progresses?  They already have a good Back Office / Billing system.
M

[#12]

Frustrating that we'll loose our free minutes but sipgate basic does look like a good alternative to paying land line call prices (1.19p/min to UK 01/02/03 numbers).
Bob.

[#13]

I can vouch for their service as well Bob, I have been using a residential VOIP line with them for a few years now and never had 1 single problem in all that time.
dick:quote

[#14]

Agreed - Sipgate is more than good enough for residential use. I wouldn't put them at 0 problems - the reason I went with Gradwell for a work phone line was that I've found them to be more reliable than Sipgate overall and Gradwell are considerably better for customer services.-  but both are undoubtedly in the 'excellent' category

[#15]

For business solutions I use soho66 and most recently voipstudio both have excellent pricing, features and customer service.