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Virginbiz.net
Well we all admire and respect what Sir Richard Branson has done for Customer
Service and cheaper prices over the years.
(Well, he will get the trains right eventually!).
So we thought we would look at just how well he was doing with Virginbiz.net.
Richard we are not impressed!
After 45 days of the so-called “free service”, you are tied in for a year unless you cancel.
Well they “give” you a free domain name!
The basic package is called “standard” and will cost you £149.95 just to set it up, plus £29.95 per month.
All plus Vat of course!
Richard will give you only 30Mb of web space compared to our 200Mb!
Richard will also give you the ability to choose from a vast range of
web page designs, which are fully customisable so that it becomes unique to your business.
Hardly, Richard. What you really mean is your customer can use some templates to help them make up a site.
Won’t stop it being a template site, will it!
All our sites are designed and hand crafted by trained Graphic Designers,
modelled by e-commerce specialists and programmed by some of the best young
programmers in the world! Richard gives you the ability to include pictures,
graphics and links to suppliers.
Wow Richard, how generous of you!
We do this as standard and we chuck in a whole lot of other services free.
How about Audio? Will you allow Audio Richard?
We do! Richard will also let you use standard developed pages such as
a calendar, site map, and discussion groups.
Big deal Richard. So do we, but ours are individually tailored to our customer’s needs.
We are still waiting for that Killer application that makes Virginbiz.com good value, Richard!
No, Richard. Instant reporting on the number of visitors to a site is offered by nearly all of us FOC.
A call from one of Richard’s Web Consultants is sure to impress you, but
what do they know! All our team are specialists and are available to you
whilst you remain a customer!
Richard, we still want to know what the Killer application is.
The £149.95 set up fee, plus £29.95 per month excluding Vat you want your customers to pay…
Now that is a Killer!
To be fair to Richard, the nearest service he offers to ours is his platinum service.
They will design and build a 10-page site for you.
Are they trained Graphic Designers Richard or are they too using templates?
I think we ought to be told!
They will maintain and update your site regularly!
Now this sounds better Richard, but alas, you will only change a maximum of 4 pages per quarter.
Richard, that Ballooning must be costing you a fortune if you really need to charge £249.95 set-up fee,
plus £99.95 per month, month in month out or such a limited service.
If you want to email Richard to complain about Virginbiz.com’s costs,
do so on richard.branson@virgin.co.uk !
In the meantime, remember for 200 megs for life, and a 50 page site professionally
designed and programmed, we charge approximately £600 to £1000.
(This price does not include any complex database or Unix programming, but nor does Richards.
That said, the vast majority of sites do not require it.
Let’s look at the cost over 5 years, assuming that the customer stays with each company.
Virginbiz.net
Richard’s Virginbiz.net price for a 10 page site under his “platinum
service” with 30 megs of hosting space.
Total Cost: £6, 246.50 ex VAT.
5i-Studio.com
5i-Studio.com’s price for a 50 page site with 200 megs of hosting space (assuming
site design and programming costs of £1,000) and we only update 20 pages
quarterly (Well, Richard will only do 4!)
Total cost: Less than £2,000 plus VAT.
Conclusion
A better site, a better service and a massive saving of over £4,000!
You may even save a lot more. If you send 50 unsolicited emails in a day
you agree to pay Virginbiz.net £10 per day even though it was unintentional!
If it was intentional, it goes up to £100 a DAY! That means that if you
send 50 of your main potential customers one email highlighting a special
offer every week, for two years, Virginbiz can legally charge you an extra £10,000!!!
You won’t get any such nonsense from 5i unless you start spamming 1,000s
of people and then we will just warn you, and if you are stupid enough
to do it again, we will send you your site and refuse to continue hosting it until you promise to grow up!
Come on, Richard, have you lost the plot or do you just not know enough
about computers and the net to deliver your usual value for money and
excellent customer service?
We may not own a private island in the Caribbean, Richard, but at least
we will still have our customers. Will you?
(In fairness to Richard, many offers on the net are very similar, so remember
to read the small print over and over again.)
P.S. Unlike Virginbiz, Virgin Atlantic really is good, Richard!
One of our Directors availed himself of a Caribbean Jaunt last year for a mere
£169.00 return. He is now a confirmed VA Fan.
P.P.S. We use the term “Richard” to denote and personalize Virginbiz.net
and in no way suggest that any short comings or expensive pricing by Virginbiz.net is personally any fault of Mr. Branson.
A note for the £200 plus an hour lawyers:
Sue us if you want, we could do with the publicity, and we have the litigation insurance in place
and you know full well we are telling the truth!
A note for Richard: The Gaels are a shrewd bunch!
Don’t pay over the odds!
For 5i domain registration
For a free web hosting trial
For a web site
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