BT

Good service, good products.

Yes I have had problems, but BT have always resolved them. I have faith in their abilities.

I have: BT Business Broadband. No problems in 4 years, apart from some billing issues, which we sorted with 1 phonecall. If you renew they do tend to bill you for 3 years in advance again!

BT Vision - great system which is exceptional value (pay around £12) - each renewal date they have dropped price. Some issues when I moved house, but their phone support was efficient.

BT home landline - some issues moving in, but engineer sent to resolve. Some ongoing issues - broadband cuts out with the ending of a phonecall. WHen I get round to it, I will speak to BT, and I have confidence they will resolve it for me.

ekmPowershop.com

Poor basic system, with poor customer service. Had its day.

I decided to use ekm to grow my off-marketplace business. Initially I thought it to be a reasonable system, easy to start using etc. However its when I really needed it to do certain e-commerce standard things that it fell down. At the time, the API was not opened up, so I could not control it with my inventory management software, thus meaning I had to manually adjust (definitely unacceptable).

They charge for the web stats (£5 a month ) from memory - and what a let down. To say its basic was an understatement.

Not that this affected me as I am vat registered, but price was advertised as £19.99 a month, but was + vat (annoying for companies who are under the vat threshold).

When I closed the account, I had pre-paid until the end of the month, but they just shut it down altogether, with no access to customer orders (this was not explained). When I asked for access, they said I would have to pay again. Their mood/attitude towards me once I cancelled was of utter contempt.

I asked for a code to transfer my URL, and I got this ok, but a few months after I noticed they had again charged me for hosting the URL. I had to call them and request this to be refunded.

I don't trust they are able to competently provided a positive customer experience (especially if you ask them to close it down). The system is ok for people playing at ecommerce, and if all their inventory is just located there....but at that price there are MUCH better systems out there - such as Big Commerce; epages.

Mark Levertonand Jannette Noad found this review useful

Linnworks

Saves you at least one member of staff

I have been using this sytem now for a few years, and it is the single most important part of my growing business. The tech team are constantly innovating with new marketplaces, new features - for example they have just integrated Royal Mail Dispatch Manager Online (DMO) - 1st company to do this from my knowledge.

Linnworks simplifies the tasks that take the time - consolidating sales from multi channels; one click solution for managing returns and refunding people; listing on ebay and Amazon take half the time.

Compared to other systems (Channel Advisor, eseller pro) to name a few, the cost is significantly lower, and its a fixed fee not %turnover based.

I wholehearted recommend this system. There are customers who can share their current use of it - well worth talking to Linnworks and seeing this in action.

Keep up the good work guys.