Any Internet provider that gives you proper/professional bills for goodness' sake?

mich_52

Hi dear all,

So I joined Now Broadband in December last year but (naive me, I know, don't bash me for it please, thanks) I did it without checking first if they issue proper/professional bills reflecting VAT, my address, account holder, etc, but no, they don't because their Internet service is only for personal/family home use and not businesses and blah, blah...ok, fine, no problem with that, but I need proper Internet bills for some personal legal purposes (I cannot disclose here sorry) and now that they have just hiked prices I can leave them without penalty fees so I'm looking forward to switching to another provider in the following next few days (deadline to cancel Now’s contract is soon).

The issue is I don't have a clue what other Internet provider is able to issue proper/professional bills reflecting my address, amount paid, and MORE IMPORTANTLY, TWO (02) account holders at the same time and for a home personal use/address -not for a business purpose/address-, this is because I used Talk Talk for a really long time before joining Now and Talk Talk used to give me bills as I needed them but I left them in December because the quality of their service was becoming really bad.

I've just checked on some comparison sites what providers are available where I am, and they are:

1) Shell Energy

2) Plusnet

3) Vodafone

4) italk

5) Onestream

6) Three (3)

…..then:

7) BT (won't go with them as their charges are a total rip off)

8) Virgin (won't go with them because vandals have damaged the already installed Virgin internet/case points at our block of flats)

I would greatly love, appreciate and be immensely grateful if you would let me know what of the 6 providers above you know will be able to provide me with bills as I need them- I know I could contact them myself but getting replies from them will take ages and by the time they do it my deadline to cancel Now’s contract will have expired.

PS. I'm not interested in TV/phone deals (I don't watch TV and don't need to make landline calls), I’m interested only in getting a new Internet contract.

Thank you!

Neil_Jones

Pretty much every domestic provider charges inclusive of VAT, its not something you can avoid.

Business users can reclaim the VAT portion of the bill as an expense.  You can't.  So there is no benefit whatsoever to any domestic supplier providing you with a "professional" (whatever that's supposed to mean) bill.

As for multiple account holders - again this is something rarely needed in the domestic market - if you have internet installed to 17 Cherry Tree Lane for example the account will almost certainly be in the name of George Banks (or potentially Winifred Banks) and the other person is put down as authorised on the account.  If you need multiple account holders on an internet package then normally you get business broadband and put it in the name of the company.  At that point anybody who works for that company can (subject to approval/authorisation of course) speak for it.

mich_52

Neil_Jones said:

Pretty much every domestic provider charges inclusive of VAT, its not something you can avoid.

Business users can reclaim the VAT portion of the bill as an expense.  You can't.  So there is no benefit whatsoever to any domestic supplier providing you with a "professional" (whatever that's supposed to mean) bill.

As for multiple account holders - again this is something rarely needed in the domestic market - if you have internet installed to 17 Cherry Tree Lane for example the account will almost certainly be in the name of George Banks (or potentially Winifred Banks) and the other person is put down as authorised on the account.  If you need multiple account holders on an internet package then normally you get business broadband and put it in the name of the company.  At that point anybody who works for that company can (subject to approval/authorisation of course) speak for it.

I never said I wanted to avoid VAT (I genuinely don't know what I said that led you to that conclusion/assumption), I said I just simply want a bill reflecting names of two account holders, their address, charges/fees paid (and also account number), because they're needed for some personal legal purposes, that's it.

wongataa

I'm with Plusnet.  If I log into my account on the Plusnet website and can view my billing history and view individual bills.  If I view a bill I get a PDF with my name, address, account, number, and whatever the charges are listed.  It is what you want.

You can't have two account holders and I suspect you can't have that with most residential ISPs.

onomatopoeia99

The ISP I use (available nationwide over the Openreach network but not one of those listed as they aren't generally on comparison sites) provides a "proper invoice" as a PDF, but it's not a VAT invoice on their domestic service, to get one of them you would need a business service.  No idea about having two account holders, not something I've ever needed to worry about.

Neil_Jones

mich_52 said:

Neil_Jones said:

Pretty much every domestic provider charges inclusive of VAT, its not something you can avoid.

Business users can reclaim the VAT portion of the bill as an expense.  You can't.  So there is no benefit whatsoever to any domestic supplier providing you with a "professional" (whatever that's supposed to mean) bill.

I never said I wanted to avoid VAT (I genuinely don't know what I said that led you to that conclusion/assumption), I said I just simply want a bill reflecting names of two account holders, their address, charges/fees paid (and also account number), because they're needed for some personal legal purposes, that's it.

What you said in your post was "I did it [joined Now] without checking first if they issue proper/professional bills reflecting VAT".  That to me suggests you may have been looking at reclaiming the VAT portion of the bill (which you can't do as a domestic/residential customer).  Maybe when I said "avoid" it was the wrong word.

MattMattMattUK

mich_52 said:

Hi dear all,

So I joined Now Broadband in December last year but (naive me, I know, don't bash me for it please, thanks) I did it without checking first if they issue proper/professional bills reflecting VAT, my address, account holder, etc, but no, they don't because their Internet service is only for personal/family home use and not businesses and blah, blah...ok, fine, no problem with that, but I need proper Internet bills for some personal legal purposes (I cannot disclose here sorry) and now that they have just hiked prices I can leave them without penalty fees so I'm looking forward to switching to another provider in the following next few days (deadline to cancel Now’s contract is soon).

The issue is I don't have a clue what other Internet provider is able to issue proper/professional bills reflecting my address, amount paid, and MORE IMPORTANTLY, TWO (02) account holders at the same time and for a home personal use/address -not for a business purpose/address-, this is because I used Talk Talk for a really long time before joining Now and Talk Talk used to give me bills as I needed them but I left them in December because the quality of their service was becoming really bad.

I've just checked on some comparison sites what providers are available where I am, and they are:

1) Shell Energy

2) Plusnet

3) Vodafone

4) italk

5) Onestream

6) Three (3)

…..then:

7) BT (won't go with them as their charges are a total rip off)

8) Virgin (won't go with them because vandals have damaged the already installed Virgin internet/case points at our block of flats)

I would greatly love, appreciate and be immensely grateful if you would let me know what of the 6 providers above you know will be able to provide me with bills as I need them- I know I could contact them myself but getting replies from them will take ages and by the time they do it my deadline to cancel Now’s contract will have expired.

PS. I'm not interested in TV/phone deals (I don't watch TV and don't need to make landline calls), I’m interested only in getting a new Internet contract.

Thank you!

Bills to consumers are "proper bills" regardless of if they show VAT or not. Where have you got this idea of "proper/professional bills" from? It seems what you want is the billing structure that comes with a business account. Domestic accounts are only in one name, not multiple account holders. 

TalkTalk bills do not show VAT broken down either as I have my broadband with them and have just checked a bill.

jon81uk

I can download a PDF bill from BT which has the account number etc on it.

mich_52

Neil_Jones said:

mich_52 said:

Neil_Jones said:

Pretty much every domestic provider charges inclusive of VAT, its not something you can avoid.

Business users can reclaim the VAT portion of the bill as an expense.  You can't.  So there is no benefit whatsoever to any domestic supplier providing you with a "professional" (whatever that's supposed to mean) bill.

I never said I wanted to avoid VAT (I genuinely don't know what I said that led you to that conclusion/assumption), I said I just simply want a bill reflecting names of two account holders, their address, charges/fees paid (and also account number), because they're needed for some personal legal purposes, that's it.

What you said in your post was "I did it [joined Now] without checking first if they issue proper/professional bills reflecting VAT".  That to me suggests you may have been looking at reclaiming the VAT portion of the bill (which you can't do as a domestic/residential customer).  Maybe when I said "avoid" it was the wrong word.

I said I want the Internet service/bill for a (quote follows) "home personal use/address -not for a business purpose/address-," How could my message convey the idea I want to avoid/reclaim VAT is still beyond me...Anyway.

mich_52

MattMattMattUK said:

mich_52 said:

Hi dear all,

So I joined Now Broadband in December last year but (naive me, I know, don't bash me for it please, thanks) I did it without checking first if they issue proper/professional bills reflecting VAT, my address, account holder, etc, but no, they don't because their Internet service is only for personal/family home use and not businesses and blah, blah...ok, fine, no problem with that, but I need proper Internet bills for some personal legal purposes (I cannot disclose here sorry) and now that they have just hiked prices I can leave them without penalty fees so I'm looking forward to switching to another provider in the following next few days (deadline to cancel Now’s contract is soon).

The issue is I don't have a clue what other Internet provider is able to issue proper/professional bills reflecting my address, amount paid, and MORE IMPORTANTLY, TWO (02) account holders at the same time and for a home personal use/address -not for a business purpose/address-, this is because I used Talk Talk for a really long time before joining Now and Talk Talk used to give me bills as I needed them but I left them in December because the quality of their service was becoming really bad.

I've just checked on some comparison sites what providers are available where I am, and they are:

1) Shell Energy

2) Plusnet

3) Vodafone

4) italk

5) Onestream

6) Three (3)

…..then:

7) BT (won't go with them as their charges are a total rip off)

8) Virgin (won't go with them because vandals have damaged the already installed Virgin internet/case points at our block of flats)

I would greatly love, appreciate and be immensely grateful if you would let me know what of the 6 providers above you know will be able to provide me with bills as I need them- I know I could contact them myself but getting replies from them will take ages and by the time they do it my deadline to cancel Now’s contract will have expired.

PS. I'm not interested in TV/phone deals (I don't watch TV and don't need to make landline calls), I’m interested only in getting a new Internet contract.

Thank you!

Bills to consumers are "proper bills" regardless of if they show VAT or not. Where have you got this idea of "proper/professional bills" from? It seems what you want is the billing structure that comes with a business account. Domestic accounts are only in one name, not multiple account holders. 

TalkTalk bills do not show VAT broken down either as I have my broadband with them and have just checked a bill.

Your question: Where have you got this idea of "proper/professional bills" from?

Answer: Oh! You need to see the rubish so-called bills Now is giving me: It doesn't have our address, it doesn't have the exact date on which payments were conducted, etc....It's a joke of a bill, not a proper/professional bill that includes customer/client's address, invoice number, account number, exact dates payments were conducted and so on.

mich_52

jon81uk said:

I can download a PDF bill from BT which has the account number etc on it.

 I would not go with BT because they're expensive, but thank you for letting me know this anyway.