Any feedback on nhsonline.net

[KernowPhoto]

I was contacted by a salesperson who persuaded me to sign up to NHSOnline.net I was told that by giving a discount to NHS staff and paying them a fee my details would be made available to the thousands of NHS employees that used this site to access the staff discount scheme.

My experience has been very negative, after a month the stats page shows that I have not even appeared in ANY searches, and of course not a single sale or enquiry.
Has anyone else subscribed to NHSOnline.net, if so I would be interested in what you think of it.

[Cathus]

I'm not an NHS employee but I do belong to an organisation which has a certain amount of similar staff discount things. I have to say I have never looked anywhere to try and get a staff discount from them.

I don't know whether I'm similar to an NHS employee but my staff website wouldn't be the first place I'd look for a photographer.

The other thing with offering discounts for photographic services would be that I probably wouldn't think I'd be getting a deal out of it, as fees for something like a wedding might be individually tailored, therefore what am I getting 10% off, I can't measure it since I don't know what the charge is until the photographer & I have discussed what I require.

If it's 10% off a toaster I can easily see that you sell it for £10 normally so I'll get it for £9, but with photographic services, how can I be sure you're not putting the price up by 10% and then knocking that 10% off as a 'deal', since the fee would be an individual one rather than a blanket across the board single charge?

That's the way I'd think, anyway. Just to give you one perspective.

[KernowPhoto]

Thanks for your views - just to let you know, when I complained to them they offered me a 1/2 price subscription to publicsector.net - I have declined as I feel it would be throwing good money after bad.

Any other views/experience anyone ?

Are any of the 'paid-for' services like this worth having, what other services can anyone recommend?

[Cathus]

I don't advertise as such therefore any work I do get is via word of mouth.

I wouldn't be happy paying for advertising unless I could be convinced via impartial recommendation that there is a good chance of a return on it

[Sarkysod]

Originally Posted by KernowPhoto

I was contacted by a salesperson who persuaded me to sign up to NHSOnline.net I was told that by giving a discount to NHS staff and paying them a fee my details would be made available to the thousands of NHS employees that used this site to access the staff discount scheme.

My experience has been very negative, after a month the stats page shows that I have not even appeared in ANY searches, and of course not a single sale or enquiry.
Has anyone else subscribed to NHSOnline.net, if so I would be interested in what you think of it.

Seriously you need to make a complaint to consumer direct (yes they do get involved in business transactions) and ask for trading standards involvement which will be sanctioned. There is a post about this on Freeindex in their scam section as it appears that this is fake site though it has a registered business address with companies house or at least claims to how do you explain this

NHS ONLINE
www.nhsonline.net/ - Zimbabwe
NHSONLINE.net is the online community website for NHS news, views, reviews, education, training, and discounts for NHS staff.

[Sarkysod]

Actually I've been doing a bit of digging and this is the company behind nhsonline.net

http://www.247mediagroup.co.uk/brands.htm

So my previous advice still stands and also complain to Companies House and the advertising standards authority

Also note that the website sneakily has another registered company address of NHS YEARBOOK LTD so include them in the complaint

[wavemachine]

TBH if I was looking for a photographer our company website would be the last place I would look despite having a staff discount scheme (we are a large international corporation), it would be word of mouth in the first instance and then an online google search for people in my area.

If I was going to advertise anywhere it would be post cards in newsagent windows, local paper if I was doing it full time then probably get a proper website up with sample shots and look at some of the search engine options to bring your website to the top of searches a guy I used to work with did that and go a lot of bookings as a wedding photographer as a direct result.

[bybe]

I don't believe 99% of the emails I get, thou hotmail does a pretty good job just hate when your good mails go in the spam box :Z

[AlteredMode]

I have previously worked for the NHS and this site is not their affiliated discounts scheme website.