About our new 'We Pay Our Tax' logo

It's a crazy situation to think we've had to do it but, we've added a "We Pay Our Tax" logo to MoreComputers.com this week. Why do we feel the need to do such a thing?

To be honest the frustration has been building for months and with the recent press Starbucks, Amazon and Google have been getting over their alleged tax avoidance we felt it was time to state our position.

Chances are you work for or run your own business here in the UK - one that pays it's corporation tax and charges VAT. The problem we have in running More Computers is that we are constantly competing with the massive international corporations who seem to be able to avoid paying their corporation tax. We are also competing with hundreds of small 'companies' (if you can call them that) who are collecting VAT but never forward it on to the VAT man.

It's a double edged sword that causes us a lot of pain. Our larger competitors have a 23% advantage - money they can invest back into their business or use to buy advertising. Then there are the smaller competitors who have a 20% VAT advantage - because they have no intention of passing on VAT.

A word of warning, you will not get a VAT invoice from many Amazon and Ebay traders, important if you are buying for your business.

So you might be thinking "Why should this bother me? As long as I get a cheap deal, that's all that matters". or thinking, "There's nothing I can do about it, it's the government who need to change the tax rules and work harder to catch the VAT/Tax dodgers". The government do need to change the rules and work harder, but in the meantime everyone in the UK is suffering as services are cut back due to the poor economic situation.

I don't have the the answer, I'll be the first to admit I've not researched the whole area as much as some people - but I do know that if the tax due on the 'real' profit made by big international corporations was paid at the same level smaller business like ours pay, there would be billions more being paid into the system.

Even more money could be added by making it difficult for rogue traders to avoid handing over VAT and stopping them folding one company to open a new one the next day (without any debt).

I appreciate it's hard to take a moral stand and choose to support UK businesses when you have to account for every penny of your dwindling funds. But if you can, we may all be a little better for it in the long run.

Rant over.

Fill Your Stockings with a Galaxy Tab and earn £30-£50 Cashback this Christmas

With less than 8 weeks of shopping time left for Christmas 2012, why not treat your family to one of the latest gadgets and earn some cash back in the process? I blogged about a similar promotion back in September. This promotion was so successful last time around, Samsung decided to run a similar venture again.

Claims are valid for purchases between 24th October - 31st December, so if you have already purchased one, you'll have more money to spend on mince pies and sherry this Christmas.

Just like last month, I have created a promotion page conveying all Qualifying Products on the MoreFrom Site.

Whether you like to surf the web, listen to music, play games or even teach ABC's, this is a must buy. Tablet PC's are suitable for everybody, and Samsung are one of the most popular.

How do I claim my cash back?- Simple, just follow the below steps:

STEP 1 - Purchase one of the qualifying Samsung products from the MoreFrom Group

STEP 2 - Complete the claim form on the Samsung Website within 15 - 60 days from the date of purchase

STEP 3 -  Expect a Bank Transfer within 30 days of claiming.

As always, if you require any further information, contact Danny- 
Orders@MoreFromGroup.co.uk

PRESS RELEASE: MoreComputers.com wins yet another national customer service award

MoreComputers.com wins yet another national customer service award.

Sheffield's MoreComputers.com has once again been named Online Retailer of the Year by readers of leading technology magazine PC Pro.

The South Yorkshire e-commerce specialist took home the top prize after scoring higher than big brands like John Lewis and Amazon in the PC Pro Excellence Survey, the most comprehensive survey of it's kind in the UK tech sector with more than 11,000 readers voting.

The 2012 award joins the many gongs and certificates already residing at the MoreComputers.com head office on Collegiate Crescent, where More's customer service team work hard to consistently provide the best online shopping experience for thousands of customers. More have now won national customer service awards from both PC Pro and PC Advisor magazines as well as shopping comparison site PriceRunner.

MoreComputers.com, Brian Trevaskiss said: "We're extremely proud of the great team here at More, they'll always go that extra mile to make sure our customers get remarkable service. This latest award proves they really do stand out in the highly competitive online shopping sector - they totally deserve it".

The PC Pro awards are 100% reader voted and PC Pro says nobody buys their way onto the shortlist or is excused if they finish bottom. It's the big high street names like Currys, Tesco and Argos that occupy the lowest slots on the results table.

When it comes to online shopping it would appear the retail giants could learn a lot about customer service from the Sheffielders at MoreComputers.com.

Brian Trevaskiss with some of the awards MoreComputers.com has won

Barry Collins, Editor of PC Pro Magazine, presents the 2012 online retailer of the year award to Brian Trevaskiss of MoreComputers.com

-Ends-

Images and logos can be found here


NOTES TO EDITORS:

MoreFrom group is a group of websites best known for MoreFrom.com and MoreComputers.com.

MoreComputers.com sells over 160,000 products including computers,
televisions, cameras, accessories, telephones, satNav, MP3 players and
downloadable software

MoreComputers.com is rated as one of the best online retailers in the
UK and is award winning:
Won Best Online Retailer in the PC Pro Awards 2012
Won PC Advisor Best Specialist online IT retailer 2011 and was runner up in 2012
Received six out of six stars for customer service in the PC Pro
Awards 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010
Won Best Online Retailer in the PC Pro Awards 2009
Won Retailer of the Year in the PriceRunner awards 2006

MoreComputers.com has a 94% customer service satisfaction rating,
compared to the industry average of 85% (PC Pro magazine 2012 Service
and Reliability Survey)

MoreComputers.com was founded by Chris Wheater and is headquartered in Sheffield

More info at http://www.morecomputers.com

STUDENT DISCOUNT FOR EVERYBODY: Samsung are offering up to £100 Cash Back on selected Gizmo's

Samsung are marketing their latest venture as a 'Back to College' promotion, although it does apply to everybody. So if you're like me and you still have an expired student card in your wallet, you still qualify for discount on some of the latest Samsung Notebooks, Tablets and Solid State Drives. To make it easier for you, I have created a MoreFrom webpage conveying all of the qualifying products.

Here's how it works:

STEP 1 - Purchase one of the qualifying Samsung products from the MoreFrom Group

STEP 2 - Visit the Samsung website within 30 days of purchase, then complete their online claim form - you will need to hand the item serial number and the invoice we provide

STEP 3 - Expect either a bank transfer or cheque within the next 45 days

This offer ends 30/09/2012 so order now from our Award Winning Website before its too late.

If you require further information, contact Danny - orders@morefromgroup.co.uk.

Thanks for your votes! We won Best Online Retailer 2012!

PC Pro Editor Barry Collins presents Brian Trevaskiss with the award

The results of the 2012 PC Pro Excellence Awards have just been published and we're more than happy to say "We Won - Again"! We'd also like to say a big, big thank you to everyone who bought from us then completed the PC Pro Awards Survey - we're really pleased with our scores.

• Customer Service 94%
• Delivery 96%
• Satisfaction 93%
• Overall 94%

If you're not familiar with the PC Pro Awards, here's how PC Pro describe them:

"When spending hundreds or thousands of pounds on IT equipment, you want to trust the companies from which you're buying. The PC Pro Excellence Awards give the firmest possible indication of which deserve your custom. More than 11,000 readers voted in this year’s survey. Each of our 20 awards are 100% reader voted – nobody buys their way onto a shortlist or is excused if they finish bottom. The result is a body of experience and opinion you can trust when you next buy a laptop, tablet or digital camera".

It really is worth looking at the full results for the awards - it's a great way to see which brands and companies shoppers rate and which one's you might want to avoid.

MoreFrom.Me - A truly innovative Social Shopping E-Commerce Solution

MoreFrom.me is a groundbreaking e-commerce concept where anyone can personalise an online store, share it with their social network and earn commission on every sale.

The MoreFrom Group runs several websites including the award-winning MoreComputers.com On analysing customer behaviour, MoreFrom identified a particularly influential group who were recommending to their social network which products to buy and where to buy them.


MoreFrom set out to find a way to reward and encourage these important Facebook, Twitter and blog influencers. They created MoreFrom.me, which embodies this kind of social selling.

Brian Trevaskiss, Head of Marketing at the MoreFrom Group explains:"MoreFrom.Me combines the best marketing tool - (a recommendation from a family member or friend) with the power of social media.
It's an online presence individuals can personalise and curate, where they are compensated in a transparent and authentic way."

MoreFrom.me makes it easy for anyone to create a personalised online technology store. These influencers can curate from over 100,000 big brand and niche products, recommending them through their site and then through social networks. They can earn up to 13% commission for every sale they make.

Brian adds: "In targeting these groups we can increase our business revenues through viral networking by empowering a 'virtual' sales force. It makes for very effective marketing as these people have both access and credibility."



The MoreFrom.me model takes e-commerce and social selling to the next level. Brian identifies four key markets the service appeals to. "First are the technology enthusiasts, proud ‘geeks’ who people turn to for advice. A second group is made up of IT industry professionals who want a zero cost way to sell online. Third are non-profit organisations looking to raise funds, and lastly technology bloggers who can earn affiliate commission for sales of products they review."

Technology bloggers have embraced this idea in particular, Matthew Gibbons, creator of ‘All Things Android’ comments:"Our aim at All Things Android UK is to provide useful information that our readers can trust. If we recommend an Android device or an associated product, it’s because we’ve done our research and genuinely believe it’s a quality product".

"We created our online store All Things Tech UK as a natural progression from recommending products to being able to sell them. In one easy step readers can make a purchase based on what they’ve read. The very fact that they’re reading the blog in the first place means they trust what we’re saying and will invest in a product as a result."

About MoreFrom.me
The world’s first ‘social shopping enabled’ online stores reward customers when they create personalised versions of the MoreComputers.com website and then recommend its IT products to purchase.
www.MoreFrom.me

I like the sound of a smart TV

This is what I'd like my TV to do for me.

My main objective would be to watch exactly the things I like and to discover some new things I didn't even know I'd like. I get very limited time to watch TV, so I like to make it worthwhile. I prefer to watch films, enjoy a good drama series and the odd documentary. TV for me is a mix of escapism and education.

So what I really need is my TV (or the software inside it) to learn my preferences and make recommendations, a bit like the way Amazon has 'learned' my music taste and now makes pretty good recommendations. Better still would be if my TV knew the sort of programs I might like and recorded them for me (just in case I fancied the look of them). I think recorded programs or on demand via satellite would be better than streamed from my broadband connection. UK broadband is overstretched as it is, with more connected TVs I'm pretty sure your program would stop streaming just as it got to a good bit.

So here's the scenario - I sit down in front of my TV. My TV switches itself on and recognises it's me (face recognition is already in TVs apparently). I'm automatically presented with recommendations, split into - what's on live now, what's recorded that I've selected and what my TV thinks I will like. I simple speak the name of the program and it starts to play. Sounds great doesn't it? The good thing is it's not unrealistic. Samsung SmartTV, Sony Smart TV, Apple iTV and GoogleTV all have elements of this technology.

There's a lot of speculation on which of these brands will 'win the smart TV war' - well I think my money is on Google. There will be times when I sit in front of my TV and even with all these clever and accurate recommendations on what to watch, I still won't like the look of anything. That's where Google will be a winner. I can simply speak a keyword into the a Google TV search (that already knows the kind of stuff I like and the kind of stuff people who like what I like watch) and hey presto - lots of new ideas will appear.

Sounds pretty smart to me - where do I sign up?

Although... what happens when you add the other members of the family ?