This topic

Wholesale customers cannot access our website

MikeSutty — Fri, 05 Jan 2024 13:46:33 GMT

We're a wholesale vaping business in the UK.

We operate the website https://portal.flavourwarehouse.co.uk/

The website is gated, meaning customers must register and be approved as a legitimate business before accessing the site and purchasing. It is not a consumer website.

Customers have contacted us in the last couple of months saying "This website cannot be reached".

On investigation, we found all customers reporting an issue were using BT (or PlusNet) as an internet service provider.

It appears BT has classified our website as "harmful". At the same time, our customers can still access our competitor's websites without issue. This places our business at a significant disadvantage. We must explain to businesses that they must contact BT regarding "parental controls" to resolve the issue.

Please can we have an explanation as to why this happened in an attempt to resolve the issue? Has the website been misclassified?

Thanks

Re: Wholesale customers cannot access our website

Keith_Beddoe — Fri, 05 Jan 2024 14:12:36 GMT

@MikeSutty

Your business customers would need to contact BT Business. This is the BT Residential customer forum. The same would be for Plusnet Business users, they would need to contact Plusnet business.

http://business.forums.bt.com/

https://community.plus.net/t5/Business/bd-p/Business

Thanks

Re: Wholesale customers cannot access our website

iniltous — Fri, 05 Jan 2024 14:05:24 GMT

FWIW, from my BT service , I just clicked on the link and it brought your website up ,

Re: Wholesale customers cannot access our website

gg30340 — Fri, 05 Jan 2024 14:58:49 GMT

I too can access your site with no problems.

Re: Wholesale customers cannot access our website

Anonymous — Fri, 05 Jan 2024 15:23:30 GMT

And another.

Re: Wholesale customers cannot access our website

Keith_Beddoe — Fri, 05 Jan 2024 15:28:55 GMT

Its likely to be different filtering on BT Business and Plusnet Business.

Re: Wholesale customers cannot access our website

gg30340 — Fri, 05 Jan 2024 15:33:18 GMT

Are parental controls available to a business account?

Re: Wholesale customers cannot access our website

Keith_Beddoe — Fri, 05 Jan 2024 15:40:30 GMT

It may not be parental controls, but some form of default web protection where something is wrong with the way the site is built, especially if it asks for login details.

https://business.bt.com/help/article/email-security-and-hosting/online-safety-and-security/web-protect/

Re: Wholesale customers cannot access our website

gg30340 — Fri, 05 Jan 2024 15:50:16 GMT

The OP has not said that his customers are BT or Plusnet Business account holders nor has he said that he is a BT Business account holder.

What he suspects it that the BT Webprotect is blocking his customers who are BT Broadband customers. While it is not known if the customers are BT residential line or BT business line customers it would appear that regardless it is BT that is causing the problem.

Re: Wholesale customers cannot access our website

Keith_Beddoe — Fri, 05 Jan 2024 16:01:58 GMT

Quote

"The website is gated, meaning customers must register and be approved as a legitimate business before accessing the site and purchasing. It is not a consumer website."

That to me would indicate business customers only.

A reply is needed from @MikeSutty Otherwise I would be suspicious of someone trying to promote their website via this public forum.

Re: Wholesale customers cannot access our website

gg30340 — Fri, 05 Jan 2024 15:59:55 GMT

And how many people on this forum have posted about their email and other things such as website not working and when you challenged them asking if they were a business user stated that they were using a residential account!

Re: Wholesale customers cannot access our website

Keith_Beddoe — Fri, 05 Jan 2024 16:04:36 GMT

There is a fine line between posting about their website, and using this forum to promote it. (Spam).

It would be better if the direct link to the website is removed from the post, in my opinion.

Re: Wholesale customers cannot access our website

MikeSutty — Fri, 05 Jan 2024 16:16:18 GMT

Yes that's correct.

It is a business-to-business website. Business customers only.

Re: Wholesale customers cannot access our website

MikeSutty — Fri, 05 Jan 2024 16:17:59 GMT

I'm happy for you to remove the URL. It's not spam. We simply need it resolved.

Re: Wholesale customers cannot access our website

MikeSutty — Fri, 05 Jan 2024 16:19:55 GMT

Is there a BT Business forum, email address, or contact information where this issue can be raised? Finding it very difficult with whom to contact about this query and see that previous posts have been resolved by posting on this forum.

Re: Wholesale customers cannot access our website

Anonymous — Fri, 05 Jan 2024 16:20:30 GMT

@Keith_Beddoe

How can @MikeSutty possibly be spamming by posting on a public forum about a problem with his web site, that isn't open to the public?

Re: Wholesale customers cannot access our website

MikeSutty — Fri, 05 Jan 2024 16:26:41 GMT

We simply cannot tell every customer to contact BT, they simply do not have the time, are not technically savvy, or can't be bothered and will shop elsewhere. We know how to fix the issue by walking each customer through the steps. However, this could be affecting customers who don't contact us and potential new customers registering for an account.

Somebody did mention that some businesses (customers) may be using residential accounts rather than business accounts. This could be possible, I do not have that information without asking. Can someone please check at BT that this is the case and BT Business Broadband works fine for accessing the site?

Re: Wholesale customers cannot access our website

Keith_Beddoe — Fri, 05 Jan 2024 16:30:27 GMT

@Anonymous

Perhaps to drum up more business and get new registrations, especially as the referral link would come from a high volume BT forum. Does wonders on a search engine ranking.

As @MikeSutty has posted, its not the case here. I will leave it up to the moderators if they want to edit out any direct link, and just post the name of the website.

As for the problem, its probably a web Protect issue.

Re: Wholesale customers cannot access our website

Keith_Beddoe — Fri, 05 Jan 2024 16:47:41 GMT

@MikeSutty

You can raise this with BT by emailing categorisation@bt.com

Not sure about Plusnet.

If you take a look at Check if a site is being blocked you'll find some useful information around getting your site unblocked.

Re: Wholesale customers cannot access our website

MikeSutty — Tue, 23 Jan 2024 13:18:56 GMT

How long should it take for BT Categorisation to reply? I've been waiting since 08/01/24.

All our testing and user cases point to it being a DNS issue. We've ruled out everything else.

This is now affecting 4 of our websites.

Is there anyone else within BT that I can raise this case to?