There were a few questions that came up more than once and although I could easily direct you to our Help & Support section, I thought why not share it where everyone can see it - right here?!

Now I know some of you out there are veteran TechSoup New Zealand members so I definitely don’t want to tell you how to suck eggs. I won’t hold it against you if you don’t read past this point, however I am going to share with you some of the FAQ’s I received while I spent time in the customer support department.

You say this is a donated product, yet there is a fee attached to it. Why?

The products that sit on the donation programme are, as the title states, donated! However to keep TechSoup New Zealand sustainable and the donation programme alive, TechSoup New Zealand charges an “admin fee” which is usually a very small portion of the RRP of each product. We graciously accept these products from the likes of Microsoft, Symantec, Kaspersky and more, however the process in getting these products on the website and then to you is timely…and as we all know, time is money!

I asked if one of the Customer Support team members could help me with a technical issue regarding my product and they couldn’t help me!

TechSoup New Zealand facilitate the donated and discount programme which comprises of around 20 different brands and more than double that in products. We have a team of experts experienced in the processes associated with ensuring you get your donated and discounted products in a timely manner, however our friendly customer support staff aren't technically trained, but, we do have a solution! Most of our partners will supply us with special numbers specifically for charitable organisations who use our programme to contact. Simply call or email customer support and they will be glad to pass on numbers for you. 

So what’s the difference between donated and discounted products? And why are certain products on one and not the other?

The majority of the products that are donated are donated at a global level. This means all partners of the TechSoup Network get these products donated to their programmes just like ours. You may call up and ask about certain products and hear staff say they will have to raise a case with our global partners, this is usually to do with the donation programme. Donated products have eligibility requirements surrounding them and for some organisations, they may not be eligible. Partners who choose to donate their products sometimes want to donate to a certain group of not-for-profits as that is what their Corporate Social Responsiblity is. For example, Cisco's eligiblity requirements are that organisations serve the predmominantely disadvantaged as that is the sub-sector they support. You can find out more on each partners criteria here.  

For discounted products, most of them are the local to Australia and are available to all organisations who are a part of the programme. Discount partners have great corporate social responosilbity and want to be able to give back to the sector but may not have the capabilities to donate products, so they heavily discount them. While some organisations may not qualify for the donated products, all will qualify for discounted products. 

So there you have it, a couple of sticky questions answered. Do you have any other tricky questions you'd like answered? Feel free to drop me a line at support@techsoup.net.nz!