Why We Make a Nominal Charge

We know there are lots of excellent Facebook groups and individuals who give up hours of their time manually checking lists and helping to reunite lost pets with their owners – our aim is to help those people and lighten their workload if at all possible through our bespoke, specifically developed and unique Matching Engine, 24 hours a day, every day (including weekends/holidays) and by e-mailing registered owners as soon as potential matches are made.

We would love to offer this service free of charge but unfortunately like vets, pet food suppliers, pet insurers and microchip companies we do have overheads which have to be covered every month.

The payments we receive cover expenses including:

• Ongoing development of, and improvements to, this website – we continually update the website and make improvements for customers (often suggested by other customers), for which our website developers charge us. We constantly work to make the website more user-friendly; improve the efficiency and accuracy of the Matching Engine; and increase the visibility to search engines so that people looking for their lost pets have a better chance of finding petslocated.com through Google and other search engines
• Rapid support through our contact form - we aim to respond to enquiries made via our contact form within 24 hours, we have a customer support team available during office hours Mon – Fri, 9-5.30pm
• Social Media - we outsource our Facebook and Twitter updates and enquiries to our expert team at a Social Media company who also respond to any queries very quickly, so we pay for the work they do
• Professional website hosting - to ensure that petslocated.com is available 99.9% of the time, and that your personal data is fully protected, we use a high-spec, dedicated server which is managed and maintained in a secure datacentre run by an external company. We could use a slightly cheaper, shared server (i.e. alongside other websites) but the privacy and security of your personal data, along with the availability of this website, is paramount to us
• Data Security Checking - petslocated.com is regularly pen tested by an external company to ensure the security and integrity of all the personal data that we hold
• Lost/Found Book - as well as making the website as easy to use as possible for customers who have lost their pets, we pay for ongoing development so that Animal Welfare Organisations can use it, free of charge, to record and manage their Found pets, which are then made available for matching and viewing through the website
• Text Alerts - we already provide the option to receive text alerts for messages received through the website, free of charge, so that customers get information as quickly as possible, and we are working to develop more options for text alerts to customers. Pets Located pays for each text sent and doesn't pass the cost on to customers
• Other Professional Fees - as a Limited Company, Pets Located.com Ltd has to pay an accountant to file accounts and tax returns every year (which are available to view by anyone) and pay any relevant taxes due to HMRC. We are also registered with the Information Commissioner's Office (under the Data Protection Act [Registration Number Z3159369]) and have Intellectual Property registered (such as the name and strap line), which also incur an annual fee

We keep the costs to customers as low as possible and regularly offer a discount on the registration fees for people who would rather pay less. Subscription prices also reduce significantly pro-rata for longer registration terms.

We know that other companies ask for a donation and are sure that the registration fees that we ask for are a lot lower than a donation that most people would feel that they may have to give.

By charging a nominal fee to everyone registering a lost pet on the website, we are making sure that Pets Located stays viable throughout the year. By not relying on donations, which often results in irregular income amounts, we ensure that development and improvements continue throughout the year.

If you have any suggestions for changes and improvements to the website we are always very pleased to receive them through our contact form.