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Is everything OK at Zen

Now I know I have been on a roller coaster ride of ISPs since October (V21, then Biscit, then Netservices pulling the plug, then EzeeDSL) and I thought everything looked rosy when I managed to escape and signed up with Zen Internet (thanks to the favourable comments on this website).

I know I may have become a little hypo-sensitive after this journey, but I feel I have got rather used to reading between the lines of press releases and news bulletins (as that was the only means of understanding what was going on when I suffered uncommunicative ISPs).

I have just visited my log-in portal and found 5 news letters waiting to be read which leaves me some element of concern regarding the financial soundness of Zen Internet.

I already know that they have capped some of their services, but one of the letters says they will also be capping their old 1000 and 2000 products to 100gig. This is due to misuse of the service as they claim (and I have no reason to disbelieve them) that some customers are downloading solidly 24/7 week in, week out.

Reading between the lines here suggests that maybe they have been hit by a massive bill from BT for all this extra bandwidth and this has pretty much shaken the hell out of them. Especially as the second letter says they are cutting customer support hours. (Is this another measure to cut wage costs?)

2 other letters were concerned with the return of hardware (modems) which implies they have had a lot of customers return goods in a less than satisfactory state. (another financial issue if they are not in a condition to sell on as new).

Now these maybe just very good management decisions, taking the control of the financial situation before it gets out of hand, but it does come at a time for me when I just thought I had settled down and was looking for a longish period of stability with Zen.

I sincerely hope I have made the right decision by signing up with Zen and that all is well. Now, I know nobody at Zen is going to give any early warning of any problems if they do arise, but I will be keeping a keen eye out for any further signs of 'pulling belts in' (like price rises).

I hope all is well?
 
I think you are over reading between the lines caretacker, Zen has been around for years and the capping had to come. The fact some people like was posted in a thread on ISPr the other month think nothing of downloading 700+ gig a month its this abuse that brings in the caps.

The fact they do news letters to keep customers informed is a great idea and a shame it is missunderstood. Zen is working towards the future, any changes now will only benefit the customers in the coming years. Zen is one of the few ISPs that actually has its own LLUed lines around where the company is based that they had installed, not Tiscali LLU as many others have gone.
 
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Thanks folks. As I said, I thought I might be a bit hypo-sensitive after what I've been through. Praps I should just sit back and enjoy the service.

It's been some time since I've been able to do that. Please forgive me :-(
 
Caretaker,

I'm coming over to join you at Zen....Had to pay off eZeeDSL but at least I have a bloody MAC code in my hands as I write this.
 
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Should be switched over tonight.

Funny thing is, I was paying £30 to ezeeDSL and Zen will only charge £25 for a 20Gb capped account.

I have never come across an industry where there is such a large difference between the "good" and the "bad" operators.
 
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Sorry for not replying m8. Truth is, the Zen section of ISPr is so quiet that I don't bother to check it that often. (That's a positive sign)

I've been extremely happy with Zen so far. Nice constant service, billing is on time... Nice people to deal with.

Thanks to their support and well informed website, although I live miles from my exchange, after trying out all their tips and tricks I'm now hitting 2mb on my Office MAX 8000 Pro account.

I hope you are finding them equally as good m8.

No more anti-ISP blogs to keep up to date, no more court cases, no more worries about what connection I haven't got - Life with Zen is blissfully boring m8 hehehehe:D
 
Just thought I would give my view. I have been with them for two months now and find them Great. Phoned them once and got straight though. To be honest they just work.

Very Happy.:):)
 
Yep, 6 months now and I am still a happy bunny. I've even moved my Caretakers Website over to Zen's hosting service.

If you want a reliable - hassle free, friendly service - you do get what you pay for with Zen. Yes, they are more expensive than many, but the old saying 'Pay peanuts - get monkies' seems very apt with ISPs.

I've only had reason to call Zen on one occasion (due to my own silly mess up when signing up for the web hosting I ended up with 2 accounts) and my problem was dealt with swiftly, professionally and politely by somebody who knew what they (and I) were talking about. My issue (which was a fair bit of work for somebody to sort out) was sorted out within minutes of my call.

It was followed up by a nice email to inform me they had sorted my mess out and they even took the trouble to check I had set my cpanel up correctly with my domain name (which thankfully I had).

From a string of ISPs which included BT, Tiscali, V21, Biscit and EzeeDSL, you know, I never knew what good customer service was. Zen are the best I've ever experienced.

At last, I feel like a valued customer!
 
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Well, I'm heading on toward a year with Zen. Still very happy. Not once in that year have I had a problem connecting, my billing has been spot on. I was so happy with their service, I decided to move my caretakers website over to Zen servers too. Again, I found support very helpful when setting my website up and Zen even emailed me after I had completed the migration to confirm I was happy.

Other ISPs' could really take a leaf out of Zen's book.

I actually find myself being bored at times with Zen they are so good.
I don't have to vent my anger on forums. I don't have to name and shame rouge ISPs on my website, I don't have to go to court to get my money back, I don't have to do radio interviews to get heard by customer services, I don't have endless sleepless nights worrying, I don't have to spend days chasing important emails that never got to me, I don't have to try for hours to get connected, I don't have to spend time on the phone with premium rate numbers to a call centre in India....

At one point, my employer was going to send me on an Anger Management Course and I was contemplating the Samaritans. I became like a thing possessed. How a rouge ISP can change ones personality overnight. Day and night my bitterness and frustration grew with every non-replied email, with every broken promise and failure to return a phone call. I'd become the monster from the swamp!

With Zen... I got my life back! I can surf, check my mail and enjoy the company of family and friends. I can spend quality time with my kids. I can smile and be happy enjoying the fruits of life.

To everyone at ISPr (BTW - Love the revamp) and to all the forum members who got caught as I did, for all their help and support too through dark and troubled times....

I wish you all a Very Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year!
 
Just done my review as well, on behalf of my mum.

Its not just good for her either, its a lifesaver sorting out PCs over there on broadband compared to old dialup.

Extremely pleased about it.

Oh, and a merry christmas to you too Caretaker, and anyone else reading!
 
I have been with them for three years with one outage and that was due to someone with a digger cutting the BT cable which knocked out the whole island.
 
Well, I'm heading on toward a year with Zen. Still very happy. Not once in that year have I had a problem connecting, my billing has been spot on. I was so happy with their service, I decided to move my caretakers website over to Zen servers too. Again, I found support very helpful when setting my website up and Zen even emailed me after I had completed the migration to confirm I was happy.

Other ISPs' could really take a leaf out of Zen's book.

-snipped-
[/b]

Thanks again everyone for the comments.

As Operations Manager at Zen it's very useful to hear feedback on our business, products, services and staff whether that is good, bad or indifferent. Fortunately it's usually always good or excellent.

I have an excellent team of people within Zen not just the Operational group that I'm responsible for who are part of the overall Zen team and who have consistently outshone many of our competitors in this industry.

Everything we do here at Zen is around continuous improvement and what we do today has to be very good and then tomorrow it has to be better than the day before.

We will have the occasional blips like any business does from time to time but that is part of the learning experience, and so long as we learn and resolve those then we won't go too far wrong.

Next year I'd like to look at how we interact with you and our other customers and start to build an even better working relationship. Our support team are working hard to improve the quality of support we provide even further, present much more information through our website and portal as well as look at ways in which we can involve you a bit more in the future.

My teams work on a principle that is simply - What did the customer want? What stopped us from doing it? Let's work to fix it (Where possible).

I'd also like to wish you all a very merry Christmas and look forward to serving you all again next year, and the year after, and even after that :smilet:

Regards
Gary
 
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Well, that has to say something, I'm still with Zen after many happy years and my original post is still on the first page. I've now moved up to Zen's Active Fibre package and getting almost 70mb download and 17mb upload.

Thank you Zen, you are still the best ISP and I highly recommend you to everyone I know. I'll post a reply again in another 5 years time! lol :nod:
 
Blast from the past :)

o/
 
Who can complain?
2546013832.png
 
Well, that has to say something, I'm still with Zen after many happy years and my original post is still on the first page. I've now moved up to Zen's Active Fibre package and getting almost 70mb download and 17mb upload.

Thank you Zen, you are still the best ISP and I highly recommend you to everyone I know. I'll post a reply again in another 5 years time! lol :nod:

Glad to see your still active and with us.

Blast from the past :)

o/



I was thinking the same
 
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