Zen Internet Reviews

I recently left Zen, after being a generally happy customer for many years

I fear that being one of the few ISPs to offer CityFibre has overwhelmed their support and sales operations. I tried to ask some technical questions about a service upgrade but didn't get an answer - just an acknowledgement then silence, repeated when I followed up a couple of weeks later.

My lower "value" score I'm a little conflicted on: I'm actually spending slightly more now than I was (and than my upgraded service might have been) but part of my reason for leaving was that I was still paying the same rate for my service as when I'd signed up several years earlier. No increases is good, but discovering that the same service is now available for half the price I was paying did not impress on me that they have their customers' best interests in mind.

I moved house and realised that I could get a faster, cheaper service in my area. I tried to cancel my zen internet. Even though the service hadn't gone live yet, I was told they'd signed me up to a new contract without telling me and now have to wait 12 months to leave. Thoroughly unimpressed with the customer service.

I was with Zen some years ago, but left because of excessive phone call charges. After wandering cloudland I returned to Zen last month because they now can provide SOGEA and I can use VOIP with provider of my choice. Thought I would sign up while their 'fixed price for life' offer was still valid (As I type most of the big boys are adding a 10% price hike even to their 'fixed price' deals...)

Connection is better than with all other providers. Had an issue with billing (my browser crashed during sign up and I ended up with two accounts). Support answered within 30 seconds. Staff speak clearly and very knowledgeable. Sorted out the billing issue. Transferred me to the technical who quickly resolved the database issue.

I'm using the Fritzbox with a couple of third party DECT Cat IQ2.0 handsets. I use third party VOIP provider. The Fritzbox is a good and flexible router/answerphone base station. With a bit of configuration its possibe to 'whitelist' my contacts to avoid spam. I'm also planning to get a second Fritzbox from ebay to set up a mesh system around the house and garden.

Dont understand previous couple of reviews who complain about poor support - perhaps the call centre got hit by Covid. They are certainly way better than many of the bigger providers.

I have had a lot of trouble with Zen support trying to sort out a problem. It never seemed to be possible to talk with one person responsible for my case. Practically every time I called I had to wait whilst the new support bod read what his/her colleagues had previously written. I then had to ask them to ask the "fault manager" to ask BT Openreach to look into it. Not once could I have the detailed technical discussion which could have resolved the problem. Several times they promised to ring back, but did not do so.

And the queues on the telephone lines! I often waited 30-40 minutes. Then Zen levied £30 call charges for my calls to their help line! (They have hit on a good way of making money here!)

Hard to believe they're Which magazine's recommended provider.

AVOID! Appalling customer service, support emails go unanswered, support requests not handled correctly. AN APPALLING COMPANY BADLY RUN.

We are heavy users so opted for 1000/115 from Zen Business. We ran this alongside another full fibre connection.

We had issues with Zen from the beginning. Our activation date came and went, but nothing worked (existing ONT). Zen support couldn't sort it so an Openreach engineer was booked and got the Zen connection on-line.

The connection consistently underperformed. The best achievable throughput was never more than a third the package download speed. Initially Zen were up against Openreach and their COVID restrictions. This caused significant undue delays.

After a few confused engineer visits Openreach eventually demonstrated the physical connection was okay and the issue was with Zen. Given our other FTTP connection (from a different ISP) always worked to pretty much the full 1000Mbps download this didn't come as a surprise.

Zen support were mediocre and certainly not industry leading. Sometimes weeks between replies but polite, if at times unhelpful.

We paid a premium to an ISP who were supposed to be highly rated. We didn't receive the purchased service. Zen had a year to sort it and didn't. They consistently advised there was no issues with their network, it was a BT problem despite Openreach proving otherwise.

We migrated that connection to 1000/115 with another ISP and amazingly we're getting good speeds... on the same fibre, same ONT and same router.

Following a completely botched install where an engineer just turned up, without warning, Zen's customer service has been unhelpful and borderline rude. I'm right on the very cusp of the handback threshold and the broadband disconnects frequently. Despite all this, and no desire to resolve the issues, Zen's complaint department have no interest.

I desperately want to move to a different provider now, but Zen won't knock a penny off the rest of the contract payments. Like many, I am working from home, and being held ransom by Zen just makes it much harder than it needs to be.

Was supposed to have FTTP installed on the 27th.

Engineer came, and said it couldn't be done because fibre not set up properly

I contacted Zen, who said they'd get back to me today with an update. That didn't happen

I'd already arranged to have my current internet stopped today, as advised, so have no internet

Had to call them up again today to get them to chase openreach. Then get told I'll have to wait a week. Or more.

1) Why was a proper survey not done?
2) Why didn't Zen get back to me?
3) You would think an install for a date which didn't then change status to DONE would attract their attention

Zen have no ticketing system on their website, just email, and their email thinks I'm sending spam, so I can't even talk to them

My order on the website shows no sign of the new status, the new ETA. Any change whatsoever

Very disappointed

I chose Zen solely because of their previous good reputation. I see many people saying they aren't what they once were. Pity

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The latest update is that I'm expected to wait until 13/06 for the extra work to be done. i.e. 7 weeks after my go live date, all the while without Fibre broadband

This is beyond a joke

Zen should not be offering a service they simply cannot supply

Should I ever get a service from them, I imagine their support will be equally unengaged

I don’t understand where all the good reviews come from. The broadband has been having reliability issues for months and these issues have intensified in recent days. Instead of sorting out the problem – which appears to be a faulty router – they are dragging on with endless checks and temporary fixes. They have also said that I may have to pay a technician to attend my flat, hoping to stop me from asking for a router replacement/quick turnaround. This is disgusting, considering that I am paying for a service that is not delivered. I am very dissatisfied: I have switched despite being one of the most expensive providers, with the hope of a smooth service. Instead, my broadband works intermittently and customer service is unhelpful.

First off don’t expect anyone to reply to your emails or messages, beyond that if you telephone you get through to someone (20mins wait for tech support as April 2021) who is very knowledgeable, helpful and polite.

The Zen supplied Fritz! Router is probably a single very good reason alone for using Zen, this bit of kit does everything, work 100% and reliable.

I migrated to Zen from BT, saving £15 a month for same service, have slightly better ping times, a DNS server that works and a router which allows you to change all the settings.