ISP Reviews by Devon Sue

I have been using Zen now for the past 20 months and have had excellent service from them.

Prior to that I had been with AOL for some years then changed to another smallish UK owned ISP about 6 years ago who were also very good until, horror of horrors, they were bought out by another ISP and all their technical support staff were suddenly off-shore based and there were loads of other issues. The price stayed high but the service and quality of technical support deteriorated dramatically, hence my move to Zen.

Major bonuses with Zen are as follows:-

1. Well trained, UK based technical support staff who not only speak tech-talk but who can also talk in layman's terms. I have not had any major problems but when I have had to call, my query has been dealt with politely, promptly and knowledgeably.

2. Very good connectivity and speed.

3. 0845 access number, not a pay by the minute service as so many other ISPs now have (and they keep you holding on for ages in order to make more money from you!)

Slight negatives:

1. Technical support hours are a bit limited, especially if, like me, you use your Internet service at home mainly in the evenings and over weekends. I think the support hours should be extended.

2. And this is my one gripe - I use webmail a lot as I am often away from home and, quite frankly, Zen's webmail service is not a fully functional one as it does not have the facility to save drafts, neither does it have a sent mail folder i.e. you have no record of any e-mails you send using the webmail service unless you copy them back to yourself which is a real pain.

Occasionally I have had problems opening picture files whilst using webmail but this is a minor irritation compare with the lack of a sent mail folder or drafts folder.

All the other webmail services I have used offer a drafts folder and sent mailbox and this, to me, is the one big failing of Zen.

In summary, Zen is not a cheap ISP but at the end of the day you get what you pay for.

I like to speak to someone who is based in the UK and who speaks English that I can understand.

I like dealing with people who know what they are talking about and are not reading from a script.

I also like to know that connectivity is going to be consistently good and that download speeds are good.

Zen offers me everything I need (apart from a good webmail service, which I'm sure they will look to improve as demand increases) and I'm very happy to pay for that service.

Well done, Zen! Keep up the good work and, most importantly, keep everything UK based!!!