Office 8000Max

Hi

Currently with Entanet who are about to change peak/offpeak hours and or pricing or God knows what as they are not telling!

Looking round for a new ISP I came upon Zens Office 8000Max package, it states the usage allowance as unlimited but when clicking on the "what's included" link I find "Our 8000 broadband services all have monthly download usage allowances from 5GB to 50GB"

So, is it unlimited or not?, my usage is very heavy but I don't mind paying for it, currently on Entas 60Gb peak/330Gb Off Peak package.

The same FAQ page seems to be used all of the packages.

They are unlimited

http://www.zen.co.uk/Broadband/ML_Business/medium-large-business-broadband.aspx

I think it may pay the OP to check directly with Zen. Can't remember the ISP - it may have been Zen - who offered a similar 'unlimited' package. One user took them at their word and downloaded (or claimed to) some 600Gb per month. The ISP not unreasonably, pointed out this was pushing it to the point where it was costing them money to support that level of usage. Eventually following much argument they went their separate ways.

I know all the arguments about 'unlimited should mean unlimited' and ISPs should adjust their business models accordingly, but if you are a seriously heavy user at the 600Gb or so level, I would check that Zen are prepared to support that usage before you sign up. Might save you some grief later :-)

My usage is not that bad but not far off

On a bad month it runs to about 400Gb and before anyone asks I've not got an eye patch and a parrot on my shoulder :D

I'm housebound disabled with an autistic child so we D/L a lot of movies, TV and games (legal) etc. I also freelance as an illustrator and some of the files I sent back and forth are huge which is why I'm looking at the business package for the increased upload speed.

Edit ...........................

Sorted by live chat, 8000 Max is unlimited, very helpful

Edited by jeff1106uk (Fri 02-Jan-09 11:36:36)

FWIW, Zen's 8000 Max DOES and HAS ALWAYS been truely unlimited and continues to be so to this day - I have stated this as have others who use said service on a number of occasions.

I personally know of lines that use upwards of 1000Gb monthly (e.g. over 50% of the time the line is maxed) and nothing doing at Zen's end.

That's fair enough and in that case the ISP obviously wasn't Zen, - memory playing tricks - but having recalled this incident, I thought it worth mentioning before the OP signed up.

Good to know at least one ISP stands four square behind what they say on the tin :-)

Tagging on in this thread, similar position to OP with Enta but relatively light user.

Question: I post mail from a few (business) domains, does Zen allow this - perhaps via authenticated SMTP or other? Would I have to supply details of the domains / email addies - or would it be recognised and allowed via static adsl IP address?

Oh - and I guess I'd be able to get rDSN on my static address via Zen tech support?

You can send and receive SMTP mail without having to ask; I like some others, run my own mail server on my Zen line. You can set the rDNS through the portal.

Paul

Thanks. rDNS through the portal? That's very sophisticated

Yep, undoubtedly - for all the other things Zen have been getting wrong of late, they're very honourable when they make that sort of committment still.

Just tagging on again - do Zen take monthly payments via credit cards or is it just DD?

And how quick are they to disconnect if they don't receive payments? Last year I had 3 or 4 different numbers on my card due to random fraud, some other change and Goldfish being bought out. Pain.

Hi I think i can answer your questions. I pay Zen via Maestro debit card not direct debit infact mid last year (2008) i got a letter from them asking me to switch to direct debit but i never got around to changing to it. So i'm sure there accept payments via Credit card too. While i have not missed a payment to Zen in i dunno years. Ages ago when i was a student and poor lol back in like 2004 or 2005 i missed paying them for like 3 or 4 months in a row and they never cut me off. They sent these reminders via post every month slowly turning more scarey "final reminder" type stuff. Eventualy i paid what i owed them all in one go. I would try not to miss payments tho its never a good idea if you can help it.

I continue to pay via Standing Order, which reminds me, I must downgrade my account. I will see if I can do that in Portal.

Cheers
Ruz

You can pay by debit or credit card. Unlike many ISPs, Zen don't automatically take the payment; instead they send you an email a couple of weeks before your due date with a link to their secure payment server*, so you're not left with a continuous payment authority on your card (recurring payment coming off your credit card which can be a pain to stop) or with being forced to use one particular card (you can pay using a different card from month to month).

Zen also offer the facility to pay either by DD or by standing order.

As to how quick are they to disconnect you, the answer is they aren't. They usually send a reminder within a couple of weeks of your payment being overdue, and I've found that nothing further happens if you pay fairly promptly after that. I think on one occasion I missed the email and forgot about the payment (was reminded by a further chase-up email), and ended up paying two amounts at once, but service was uninterrupted.

* The Zen Customer Portal also has an area where you can view/pay current/outstanding invoices, view your payment history, and also setup a DD if you wish.

Thanks for the answer, that sounds good to me. Enta disconnect within 48 hours - after a theoretical email reminder, if the automated card payment fails. Hasn't happened to me but it's been close with all the card number changes.

48 hours? Seems a bit harsh, especially as it doesn't give the end-user much opportunity to investigate/intervene or make alternative arrangements (there are limits to what you can achieve over a weekend, even with access to online/telephone banking services).

For example, I've had one or two occasions when my bank has appeared to declined a payment, which subsequently turned out to be due to an error with the supplier's ePOS payment systems (not a problem I've experienced with Zen I hasten to add). It required a great deal of going to-and-fro between bank and supplier to get to the bottom of it.