OT The beauty of Zen

I have been with Zen now since April 2005 and I have to say I cannot fault their service. The problems I have had have been down to
(a) an old house - bad wiring
(b) BT

The very few/far & few between times I have had to contact customer support it has been fantastic (albeit once I had to come to AG to ask what was going on but in 5 years that's not so bad )

can safely say that I would highly recommend them to anyone who wants a superior service that just does exactly what it says on the tin.

They may not be the cheapest, they may not be the best (I am no expert) but, for me, they have been absoultely outstanding for 5+ years and I hope to have another very happy 5+ years to come

Thank you Zen - keep it up!!!

Just thought I'd let you all know

p.s. I did say OT

Thanks Helan,

From you out of all of our customers I am truely pleased to hear it.

In reply to a post by Helan:

I have been with Zen now since April 2005

A newcomer, then

In reply to a post by Sandgrounder:

In reply to a post by Helan:

I have been with Zen now since April 2005

A newcomer, then

LOL well you could say that kinda

In reply to a post by Azzaka:

Thanks Helan,

From you out of all of our customers I am truely pleased to hear it.

I thought you might be pleased

Dont know why .... haha

Hope that your experience is representative. Am currently with Namesco who once upon a time had superb UK based tech support for BB. Then bought by the Italians and now Support comes exclusively from India. Nice people but nowhere near as good as the UK based service. Need a UK opnly tech support who go the extra mile as 6.5km from exchange. I know we can get a stable line c.1.5Mbps down and 375kbps up because we have had for long periods BUT when it goes on the fritz I need more than someone seemingly reading from a script and level 2 support if we hit a brick wall with BT.

Others views please on ZEN and of course always delighted to read your own ZEN.

Oh the joys of rural living.

Edited by deleted (Tue 15-Feb-11 11:06:13)

Everything is as it "says on the tin"

I've been with Zen for about 8 years now and never had a single problem in all that time.

My download speed is around 6 - 6.5 meg on an 8 meg connection and is as solid as a rock.
No 'shaping' or any such nonsense you get with some of the 'big boys'.

Only slowdown I get is to about 4.5 megs due to local exchange congestion at peak times; early evening etc.

My router dropped out when we had a local power cut about 5,000 hours ago; prior to that it showed an uptime of over 11,000 hours.

I have no hesitation in recommending Zen. It's not the cheapest; but then Rolls Royce are not the cheapest cars available!

As another ex Namesco person I would agree and if you value quality service then Zen should be your only choice.

Had an issue with a speed dip to around 350k. one phone call and within the hour it was performing better than ever before with any ISP and giving me a throughput of 2.4Meg and the slowest its been since is 1.9 which was unheard of before.

I should point out I have a ridiculously long line.

In reply to a post by techguy:

As another ex Namesco person I would agree and if you value quality service then Zen should be your only choice.

Had an issue with a speed dip to around 350k. one phone call and within the hour it was performing better than ever before with any ISP and giving me a throughput of 2.4Meg and the slowest its been since is 1.9 which was unheard of before.

I should point out I have a ridiculously long line.

Coincidentally I get 24Meg which is 10 times what you get. Unlimited too

Unlimited only provided you don't abuse it and I suspect that if you are currently then a shock is likely toi be headed your way very soon as all of the ISPs are or will be introducing fair use and they'll either throttle it or give you the boot.

At least I can buy any bandwidth I need and use it without fear of someone in network ops putting the brakes on.

Oh and I tried ADSL 2+ on O2, it was quick but unstable, but then again I suspect you don't have a long aluminium line do you?

In reply to a post by techguy:

Oh and I tried ADSL 2+ on O2, it was quick but unstable, but then again I suspect you don't have a long aluminium line do you?

No and I don't have O2 either. What makes you think you have aluminium instead of copper?

Why this love affair with Zen? I used their Active package to work from home with for several years, and they did nothing for me apart from make me spend hours monitoring the line to show them that it could perform better and then telling me that it was within BT's spec so tough.
BT say my line will only support 1Mb - PO have had me running at 2 - 2.5Mb for over a year now where Zen failed me miserably.
Eric.

In reply to a post by eric_the_viking:

Why this love affair with Zen?

LOL don't tell my husband about that

I used their Active package to work from home with for several years, and they did nothing for me apart from make me spend hours monitoring the line to show them that it could perform better and then telling me that it was within BT's spec so tough.
BT say my line will only support 1Mb - PO have had me running at 2 - 2.5Mb for over a year now where Zen failed me miserably.
Eric.

Well I can't speak for anyone else but the one time I had problems with my line constantly dropping (a very old 1930's house) Zen were on top form and could not have helped me anymore!! The sent out a BT engineer who changed the wires from pole to house, didn't fix probs so after monitoring my line themselves daily, phoning me daily to keep me updated, a few tweaks here and there (dont ask me what I dont know the in's and outs of it all) but I can safely say my line has been stable and solid ever since.

p.s. I work from home too and need a reliable/rock steady service which is why I stay with Zen. As I said, they may not be the cheapest but I lurve them

You're obviously better looking than me then!

In reply to a post by Helan:

In reply to a post by Sandgrounder:

In reply to a post by Helan:

I have been with Zen now since April 2005

A newcomer, then

LOL well you could say that kinda

Scarily sad, but I can remember Helan's first "hi, I'm new" posts....

Been with Zen since 2003, and echo everything she says. Decision to leave is because I no longer use landland and until someone comes up with a 'broadband-only' service, will use mobile instead. Recommend Zen to clients who need belt-and-braces approach to comms.

Did someone mention O2 - you have to give them credit, they have improved significantly and are doing a good job of chasing Zen's bar.

The reason I think I have aluminium rather than copper wiring for most of the local loop is because I live in Milton Keynes where BT did things on the cheap (like they always do) and laid aliminimum because it was 'good enough' for voice.

For the record I could only get broadband towards the tail end of 2005 when extended reach was launched because the exchange I am connected to is around three miles away.

Regarding the PO, I'm sure you are aware that they just resell BT Broadband under their own name and chucked 750 million BT's way to do it http://www.computerworlduk.com/news/networking/3066/... the more money you chuck at them the better service you get and I will always support the underdog.

One other thing to remember is that unless you are close to BT (BT Retail) or are a BT resller I think BT are pretty strict on faults and won't go the extra mile to improve a service, I don't believe for one second that now its been supposedly split up that BT treats its resellers and others the same, it will always favour itself as remember it all goes back to one holding company so its not really separate at all.

As for O2, I have been a mobile customer of theirs on PAYG for nearly 5 years (don't use it enough to warrant a contract) and have always had outstanding service so was hopeful that the broadband would be the same.

I suffered a lot of resyncs so after a month I decided to move back to a BT based service (not Zen at the time) which I knew was more stable.

I rang to claim my 7.50 under the money back guarantee they offered and was told that as soon as the equipment was returned it would be processed, I duly returned the router and waited over a month, no refund.

Rang them up and was old it was sent to my bank about a week after I had returned the quipment, nothing was showing in my bank.

The guy then demanded a bank statement (as I banked with an internet bank this was going to cost me 2.50 a sheet and told me to send them to 'mark' and was given an address is Leeds.

I asked for Mark's surname and position, he refused this information so as it was going to cost me pretty much what I was trying to recover and the fact I felt that he was on a personal details fishing trip I did not proceed wrote off the loss but I would definitely not go back to their broadband division but wouldn't move from them as a mobile phone provider.

I'm assuming that was with O2, not Post Office. Call them again, ask to have the complaint escalated. They do have an escalations team, but calls have to be passed to them; they do not accept calls direct from the customer (iirc).

Fully agree with your feelings re BT and the "chinese walls". I've experienced the alleged neutral service. It's as neutral as a Yorkshireman in Lancaster.

Fully agree with your feelings re BT and the "chinese walls". I've experienced the alleged neutral service. It's as neutral as a Yorkshireman in Lancaster.

Speaking as a Yorkshireman in Lancaster I have no comment to offer

I'll say that I prefer to deal with a Yorkshireman/Lancastrian any day over a miserable whatever from London but then I spent a lot of time in Yorkshire when I was young so I would say that wouldn't I?

Back on topic, yes it was with O2, but I do also have an experience of the traffic managed nightmare that is BT Plusnet and their so called service and support but thats not for here.

At the time perhaps I should have chased up O2 but I had more important things to do and I'd not experienced Zen then.

As someone who works shifts in a phone based software technical support role which I thoroughly enjoy I don't really want to have to chase companies by phone to get them to provide the service I am paying for on my time off.

That's where Zen comes in; the service just works and the one problem I had was fixed within an hour of my call and when I did call they seemed very happy to hear from me and eager to help.

Being the geek that I am before I joined I also looked at their network map and was pleased to see both the speed of their internal and externall links but also that they seemed to be very well connected.

I have always found the service to be responsive and they seem to be very honest about and on top of any service issues.

I would therefore not move again now and if they were to drop the price of their phone service with inclusive calls and bundle in 0845 numbers I might be tempted to switch my phone to them too.

Edited by techguy (Mon 28-Feb-11 18:27:37)

In reply to a post by techguy:

The reason I think I have aluminium rather than copper wiring for most of the local loop is because I live in Milton Keynes where BT did things on the cheap (like they always do) and laid aliminimum because it was 'good enough' for voice.

For the record I could only get broadband towards the tail end of 2005 when extended reach was launched because the exchange I am connected to is around three miles away.

In that case, I'd dispute you have aluminium because I don't think you can get ADSL on a long aluminium line, it needs copper really. Also, aluminium would rule out FTTC for you.

Perhaps but BT are trialling Fibre to the premises (FTTP) round here, not FTTC, I've only not taken that up as no ISP (Zen or otherwise) can give me a price for when it goes into production.

Someone I know who lives not far from me has iit with AAISP but is only currently paying FTTC rates for it but if he gets hit hard he can claim it as a work expense as he sometimes works from hom home but I cant.