Poor........... ZEN Customer Services and email support

I have to say Zen internet is not looking after its customers like it once was. I have had a ongoing problem now since December 8th. I have been with them for 5 years now and have always been willing to pay the extra money for a better service. Anyway I find out today that after my 10th email to them and no end of telephone calls that the guy I spoke to this morning made no notes on my username profile and when i called again today I had to go through the same thing again. My profile has been messed with and now my speeds are slower than they have ever been, My neighbour has faster speeds and he pays £5.99 per month. I went on chat earlier in the week and used Caps by mistake and was picked up for this by the guy in technical. Funny how they pick that up but cant make notes on the system about my telephone calls. 5 yrs at 40 quid per month. thats nearly £2500 I have paid and I email customer services and complain and dont even get a reply.

Zen you have gone down hill in my opinion. You should treat your customer better and make notes when they call!

If anyone wants to see a copy of the conversation I had then I have it. If I treated my customers this way the company I work for would dismiss me.

Mike is calling me at 6.30 tomorrow so lets hope something gets rectified

Edited by deleted (Thu 27-Dec-12 23:02:15)

I am sure if any of the regular zen staff who post on here see this they will get matters escalated for you. Good luck in getting your problem resolved, I know how frustrating it is to have a line speed issue, especially over Christmas when you probably want to get the best out of your connection!

Thanks for your advice. Its been awful and its got worse ever since they messed about with it.

I would not normally complain through a forum but I can honestly say at this moment in time I would not recommend Zen to anyone.

As I sit here now my speeds are getting worse.

Thanks anyway

Can you describe the problems you've been having and what the diagnosis is? Even though I am curious from the technical standpoint, if Zen staff come along it might help if you have your verdict on the problems here so they can resolve things quicker.

Hi

Im sorry to hear about the issues you have had, can you please message me your account details and ill look into this for you

Absolutely ridiculous that Zen customers are having to resort to these forums in order to progress resolution of problems AND that certain Zen Customer Services staff are having to run a parallel enquiry (by asking for details via these forums) in order to seek resolution.

Been there also, with all the frustrations, received the T-Shirt, etc., etc. .

I am now also thinking very carefully before a future upgrade of contract with Zen.

Mike i have sent a private message to you and I have to say my issues have still not been resolved. Over a month now and nobody from your customer services have rang me back to confirm am I now happy and have things been resolved. I have dealt with Technical Customer Service but they still have not sorted my problems. If you go into my notes you will see I have rang your team now over 40 times and spoke to no end of different people who dont communicate well with each other, In some instances notes about my discussions were not even made on my profile. I still have issues and these need resolving. The only reason I have not cancelled everything is because I have not had the time and I have always rated Zen before. As they say you are only as good as your last days sale and my service is nothing short of awful at the moment. Deep down I still believe in Zen as a company and product but this has been a testing time and I will give you one last chance to rectify my issue. Thanks

I'll have this chased from a Support point of view. I can only apologise that this has happened and I will do all I can to have it resolved and to make sure it does not happen again.

Kindest Regards,

Edited by deleted (Fri 11-Jan-13 09:17:14)

Well what can I say. I was promised a BT engineer before Xmas by Phil at Zen and I have had nothing. It was not even booked. I have disconnection after disconnection and my line is obviously unstable because the SNR margin is being reset every few days. Its gone from 3 to 12. My problem is not the speed its the unstableness of my line. Spoke to Ian tonight at Zen who was very polite and friendly but still refused to get BT to look at it even though Phil had promised me a BT engineer before Xmas. Zen as a company have really gone backwards and they take your money and offer very little support when you truly need it. Does anyone have a alternative supplier... a premium supplier preferred. Please see the notes from other ZEN Customer who like me feel really let down.

by mark at 13:22 on 26 Sep 2010 | registered | 1 postReport abuse
Zen customer servicie is awful. Zen have just cut me off for exceeding my download limit, except I'm a network engingeer and so I got my router logs which proved that I'd not exceeded the limit. In fact I proved that I'd only downloaded 700Meg in a period when they said I'd downloaded 8 gigs.

Worse they made me email a photo of the logs to them from my mobile because they wouldn't even reenable the line so I could email it directly too them. Then they accused me of forging the photo!

I challenged them to enable my line and look at the logs themselves, they refused. I'm currently cut off and only able to use the internet via a mobile dongle. I've been with them 10 years, I've NEVER come even close to exceeding my download limit. That alone should convince them to at least check.

In dealing with them I've found that their network engineers do not understand basic networking and are very rude and insulting (who trains their support staff to call customers liers?).

My advice is to avoid Zen.

by Adam at 12:09 on 3 Feb 2010 Report abuse
Zen used to be great, and the actual BB provision still is.

Unfortunately their previously good customer service and billing team seem to have been replaced in the last year or two with some of the most unhelpful and dimwitted people I have ever spoken to.

It's a pity to see a once useful company spoilt like this, and I hope they'll get their act together again sometime.

Lliam's Comments
Summary: Zen
June 25th, 2012 (Last Edited: June 25th, 2012)
Decent ISP not as good as some suggest.
Biggest flaw and the reason I left them after 3-4 years they give out your personal details with ease.
If anyone contacts them they give out your personal details and in my opinion this is a valid reason never to be a customer.
Support is ok not great better knowledge than most but still pretty limited (by wage structure I assume).
Now I would consider it pretty dated ISP like Bethere.uk lagging way behind the competition. Zen never was going to be a major player which was the reason I joined in the first place.
As I now use my internet purely for mails and even that less so since mobile technology improved Sky is fine.
There are other ISP's that do not shape/manage out there. Zen tends to get a better write-up than they really merit.

IN A NUTSHELL THEY ARE NOT AS GOOD AS THEY ONCE WERE AND TAKE THE CUSTOMER FOR GRANTED

My instant message trail from Leo at Zen

Not over professional is it. Very sarcastic also.

Leo Goile (11:01:36) : G'Day Gerry whats slow?
GLCMCFC (11:02:03) : my broadband since you guys altered it the otherday
Leo Goile (11:02:23) : Do you have any account details at all?
GLCMCFC (11:04:47) : XXXXXX
GLCMCFC (11:04:58) : XXXXXX
Leo Goile (11:06:05) : no need for the caps, I'll looking at the notes on the account now for you. I'm also looking at the line details. Wont be long
GLCMCFC (11:07:32) : ok sorry for the caps, your companys attitude has changed... dont worry ok.. i will sort myself after xmas
Leo Goile (11:08:48) : Bear with me a moment if you can please
Leo Goile (11:09:09) : there were a few notes on the account
GLCMCFC (11:09:14) : £40 a month for poor service and to be told off my a customer service adviser for using caps by mistake. Instead of picking me up for the caps mistake maybe your company can sort my slow speeds
Leo Goile (11:10:50) : You weren't told off, I said they were not needed. Also I am not a Customer Service Advisor, I am a Support Advisor. The reason I asked you to bear with me, is due to the amount of notes added from when you have called in.

MORE UNHAPPY CUSTOMERS

next review in page (previous review)
Review by hypergiant2
member for 5.4 years, 0 visits, last login: 5.4 years ago
lodged 5.4 years ago

undisclosed location
Contract price not specified.
"None"
"Worst Experience Ever"
"Avoid this company if you value your sanity"
Pre Sales information:
Install Co-ordination:
Connection reliability:
Tech Support:
Services:
Value for money:

We got cut off without any notification for going over our limit. Wasted hours buying more bandwidth ended up paying twice.

So angry we cancelled the same day and migrated. Zen have been chasing us for £2.50 YES £2.50 ever since.

Just had a phone call from a credit controller arguing and wasting 30 mins of my time saying they want the £2.50 Ive never been treated/spoken to so badly by a business in my life.

What the hell is wrong with this company they certainly do not deserve any �excellent customer service� accolades at all.

Chasing a very unhappy ex customer for £2.50 is frankly ridiculous.

Patrick S

Review of Zen Internet www.zen.co.uk
"Extremely poor customer service"

We have been with Zen for over a year now and I always thought they were quite good. Last week, I was proved wrong. Our internet went down due to problems at Zen. It lost us income and caused great stress to the entire team as we are web based. I had to pay an IT engineer to come out immediately who charged on a Friday afternoon. When I phoned Zen, they explained they had problems that day but did not warn us in advance.
I became very angry as they were unwilling to offer any decent goodwill gestures. Another company that is greedy and arrogant-when will they learn-perhaps when their clients leave them.
Their only solution was to upgrade to a higher level service and pay more money. This is unethical and greedy. I accept problems happen but it is always to do with how you deal with them. Avoid Zen, they simply do not care about their customers as we are just a number. Having said that, without us, they wouldn't have a company.

Review of Zen Internet www.zen.co.uk
They have AWFUL customer services at times. They can be very condescending towards small businesses and refuse to accept blame for something that is clearly their fault.

Our internet connnection was on/off/on/off for weeks and I followed all of their instructions for days and days to no avail. They then told me I needed to BUY a new router...even though they supplied the original 1 with the possible problem.

To make things worse - they don't even know if this is the problem! It could be something else at their end - but they refuse to do anything else until we either replace the router WHICH THEY SUPPLIED and test if it has a problem - or accept all costs involved if the router is found to have a problem further down the line!

Review of Zen Internet www.zen.co.uk
Transition to Zen has been horrible. Sales agent sold me the wrong product, credit card charged, order cancelled, credit card charge not reversed, I was not notified of the cancellation. Only by checking on web site did I discover the problem. Efforts to recover included changing me over to Zen before making sure I had the required router in hand. Indeed, today is the day and the router is 'in the mail' but not here. Friday - no Internet nor broadband no phone service for the coming weekend, but that seems not to matter to Zen Internet. They have another unsatisfied customer.

Review of Zen Internet www.zen.co.uk
How can I describe Zen? In all honesty, "really poor" sums it up for me. We installed 2 new business lines in July 2009. For redundancy, we put ADSL on one line through Zen and one through IDNet.

The IDNet line has been fine ever since; the Zen line has been very, very poor. Bear in mind that the BT lines were put in at the same time (there's a 1 digit difference in the line numbers).

Latency and up/down stream speeds are not good in comparison to IDNet. Disconnections occur daily; once we experienced around 4 hours of downtime during business hours. Support was slow, and even when we got a response the answers provided were unsatisfactory. Things like:

"the information I have available on previous logs doesn't allow me to determine the cause of your fault."

Well thanks, that's really helpful!

In my opinion, they really have gone downhill since the good old days. We still have them as a backup provider but there's no way I'd consider ordering future ADSL connections from them.

most of that really should of been fixed in the first 1-2 calls, i am guessing you still needed the line fixing once you moved to another ISP as the fault will still be there with your line

but 40 calls not sure but i think they be happy they no longer have you as an customer due to stress on tech support (even thought it was there own doing maybe) i have never called ZEN up before so not sure what they are like normally

yes but i have been a customer for 5 Yrs!!

This obviously counts for nothing

40 calls being due to the incompetencies of the staff.

Not so much as a sorry.. They promised a BT engineer visit and now they cant even find record of the conversation. Truly bad service and as you can see its not just me that feels the same.

The only time I hear from them is when I make a negative comment on here.

They dont call back when they say they will and they dont do what they promise.

glcmcfc,

The 40 calls are via email. There was no need for an engineer as I was working on other stabilisation options for the line, and I was in contact with you before you posted on here.

I also did try and call several times and left voice messages explaining that I wanted to help and need more information. There was an issue in the initial calls and as promised a complaint was raised and steps have been taken to make sure this does not happen again as it was completely unacceptable.

As it stands now, the line has dropped twice in 2 weeks for about 45mins each time. The speed dropped from 17mb to 16mb and is still above the thresholds of what BTW class as a fault.

I cannot ask an engineer to look for a fault that does not exist. I did explain this in the last email to which your reply was that you were leaving. The posts from other people needed to be addressed and this is the reason the Social Networking Team was created inside the company, so we can address these issues away from the forums and make sure the complaints are raised if needed. I know some of the afore mentioned posts have been dealt with away from the Forums.

I apologise that you feel we are not up to the same standard as you once regarded us at, however if you are not willing to place the modem back into the test socket without the extension we cannot ascertain where the cause of the fluctuating SNR is and therefore cannot try to resolve the issue that you are currently seeing.

I agree the line did drop, and since I have worked on the line, the speed has increased from 9mb - 16mb and stable less the 2 drops. In my last email correspondence with you, I explained that it is possible the drops are caused locally. This would require diagnostics to be carried out on site by you before I or anyone else here can try to help you further.

As I did say before and also via the initial emails with you, the initial contact you had with us was not dealt with at all properly and this was raised a formal complaint and dealt with accordingly as I promised you it would be. I have never said to you that I was not willing to help, I have always explained and still maintain that I am willing to help as are any Zen Support members.

Regards,

In reply to a post by glcmcfc:

yes but i have been a customer for 5 Yrs!!

This obviously counts for nothing

40 calls being due to the incompetencies of the staff.

Not so much as a sorry.. They promised a BT engineer visit and now they cant even find record of the conversation. Truly bad service and as you can see its not just me that feels the same.

The only time I hear from them is when I make a negative comment on here.

They don't call back when they say they will and they don't do what they promise.

the bottom line is zen are still the best and I've had a few bad runs with them which when looked it in depth amount to bt being at fault every time
sure the chief Mr tang should do more but he probably does his best when dealing with the likes of BT who in all reality know nothing about broadband
Wasim at zen is first class in getting things done and reports back to you daily plus the fact he's a good lad and keeps his head down

i get on well with all the staff however and after 10 years being with them am still happy

glcmcfc,

I was intending to reply last night saying that, on the evidence of this thread, you appear to be close to a situation where nothing Zen can will make you happy, so you are likely to be disappointed no matter what. You can always find stories of dissatisfied customers - they prove very little without data on how many customers are satisfied.


Any form of DSL is susceptible to environmental conditions and conditions on the line used to deliver the service. There is only so much that any ISP and phone company can do without disproportionate effort - if the problem is a 300 pair cable being sub-optimal (as I saw mentioned in one post in another ISP's forum here about a VDSL speed drop in the past few days), it won't be replaced just because one person's DSL service has lost speed so long as it is possible to keep that service above the fault threshold. The most that person can reasonably expect is to be swapped to another pair, though a BT engineer has already proved that other pairs perform similarly to the pair in use.

If the problem is electrical noise, that may be external to the phone system - in which case the phone company may have to invest a lot of effort in tracing the problem (especially if it is intermittent) and can only encourage the person responsible for the noise source to resolve it. Noise sources are often close to the DSL router or modem, especially if the internal wiring is sub-optimal, hence the encouragement to plug the router directly into the test socket.


Against this background, it is inevitable that BT Openreach and BT Wholesale have fairly stringent criteria for what they will accept as a fault. I did have an ADSL speed and stability fault a few years back. I had evidence of a substantial drop in noise margin and sync speed (to just below the Fault Threshold Rate), coupled with considerable instability in a line that used to go a month or more before resyncing.

Zen involved BT, who twice sent engineers who were looking for a quick fix. They swapped me to another pair (D side only one time, I think it was both D and E side the second) and went on their way, but the fault wasn't resolved. Zen got BT to send a third engineer, who investigated every joint on the line. He discovered the DP in the street outside our neighbour's house was full of water and the crimps on our pair were corroded. He replaced the crimps, dried out the joint, replaced the dessicant packs, sealed the joint and replaced the manhole cover. That resolved the root cause of the problem.


It sounds as if Zen have been quick to admit the initial handling of your case was sub-optimal - but the most that can be done now is for a complaint to be progressed so that they can learn the lessons and provide any necessary retraining. This doesn't absolve you of your responsibility to work with Zen - even if it feels like 'going through the motions', unless you follow the steps Zen outline, they can't report a fault to BT without BT requesting that the missing steps are gone through.

DSL routers can go bad, even filters can go bad, and internal wiring can be responsible for picking up noise. All these items are your responsibility and need to be eliminated first before BT will get involved. If BT get involved and one of these things turns out to be the reason (or they don't find something that would class as a fault), they will raise a substantial bill to Zen, which Zen will pass on to you.


If Leo has already got the speed to increase from 9Mb to 16Mb, that is a substantial increase. The two drops are unfortunate, but could be explained in part by BT's DLM being more optimistic about the improved line conditions than is really justified. Zen have to exhaust everything they can do from their end before involving BT, and BT are likely to close any fault raised without sending an engineer if it falls outside the fault threshold.

If you believe Zen is now an awful ISP, I encourage you to read the forums relating to other ISPs. Many people struggle to get the cheap consumer orientated ISPs even to understand their problem, which is not helped by the widespread use of offshore call centres. With Zen, you get through to a UK based person who is in a position to help. They won't get it right every time, but they provide a good service in my experience.


I can only conclude with my recent experience of upgrading from ADSL2+ to FTTC. I placed the order before Christmas, and found I was offered appointments online that didn't exist. I brought that up in this forum, and Zen responded saying that the online system was actually requesting a preference. Some discussion ensued, and I believe that Zen will hold true to their promise of the product manager considering the comments in that thread seriously. Hopefully they can change the online system to one that makes a live request to BT Openreach for engineer availability, as is apparently now possible.

The BT Openreach engineer turned up as expected, and FTTC started to work while he was here. I had an issue with the upstream line speed being capped to around the old ADSL2+ speed, so called Zen. They confirmed that there was no restriction they were aware of on the networks beyond my door (BT Openreach to the exchange, BT Wholesale to the Zen handover point and Zen's network from there). I explained that I thought I'd removed any restriction on my router, but agreed that the best approach was to run a speed test from a computer running a PPPoE client plugged directly into the BT FTTC modem to identify whether the problem was my side of the BT modem or now. As this speed test showed full FTTC upstream speed, I went back to my router configuration and corrected a further problem I'd missed in my earlier debugging attempts.

Zen did exactly what I asked - confirming quickly that there was nothing obvious to them. I had already spent some time reviewing my configurations and running speed tests using different services from several different computers on my wired network. I didn't want to waste any more effort on connecting a computer to the BT modem or on checking my router (a rack server running pfSense, which I can't expect Zen to support) without reassurance from Zen that there was no obvious problem beyond my network, which Zen were happy to provide.


Obviously, I can only go by my own experience, but I remain a happy Zen customer.

I agree 100% - I've never had anything but good service from Zen myself, and I've been with them around 8 or so years.

When I had an ADSL service, I had all sorts of issues with the line, Zen managed to get some semblance of performance out of the line, but at the end of the day I came to the conclusion that it was BT being the cause of the issue, and there was realistically no way to resolve it. (a large chunk of d-side cabling needed to be replaced - BT simply wouldn't entertain it).

I had issues with my FTTC install with engineer no-shows, and Zen worked tirelessly to resolve it for me, and I can now say, I've the best speed possible out of my line - full 80/20 sync and it's absolutely rock-solid.

I could choose another ISP and it may work out cheaper per month, but I know of only two other ISP's with the same level of service and technical ability as Zen, and they both would cost around the same per month.

I know from personal experience that Leo will do everything in his power to resolve an issue, but if you won't help him diagnose the issue, you shouldn't be surprised if your issue never gets fixed.

The other option is that Leo insists on a BT callout (which like Leo says, won't even happen to to BT fault criteria not being met), the engineer turns up, and finds a fault in your own equipment. You'll then be charged the (I think £180) call out fee for the engineer.

Who do you blame then?

Whatever the wrongs and right, who is to blame and what defines a fault, it became personal at this point "Leo Goile (11:06:05) : no need for the caps". Its never good practice to divert away from the issue in hand and start being pedantic.

I would guess the catalyst to post here and the point where glcmcfc starts calling time.

In reply to a post by NilSatisOptimum:

Whatever the wrongs and right, who is to blame and what defines a fault, it became personal at this point "Leo Goile (11:06:05) : no need for the caps". Its never good practice to divert away from the issue in hand and start being pedantic.

It might be that that was not the best response, but we don't know what (other than account details) was elided and where this fits in the entire situation. I don't see Leo's comment as particularly objectionable nor do I see it as personal - he may have just been wondering why everything was in caps, which isn't easy to read.

It's difficult to pick up behavioural cues in any text-based medium, including these forums. This is where a phone call can work better, in that it's easier to pick up on non-verbal cues.

Thanks for everyones response.

I appreciate all your views, some less than others but this is a forum and everyone is entitled to a view.

In terms of the situation I am still no better today than I was in December.

Zen promised me a BT engineer and now they say they are not sending one as its above the 13mb threshold.

As i said its not a speed issue its they way the line keeps disconnecting and hanging. New Router DGND3300 Netgear... not cheap. New wiring and all fitted by a phone engineer. Been into the master socket for 3 days and no better.

Zen have done nothing... Maybe they have been a good company for some but as you can see I am not alone.

Zen really should instruct BT after all this is what Phil promised me back in December.

Any ideas on any good ISPs would be appreciated because unless Zen actually man up and do something they have lost a loyal customer.

Thanks

Leo

You have left one message on my phone and that was the day I complained to your office via email as to the way you spoke to me.

I have just received my phone bill and the call count is actually 43. I will post you a copy.... maybe Zen would like to pay for these wasted calls. Please dont tell me the 40 calls are via email when I have a bill to prove otherwise... that is a good as calling me a liar!.



I have been into the test socket and if phil had recorded notes on the system you would see this. He agreed it made no difference.

Fact is I am the customer and you are not treating me like one.

Instead of spending your time on the forums calling me a liar for saying I made 40 calls maybe you should be sorting out the real issue here.

I said its not a speed issue its the way the line keeps disconnecting and hanging.

Oh also maybe your staff should be making notes on peoples profiles.

Like you said and Phil said this has not been handled very well from the start.

Whos fault is that?????

In reply to a post by glcmcfc:

as its above the 13mb threshold.

I wish I got as good a connection as that

glcmcfc,

I hope you will you permit me to ask the question suggested by my legal training. What do you want now?


It's clear that you're unhappy with Zen's handling of the situation. Ultimately, you will have to resolve this with them directly - they are precluded by the Data Protection Act from discussing your account in a public forum in anything beyond the vaguest fashion. Whatever you can prove about Zen's alleged mishandling of the situation will do nothing to further your situation - it's not actionable in any way so long as it doesn't libel you (and even if it does, a libel action is notoriously expensive to pursue).

I'm not sure that every call will justify making notes on the account, especially if the call is essentially covering the same ground as already reported in the notes. If you have made a high number of calls, that's not necessarily a good thing - some companies have special teams for people who call frequently, who still attempt to resolve your issues but also keep you away from other parts of the business so that they can get on with their work (e.g. Vodafone's high caller department).

My reading of the situation from the outside is that the evidence Zen hold about your reported instability and speed issues does not cross the threshold to be reported to BT as a fault. If you want BT to be involved, you have to work with Zen to justify BT's involvement and you may have to take the risk of a 'no fault found' charge from BT. If you are not prepared to work with Zen on this in a systematic fashion - even if, to you, it feels like jumping through hoops - you will not get a visit from a BT engineer. Even if you can put together a good case with Zen's help, you may not get a visit. Sending an engineer is not always in Zen's gift, and if an engineer visits, there is only so much he or she can do. I suggest that you review clauses 12.3 and 12.4 of Zen's ADSL and SDSL terms and conditions.


As I said in my earlier reply, it seems that Zen can do very little to make you happy now. You have very little leverage over Zen, as there is little you can rely on contractually and the monthly income from one ADSL account doesn't justify Zen making superhuman efforts to retain you. If you had a couple of leased lines and a 200 extension VoIP setup, Zen might be able to justify expending more effort on your account. Ultimately, if Zen feel that your continuing business is not worth their while bearing in mind the support resources you are consuming, they can give you notice equivalent to the minimum notice period (30 days on an ADSL product - clause 11.3a of Zen's ADSL and SDSL terms and conditions) that they will terminate your account without liability to you (clause 11.7 of the Zen general terms and conditions)

There's no Service Level Agreement guaranteeing a certain speed or uptime for a DSL product. If your line remains above the Fault Threshold Rate and there is no clear evidence of repeated loss of sync, there's little Zen can do. I'm sure Zen wouldn't want to give you notice of termination, but they may feel they have no option if you keep consuming a great deal of support resources without making progress.


If you want the collective wisdom of the forum, I suggest that you go back to the beginning, supply a brief timeline, an explanation of what you think is wrong, full line statistics, details of your wiring and filtering, details of your DSL router (model, version and, if you know it, firmware version) and details of what you've tried in terms of changing your hardware and cabling, as well as any steps you've taken to look for interference.

If you're not prepared to explain the problems you're having and are determined that Zen are in the wrong, I can't see what this forum or Zen can do to help now. I would suggest the best option for both you and Zen in this instance is for you to request your MAC code and find a new ISP. However, it's worth remembering that if you migrate to another BT Wholesale based ISP you will take any issue with you to your new ISP and if the issue is to do with pair quality, you will take the issue with you whichever ISP you move to.

In reply to a post by glcmcfc:

Any ideas on any good ISPs would be appreciated because unless Zen actually man up and do something they have lost a loyal customer.

With your fault in mind AAISP have a money back guarantee if they cannot fix your fault within a month of moving to them. Link.
They also have a good rep for dealing with BT.

Their new Home 1 tariff makes them easier to recommend now depending on how much allowance you need. £25 for 50GB, £35 will get you 150GB and £45 gets you 250GB. Link.
(Can't be a business address on that tariff though)

Like I said its not speed its the disconnections I am getting

This is not a speed issue

Thank you for your reply... you make some interesting points and valid ones.

I am actually annoyed more by the way Zen have treated me, in terms of the things I mentioned previously.

Zen may well be a good ISP for some and I am going on my last 4 weeks experience.

They should not have promised a BT engineers visit and then change there mind without me knowing.

My line is still causing me a problem and Zen wont do anything.

Its all new equipment and in the Master Socket.... what do you suggest please?? Zen are doing nothing and they know I have issues.

Regards

In reply to a post by glcmcfc:

Its all new equipment and in the Master Socket.... what do you suggest please?? Zen are doing nothing and they know I have issues.

Please give as much information as you can obtain from the router, such as noise margin, attenuation, sync speed, error statistics (especially useful in this case) and bits per bin. If you don't know how to obtain this information, post details of the router make and model and someone will likely be able to help you. It would also be helpful to have details of when the disconnections are occurring - times and days.

What filters are you using, and what else is connected to the line?


I can't guarantee that the collective wisdom of the forum may help, but if you can post this information, someone may be able to spot something.

hi

I am using BT filters.brand new only last week. The only other thing I have connected to the line is my router is connected into sky..... I have removed that and it makes no difference. Please see below and thanks for your help.

Port Status TxPkts RxPkts Collisions Tx B/s Rx B/s Up Time
WAN PPPoA 2838329 4511334 0 4542 7738 42:08:45
LAN 10M/100M 1123135 644708 0 6172 435 67:47:57
WLAN 11M/54M/300M 0 0 0 0 0 67:47:44

ADSL Link Downstream Upstream
Connection Speed 14085 kbps 1172 kbps
Line Attenuation 22.0 db 10.6 db
Noise Margin 12.5 db 5.8 db

Edited by deleted (Sun 13-Jan-13 13:31:34)

If you disconnect everything (including ADSL) and just plug a phone in, is there audible noise on the line? Can't remember the number for the quiet line test, but I'm sure somebody will mention it in a moment.
I ask because I think the line should get a higher speed with that combination of noise margin and attenuation - if it doesn't, there must be a reason... and noise would of course explain disconnections (for example, I have higher attenuation of 27dB down, 15.8 up, but get also much higher sync, even when the BT system put me on 12dB target margin for no reason at all - although can't compare with my current stats as it's gone back to normal).

In reply to a post by Uilebheist:

Can't remember the number for the quiet line test, but I'm sure somebody will mention it in a moment.

17070 option 2

I'm very surprised confidential account details and transcripts are being discussed here both by Zen Staff and by the customer alike. Is there not a stringent Data Protection policy in place throughout the company that dictates case specific issues like this are not discussed on an open forum?

No personally identifiable information has been given out here by Zen staff, as far as I can see.

The transcript was posted by the customer, in a customer support forum.

It's more the continuous airing of the argument/issue publicly that concerns me (others). I can see that perhaps the customer is trying to get a "bite" from the agent but I'm sure bosses at Zen wouldn't be happy seeing the agent bite back on an open forum.

If the bosses at Zen are unhappy, they should be keen to fix the problem and make a customer happy.

Nothing wrong with the agent's behaviour on this forum.

This is exactly how unprofessionally some,,not all of the staff can be at Zen.

I only hope others dont have to go through what I am going through.

Still no resolution in sight, and they dont appear to be doing anything for me.

Looks like I am just going to have to settle for a sub standard service.

In reply to a post by glcmcfc:

This is exactly how unprofessionally some,,not all of the staff can be at Zen.

I only hope others dont have to go through what I am going through.

Still no resolution in sight, and they dont appear to be doing anything for me.

Looks like I am just going to have to settle for a sub standard service.

as i said before if you speak to Wasim at zen he is first class in getting things done and reports back to you daily plus the fact he's a good lad and keeps his head down and will get it sorted promptly

In reply to a post by BatBoy:

If the bosses at Zen are unhappy, they should be keen to fix the problem and make a customer happy.

the company is only as good as it's leader which is Richard tang. He doesn't involve himself with any customers whatsoever which i personally think is wrong as their are a few staff that need a bit of leading

Outside of technical support their are many great guy's and girls and are a credit to the company likewise their are a few fools in technical support who instead of getting someone able to sort things out like wasim they try to battle on getting nowhere and invariably end up upsetting the customer

The owner of the business mr tang should get stuck in now and again to help out in difficult cases and not sit in the back office trying to make out he's busy' he needs to be seen at the deep end if only to gain respect from the staff

As wall as that information, is there anything about errors, errored seconds and the like? If so, please post that information.

In reply to a post by Sauronator:

It's more the continuous airing of the argument/issue publicly that concerns me (others). I can see that perhaps the customer is trying to get a "bite" from the agent but I'm sure bosses at Zen wouldn't be happy seeing the agent bite back on an open forum.

The continuous airing of this issue does not concern me.

Perhaps it might force Zen to examine and adjust their current Customer Service practices across the board which have certainly slipped somewhat from that expected of a premium priced ISP.

If they manage to recover the standard then I and certain others would not have to complain via these forums in order to seek a timely response to our problems.

Hi Nick,

I no longer work at Zen and as such stay away from their service affairs, however having been there for 7 and a half years, I feel I can speak confidently in saying there is a great deal of respect, no only for Richard Tang within the organisation but for everyone else of each other.

From my experience Richard does not sit back in his office and very much retains an active day to day involvement in his company. It would be unfair for others to think otherwise.

I feel your comments may be a little stretched.

Cheers,
Brian

In reply to a post by BCS:

Hi Nick,

I no longer work at Zen and as such stay away from their service affairs, however having been there for 7 and a half years, I feel I can speak confidently in saying there is a great deal of respect, no only for Richard Tang within the organisation but for everyone else of each other.

From my experience Richard does not sit back in his office and very much retains an active day to day involvement in his company. It would be unfair for others to think otherwise.

I feel your comments may be a little stretched.

Cheers,
Brian

Hi Brian
i was only going by my observations over the past 10 years or so i have been with Zen. The overall standard of Zen is well up on the vast majority of all businesses� across the UK but at the end of the day, you still need to be active in the current climate to be playing your part as Richard Branson does

Trying to stay Anonymous with the public as Richard tang does in going forward is not the best plan as their will be many more businesses� going bust in the coming years and only those that are seen in playing their part will come out on top' with the rest like comet and co going bust or having to merge

Loyalty to brands is not what it was back in the seventies and eighties with those under 35 today largely jumping ship at the slightest problem cropping up and to those people i say that is a good move

There are no highly respected chief executives in the UK today that are household names with the only possible exception being Richard Branson but he too has his faults

As i say the only way forward for all chief executives is to go undercover to find out why so many of their staff are continually failing to provide good reliable customer support and to make the necessary changes where possible and not just like now leaving it to a few to keep things flowing smoothly and in order

In reply to a post by glcmcfc:

As i said its not a speed issue its they way the line keeps disconnecting and hanging. New Router DGND3300 Netgear... not cheap. New wiring and all fitted by a phone engineer. Been into the master socket for 3 days and no better.

FWIW I wouldn't assume that the new Netgear, however expensive it was, is up to the job of dealing with a problematic line.

I had problems with random disconnects and drops in speed last year. I was using a Zyxel which hadn't caused me any problems before, so having tried most other things resorted to buying a new router - a Netgear (sadly can't recall which one).

The Netgear was no better than the Zyxel, if anything it was worse. On top of this the wireless kept dropping out (as if it were disabling itself) and needed the router to be reset to make it work again. Bottom line was the Netgear couldn't cope with the conditions on the line.

Eventually in April last year I bought a BiPAC 7800N. Speeds returned to around the same 6.5-7Mb I'd had before the problems started, and the disconnects stopped. The line has been very much more stable than it was in the months before I bought the BiPAC, and has remained so.

In reply to a post by BCS:

Hi Nick,

I no longer work at Zen and as such stay away from their service affairs, however having been there for 7 and a half years, I feel I can speak confidently in saying there is a great deal of respect, no only for Richard Tang within the organisation but for everyone else of each other.

From my experience Richard does not sit back in his office and very much retains an active day to day involvement in his company. It would be unfair for others to think otherwise.

I feel your comments may be a little stretched.

Cheers,
Brian

Some of Zen's best staff have made a mass exodus in recent years I have heard. I bet you were one too Brian? One I know being quoted as saying "Too many Chiefs & not enough Indians".

no [censored].? bad service from teir 1 staff meh service from teir 2 and not much better from the rest. bads all round to be honest.