Warning to those picking a Zen Fibre package re. regrades

We have a Zen Fibre Office package, which we've had for over a year and is now out of its contact period. Because our bandwidth usage for the last 3 months has been way below its limit of 400GB, we thought it would be good to regrade down to the next package, Fibre Pro, to save about £20/mth with VAT.

To my surprise I was told while we can downgrade, it would trigger a new 12 month contact, thus should we want to regrade back up again, we'd have to pay out the remainder of that contact.

The excuse for this is that the next package down has a lower minimum download speed.

Never heard of such issues with an ISP before who are usually happy for you to be paying for the next package up in the future.

Just a warning to anyone out there who are thinking of joining or regrading.

Hello,

Unfortunately this is the case. The reason for this is the Office product uses BT's "elevated" download thresholds, while the Active/Pro services use the "standard" threshold. To change between the two means a new 12 month contract has be taken with BT, and the remainder of the other contract paid up.

regards,
Phil.

And where does this leave those of us who have just signed a 24 month contract (with free installation) of Zen Fibre Office? What if we want to downgrade after 24 months; will we be expected to sign up for another 24 months, or just 12 months?

And, if we stay on the FIbre Office product after the 24 months is up, does it revert to a std monthly contract period thereafter?

Thanks
NigelS

Edited by deleted (Wed 20-Mar-13 16:34:42)

The 24 month contract is based on the free installation. After that it's monthly, unless you change to a service that requires a new contact. Obviously it's impossible for me to say what will be available in 2 years time, but I would expect you'd be able to use the minimum contract term available at that time if you change the service. Currently that's 12 months if free installation isn't a factor.

regards,
Phil.

Thx, that sounds fair enough and as you say, who knows where we will be in 2 years time.

BTW, my upgrade to Zen Fibre Office went smoothly enough, my broadband speed went from approx 9104 kbps sync with ADSL2+ product to 80001 kbps under fibre broadband (with max DL speed of 77436 kbps). Quite impressive so far with the FTTC box at the top of our road about 200 yards away!

NigelS