thinking of joining Zen

Hi All,

I'm tempted to join Zen on their 80/20 package.

Any comments on Zen and it's service?

Anyone care to recommend a good router to take advantage of speeds on offer? (I don't want the in house one supplied after my old ISP).

Draytek Vigor 2860 works well and has a built in FTTC modem. Rated throughput is 200Mbps so 80/20 is fine.

I'm currently looking for an FTTC provider, could I ask why your leaving Plusnet.

As it is currently who I'm thinking of ordering with?

Hi,

If you would like to direct message me your details ill happily give you a call to discuss you options.

I'm on Zen's 80/20 service.. Every time i run a speed test I get the same speeds, latency is good, very fast!

In reply to a post by Provster:

I'm on Zen's 80/20 service.. Every time i run a speed test I get the same speeds

What, you get a burst speed of 133 Mbps?

Zen suits me. If you join them, then you have to provide your own router anyway. However get the latest version of a router from your manufacturer of choice to get the best performance; this may well cost you over £200..

Zen's monthly cost for 80/20 business class unlimited service with line rental is a tad over £52 on a 12 month contract. So if you are looking for something that is cheap and cheerful then Zen is not for you.

Bt Infinity / HH5 suits me. No suspicious speedtest results either.

Looks like a classic Kaspersky suite blip at the start.

Is there any reason to choose Zen over Plusnet?

Apart from price!

I emailed there sales asking a few questions on Sunday and they got back to me Monday morning answering everything and even surprised me a bit with there Static IP policy.

Unfortunately they do need over £100 to install new line compared to PN's £50 and others that are free but I might get a PO Line Installed and then migrate!

Hehe.. It is indeed Kaspersky. I was wondering why I ended up with that spike. I will re-run it with kaspersky turned off.

I recently moved from SKY.

Any issues at all you are straight through to a tech rather than an annoying call centre. Highly recommend them.

I migrated to Zen at the beginning of Sept, after several years with TalkTalk Business. I'd spent several months trying to find out exactly why my service had deteriorated so badly after 31st March (at one stage I was seeing just 384kb down and 800kb up). Yes, I'm only able to get an ADSL max service in this part of Bedfordshire - and it's likely to stay that way for many years to come it seems!
In desperation I enquired of PlusNET for their Unlimited broadband offer, but once they found where I lived, the price shot up to about £20/month - a lot more than I'd been paying for a Business-class service from TalkTalk Business, seemingly just because BT have no competition in this locality. I then approached Zen, who's 'offer' indicated I should be able to get between 4 and 7Mb/s. However when I joined this wasn't being realised in practice - I was still only getting 0.93Mb down and 448kb up even though BT Openreach were able to see syncs at 5.6Mb on the line.
Zen's Tech Support have been absolutely fantastic! I cannot speak highly enough of them. They have been very pro-active in resolving my problem, including despatching a trial router without being asked. Thanks to their 'super' support guys [Chris especially!] I'm now in a euphoric state: finally I'm getting 5.3Mb/s download (according to the TTB SpeedTest) now that the BRAS profile has been reset, which thankfully means I don't see quite so much buffering!
So if anyone is wondering whether Zen are as good as their reputation - I would say "YES! They certainly are". And although it's more expensive than some ISPs (mainly because BT are screwing all the money they can from the unprivileged majority out here in the sticks!) the quality of Zen's support easily outweighs that fact - especially when you really need it!!
As for fibre ... well, even though Central Bedfordshire have BDUK funds to provide to rural areas, it doesn't look like we shall see any of that until well after 2020, if we're very lucky. They prefer to let BT use it to provide a better service to urbanised areas where more voters live!

think again is all i will say.

they are an awful company compared to back when they were considered to be a quality product/company.

too many hangers on have dug their way into the company degrading it to a below average shoddy excuse for a good ISP.

if this is the best we in britain have as an isp the owners of BT have won.

avoid with a vengeance!

yes knowing that plusnet is owned bt BT is enough. zen have rolled over and are just as bad as all other ISPs. you make your own decision. bad or badder?

ask if you can be put on a 1 month rolling contract if they say No you know what to expect. be warned.

So what would you suggest?

good question.. a+a are my next stop. twice the price im paying now but hopefull the quality i was getting with zen 10+ years ago.

Yeeeeah... I forgot to add "don't say AA"

So are you with Zen now or have you left?

still with zen for the short term. been here 11+ years and quite sad to have to leave. ritchard tang had a good vision for a company long ago that has been overrun by people who don't share his vision sadly.

when you get test results and numbers that would substantiate 130mb if BT allowed it then they are two different things.

Edited by deleted (Tue 21-Oct-14 21:27:14)

Well will have to see what happens, I'm currently waiting to see if Virgin deliver on their promise of fixing the utilisation issues here by the 11 November..

If they don't I will be seeking something for reliability, if they do I will probably just seek a cheap speed booster for Bonding, Maybe TT!

So far though I think I might go with Zen as so far when I've contacted them I've been impressed and they also offer everything I need where as I will have to to sacrifice features on other providers.

Unfortunately I can't get AAISP as I wouldn't have anywhere to plug it in or use it..... Too expensive, also not unlimited from what I have seen and would not like to see the price for an unlimited service if they have one.

if aa are too expensive then go for zen . they are not what they were 10 years ago and you may have to wade through a pile of [censored] before you will actually get someone that will try and help. i guess it's the price of progress eh.

go read some of the recruitment sites where current employees and past employees post. it seems to be a competition of who can get into work and do as little as possible or even better if you can get into work and do [censored] all all day.

Edited by deleted (Tue 21-Oct-14 21:34:34)

In reply to a post by bigbadpirate:

still with zen

lol

Well everything was better 10 years ago.

you lol all you like. there is a reason im still here.

Post deleted by MrSaffron

Edited by deleted (Tue 21-Oct-14 21:38:22)

mr saffron care to elaborate, did i break to rules or just touch a nerve?

Well unfortunate that you think that, But Openreach are keeping the majority of the country and you connected right now.

I give a final warning and it is that a final so the suspension will follow now.

Kindly take a short break calm down and desist from the abusive posting.

Enough of your posts remain that people can easily read what your opinion of Zen is at this time. The site has rules so posters are expected to stay within them and these rules help to ensure an inclusive community can thrive and not one built on slurs, attacks and foul language.

If you wish to discuss a suspension then you should recourse to email [email protected]

Site rules are at http://forums.thinkbroadband.com/faq_english.php#rules

We do not stop people voicing opinions on providers and others firms but expect people to do it in a reasonable manner rather than one likely to inflame.

Plenty deserve a bashing more than Zen. Cracking service from them this week on a fault. Also Freeola, my ISP is another I have always regarded highly, had a little wobble this week over my fault, but I think they redeemed themselves here. Nobody is perfect. I get a response to a ticket in a few minutes from both, quite rare these days.

I agree Zen probably one I wouldn't bring up for failing, Oh yes I forgot about freeola will take a peak now.

I've been with zen for nearly 10 years, yes I could get a cheaper ADSL supplier - but everyone else I know on cheaper suppliers seem to have issues that I just don't see. In the 10 years I've had very few outages - one was the actual line into the property, the more recent one an issue at the exchange - all handled via Zen without issue. The only slow bit was the 3 day SLA recently for the exchange visit - but that's openreach not zen.

Sadly I may have to consider Virgin soon as openreach deem my cab to be uneconomically viable to upgrade so are waiting for Birmingham City council to help pay for it. If fibre was available i'd be staying.

Edited by kebabselector (Thu 23-Oct-14 13:32:20)

In reply to a post by professor973:

Plenty deserve a bashing more than Zen. Cracking service from them this week on a fault. Also Freeola, my ISP is another I have always regarded highly, had a little wobble this week over my fault, but I think they redeemed themselves here. Nobody is perfect. I get a response to a ticket in a few minutes from both, quite rare these days.

What was it you said on Freeola recently
" Quick response is not necessarily sign of good ISP"
I Left Freeola, not because of slow response but, because response always blamed problem elsewhere. When in fact was in front of their eyes.

Just look at my Freeola line now the brakes have been taken off! Line fault 'Fixed' and worse than it EVER was. they have a month to get their [censored] into gear before fibre switch on here. If no change I will be away, it will be one way to get away from the BB/Line fault!
I will not rubbish any supplier till I get poor service. That time has now arrived with Freeola.
http://www.thinkbroadband.com/ping/share/9c0ab536e12...

I was on kings Norton until I moved down south a week ago, I had no choice but to have VM as ADSL was around 2mb but that wasn't with a decent provider.

I'v been moaning at council, MP's and even digibrum about the exchange and only information I've been given is

"probably not for a long time" for activation at exchange

and also

Virgin was given some money to invest in the local network and to expand

which they have done in all fairness.

I suppose its even more annoying for you as your on an exchange that is enable!

Edited by mlmclaren (Fri 24-Oct-14 01:18:28)

In reply to a post by professor973:

I will not rubbish any supplier till I get poor service. That time has now arrived with Freeola.

I'm assuming this means you no longer recommend freeola then... though I knew as soon as I hit there website who they where and remembered trash talk from before.