Zen drop lifetime price promise for new contracts

It has been reported elsewhere - https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2022/05/zen-in... - that Zen have now stopped offering the "lifetime price guarantee" for new contracts from 1 June 2022.

This was a big selling point for me when I signed up - the endless "inflation +4%" increases from other comms providers (mobile, other ISPs etc) were starting to become tiresome. Zen was a bit more expensive than competitors on day one, but most ISPs start to get to Zen-level pricing once you get out of your initial contract unless you phone and threaten to cancel and all that hassle doesn't suit me, and most ISPs aren't as good as Zen.

This won't affect existing customers unless changing to a new product. I was considering regrading from 40/10 to 80/20 (my line is a lot better than it was predicted to be at sign up) but won't do so now as it would take me out of a legacy package with the price promise. This is likely to impact a lot of people over the coming years as customers move from FTTC to FTTP products. It'll also affect house movers, as an install at a new address is a new contract with Zen.

I can see why they've done it, but if it means Zen get on the inflation +3.9% train (or the random price rises at random intervals, like Virgin) their pricing will quickly end up at a level with the very premium ISPs like AAISP. Zen are good, but they aren't AAISP, I see them more as a middle ground between the landfill pile-em-high likes of TalkTalk and the premium providers.

between the landfill pile-em-high likes of TalkTalk and the premium providers.

Wry smile. If it wasn't for the "landfill pile-em-high likes" (quite the criticism) of TalkTalk then the "premium" guys would in many cases find it quite hard to offer a quality service at a affordable price.

I don't think Zen are going to jump on the RPI+x% bandwagon.

Zen's policy appears to be: it's much cheaper to keep a happy customer, than to acquire a new one. They want to keep people rolling on after their initial contract term. They have a good incentive to keep the follow-on price sensible, because if they hike it, a lot of customers will simply move away. From the customer's point of view, it also means Zen have an incentive to deliver a good service, because if they don't, they are free to leave.

I'm completely with you when it comes to the merry-go-round of having to take new contracts just to continue the same service at a sensible price.

Yeah I was paying £49 for full fibre 300 so regraded to full fibre 500 on the 28th May to lock in the lifetime pricing.

In reply to a post by misstuned:

It has been reported elsewhere - https://www.ispreview.co.uk/index.php/2022/05/zen-in... - that Zen have now stopped offering the "lifetime price guarantee" for new contracts from 1 June 2022.

This was a big selling point for me when I signed up - the endless "inflation +4%" increases from other comms providers (mobile, other ISPs etc) were starting to become tiresome. Zen was a bit more expensive than competitors on day one, but most ISPs start to get to Zen-level pricing once you get out of your initial contract unless you phone and threaten to cancel and all that hassle doesn't suit me, and most ISPs aren't as good as Zen.

This won't affect existing customers unless changing to a new product. I was considering regrading from 40/10 to 80/20 (my line is a lot better than it was predicted to be at sign up) but won't do so now as it would take me out of a legacy package with the price promise. This is likely to impact a lot of people over the coming years as customers move from FTTC to FTTP products. It'll also affect house movers, as an install at a new address is a new contract with Zen.

I can see why they've done it, but if it means Zen get on the inflation +3.9% train (or the random price rises at random intervals, like Virgin) their pricing will quickly end up at a level with the very premium ISPs like AAISP. Zen are good, but they aren't AAISP, I see them more as a middle ground between the landfill pile-em-high likes of TalkTalk and the premium providers.

If you consider that increased costs are hitting both businesses and consumers, it's not a great surprise tehy've had to scrap this really is it?

When I first saw it on the site I thought it was a good idea but wouldn't last that long.

Still, I negotiated a retention deal with them in February which gave me a speed upgrade I wanted at a price I was happy with in exchange for an 18 month contract extention.

If they hike the price to an unacceptanle level I'll have another discussion with them.

I've been a customer since 2014 and on the rare occasions I've run into an issue they've been very helpful and sorted the issue swiftly which is a sharp comparison to some experiences I've had, in the main, the service just works so am personally happy to pay a little more for that peace of mind, particularly while I've been working from home since March 2020.

Each to their own though.

I think the company values it's customers so I don't think they'll take the you know what if there's any price hike, but if you are unhappy with the price, ring and talk to them via the thinking of leaving option which is what I did.

Provided you are polite and reasonable, they seem more than willing to do what they can to help.

If I move to Zen when cityfibre are done as long as I am not paying more than other customers for the same package its fine, so yes I expect to be price matched to older customers.