zen pricing seems unfair to existing customers?

currently on Zen 500 for £45/month. I noticed on their website 1G service is now available for £45/month.

Out of contract.

Zen want me to enter into another 18 month contract for a regrade of service, or the same if they want to drop my pricing to the current price of service (39/month).

anyone else find this gross? its not really about the cost difference, but rather then principle.

I have been a happy zen customer to date, cant fault the service at all - but netnomia is likely to be available to me within 12 months so does not seem worth locking into another 18 month contract.

What would you do in my shoes knowing you are paying more than new customers?

Edited by wifig33k (Thu 23-Apr-26 10:51:18)

In reply to a post by wifig33k:

currently on Zen 500 for £45/month. I noticed on their website 1G service is now available for £45/month.

Out of contract.

Zen want me to enter into another 18 month contract for a regrade of service, or the same if they want to drop my pricing to the current price of service (39/month).

anyone else find this gross? its not really about the cost difference, but rather then principle.

I have been a happy zen customer to date, cant fault the service at all - but netnomia is likely to be available to me within 12 months so does not seem worth locking into another 18 month contract.

What would you do in my shoes knowing you are paying more than new customers?

All I can think of is are you comparing like with like? It is very unusual for ISPs to offer a rolling monthly contract? Do new customers need to sign a 18m contract? If they do they seem to be offering you the same deal as new customers - seems fair to me.

You're paying more because you're out of contract, and you've been offered the exact same pricing as a new customer in exchange for entering into a minimum contract term. I don't think there's anything unfair about it. If you expect to be offered the currently monthly rate that new customers pay without any sort of commitment then you won't have many options.

I think out of contract pricing is exploitive when there is no extra costs to the service provider for the customer being out of contract.

With that said the majority of the ISP market is guilty of it, so this isnt some Zen specific evil, and if Zen are offering new customer pricing on renewals, they doing better than the likes of Virgin Media who wont do that.

When my Zen contract came to an end I contacted them and they immediately offered me a new contract at a significant reduction on the previous one so that it matched the new customer price. I thought that was very fair.

It's a discount in exchange for knowing what their revenue from a customer is going to be, which helps make business decisions. Re-contracting for new customer prices without having to fight for it is about as good as it gets.

Zen could be more open by publishing their month-to-month pricing and explaining as part of the sales journey that you will be billed that when your term expires, but I assume the contract renewal notification laid all that out.

it sort of does

Here are some deals to consider for your Full Fibre 500 service.
A new customer applying for your Full Fibre 500 would pay £42.00/month.

its £39.00 a month now. so £6/month difference. must have dropped since my january renewal

Edited by wifig33k (Thu 23-Apr-26 20:52:47)

Very much the same as any service you buy. No doubt your energy contract works on the same basis; if not worse, as typically when your energy contract ends your price will rise to a default unless you enter into a new contract.
Did they offer you a new contract at reduced price or was it just that you noticed the new customer price was cheaper and queried it? If the latter, then ideally they would layout the alternatives when your contract ends.

just go on the chat or give them a call. They will put you onto the new offer no probs. massively easier compared to all the other sub par and major ISPs. As others have mentioned they need some commitment from you to stay to discount as per new customers who have to sign up to the same.

I kind of expected zen to be better than this. I was wrong. the usual shop around hassle applies

Edited by wifig33k (Fri 24-Apr-26 20:55:16)