Simon,

This is an old chestnut and has been discussed here many times before. When Zen issue a credit they simply allocate it as a credit note, in line with standard business practice. You need to advise them how you want that credit note to be processed/handled.

Zen can't make assumptions as to how you might want that credit applied or claimed. You might want it simply refunded to your bank account (if you pay by DD). You might want it refunded to your credit card (if you pay by that method). Or you might want it applied against your next invoice. Or you might want them to send you a cheque. Or maybe you think that they should be clairvoyant and "guess" what it is that you want?

I agree that Zen still need to make it clearer that customers need to advise them of how a credit is to be processed, but it's hardly "two errors".

Thanks for your help Zullio and for arranging for the credit to be refunded to me. Unfortunately, there were errors in this process and I am free to post about them if I wish, unless there is a hidden privacy clause somewhere.

I repeat: the credit note should have made it clear that some action was required from me in order to get the credit refunded. There was no such instruction with it and the only reasonable assumption is that the refund would automatically be credited to my bank or card. Failing to make this clear is an error in your processes which I think you should put right.

The second error is still unexplained. The credit note did say that my subscription would be changed from the next billing date (November 8) -- but it wasn't. My November 8 invoice was the same as the previous months when I was paying for the Office service (which I cancelled/regraded on October 23).

Perhaps there was some other obscure action required of me in order to reduce my November 8 invoice to the correct amount but I think not. It was another Zen error. (In fact, yet another error occurred when, despite a clear agreement that my regrade would take place on my billing date two weeks hence, my service was regraded within 24 hours, causing considerable inconvenience.)

I gather that you aren't keen to discuss these matters in a public forum -- but I hope that you will allow me my right to air what I feel are legitimate grievances about these flawed accounting processes. Instead of complaining about me posting here, I think you should address the internal procedures which gave rise to these errors. I am one of Zen's biggest fans -- but that doesn't mean that Zen cannot do any wrong -- nor that I shouldn't alert other subscribers to a possible flaw in your accounting processes.

Simon

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When Zen issue a credit they simply allocate it as a credit note, in line with standard business practice.

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I don't know what makes you think this is standard business practice. In over 30 years of business I've rarely come across this practice. In my experience in the case of on going business the credit note is deducted from the next payment. Since Zen are deducting the money I would expect, unless otherwise instructed, future payments to be reduced until the credit note is cleared.

My experience with Zen is it took 3 phone calls, each one after they emailed me a statement, to get them to process the credit note.

Absolutely, a credit note should not have to be claimed but should be applied to the account automatically.

If you get a credit on your mobile phone bill, your next bill is reduced.

I do not understand why Zen cannot adopt this approach as well. Perhaps they can shed some light (I know this topic's been discussed before but I'm not clear on the justification for their approach).

Cheers

Andy

Our credit note policy is based upon the large cross section of customers we have from residential through to business. As you can appreciate this is a very broad spectrum of users with varying levels of accountancy needs. Whatever is good for one customer may not be good for the next and so on, and we think it is best policy not to make assumptions when it comes to the return/offsetting of credit.
We take on board any expereinces you may have had and always endeavour to produce satisfactory results.

Thanks for the reply and clarification of logic.

Perhaps the default for domestic customers could be a refund or perhaps an option in the portal where a customer can choose the default action for any credits?

Just my 2p worth

Cheers

-Andy

Andy-that is a very good idea for sure and something I'll definately pass on to our portal developers. The portal is evolving all the time and this would be a useful tool/functionality to place in it.
Excellent contribution :-)

thats something that was suggested at least 2 years ago IIRC

credit notes have been a problem with zen since i first joined them nearly 5 years ago.

I had a credit note in my account for around 5 months. I received an email to say I had a credit note, but nothing in the email said that I needed to contact Zen to discuss what could be done about it.

The layout in the "Billing" section in the portal didn't help either, as the monthly bill with the credit note value made it appear that the credit note was going against the monthly bill.

In other words, due to the portal page it looked as if the credit note was going to be used against the next 3 monthly payments.

When I saw that it wasn't being deducted (after 3 months) I decided to leave it a bit longer to see if I was contacted. I wasn't, so emailed the department and got it sorted.

As you can see by my signature I've migrated now to another provider, not because of this credit note problem. This time however I've phoned up to sort out the rest of this months refund since I now know the procedure.

So basically, it needs to (A) Be made clear to the end user / bill payer that you need to contact billing in the first instance once you receive a credit note and (B) Clear up the portal "Billing" page so that the monthly payments show that the credit note isn't being applied against it (Unless you've specifically asked for this arrangement to happen).

It's silly things like this, that can give a company a bad / slightly poor reputation, as people will start to call you "money grabbers" (to put it politely) when credit notes can be held in Zens' possession for months with no contact to or from an end user / bill payer.

Off to enjoy my ADSL2+ connection

In reply to:

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I don't know what makes you think this is standard business practice. In over 30 years of business I've rarely come across this practice. In my experience in the case of on going business the credit note is deducted from the next payment.

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But it is not automatically deducted by the company sending you the credit note.

Say Company X receives a credit note from Company Y. The normal practice to 'claim' the credit would be for Company X to enter their credit note in their ledger and to allocate it against any future invoice received from Company Y. Thus any payment of that invoice (or invoices) would include a claim against the credit note and would be referenced in the remittance advice.

This way there is an auditable accounting trail of where the credit came from and how it was disposed.