Zen changing pricing again

Following on from the previous thread about Zen not moving existing customers when the plan prices reduce I see they have done it again. UF1 is now £29.99 for new customers while UF2 stays at £38. Can anyone who took out a new 12 month contract for UF1 at £37 advise if Zen are automatically reducing thier monthy charge?

I'm really [censored] off with Zen as I moved on to UF2 since it was only £2 a month more & I certainly wouldn't have done that if the difference had been £10, as it is now.

This is really shoddy practice by Zen & smells of desperation to sucker customers in to new contracts. The issue it it's loyal cutomers who have been with them for years who are getting shafted. I've ben done over twice now & I'm definately off elsewhere.

I am not sure I understand your compaint. Zen reducing their prices for a lower tier is surely good news. Just because you renewed your contract/deal when the service was not available for that price shouldn't mean that a company has to ensure it remains a set price forever. This is the point of a competitve market.

When purchasing anything you have to consider if the product is worth the advertised price *at that point in time*. Prices can go down, or they can go up. Modern society seems to have an entitlement problem. If Asda increase the price of your shopping basket a week after buying the goods would you be happy for them to phone you up and force you to pay the new price?

Whether it is £1 or £10 more, you are indeed getting a 'superior' product and you are still paying the same as what a new customer thus still remain fair. This example is something you have to chalk up as life, you pays your money, you take your chances.

Do you think Zen should drop the price of UF1 down for those who have just taken up a new 12 month contract at £37? After all, their website says that can reduce the price but not increase it.

It's an issue about treating longstanding customers (over 10 years in my case) fairly & not disadvantaging them in relation to new ones. It's exactly the same issue as banks, building societies & insurance companies excluding current customers from the deals they offer to new ones. Why should existing customers not be on the best rate? I'm pretty sure there are a lot of loyal customers still paying over £40 for UF1 & I doubt Zen have contacted them to advise them of the new rate.

Have I missed something? Isn�t UF1 their 40/10 unlimited fibre and UF2 their 80/20 offering?

Don�t know that much about Zen and their recent price changes.

In reply to a post by mondeoman:

Do you think Zen should drop the price of UF1 down for those who have just taken up a new 12 month contract at £37? After all, their website says that can reduce the price but not increase it.

No (unless within a cooling off period) as that was the price at the time the contract was agreed to, so as long as there was no underhandness (think a notorious sofa sale) then it is what it is. The reason for this is at the time the new customer and the renewal cost for existing customers was the same. However I do think your point about being out of contract and milked is certainly valid and that is unfair if for example the company would not offer the same deal as a new customer and insisted you always had to pay more.

Loyalist in this market is relatively pointless here is a post I made on the virgin media forum which I think is relevant.

Companies with ethics (or at least ones pretending to have) will usually ensure their loyal customers are treated equally fair to new customers. Yes, new customers might get a few bauballs but the price is usally matched. There are companies like this about, just quite few in the telecoms industry.

What you see with companies like Virgin, BT & Sky is a lack of ethics, and it's an American influence which is affecting even once 'fair' companies of old. Unfortunately to companies like VM, Sky etc, loyality means 'suckers'. Because the companies have no real ethics we the customers need to follow the same drum (until this short term business illness is kicked in to the pages of history). By this you have to ensure you shop around the moment the contract is going to expire. What you will find is that people who move around each year will certainly be offered a deal, where as people like yourself will not. The reason for this is they have seen you have not left after 12-18months. You are what is known as a 'sticky' customer. Companies see these customers as soft targets and see no point in offering anything.

Play them at their own game. I know it's not very "British" of us and we like to see ourselves as loyal. But loality in this market is taken advantage of by big business and the sooner more people vote with their feet the cost of CHURN will make them sit up and take note as it's certainly not sustainable if even 50%+ of people switched each year.

Might sound harsh, and sometimes you might have to play hard ball and passive aggressive but you will certainly win in the long run. BT seem to think their ancient copper is worth £50 per month, yet for some people that is enough to produce, transport, maintain and bill a families gas and electricity.

Stick your notice on the account, and within the next 14 days someone will be on the phone offering you at least as good a deal as a new customer. If they don't then milk Sky for their discount and return in 12-18months on a low deal.

Do the same with banks, insurance, utilities. Loyality is pointless unless the company is offering a differentiating service where the extra cost of loyality is worth something (be that great CS/Support, an ethical company to it's employees, community and customers, or simply does everything at the Rolls Royce level of service).

Same here been with Zen for ages and paying £35-40 for just connection as phone line is with another company .
Mailed them asking why new customers are paying a lot less than me but no reply !!
waste of time , will be looking else where shortly

(Replying simply to the latest post as I'm not answering any particular one).

A few years back I joined AAISP on their Home::1 service at £45pm for 100GB allowance on the 80/20 product.

After quite a while they double the allowance to 200GB. All existing customers on the same product as me got the upgrade. (And similar happened on higher allowance products).

Then, (I forget which came first of the next two changes), they decided to scrap the £35pm 40/10 product. They upgraded everyone on it to the 80/20 one but kept the price at £35. Simultaneously they dropped the price of 80/20 to £35pm for both new and existing customers on it.

Finally they introduced a rolling/cumulative carry-forward of half the user's unused allowance at the end of the month to the following month. (Cumulative in that half of what then remained at the end of the second month was carried forward). I ended up with just over 350GB allowance at the start of each month.

That is ethical .

Have you actually tried calling them to see if you can reset your contract at the new price?

Its not unusual for a business to let you start a new contract before the old one has finished, you just can't cancel an existing one outright within the contract period.

Edited by alexatkin (Sun 24-Mar-19 00:38:29)

I've been with Zen a while and it would have made me a lot more loyal if they had proactively contacted their existing customers flagging that these deals were available (subject to 12 month contract). It's a significant difference in cost (particularly for me who only gets slightly above 40/10 anyway on Unlimited 2 so I might as well go to Unlimited 1). I've just put through a service "upgrade" request in the portal.
It's one thing I love about GiffGaff, every month with their bill they say "based on your usage we reckon you should probably go on the cheaper tariff".

Try calling them - I reckon you will get a result if you talk to them.