Unfortunately I’m still without internet access after the senior engineer’s visit and following the advice to reset the ONT and the Fritzbox.

This was my response to the Fault Manager:

Hi


I’ve followed your suggestions - resetting the ONT and the Fritzbox - and unfortunately neither has helped and I’m still without internet access.

This is extremely disheartening.

What is the next step? Can you alert escalate this further please?


I look forward to hearing from you ASAP

A nice man who seemed to be taking my troubles seriously (Gavin) - has reassured me that Zen will continue to work on my issue which he believes is on Zen’s side (by which he meant Zen at the exchange). He did reiterate that a cease and reprovide would be carried out but only as a last option.

Edited by kam67 (Mon 05-Dec-22 10:54:44)

In reply to a post by Pheasant:

You can’t. You simply have to wait.

Authentication and account issues are Zen internal matter. Anything to do with ceasing and re-providing the service on the physical network, is an order and business between Zen and Openreach. Again unless they explicitly tell you this is happening you can’t be certain of it.

I thought that auth was ISP and a different layer ,to the physical hardware side, but earlier this year my FTTC service stopped authing Had sync but no auth, Engineer was sent by zen, and he tried a different modem /router same result, So he rang DoCE and did a lift and shift of port in the fftc cab and it worked again,

My response to Zen telling us to wait till tomorrow for an update from Openreach:

Dear Zen,

To be told that we have to wait for yet another day is not good enough.
  
My family and I are really at the end of our tether. 

This is proving to be by far the worst experience we have had from any ISP in over 22 years.

In his email yesterday, S said he would escalate my complaint and bring it to the attention of the Openreach area manager. Is this being done?

We have on several occasions about the option of cease and provide - which is what the Openreach technician who came on the 2/12/2022 advised.

Is this being looked at?

Edited by kam67 (Mon 05-Dec-22 14:32:08)

On a side note - Gavin, who was very helpful, tried using a test username on the Fritzbox but this did not help. If I understood correctly, this rules out this being an authentication issue?

It rules out the issue being with Zen's authentication. It could still be the case that your ONT has been provisioned onto the wrong ISP.

If you're desperate for a connection then it might be worth phoning Aquiss and seeing what they can do if given the ONT serial number - they might be able to get you on same-day.

In reply to a post by jpm:

It rules out the issue being with Zen's authentication. It could still be the case that your ONT has been provisioned onto the wrong ISP.

If you're desperate for a connection then it might be worth phoning Aquiss and seeing what they can do if given the ONT serial number - they might be able to get you on same-day.

Martin over at Aquiss would certainly be the guy to talk to regarding the OP's predicament

Thanks for the tip. I’m desperate enough to try any reasonable avenues at this juncture.
Is Martin a senior rep of Aquiss? Would it help if I posted this on the Aquiss sub forum:

I am writing to you to bring attention to the extremely upsetting situation my family (my partner Susan and two year old twins Rowan and Phoenix and I) have been in since our broadband service was installed by Zen (using BT OpenReach) almost a week ago (1/12/2022).

Since that date, we have had no access to the internet whatsoever. What’s worse, we have been left in limbo - not knowing whether the issue will ever be rectified by Zen and/or Openreach.

We chose Zen because of its outstanding reputation for customer care, yet ironically, this is proving to be by far the worst experience we have had from any ISP in over 22 years.

I’m not denying that real steps have been taken by Zen and Openreach in response to our issue (checking connections, replacing and resetting routers and modems etc.) yet so far not enough to identify, let alone fix the problem.

Every time we have requested an ETA, we have been met with an adamant refusal to provide us with any reassurance whatsoever that the problem will be resolved at all, let alone within a specific time frame.

One potential fix suggested by the last Openreach engineer who visited is “Cease and Reprovide;” However, according to several members of the Zen team , this has so far been resisted by the team at Zen - for reasons that are up till now unclear to us.

We have lodged a formal complaint with regards to the above horrible predicament we have been left in - so far with apparently little effect.

We are at a loss as how best to proceed; feeling utterly impotent and voiceless.

We have also been left wondering whether we have become hapless victims of the very success which attracted us (and we suspect many others, far more than Zen can comfortably digest perhaps) to Zen in the first place.

This whole episode has caused us so much uncertainty and distress at a particularly stressful juncture in our lives - in the midst of moving from London to a house in Sunbury On Thames (the latter being where Zen is supposed to be providing the Fibre broadband service) while bringing up our two year old twins in virtual isolation, in the aftermath of the pandemic and a series of family deaths.

I don't think any of that is relevant to fixing your problem by trying a new ISP - phone them (Aquiss) up and talk to them and say you have an ONT serial number and they will have your business if they can do a same-day activation.

Edited by jpm (Mon 05-Dec-22 21:28:11)

The human dimension is always relevant - particularly where it comes to the true meaning of customer care and the client-centred approach which Zen prides itself on.

I just meant it's loads of information that Aquiss don't need to know and won't help them answer your question - which is whether they can do a same-day activation when given an ONT serial number.