I got one of these this morning but had moved to Aquiss since yesterday. It comes after the "sorry you're leaving" standard email I got yesterday which I got after the Aquiss order went through

Way, way too late. Have been in a panic since I saw Zen's original email at the start of the month. This isn't the first time they've pulled this, I was affected by the changes they imposed two years ago as well. Gone with Aquiss now because I've lost all faith in Zen.

I agree. I don't see how they have not breached their contract with you. You don't need to abide by it in my opinion.

Not much chance of Zen chiming in here, how could they possibly justify what they are doing? This is evidenced by the correspondence I have had with them.

I've got a /29 back from them at no additional charge, but it is not the same one. I expect they can get a higher price for larger contiguous blocks. So now I am left to reconfigure my network (virtually impossible).

Zen's behaviour has been utterly despicable in my opinion. They will be getting to boot at the first opportunity.

[email protected] then [email protected]

Calling them just gave me the run around and boiler plate rubbish replies.

Zen isn't selling off all the affected blocks - my existing /28 is in 82.71.0.0/17, and both the /32 they initially allocated me and the /28 they have now agreed to renumber me to are in that same /17.

I suspect that the technical justification for at least some blocks, including mine, is defragmentation of existing address space. Zen cannot issue a large allocation to a leased-line customer (e.g., a /24 or /25) if a single /29 or /32 is in use within the proposed block.

Allocations by Zen are in PA space, and the Zen terms make it clear that addresses are rented. Annoying as it is, I don't think it is unreasonable for Zen to ask customers to renumber periodically. I have had the same address block for around twenty years. Renumbering is a pain, but it's bearable - all I have to do is do a search and replace on my router's configuration in XML format, renumber some non-NAT interfaces, and update my primary DNS and then reverse DNS records.

What has gone so wrong is Zen's attempt to extract additional revenue from customers who still need routed IPv4. Zen chose to try to justify their behaviour with non-contractual reasons such as "commercial considerations", "not in line with our current allocation policy" and insinuations that IPv4 allocations were somehow an additional free service historically offered alongside broadband contracts (which is total rot - if you have routed IPv4, your gateway IP address comes from that block and IPv4 connectivity is totally non-functional without that gateway address).

If Zen had chosen to reflect on the contract and consumer law rights of its customers, it should have realised that the existing blocks were part of customer contracts, and the default position should have been like-for-like allocation. Zen could probably have recovered quite a bit of address space by offering a small incentive to those willing to opt for a /32 rather than their current allocation - perhaps a free month of broadband.

I must say I am quite surprised by the way they have handled this.
The key aspects of why I have been a customer of Zen's for so long and happy to pay extra for their service over other providers are:
better customer service,
reliability,
the included in my paid service block of IP's

They have given little notice that they intend to degrade my service, the justification seems to be implying I have been doing something wrong and they are just correcting that,
their response time has been dreadful (7 days to respond to the mail)

I seems to me that two of the key aspects have been removed, support is no longer exceptional or even that good any more and removing part of my paid service. If they are just going to become A.N.Other ISP what's the USP!

Surprised again, they got back to me and said I could have the /29!

Maybe this was just an ill thought rushed comms, hopefully they will learn for the future!

Really big red flags for me were:

1. 30 days notice. It should be 180 days or more.
2. This is the 2nd time for me they've done this. Do they really have to defragment their ipv4 range every two years?
3. the notification being like it's already decided. Nowhere to challenge it.

Credit where it's due, after raising my concerns with Zen's Sales team about losing the /29, they listened and found an agreeable solution by allocating me a new /29 in a different range. No change to contract or monthly charge. It shows that Zen does pay attention to customer feedback and continues to support network enthusiasts and hobbyists where it can.

In reply to a post by clmfsh:

It shows that Zen does pay attention to customer feedback and continues to support network enthusiasts and hobbyists where it can.

???? This isn't about Zen doing favours for network enthusiasts and hobbyists. It is about Zen fulfilling their contract obligations to paying customers, surely?