Switch ISP! HEXUS teams up with Zen

[nichomach]

actually, i don't think people go on price and not service, people go on price AND service. i see lots of people getting very angry when they get poor service even for low price ISP.

That's true at the point that they have problems; the problem is that at the point of purchase they take a look at the pricing aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand....[PILLOCK_IN_WARDROBE_IN_TISCALI_AD]"£6.49 THAT'S AMAAAAAAAAAAAAZING!"[/PILLOCK_IN_WARDROBE_IN_TISCALI_AD].

THEN they complain when three months later the price goes up and they've spent most of those three months trying to get the service to work at all...and then they don't switch to a better supplier because it's expensive, and they don't know how, and...you get the picture...

[usxhe190]

but if at the point of purchase, they look at the price and say i am going for price and not quality, then they won't be complaining when it doesn't work...no?

even for the tiscali ad, they sell low but claim "top service" (i.e. JD Power survey) - they don't say you are getting peanuts for really crap service.

anyways, just thinking economics, the customer is driving both price and quality....it is the "non" free flow of information that stuff things up in the markets....

[Zak33]

Zen are THE No 1 Broadbean Provider. No doubt. I literally love them

[Zak33]

buy a new processor...buy a new monitor....but a new video card....twice....buy a load of games...

In total, the average Hexus dude pays aLOT out each year in IT.

But the amount of ISP whining is quite remarkable.

Pay £24.99 per month for quality. Not £9.99. The £15 per month, over 2 years of lovelyness is WORTHY

[usxhe190]

zak33, whining only comes with mis-information and it is misinformation that makes both tiscali AND zen win (my opinion)

if there was no misinformation and more efficient markets, both tiscali and zen will be losing custom

[Andaho]

zak33, whining only comes with mis-information and it is misinformation that makes both tiscali AND zen win (my opinion)

if there was no misinformation and more efficient markets, both tiscali and zen will be losing custom

In you saying that, it makes me think of bars down town that are stupidly expensive... they are expensive, not because of location because pubs right beside them are much much cheaper, nor because the decor is expensive nor because the staff are special cocktail trained, but they are expensive simply because it attracts a different customer - maybe zen is just like that

[Nomadd]

buy a new processor...buy a new monitor....but a new video card....twice....buy a load of games...

In total, the average Hexus dude pays aLOT out each year in IT.

But the amount of ISP whining is quite remarkable.

Pay £24.99 per month for quality. Not £9.99. The £15 per month, over 2 years of lovelyness is WORTHY

True. But I've just gone from £24.99 of Pipex (arghhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!) to £12.50 worth of O2 ("lovelyness")

So, you can have your cake AND eat it.

Nomadd

[Zak33]

W....we wanted to have one which we could work with and recommend.

THAT SUMS IT UP.....

I would only EVER recomend Zen to someone who wanted reliable, fast, well maintained broad band.

What else is there? Price? Yup......price....the oldest thing in the world...price.

For me £24.99 is value. Would not leave. Zen are the REASON that I'm online on a friday night at 6:02 pm, and my neighbours aint

[usxhe190]

in any event, zen is pretty good though only competitor in that market is idnet last time i checked

[Blitzen]

I would only EVER recomend Zen to someone who wanted reliable, fast, well maintained broad band.

I looked at the link provided just to see what the offers are.
I havent used Zen as i am happy with SKY but if it looked good value i wouldve conidered a switch.

As you say...the Customer Service may be good in your experience. Thats a great thing.
When you state it as fast, i have to disagree......that not even that fast even if you get full bandwidth on the most expensive package and the deal on the right for the unlimited use is INCREDIBLY slow for £17.99.

[spazman]

Id have to agree id rather bang my head off of a wall for a few days with lesser customer service (which i dont get in with Be they are awesome) and pay LOADS less than pay for Zen and have somebody pick the phone up straight away. Bang for buck Zen fail.

[Jay]

seems very expensive for what us paying customers get. But you do get what you pay for.

[kopite]

One of the big things people here are forgetting is that Zen are a business ISP. Their home packages are there because people want the high quality service but Zen are aimed at Businesses who want the high quality support and are willing to pay the extra.

BE are a great ISP and their support is supposed to be really good but they are aimed at home customers. Home customers mostly dont care about high downloads high speeds and stable connections.
Business customers was to have a bit of security that if something goes wrong then it will be fixed quickly.

Ive dealt with a number of isps and worked for some as well.

When I`ve had problems with ISP`s like AOL I have had to go through scripted support when I know what the issue is. You ring Zen and there are no scripts the staff know about DSL and are willing to listen to the customers opinion.

[Zenops]

Ok, thats the best answer If a company has a great reputation with customer service, why are so many people finding out that their customer service is great?...

Customer service is what you get from the moment you decide to choose Zen.

It's everything from when you go to the website for information, place an order over the phone or online, talk to our sales team or billing, be notified of work we do on the network, receive technical support, have our staff spend time with you as a customer and not get you off the phone as quickly as possible because they have to meet a silly call target for statistical purposes etc. etc. There’s hidden things that customers never see like the technical work we do with manufacturers like Speedtouch or where we highlight issues like many saw with the AR7 chipset recently, we always look at everything we can that improves a customer’s experience.

Nothing at Zen should be difficult for a customer.

Are we perfect? No, I don't believe we are and I don't think any ISP can ever claim that but for me and my staff and Zen's entire business ethic we focus on trying to be the best, customer service and quality, we have a very focused mindset in work that's based upon some key values which are.

1) Allow our staff to do their jobs - You'll never see 80 calls a shift mentality or scripted staff in Zen.
2) Continuous Improvement - We always look at what we do today as having to be better than what we did yesterday.
3) Plan for the future - This includes our growth (Network) and products and service improvements.

We are always looking to better what we do and that attitude won't ever stop in fact we know there’s so much more we'd like to do and we will strive to achieve that but not at the expense of it impacting on our customers deliberately just to make a pound or two extra.

We price sensibly based upon what it costs to provide a good, sold reliable product and service and that will not change. We don't tie our customers up with confusing traffic shaping, limited usage on/off peak based upon protocols, FUP, or tie them in to 18 month contracts (It's a month at Zen). We let them decide and if they like us they stay and if they don't they can have their MAC's and leave at their convenience.

Products we sell are clear - what you see is what you get and that delivers choice to a customer and the pricing is up front from the outset.

Before I joined as an employee I was a customer for 5 years and that's a long time to be with one ISP esepcially when you consider the fact I was working for other ISP's at that time ;-)

Regards
Gary

[Jay]

If you want Business grade internet your going to need to get a true SLA and managed internet to be honest.

[Zenops]

zak33, whining only comes with mis-information and it is misinformation that makes both tiscali AND zen win (my opinion)

if there was no misinformation and more efficient markets, both tiscali and zen will be losing custom

The industry I'm in, has been its own worst enemy especially where Broadband has been concerned for a long time now. When I first joined an ISP (Prestel Online) in the early 90's there was a lot of choice and various options available to customers. Most products were much the same and the differences were things like extra mailboxes, whether you could have front page server extensions or not, x2 or V56 standards. Nowadays many Independent ISP's have been swallowed up by Telco's and the like who have little interest in the ISP community as it was and appear to focus on volume customers and wrapping everything up in a bundle. What you then see is cheaper pricing models extremely complex and hard to understand usage rules or marketing spin designed to skim over the real product detail that you really should be looking at much closer before deciding on who you’re going to use as a provider. I do believe that a lot of customers have in fact lost any real control that they might have had over their product and service not to mention when things go wrong you then start to pay the real price (Offshore service, scripted and difficult service staff etc.) that a few years ago where much more controllable.

I attend ISP Forums in London with BT, ISPA, OFCOM, Government etc. these are sometimes belittled by many but what is good to see coming out of those is the involvement of various industry people who have the customers interests at the forefront of what they do and are trying to get the big boys to make it clearer and easier to understand for customers what they will get for their money. One of my main bug bears is the fact Zen and some others have always been transparent. In respect of ourselves we have always made clear what we are about, what our products are about and give our customers Choice!

I'd like to see the industry as a whole making things clearer, remove misinformation and start to help customers understand what they are getting for their money and what it means to them in the real world.

Zen will continue to do what it always has – and our customers will assist us in making sure that always continues.

Gary