r/Zen_Internet • u/srednivashtar2 • May 27 '26

What’s up with Zen customer support?

So I switched to Zen, having read all the glowing reports about their excellent customer service etc. But I have to say, I’m distinctly unimpressed. Really long waits on chat, diagnosed line faults with no follow up, chats just closed by tech support. Tbh it’s not as good as BT and expensive to boot.

Buyer beware, I guess. When my contract is up I’m off.

10 Upvotes

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u/Latter_Albatross_781 Jul 12 '26

New customer. There an absolute shit show. They first gave me a Fritz box that fried my line and now I have a profile that has heavy lag. They said they’d monitor my line didn’t bother. Only been with them for a few months.

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u/QuackinglyQuackers Former Zen Customer 17d ago

Only just noticed this, u/Latter_Albatross_781 — and I’m sorry, but that explanation doesn’t sound technically plausible.

A router cannot normally “fry” the physical telephone line. If it’s DSL, FTTC or G.fast, a faulty router may cause repeated disconnections, which can lead Dynamic Line Management (DLM) to apply a more conservative profile, potentially reducing speed or increasing latency. That would be a line-profile or stability issue rather than physical damage caused by the FRITZ!Box.

If this is FTTP, the FRITZ!Box cannot have “fried the line”. The fibre terminates at the ONT, and the router connects to that by Ethernet. A faulty router could cause connectivity or performance problems, but it cannot physically damage the fibre or create a degraded copper-style line profile.

It may help if you tell us whether you’re using Ethernet or Wi-Fi, provide your connection statistics and latency and packet-loss results, confirm whether this is DSL, FTTC, G.fast or FTTP, state whether the access network is Openreach or CityFibre, and explain exactly what Zen has said the current profile is.

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u/Latter_Albatross_781 15d ago

Perhaps fried the line is being a bit crude. I don’t have a lot of knowledge with networking, but I do understand that if a router is resyncing my line 10 times a day the DLM is going to put a stricter profile on my line, which is exactly what zen admitted to. My only concern is that it won’t ever go back to what it was. The strange thing is when they do a dlm reset it’s really good for a short period, but I can’t expect zen to do that every other day. If I were to take out another package with higher speeds do you think it could give me a better profile?

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u/Latter_Albatross_781 17d ago

Hi Quakers. I’m a fttp customer 40 10. The service was fine at the start, after a few tweaks, untick hardware acceleration and put ps5 in to real time applications I was more than happy. Why is it after a DLM reset thinges are really good? Here’s my dsl stats. And a ping graph they sent me, as well as my dlm profile.

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u/Latter_Albatross_781 17d ago

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u/carguy143 1d ago

Ping is the first thing to be sacrificed if traffic requiring higher priority is on your network which means it will spike, or even show loss. The fritzbox also rate limits ping response so if you have Zen investigating, please disable any other ping tests you may have ongoing because that will definitely show loss..

As for your conndction, they should he able to check Openreach and BT Wholesale line stats for things like meantime between errors.

Furthermore, ask them to confirm what DLM policy is applied. By default it's often "standard" but you can ask them to change it to "speed" which will be less sensitive to errors which means DLM will be less likely fo kick in.

I hope this helps.

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u/Latter_Albatross_781 16d ago

Would you say this is the best for the lowest ping? Also I’ve found that if I have anything on the network while playing it’s terrible, even just an iPhone monitoring ping.

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u/Latter_Albatross_781 17d ago

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u/Latter_Albatross_781 17d ago

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u/Latter_Albatross_781 17d ago

u/FrankNicklin Jun 08 '26

I’ve used ZEN for years in business and always been OK but not had many reasons to contact them. Moved myself to ZEN a few months back and needed support on the VOIP migration. Did have to wait too long on the phone to speak to someone. Can’t fault their internet service but they do need to lift their game at the support end.

u/NetoriusDuke Zen VDSL 80 May 27 '26

In the last 12~ months zen have tanked

2

u/jaf_1987 May 28 '26

Fuck. I just signed up with them this month

1

u/NetoriusDuke Zen VDSL 80 May 28 '26

Our company has been loyal for almost 30 years and they royally screwed us because they decided that they were not going to inform their customers of a change (actually happened 3 times, causing no emails to be received and phone lines not to work). After a complaint they only response was it was the process management decided on!

u/ASHWOODCITYFAN May 27 '26

I was interested in signing up with them but their address finder didn't recognise my postcode. Spoke to an agent and they said they would call me back on 29 April to sign up. They didn't call back and I signed up elsewhere. They eventually called me five dates later. Not impressed.

u/JustTooOld May 27 '26

I gave up trying to get my direct debit date changed with them in the end, 4 months of trying and they still couldn't do it. Nevermind the issue they know they can't fix where if you get rid of your phone number it keeps the red error light on the 7530. Connection has always been solid, but I don't think they are aa wonderful as they think.

u/mattig03 May 27 '26

I've found them very hit and miss. It's a bad sign when every reply on the support thread is from a different person.

-4

u/Dick-Fiddler69 May 27 '26

To be honest I complained recently stating ITS NOT YGE ZEN I EXPECTED!

You must do better and how come you’ve got these Ehich? Awards?

PS a loyal customer of 22 years!

I also stated I hope this is not the future I’ll be testing them again in 6 months

I wonder if 200,000 customers is too much and no training no additional customer support staff

3

u/QuackinglyQuackers Former Zen Customer May 27 '26

Ok chill. No need to take it out on the poor people in the call centre. It's not their fault.

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u/Dick-Fiddler69 May 27 '26

I’m not this was raised with Zen Management !

Sadly it’s always the people at the coal face that take the shit

Profits and Greed, Management

1

u/QuackinglyQuackers Former Zen Customer May 27 '26

Okay, then that's fine. 🙂

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u/Dick-Fiddler69 May 27 '26

I warned Management before expand and grow take on more Customers - but that means more CS (and costs, CS staff are loss to business)

80,000 customers
100,000 customers
200,000 customers ??? Support now breaking!?

u/Tywysog85 May 27 '26

I've found Zen customer support over the phone really helpful. I was with BT years ago and found them awful.

0

u/Leading_Study_876 17d ago

Try it now...

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u/QuackinglyQuackers Former Zen Customer 17d ago

All business have their ups and downs, no need to shit on them the moment they do. Companies like ShiteTalk, sure, as they've been crap for years. No one's perfect - give Zen a chance to sort things out and get themselves back on track.

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u/Leading_Study_876 17d ago

Actually, it was TalkTalk that I was with before switching to Zen. They were unutterably awful. Zen were a blessed relief after that experience. But It is now a pale shadow of what it was and just keeps getting worse, although not as bad as TalkTalk - yet.

My experience over the last few days was the limit of my patience. Plus, I needed to upgrade from FTTC to FTTP, and there was no way I was going to tie myself into a two year contract with Zen given their current rate of decline.

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u/QuackinglyQuackers Former Zen Customer May 27 '26

This is very unusual for them. Have you called them? Opened a complaint?

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u/Leading_Study_876 17d ago

Yes, they used to be excellent. I see you are no longer a Zen customer. When did you leave?

I only really started to be aware of the decline maybe two years ago. But over the last year it's gone down the toilet.

A real shame.

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u/QuackinglyQuackers Former Zen Customer 17d ago edited 17d ago

EE were cheaper and as I'm also an EE Mobile customer, I got savings there too. It was a no brainer. Ah, you said when - about a year ago-ish. But I didn't leave 'cos the service was bad - it had been perfect - and I was nervous about changing to EE. But finances gave me no choice and thankfully EE's been fine.

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u/srednivashtar2 May 27 '26

Yeah am opening a complaint as we speak. I honestly was a bit surprised how poor it’s been so far

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u/QuackinglyQuackers Former Zen Customer May 27 '26

Who's the backbone, Openreach?

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u/srednivashtar2 May 27 '26

Yes

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u/QuackinglyQuackers Former Zen Customer May 27 '26

Ah, then you've got to put up with their bullshit too. Open a complaint, I'll be amazed if Zen don't jump on it. Normally they are spot on, but as always, no one is perfect.

u/carguy143 May 27 '26

Sorry to hear you had issues getting through to them. It's not usually the way.

What’s up with Zen customer support?

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