Zen as telephone supplier?

I am considering changing to Zen, who is already my ISP, for my 'phone
service. Are there any experiences, good or bad, with their 'phone
service?
--
Davey.

Davey wrote:
> I am considering changing to Zen, who is already my ISP, for my 'phone
> service. Are there any experiences, good or bad, with their 'phone
> service?

My experiences with IDNET suggest that the service - apart from te price
and freedom from complex 'deals' is identical technically to the BT
service. In fact it IS the BT service sold wholesale to a different debt
collector than BT retail.

So why change? price, and the total bliss of never ever having to deal
with BT retail ever again.

On 11/10/2011 15:18, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
> Davey wrote:
>> I am considering changing to Zen, who is already my ISP, for my 'phone
>> service. Are there any experiences, good or bad, with their 'phone
>> service?
>
> My experiences with IDNET suggest that the service - apart from te price
> and freedom from complex 'deals' is identical technically to the BT
> service. In fact it IS the BT service sold wholesale to a different debt
> collector than BT retail.
>
> So why change? price, and the total bliss of never ever having to deal
> with BT retail ever again.

What he said - whoever you go to, it's only a "paper transaction" plus
the possibility of a better deal, price-wise.
The only thing that's keeping me from moving my phone service away from
BT is that when it goes faulty I'd have to contact the new supplier to
report it, rather than going via BT's (excellent, from my point of view)
fault-reporting system.

George

On Tue, 11 Oct 2011 15:18:37 +0100
The Natural Philosopher <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> Davey wrote:
> > I am considering changing to Zen, who is already my ISP, for my
> > 'phone service. Are there any experiences, good or bad, with their
> > 'phone service?
>
> My experiences with IDNET suggest that the service - apart from te
> price and freedom from complex 'deals' is identical technically to
> the BT service. In fact it IS the BT service sold wholesale to a
> different debt collector than BT retail.
>
> So why change? price, and the total bliss of never ever having to
> deal with BT retail ever again.

Price, basically. BT did not get off to a good start when I ordered the
'phone connection, but they could not tell me in advance what my number
would be, so I could not add the number to my change-of-address cards.
Whereas Zen had the ADSL working three days before their commitment.
--
Davey.

George Weston wrote:
> On 11/10/2011 15:18, The Natural Philosopher wrote:
>> Davey wrote:
>>> I am considering changing to Zen, who is already my ISP, for my 'phone
>>> service. Are there any experiences, good or bad, with their 'phone
>>> service?
>>
>> My experiences with IDNET suggest that the service - apart from te price
>> and freedom from complex 'deals' is identical technically to the BT
>> service. In fact it IS the BT service sold wholesale to a different debt
>> collector than BT retail.
>>
>> So why change? price, and the total bliss of never ever having to deal
>> with BT retail ever again.
>
> What he said - whoever you go to, it's only a "paper transaction" plus
> the possibility of a better deal, price-wise.
> The only thing that's keeping me from moving my phone service away from
> BT is that when it goes faulty I'd have to contact the new supplier to
> report it, rather than going via BT's (excellent, from my point of view)
> fault-reporting system.
>
It doesn't get much easier than (mobile) phoning up one of three or 4
support guys and girls at IDNET and saying 'phone is borked'.

Why is it that when you only have a few thousand customers, you can
support them so much better..



> George

Davey wrote:
> On Tue, 11 Oct 2011 15:18:37 +0100
> The Natural Philosopher <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>> Davey wrote:
>>> I am considering changing to Zen, who is already my ISP, for my
>>> 'phone service. Are there any experiences, good or bad, with their
>>> 'phone service?
>> My experiences with IDNET suggest that the service - apart from te
>> price and freedom from complex 'deals' is identical technically to
>> the BT service. In fact it IS the BT service sold wholesale to a
>> different debt collector than BT retail.
>>
>> So why change? price, and the total bliss of never ever having to
>> deal with BT retail ever again.
>
> Price, basically. BT did not get off to a good start when I ordered the
> 'phone connection, but they could not tell me in advance what my number
> would be, so I could not add the number to my change-of-address cards.
> Whereas Zen had the ADSL working three days before their commitment.

The odd thing is the ISPs seem to have a better relationship with
openreach and wholesale than BT itself does.

In article <j71scb$tga$(E-Mail Removed)>, Davey wrote:
> > So why change? price, and the total bliss of never ever having to
> > deal with BT retail ever again.
>
> Price, basically. BT did not get off to a good start when I ordered the
> 'phone connection, but they could not tell me in advance what my number
> would be, so I could not add the number to my change-of-address cards.
> Whereas Zen had the ADSL working three days before their commitment.

I can confirm Zen are excellent. No problems with them at all. The only
time I ever dealt with their tech support was when I was trying to set up
my first email address, and a little pop-up browser chat window appeared
wherein somebody asked if I needed help and the matter was sorted in a
few minutes.

Rod.
--
Virtual Access V6.3 free usenet/email software from
http://sourceforge.net/projects/virtual-access/

On Tue, 11 Oct 2011 22:25:29 +0100
Roderick Stewart <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> In article <j71scb$tga$(E-Mail Removed)>, Davey wrote:
> > > So why change? price, and the total bliss of never ever having to
> > > deal with BT retail ever again.
> >
> > Price, basically. BT did not get off to a good start when I ordered
> > the 'phone connection, but they could not tell me in advance what
> > my number would be, so I could not add the number to my
> > change-of-address cards. Whereas Zen had the ADSL working three
> > days before their commitment.
>
> I can confirm Zen are excellent. No problems with them at all. The
> only time I ever dealt with their tech support was when I was trying
> to set up my first email address, and a little pop-up browser chat
> window appeared wherein somebody asked if I needed help and the
> matter was sorted in a few minutes.
>
> Rod.

Thanks. That confirms my experience so far, ie they seem good. As they
are offering a decent saving over BT for the 'phone, I might just try
them.
--
Davey.

Davey wrote:
> On Tue, 11 Oct 2011 22:25:29 +0100
> Roderick Stewart <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>> In article <j71scb$tga$(E-Mail Removed)>, Davey wrote:
>>>> So why change? price, and the total bliss of never ever having to
>>>> deal with BT retail ever again.
>>> Price, basically. BT did not get off to a good start when I ordered
>>> the 'phone connection, but they could not tell me in advance what
>>> my number would be, so I could not add the number to my
>>> change-of-address cards. Whereas Zen had the ADSL working three
>>> days before their commitment.
>> I can confirm Zen are excellent. No problems with them at all. The
>> only time I ever dealt with their tech support was when I was trying
>> to set up my first email address, and a little pop-up browser chat
>> window appeared wherein somebody asked if I needed help and the
>> matter was sorted in a few minutes.
>>
>> Rod.
>
> Thanks. That confirms my experience so far, ie they seem good. As they
> are offering a decent saving over BT for the 'phone, I might just try
> them.

Do it. BT Retail is a pension fund attached to a large marketing
department and 35 blokes in India.

Not worth supporting.

On 11/10/11 23:02, Davey wrote:
> On Tue, 11 Oct 2011 22:25:29 +0100
> Roderick Stewart <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
>> In article <j71scb$tga$(E-Mail Removed)>, Davey wrote:
>>>> So why change? price, and the total bliss of never ever having to
>>>> deal with BT retail ever again.
>>>
>>> Price, basically. BT did not get off to a good start when I ordered
>>> the 'phone connection, but they could not tell me in advance what
>>> my number would be, so I could not add the number to my
>>> change-of-address cards. Whereas Zen had the ADSL working three
>>> days before their commitment.
>>
>> I can confirm Zen are excellent. No problems with them at all. The
>> only time I ever dealt with their tech support was when I was trying
>> to set up my first email address, and a little pop-up browser chat
>> window appeared wherein somebody asked if I needed help and the
>> matter was sorted in a few minutes.
>>
>> Rod.
>
> Thanks. That confirms my experience so far, ie they seem good. As they
> are offering a decent saving over BT for the 'phone, I might just try
> them.

I know it doesn't help you with Zen, but I switched my line to Be
earlier in the year. It was a good saving at the time, made better as
BT Retail keep increasing their rental charge (and Be don't, at least
for existing customers).
Only potential downsides are that extras (e.g. calling line ID) are
chargeable so might eat into the rental saving, and that you have to
deal with another company for line faults. I took the view that if
Be didn't get a line fault fixed, then I'd cancel the contract and
move supplier (but it helped that from the start I was on a rolling
1-month contract for the phone service from Be).