Zen Broadband Reviews
Sometimes the best way to get a feel for a broadband provider is to read what those who are already customers think of the service they're receiving. Below are all the reviews we've received for Zen.
Recent Customer Ratings for Zen
- Satisfaction
- Customer Service
- Speed
- Reliability
Based on 244 customer ratings since 2019-04-05 (Show all time ratings)
Ratings are left by users of our speed test as well as by reviewers. Recent star ratings summarise the last 12 months of ratings or the last 100 ratings placed, whichever is largest.
113 Customer Reviews for Zen
| Reviewer | Location | Reviewing | Date | Ratings |
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I came to Zen on the advice of a colleague, and for about two years, they were brilliant. Over the past six months, the connection is dropping every two days - sometimes more often. When I ring their support line, I have to listen to their equivalent of 'have you tried switching it off and on again?'. |
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| A Residential Customer | London | Zen | 2018-05-29 | |
BY far the worst internet provider I have ever used. I had problems from day one and it just continued to impress me. network down every so often, slow connection and this is just few of what I have experienced. I'm extremely surprised that some customers rates them a a good provider and those kind of inaccurate reviews are very misleading. stay away and give yourself some peace of mind. I decided to post this review to make sure others are fully aware and not mislead by those good reviews. |
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| AA | UK | Zen | 2017-10-05 | |
Terrible service the last 6 months, had our account cancelled in error, various faults reducing our 80MB to 1-6MB. All caused our company serious problems and still not resolved! |
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| Aaron May | Manchester | Zen | 2019-01-03 | |
Zen Fibre is a SCAM. Avoid at all cost. I have been a client of Zen for the last 3 years. I upgraded to fibre and it has been a disaster. Speed is down to 10 Mb/s. I am told by Zen technical advice staff that is a wireless problem but I am using the 2 routers provided by ZEN. total rubbish. Ofcom should take good note and sanction these dishonest companies and protect consumers. WHICH should not recommend ZEN. |
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| Acato | London | Zen | 2017-02-05 | |
Have been with Zen for 10 years+. |
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| Adam | Beds | Zen | 2015-06-30 | |
I chose Zen as they appeared to have good reviews on local websites. However, their provision is beyond bad. We have unlimited fibre but it is pointless as the speeds are so slow it makes all but the most basic Internet browsing impossible. The one thing they have given me is a new found ability to live life without TV,or much use of the net. Our contract is up in december and we will be leaving. They have never offered an apology or tried to really 'fix' our problem, but continue to take £48 (yes you heard correct) per month off us for the privilege of zero Internet. BUYER BEWARE! |
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| Adele | Todmorden | Zen | 2017-07-21 | |
Extremely Disappointing - Avoid! |
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| Adrian M | UK | Zen | 2018-12-14 | |
I was thrilled with Zen to begin with! We are in a very rural position & always had trouble with poor service from all our suppliers(no high speed or fibre in this vacinity)! |
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| Adrienne | Ash | Zen | 2019-05-27 | |
We started with Zen Broadband 2 years ago and it was absolutely fantastic. All problems sorted even before we were aware of them. We were advised to use our own router and we were provided with all the necessary settings. Everything was perfect. Until we moved homes. On the move we decided to go with Zen's Unlimited Fibre. 1st we were bombarded with emails with overdue payments. It looks like they quite often forget what Direct Debit is for. Then there was their modem/router - absolute rubbish (and you have to pay for it). And the time you have to wait for a support to pick up your phone increased to something between 15 and 30 minutes! And they advised to keep resetting the router settings to the defaults and wait and it will sort it itself. Sometimes it did, sometimes it didn't. And approx 2 months ago stopped working altogether. I can't v |
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| Alex | Overton, Hampshire | Zen | 2017-01-06 | |
Rubbish services from day one. stay away from them and save yourself the hassle. |
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| almutaz | London | Zen | 2017-10-17 | |
I switched my small business broadband & phone services to Zen IT about 3 months ago. The customer service has been top notch! It is so refreshing to speak to customer service agents who (1) speak in a clear, understandable manner and (2) listen to what you say before riddling off a script. My broadband service dropped this weekend and the service & response time were brilliant. I understand services have issues once in while - the thing that makes the difference is the manner in which a company fixes those issues. Zen IT handled my call with speed, clarity, efficiency and friendliness. The entire service call was stress free. I would recommend Zen IT to anyone. |
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| Ann-Marie | Knaresborough | Zen | 2018-08-26 | |
Zen is a complete disaster disaster. We have been clients for years and have 2 accounts. We are cancelling one and we are trying to get our Fibre contract cancelled by CISAS and the Ombudsman Service for Communications. Our speed after our upgrade to FIBRE is MUCH WORSE than before and averages 15 mb/s. It is totally unacceptable and ZEN should be fined and reimburse our money. I see many other complaints about Zen in here. Zen is saying is a problem with our equipment and we are using their own routers. We have tried 2 different routers sent by Zen. The problem persist.... DO NOT USE ZEN FIBRE! |
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| Antonio | North London N1 | Zen | 2017-02-06 | |
We've had Zen for about 4 years now but recently the quality has really dropped. When you enquire about why the service has become so intermittent they talk to you like you're someone who doesn't know what internet is. We recently had a stretch of 24+ hours without any connection at all and all they could tell us was that there was a problem at the exchange and someone would be sent to fix it soon. They said WE could call THEM for updates! It was a whole working day without any connectivity but they didn't seem to feel the need to apologise or do anything other than insist that they don't guarantee continuous service. It was such a corporate line, so lame and transparent. We asked for a gesture deduction from our next bill towards the data costs we'd incurred having to tether computers to mobiles to get online and they just repeated the same thing. Their customer service reps had no idea that consumer law allows claims for compensation and that their own contract can't exclude consumer law. Very very poor. Most of all it was a horrible experience being spoken down to by people who were providing a rubbish service and not sorry about it. Avoid. |
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| AP | Hampshire | Zen | 2017-01-10 | |
You don’t get what you pay for.l with Zen I don’t believe. |
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| Ben | Manchester | Zen | 2018-03-07 | |
Moved address in July, asked to move over fibre optics service. Advisor told me they would need to check if fibre is available after £70 line rental instalation. Begrudgingly agreed, wasn’t aware that once they installed the line and realised they couldn’t run fibre optics, would only offer ADSL which i never wanted. Went with Zen for fibre. Could have gone with Virgin Media who previously cancelled my early termination charges as they was unable to contunue provinding fibre optics service. Zen charge me a total of £250 to cancel early, was totally not negotiable and failed to meet any deadlines of call back and a lot of the time not call back at all. When i finally got through i was repeatedly told “we have systems in place which mean we can’t do anything about the charges”. I’m rating 1 star as paid for a service i was no longer using. Therefore, meets minimum score in all areas. |
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| Ben taylor | Southend-on-Sea | Zen | 2018-10-02 | |
Don't understand all the negative reviews. Would really like to know (from Zen)why some people have had such a bad experience. I accept thay are not cheap (you get what you pay for)and there are no introductory special offers, but after my previous supplier (firenet)suddenly abandoned all their customers without notice, Zen was like a breath of fresh air. I am using my own router and most of the time am using a wired connection to my pc so don't know if that is one reason I have had no problems. Their customer service is second to none, spending a long time on the phone to help me set up/ solve problems. They even identified an incorrect setting on my own router that had been causing a previously unresolved problem with my previous provider (who even had an engineer out who failed to find the issue. Maybe I have been lucky but am very happy with Zen and prepared to accept the relatively high price for the service and support received. |
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| Brian | Altrincham | Zen | 2018-01-26 | |
Not massively pleased with customer care from zen. Been without internet at home for a month, so was excited about my activation date for zen was last Tuesday. Been ringing them everyday since then, been told I’d be called back a few times for updates and only been phoned back once. |
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| Bsr1987 | Manchester | Zen | 2020-04-01 | |
Have been waiting over 3 weeks to get my Broadband installed and have been messed around by the team at Zen. They tell me BT was the hold up and then someone else in the building gets it installed in 1 week. Then Zen say they can do it re book another appointment and guess what they still can't do it and blame it another problem. Have to say the worse comms company I have work with. If you thought BT were bad, just check these guys out. |
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| Chares | Lancashire | Zen | 2015-04-29 | |
I have been with ZEN a number of years now. I cannot fault them for their service or speed. Before I was with them I was frustrated at broadband dropping out etc etc. Zen customer service are great nothing is too much trouble for them.If I have a problem then it is sorted out quickly staff are friendly and knowledgeable. |
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| Chris Pygall | Co Durham | Zen | 2015-02-07 | |
Having just had an email problem sorted I feel that I must commend this company for offering good value and a properly functional service. I have just had a problem with my email solved, although problems rarely occur. The helplines are always manned and if they are busy you get a callback very quickly. Their employees are helpful, knowledgeable, patient and they speak good English which you can understand. Having tried several other broadband providers, I am fairly certain that I shall stay with this one - you do get what you pay for and the ethos seems to be that of giving good service. (And I am pleased to say that no-one to date has asked me how I am or told me to have a nice day!) |
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| Christine Stanton | Huddersfield | Zen | 2019-08-05 | |
I had very high hopes for this service based on good reviews, including ' Which'. I ignored my reservations on the high cost plus the expensive router which I was assured would provide better speeds. The service worked okay for 4-6 weeks. Since then I've had consistently slow speeds of 3, 5 and 7 - yes really. The slow speeds usually happen after 8 pm and weekends when the call centre is closed. Even on a 'good'day the speed is mediocre at best. The high monthly cost cannot justify the poor service. Unfortunately I can't cancel my contract without penalty until April 2018. Would not recommend. |
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| Ciruela | Stirlingshire | Zen | 2017-08-28 | |
I joined Zen about a year a half ago, initially, there were no problems. Download speed a steady 10-12Mbps and Upload always at 1Mbps until last July. Then our speeds dropped below 1Mbps (Averaging about 0.48Mbps), for three months I was going back and forth with Zen. |
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| CJ | London | Zen | 2016-11-26 | |
I moved to Zen from Talk Talk two weeks ago & am very satisfied. I moved with an existing fault which Talk Talk had failed to fix & Zen immediately got it sorted (it was a line fault & Talk Talk do everything possible to avoid involving Openreach, whereas Zen had Openreach onto it immediately). Zen's customer service is very impressive with technical problems being dealt with by people who listen & make an informed judgement on how to proceed. Migration was simple - just switched the new router on & within a couple of minutes I was up & running. Nothing bad to say about Zen at all. |
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| Colin | Pevensey | Zen | 2016-02-15 | |
I have been with Zen for 9 months now, it has been a solid , reliable connection (fibre 2) running at speeds that are quicker than my former BT broadband. |
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| Damian | Southampton | Zen | 2017-10-05 | |
My BT Broadband and Landline contract was due to end 22/2/19 and having done some online research I felt that it might be time to try a new provider. Having looked at a number of different reviews, Zen seemed to be an attractive option with excellent reviews for speed, service, support etc |
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| Damien Smith | Mortlake | Zen | 2019-02-19 | |
Absolute top-notch services provided by Zen. |
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| Daniel | London | Zen | 2018-12-05 | |
Expensive, slow speeds, poor customer service, very dated web interface. |
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| Dated | UK | Zen | 2019-03-20 | |
Since moving to Zen my line speed has doubled to 18mbs after a poor intermittent service by a much more well hyped provider. Also, the line has been solid for 3 months now and Fitzi router is impressive for speed and versatillity and ease of use. I was with Zen after they first started in 1997 and had to leave due to house move but delighted to be back with an excellent company. |
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| David | Birmingham | Zen | 2017-07-04 | |
For myself its always the customer service that counts, lets face it all of the ISP's apart from Virgin use BT lines. |
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| david | mid west wales | Zen | 2018-08-08 | |
What a waste of time this provider has proven to be. |
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| David Branson | Southend on Sea | Zen | 2018-06-09 | |
over the years i have had all sorts of different broadband packages, Zen is by far the best, the customer service is second to none and the speeds are exactly what they told me they would be, personally i am very happy with the full service that i am getting from Zen. |
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| david lee | oldham | Zen | 2012-04-17 | |
I have tried zen now for 6 months and the service is really bad constant line dropping noisy phone line and speeds as low as 1.5mb on a promise of a min of 5.5 to 10. spent days playing there games. they contacted me to day I could have broadband for £50 set up more than anyone else they actually took £55 and immidiatly the broadband dropped out constantly so i cancelled within 12 days. now trying to get a streight bill out of them to leave. |
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| Derek | Eastleigh | Zen | 2018-03-05 | |
I have been with Zen 12 years as they always amswer the phone and help me with any issues unlike the other companies who usually make you sit for hours on an answering machine, Cannot rate highly enough ! |
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| dironside | HIGH PEAK | Zen | 2020-01-28 | |
We have been with Zen for many years and they used to be very good. For the last 12 months the service has been useless and almost unusable. |
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| DJ | Southampton | Zen | 2018-03-22 | |
Strange how the reviews are either fantastic or dire! We moved from Talk Talk because they positively lied to us about the reasons for our poor speeds and intermittent availability. Zen took over the line and with some great support from their call centre have resolved the intermittency issues and stabilized the speed at a quite acceptable 6Mb (we are not on fibre). We have found the support to be first rate, the information given to be realistic and honest and the solutions practical. They don't provide a great deal of whistles and bells but do provide solid service. Our opinion is that they do deserve their position as one of the better suppliers certainly after our experience of some of the others in the market. |
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| Dr Hughes | Walsall | Zen | 2017-09-20 | |
I have been a Virgin Media customer for broadband for nearly 10 years, and a BT customer for landline for 35 years. Both are expensive, and the wireless performance of Virgin's 'Super-Hub 3' router, is anything but super. Virgin refused to accede to my request for a reduction in their latest annual "much-more-than-inflation" price increase, so I began to look for an alternative, and mentioned it to various friends. To my surprise, Zen, a 'local' (NW England) firm was very highly recommended by two friends - particularly in respect of service quality. I did some research, top-notch service being my my highest priority, followed by price. I must admit that Virgin have been pretty good at service, but the reviews of Zen are outstanding. When I used Zen's website to find out how much a combined landline/broadband contact would be, I found to my amazement that I would save £25 per month in the first year and £18 in the second year. Virgin had regularly offered to provide me with a dual service, but this would have meant another cable coming into my house, which I didn't want. Being a retired IT person, I phoned Zen's Technical Dept. to ask them various questions, and was impressed by the replies I received - technically savvy, polite, friendly and quick. My Virgin cable broadband achieved 90Mb/sec download speeds on speed-check apps, but I never got anywhere near this in real life - obviously the speed of routers which are negotiated in getting data to me can adversely affect everyday speeds. By switching to Zen Fibre, I now get 40MB/sec, and HAVE NOT NOTICED ANY PRACTICAL DIFFERENCE from Virgin in day-to-day use. The Zen router's wi-fi is in an entirely different league to Virgin's - I can now stream to my TV without any problems. The Zen router (a Fritz!Box) arrived when promised and is pre-set - all I had to do was plug it in, connect the leads and everything worked first time with no problems. My landline has just swapped to Zen - again, no problems at all. It will take a few weeks to get the BT and Virgin DD's sorted, with refunds and so-on, but I am relaxed about that. So, this long review is, intentionally, just about as positive as I can make it. |
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| Edward J Westhead | Preston, Lancs | Zen | 2018-10-20 | |
Unbelievably bad customer service. Multiple appointments for technicians to arrive resulting in no shows after 5 hours of waiting. After final "completion" still no working internet (more than a month later and two months after they very efficiently charged me 180 GBP in advance). A horrible experience. STAY AWAY. |
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| Emily | Manchester | Zen | 2016-01-05 | |
Staggeringly bad customer service. |
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| Francis | North London | Zen | 2017-09-06 | |
Very happy with Zen. Previously with BT and Plusnet. Plusnet was unreliable but Zen has been rock solid, fast, and the router has more features and better range than my BT smart hub 1. Also Zen promise no price increases. |
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| Fred Gray | London | Zen | 2020-02-26 | |
6 months in, I can't fault them for anything. Smooth process, great router (top of the line and awesome range), good speed and reliability (no dropouts ever!) for a reasonable price. |
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| G Matics | Leeds | Zen | 2019-12-04 | |
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The reviews published on this page are those of the individual authors who have warrantied that they abide by our review guidelines. Reviews are not the opinion of Broadband.co.uk.
