Remember the bloke who was told by Zen Internet to contact his MP about crap service? Yeah, it's still not fixed
- Reference: 1627312208
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/07/26/zen_broadband_complaint_still_unresolved/
- Source link:
Alan Brown, a network manager at a Russell Group University, [1]got in touch with us in February exasperated at the poor service he was experiencing and the contradictory information he'd received from his ISP, Rochdale-based Zen Internet, and Openreach engineers.
On one day alone he told us he'd experienced no fewer than 28 breaks in service.
[2]
"I am paying for 80Mbps service and am currently getting 16Mb/s with loads of DSL carrier drops," he said.
[3]
[4]
In response, Zen Internet – which has scored [5]relatively highly in customer satisfaction surveys – passed the buck to its infrastructure provider, Openreach.
When matters weren't resolved following Openreach intervention, Mr Brown was told by Zen: "The best way forward would be to report this to your local MP, who will hopefully be able to get this issue addressed."
[6]
Six months later and Mr Brown is still no better off, and his connectivity issues remain unresolved. Numerous emails and phone calls to his ISP – along with a number of callouts from Openreach engineers – have failed to achieve anything. In fact, things have worsened with Mr Brown telling us that last week he suffered more than 75 disconnections in one day alone.
Asked whether he had spoken to his MP, he replied rather dejectedly: "What's the point?"
[7]Subcontractors working on CityFibre's £45m Derby rollout threaten to 'rip up tarmac' in dispute over payments
[8]BT and Communication Workers Union draw up 'principles' to guide future planning on pay and redundancies
[9]Why won't you copper-ate? Openreach offers capped fibre line rental to wholesalers in bid to shift all that FTTP
[10]Want your broadband fixed? Best write to your MP, UK's Zen Internet tells customer
In one recent email, Zen Internet told Mr Brown: "We are doing everything within our power to get this latest issue resolved for you and we are applying pressure to Openreach with the intention of getting a full fix in place for you.
"With this being said, I understand that these issues have caused you frustration and that you have not been happy with the service from us, which has led to multiple complaints.
"Given this, if you would like to move provider, we will let you leave without penalty for ending our contract early. However, we would rather be able to get this fixed for you so that you can enjoy your services with ourselves."
[11]
Last Friday (23 July), yet another Openreach engineer was booked in to try and resolve Mr Brown's broadband issues. The problems persist.
In a statement today – more than six months after The Register first reported on the issue – Zen Internet told us that the matter had now been escalated to the highest level possible.
"Liaising closely with our partner Openreach, we are working on a case with Mr Brown which is now at DSO level – the highest level of escalation. This means representatives from both Zen and Openreach are working together as a priority to get to the root cause and resolve Mr Brown's connectivity issues.
"While we are always keen to resolve such issues on behalf of our customers, Zen advised Mr Brown that he could exit his contract penalty free as we believe it is important our customers are made aware of their contractual rights."
At this stage, The Register has received no indication when the problem might be identified let alone fixed. But since this is now "a priority" it should only be a matter of time. Right? ®
Get our [12]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2021/02/18/write_mp_to_fix_zen_internet/
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YP7cGZCeJW0mXzoPBVG3zQAAAFY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YP7cGZCeJW0mXzoPBVG3zQAAAFY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YP7cGZCeJW0mXzoPBVG3zQAAAFY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://www.theregister.com/2018/10/31/zen_emerges_as_least_whingedabout_british_isp/
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YP7cGZCeJW0mXzoPBVG3zQAAAFY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/23/cityfibres_derby_rollout_dispute/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/08/bt_and_cwu_agreement/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2021/07/01/openreach_offers_capped_fibre_line/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2021/02/18/write_mp_to_fix_zen_internet/
[11] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/networks&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YP7cGZCeJW0mXzoPBVG3zQAAAFY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[12] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Write your MP
I once tried to make an appointment to see mine at her surgery. I was told that would only happen if I submitted a written statement of what I wished to discuss, in advance.
She was one of the ones kicked out of a "permanent" labour seat at the last election.
I hate to say it but my brief experience with Zen some years ago was just as terrible.
I was getting sub-dialup speeds on my then 8Mbit ADSL.
They were utterly ambivalent to it - they blamed my kit, they blamed openreach, they did everything in their power to avoid trying to fix it. They wouldn't acknowledge that they were replacing a service that ran at around 4.5 - 5Mbits perfectly well for years, just playing the shrugged shoulders game.
Ultimately I exited within the cooling off period. I can't remember who I went to but it was back to normal speeds immediately.
I was genuinely surprised given their outstanding reputation for customer service back then.
"The highest level of escalation"
I think a couple of months ago, Private Eye Magazine ran a list of issues that Boris Johnson was personally taking charge of apparently. It was moderately amusing if you're heartless.
I guess there ain't no cure for the summer downtime blues.
Opencircuit
When I "upgraded" to FTTC I initially got very poor speeds, so Openretch came out several times. I finally persuaded the "engineer" that my 30 ft of internal wiring wasn't the problem, so he did a time domain reflectometer test on the incoming line. He found what he described as an impedance imbalance and went to fix it. He returned a couple of hours later, saying he'd found some 50 copper pairs in a road manhole with 1970s "dry" crimps full of water and had to fix them all. My speeds were a bit better after that.
Openretch are progressively abandoning maintenance of the copper infrastructure preparatory to phasing it out - theoretically in about five years.
Write your MP
Given the experience of how unrepresentative our representatives are, "Whats the point?" is bang on accurate. I once got a reply from mine saying he had "already told me the governments position" on the issue. That's not his job, his job is to tell the government our position on issues. Completely whipped.