Zen cap the legacy users

tolien

tolien

tolien

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On 1st March 2007 we are going to introduce a monthly usage allowance on all Home 1000 and Home 2000 broadband services. The usage allowance will be 100 gigabytes (GB) per month.

WHY?
A small number of our Home 1000 and Home 2000 customers are extreme users of our service. They leave their computers downloading files 24 hours per day, day after day, week after week. This extreme usage costs Zen hundreds of pounds per month for each extreme user – many times our income from the monthly subscription fee. In the past we have subsidised this usage but we are no longer prepared to incur this loss.

By introducing a 100 GB monthly usage allowance we will limit the financial loss generated by the extreme users whilst leaving the vast majority of our customers completely unaffected.

HOW MUCH IS 100 GIGABYTES?
100 GB is a vast amount of usage, enough to download 40 feature length movies, thousands of songs, and to browse the Web for as long as you want. In other words, 100 GB is more than enough for anything other than the kind of extreme usage described above.

WHAT HAPPENS ON REACHING 100 GB?
The usage allowance for Home 1000 / 2000 will be handled in the same way as the usage allowances for Zen 8000 Lite / Active / Pro. If you reach 100 GB part way through a month your Internet access will be blocked and your web browser will display a page giving you the option to buy additional usage for £1.49 (inc. VAT) per GB. For full details, please see:
http://www.zenbroadband.com/athome.aspx?page=510

HOW WILL THIS CHANGE AFFECT ME?
Your peak usage over the last 3 months was xx GB so this change will not affect you unless you increase your usage to over 100 GB. If you are likely to increase your usage to over 100 GB per month you have the option of either paying for the additional usage at £1.49 (inc VAT) per GB, or switching to one of our unlimited services (Office 500 / 1000 / 2000 / 8000 Max).

If you have any questions about this change please do not hesitate to contact us.

Best regards
Richard Tang
Managing Director
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Hardly a shock.
 
i'm glad they didn't cap the 512 service as that's the one i'm on currently, although i doubt i could download 100gb even if i were downloading 24/7

but i didn't receive and email like this, so was it only sent to users of the 1000 and 2000 service?
 
When I got the email I first thought it was Zen complaining that I dl too much but to see my average quota is very little compared to 100gb, I can say its more than enough.

If I was on a line of over 1mb then one could find it harsh but 100gb shouldn't affect me on my current line.
 
Zen to Me said:
HOW WILL THIS CHANGE AFFECT ME?
Your peak usage over the last 3 months was 208 GB so this change is likely to affect you unless you reduce your usage. If you want to continue to download over 100 GB per month you have the option of either paying for the additional usage at £1.49 (inc VAT) per GB, or switching to one of our unlimited services (Office 500 / 1000 / 2000 / 8000 Max).
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Dammit I hate bad news emails :mad:
Its there fault for offering free newsgroups :p
 
GSXRMovistar said:
Does anyone know if this usage limit is based on combined download and upload traffic or just downloads?
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From the looks of it, just downloads, the same as their capped products.
On the other hand, they're counting (as in showing how much you've uploaded, not reflecting it in your allowance) uploads on the portal though they've "no plans" to include it in the allowance...
 
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GSXRMovistar said:
I'm in two minds over this, especially considering Zen were originally banging on that they weren't going to be introduce caps to this product line.
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I'm not bothed what Zen said. Look at them figures loosing up to £100 a month for stupid customers leaving their downloads on 24/7. You own your business ? You gunna loose that in your business? I think not.
 
I am seriously thinking of moving on after this announcement. Paying £35 a month for a uncapped service was quite expensive when compared to some of the maxdsl deals that are being offered by other isps, but it was uncapped and was there to be used whenever you needed it.
Now before anyone starts giving me grief on my usage I would say that on most months I would not go over the 100gig limit but it is the fact that now it is not unlimited it should be reduced in cost to say £30 to be competitive.
I can only think that Zen might be wanting to get more people onto the maxdsl packages and faze out the legacy products ?
What worries me also is the reports of poor cs and this was a strong point with Zen when I joined them just over 1 year ago.

Big question is who do you go to when your connection has been pretty solid ? A quick look on adslguide will show complaints about practically every isp going so it is never a simple decision when it comes to moving on or staying put.

Drphibes
 
zen62619 said:
I'm not bothed what Zen said. Look at them figures loosing up to £100 a month for stupid customers leaving their downloads on 24/7. You own your business ? You gunna loose that in your business? I think not.
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Yes but in business you shouldn't be selling/advertising something you can't deliver.

I have/had no problem with them making this package unavailable for new subscriptions, it makes perfect sense if they are losing money, but to change the terms and conditions of existing contracts (yes I know its listed in the small print) I think is somewhat poor customer relations.
 
I would have thought it might be a idea to just show the door to the people that Zen say are hammering the system with their 24/7 every day of the month downloading ?

Drphibes
 
drphibes said:
I would have thought it might be a idea to just show the door to the people that Zen say are hammering the system with their 24/7 every day of the month downloading ?

Drphibes
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But there people are only using what was sold to them.

Its not the best sales pitch in the world, would you like an uncapped service, with no limits or throttling, but the only condition is that if you make use of it we will get rid of you? :confused:
 
GSXRMovistar said:
to change the terms and conditions of existing contracts
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The contracts are monthly though and the changes don't take effect for 3 months, so Zen aren't really changing anyone's contract (in the sense that no one's on a contract that they're tied to stay after the limits start).

Look at them figures loosing up to £100 a month for stupid customers leaving their downloads on 24/7
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Back in the real world, it's umpteen times that - the proposed 100GB/month limit would cost them ~£100 per user hitting it (and they ain't running 24/7 either), so it wouldn't be surprising if the limit shrunk.

On the other hand, they've given longer notice than they're obliged to, no one's been forced to change service and there shouldn't be a problem getting a MAC for anyone that wants it. Better than some ISPs, I dare say.
 
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GSXRMovistar said:
But there people are only using what was sold to them.

Its not the best sales pitch in the world, would you like an uncapped service, with no limits or throttling, but the only condition is that if you make use of it we will get rid of you? :confused:
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I understand exaclty what you are saying but dont all isp's cover themselves in their t+c ?
Something along the lines of if we need to alter things to keep the service quality high then that is what we will do.

Drphibes
 
Thats the only reason I stuck with Zen... and at 35 quid well ill start looking elsewhere I guess.

Still they lasted me long, and its good there giving us good notice.

I wonder if I even manage 100gig per month, proberly...
 
HighlandeR said:
I wonder if I even manage 100gig per month, proberly...
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The email (I still haven't got the CCed one to my @zen.co.uk address, only the alternate contact address I gave them when I signed up) you get and/or the portal should say.
 
drphibes said:
Now before anyone starts giving me grief on my usage I would say that on most months I would not go over the 100gig limit but it is the fact that now it is not unlimited it should be reduced in cost to say £30 to be competitive.
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I still think they are competitive. Zen are one of few ISPs around that have no traffic shaping or any of that crap. I'd quite happily pay £35 a month for 100GB without shaping if I had no cable in my area. ISPs such as Aquiss will give you more for less money but that has peak/off-peak restrictions.

I can understand why some people are a little annoyed about this and 100GB a month isn't enough for me (I have two connections and spread my stuff out)
but it's still pretty good - better than most other ISPs, that's for sure. It's a good thing they're not just upgrading everyone to the capped MAX products.
 
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