Zen Vs Origin Broadband

chamelious

Moving into a new property soon, trying to decide between these 2 providers, zen seem far more expensive, do they offer a reason as to why?

Anyone else i should consider?

Thanks

kwikbreaks

Extra cost will be for better customer service and fault handling if any. Zen have always been a premium provider. It's up to you whether you consider that a feature worth paying extra for.

chamelious

Thanks. I've done some digging and found a lot of complaints about origin so i think they're off the list. Zen is the main contender now.

chamelious

On second thoughts, zen complaints are also all over the internet .

Some awful ones here and no response from zen: http://www.broadband.co.uk/broadband/providers/zen/reviews/

Sigh. It seems really difficult to get a good service in the UK. I guess i might as well just go with someone cheap since they all seem equally !!!!.

Hargreaves1910

I think with the complaints you have to sometimes read between the lines.

I moved to TalkTalk last year after reading Martin's article about the best deals. It was the worst move I could have made. The router/modem was dire, the line was more down than up and everytime I rang support I got through to some nice little lady in India who was reading from a crib sheet. I got the usual "We tested your line and it's ok" routine, so when they unexpectedly put my price up a couple of months ago I was off like a shot!

I also started looking at better quality suppliers but Zen was out of my price range so I did indeed go with Origin. I have to say the setup was a bit hit and miss and the supplied router, a good quality Asus came without instructions. However when I connected it up it appeared to be preconfigured. But! I still couldn't connect because I needed my username and password. Luckily the phone got swapped over faultlessly and I rang their support line. Unfortunately there was a wait but I eventually got through to a lovely Yorkshire lad who talked me through the process until I was online. I've had to ring them a few times as I'm fairly certain I have a line fault because the signal randomly drops. The same problem as at TalkTalk. The difference is I can talk to someone in England and we are slowly working through some equipment and setup issues. Support are always helpful and tell me to ring back when I have problems so they can't be fairer than that.

Mister_G

As posted elsewhere:

I've been with Origin fibre for three months now and have found them to be excellent. Line speed seems very stable and there is certainly no throttling.

They actually use the Vodafone fibre backbone network (ex Cable & Wireless). The UK call centre is easy to contact and I secured a pretty good deal by paying 18 months up front.

I was with Plusnet (who I found to be good), but when they hiked up their prices and wouldn't negotiate I left them for Origin.

Not sure if Up speed is important to you, but Plusnet cap this at 2Mb whereas Origin is 10Mb.



PS. The changeover from Plusnet was seamless overnight. Just plugged in the Origin router in the morning and away it went.

chamelious

I absolutely understand to read between the lines with complaints, however, with a company like Zen or even Origin i'd expect to see a much better representation, since they are a premium company/s, i would think generally people willing to pay that much extra for a basic service would be more technically inclined, and their complaints more valid than those who buy the cheapest package they can possibly find then complain when they get less speed than "max advertised" or whatever.

JJ_Egan

Zen come out top on most ISP reviews i have seen over the years A&A usually second best .
You can always start with somebody like BT SKY Plusnet Talk Talk and see how you get on .

<<i would think generally people willing to pay that much extra for a basic service would be more technically inclined, and their complaints more valid than those who buy the cheapest package >>
I would say the opposite that the more ignorant users are more likely to complain and many before even going through the help process .

onomatopoeia99

JJ_Egan wrote: »

Zen come out top on most ISP reviews i have seen over the years A&A usually second best .
You can always start with somebody like BT SKY Plusnet Talk Talk and see how you get on .

Currently top on ISPreview is uno, A&A second (lose out on "value" as they are expensive) and Zen in seventh.

None of the big names that advertise on telly and compete on price are in the top 10.

kwikbreaks

After I read this thread the other day I looked up Origin and added them to my list of possibles should Plusnet not wish to continue with the current discount I'm getting when I complete the current minimum term.

The plus for me with Origin was that they do not seem to be insistent on you using their one provided router and even offer the one I use as an option (Asus DSL-AC68U) and say they'll provide the necessary userid and password by phone if necessary.

chamelious

I did see that uno come out on top, anyone had any dealings with them? I hadn't even heard of them.