Seeking advice re Zen "upgrading" our Internet, without any consent from us

JSmithy45AD

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82177725#Comment_82177725

"if anyone knocks on the door carrying a lump hammer and a drill I won't answer" or you could be a grownup and talk to them to see what it would entail? You still have the option to say no.

Rob5342

Ultimately FTTP will be the only option so if you want a broadband connection you will need to change at some point. What benefit do you see in delaying the change instead of doing it now?

Are you sure they will need to do any digging or drilling? In our estate there are underground ducts running from the street to the houses, and all they did with ours was a push a fibre through that.

iniltous

Although it’s correct that ultimately FTTP will be the only option for most (for some FTTP will never arrive, but that’s not likely to be the case with the OP ) but there currently is no compulsion at all to take it , and no one is disconnecting copper pair based service either , there can be persuasion to take FTTP once it’s available , like offering the best deals when switching to FTTP or renewing a contract may require FTTP to be taken as a condition of the new deal , but the OP has a price for life deal from Zen , and hasn’t needed to renew for years because of this , what’s clear here is this is not an imperative because of unavoidable circumstances but simply Zen’s preference for using City Fibre , it’s entirely for Zen’s benefit not their customer, it may even remove them from their price for life deal .

As far as the possibility of not needing any excavation if there is already an Openreach duct that City Fibre can leech onto to supply their services, that’s a possibility, in fact if the house was constructed after mid 1990’s that’s quite likely, before then though the method was cables buried directly so excavating is needed , the OP states existing service is underground, so no poles are involved.

Farway

Ultimately FTTP will be the only option so if you want a broadband connection you will need to change at some point.

Not quite true, depending on OP circumstances & use, OP could do, as I & others have, use mobile broadband, with a dedicated SIM router & operator of their choice. There are some recent threads on this

flaneurs_lobster

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82177980#Comment_82177980

Don't forget Starlink, all good unless Musk has a huffy with the UK and turns it into dial-up…

Lorian

If the service were being changed I'd want to be very sure in writing the lifetime no price increase guarantee wasn't being signed away

Blue_Doggy

@PhotoMan just to update you, this was resolved when I managed to get through to Zen customer services and cancel the installation. It was very easy, and the made no quibble.

I hope you can be as successful.

PhotoMan

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82182644#Comment_82182644

Thank you for letting me know.
May I ask how you got through to them? I am still awaiting a reply from the two emails I sent to customerservices@zen.co.uk. I got an automated acknowledgement from the first contact and was given a support ticket number which I quoted in my second email.

Blue_Doggy

@PhotoMan i phoned them on the number in the Zen email. When I tried first time, I was on hold for quite a while and gave up. The second time I was on hold for “only” about a quarter of an hour. I didn’t find email produced a result other than the usual generic acknowledgement.