I’m a reasonable man, a patient man – the backbone of the English middle class, middle of the road job, not one to get over-excited. You know the sort of person.

But.

It is my opinion it’s time that Pipex were hung out to dry on TV (BBC Watchdog perhaps ?), for the sake of anyone out there who might still be thinking of using their “services”.

Here’s my story.

1999 – I became a Pipex dial up customer, because they were recommended for their excellent technical reputation by the IT geeks at work. No problems.

2005 – I switched to their broadband service. No problems.

Late 2007 – I received a call from Pipex asking if I wanted to switch to their broadband AND home telephone package. I said thanks, but no thanks.

Later in 2007 – I had an email from Pipex to say that my order for home phone was about to go live. I emailed them in reply to say I had already told them that I didn’t want to change.

Later still in 2007 – Had a letter from my existing telephone supplier saying they were sorry to be losing my custom. After calming down, I rang Pipex customer services. Nice lady said they would put things right.

A bit later in 2007 – I found out my phone had been switched to Pipex only when I got a bill from them. Sod you lot I thought, so a few days later I contacted another telephone supplier and ordered their telephone and broadband service, which went live in early 2008.

A bit after that – I rang Pipex to make sure they had cancelled my account with them. They hadn’t and they blamed my new supplier for not letting them know. Told me they would cancel my account from the date of the call but that I would have to pay a contract cancellation charge. I said - what contract ? The 12 month one you had from the date you switched to Pipex home telephone say they. But I didn’t order Pipex home telephone say I. I asked them for proof of a contract with me – letter, telephone call recording, whatever. Heard nothing more.

January 2008. Discovered that Pipex had taken around £150 from my bank account by direct debit, as a contract cancellation charge. Went ballistic. Had a lot of wine. E-mailed Pipex. No reply. Tried to ring them, gave up waiting for a reply.

Feb 2008. Wrote a formal letter of complaint to Pipex.

Three weeks later. I had a very polite and apologetic reply to my formal complaint, admitting their shortcomings and promising me a full refund – a cheque within three weeks.

Three weeks went by. No cheque arrived. I rang them. I was asked to wait a few more days.

So I waited a few days.

Nothing happened.

Then I emailed them.

And I waited a few days.

No reply.

So I wrote another formal letter to them asking the whereabouts of my cheque.

And I waited a couple of weeks.

I had a letter back from them today, addressed to me at home. They want confirmation of my home address.... (EH ????)

Rang Pipex Customer Services yet again. Spoke to a nice lady with a foreign accent who turns out to be in Manilla. She promises to forward my enquiry to the right department and that I will get a cheque in the next 28 days.

I hang up the ‘phone and carefully replace my blown top.

I have today issued a formal letter of intent to take them to court for the money they have already admitted they owe me unless I get a cheque from them in the next 28 days. (I said I was a reasonable, patient man didn’t I ?). I have sent it recorded delivery to their registered office (thanks to the advice on this forum).

And now I’m waiting again.

Everyone who has written something about Pipex on these forums has my utmost sympathy and understanding. Good luck to all of you. They are the worst company I have ever dealt with in my life, bar none. Which is a shame in some ways, because ten years ago I would have recommended them to anyone.

Pipex used to be a brilliant ISp. Now they rank amongst the worst of the bunch with their complete lack of any Customer Service or ethics whatsoever.

If this was isolated to a few incidents, I would be more inclined to believe that the clients were wrong, but Pipex's name keeps cropping up time after time like a bad penny. More often than not it is the same tired problem with customers being ripped off or ignored or both.

Keep to the law and you should win through. The people at the court in Northampton know PIpex only too well (as do the Bailiffs).

SHARK!

Tiscali/Schmiscali... just as bad...

I feel your pain.

Worse still these two are aggressively buying up smaller, better ISPs as fast as they can get their cheque books out.

I'm sure there'll be a thread on here somewhere (I've not looked) but I noticed my router speed cut in half pretty much overnight. Lo and behold, a few days later I saw an email circular proclaiming the wonderful news that my ISP (freedom2surf) was now under the tiscali banner, and what wonderful news this would be for me, the consumer.

As an act of futility I logged a support case, provided screenshots of router sync rates at various times of the day etc etc... all, as expected, to no avail.

These large ISPs are nothing more than charlatans of the first order.

I take my hat off to you sir, and wish you the best of British in your legal actions against Pipex. For what it's worth, it sounds like you've pretty much got them by the Jacobs.

Just for the record. Two days before the date that I had given Pipex as the deadline before I would initiate court action, a cheque arrived from them giving me a full refund of my £150. Thats over 3 months since they took it from my account.

I'm still out of pocket for expenses like phone calls of course, but at least I have got the primary amount back.

My advice to anyone else experiencing the same sort of problem.

i) Don't take anything they tell you for granted - for example, check that they really have cancelled your account

ii) If you do cancel your account with them, stop all relevant direct debits immediately. Let them chase you for money, not vice - versa.

iii) Issue any formal letters re court action etc to their registered office - don't go via their customer services

iv) KEEP A COPY OF EVERYTHING - not forgetting any emails that you have sent to customer services. You may need it all later.

The best of luck.

HI,

I read this thread with great interest as I am in a very similar position.. In a nutshell..

I joined Pipex in about 2004 and was a very happy customer... until... I ordered a broadband upgrade in December 2007.

After six weeks they had tried numerous times to do the upgrade but couldn't do it for whatever technical reason. So I got fed up and got my MAC code and switched to another ISP... that should have been the end of the story but alas two weeks AFTER I had left I got an email from Pipex to say that my upgrade was now complete. So I phoned them up and explained what had happened, they seemed helpful and said it was just their mistake and they would sort it out.

I thought nothing more about it until a few weeks later, this would be mid February I noticed on my bank account that Pipex had taken £239.84 from my account! ! !

I rang them immediately and found that they'd charged me for a cancellation fee, even though I wasn't even a Pipex customer. Again they admitted it was their mistake and that I was due a full refund on this amount.

Now that was three and a half months ago... guess what... no money yet !

I find it incredible that they can get away with this after I've contacted them so many times... to annoy me further when I finally spoke to someone this week who sounded like she knew what she was doing (and was not in Manilla) she said I'd have to phone back next week because their office is moving to Lithuania !! Great. Why do I have to phone back just because their office is moving, how is that my problem !!?

Anyway, yesterday I sent my first formal letter of complaint to 20 Broadwick Street, London and gave them 10 days to respond is a satisfactory manner.

I've also emailed their customer services asking for a complete history of my account notes.. I think I'm within my rights to ask for this..

I guess after that I start talking to the ISPA and OFCOM...

On a brighter note I sent something back to Ebuyer this week and got a refund the next working day.. now that is service !

(I feel better after this rant :-) )

Gee, the best two feelings I can have about my current similar situation is that I have a new provider, and Pipex does not hold payment details for me...

Back in 2004 I found Pipex through a comparison site that ranked them high in service itself, but weak in customer care. I thought that this was not not such a problem, as if it ain't broke... So I signed on, and was a happy chappy for almost two years. Untl they decided to enter the telephone service game...

I was contacted by one of their over-eager sales types; of course he promised everything under the sun if I would change my line rental and call package to Pipex (I was on Sainsbury's at the time and the deal did seem sweeter). In exchange for my continued patronage I would get:

· upgraded to 8MB broadband

· free evening and weekend calls

· reduced call charges compared to my current service

So of course I eagerly accepted.

It took several phone calls and much aggravation to finally get the upgraded broadband service. The problem I was told was that there were two Pipex companies; I had Broadband with one, and Home phone with another. The only way to get everything done correctly and on one bill was to cancel my Broadband, and take it up on "the other Pipex". "Can I do this without restarting the service term (if I want to go elsewhere)?" "No" "Can I keep my e-mail addresses?" "No". So no real good reason to do it, so I endured.

Shortly after that I started getting charges for telephone line rental on my Broadband bill. Again, more time on the phone, and more promises that "we will fix this". Finally in December 2007 my service was suspended for 'non payment'. Apparently they had dropped my payment details, and since they were not taking money, my account was in arrears. During the course of attempting to resolve this I discovered that I had been effectively paying almost double the charge of my Broadband service for several months; in fact Pipex owed me money! So I continued to get passed around from department to department, and no one would either take responsibility for the problem or fix it. Until I paid the back due amount based on their calculations.

I finally did manage to reach a compromise, get my service restored, and got several free months of service out of the deal. It took a lot of calling, and I probably paid for the problem twice over in phone charges.

The next saga was migrating elsewhere. I Was quoted a price in excess of two hundred pounds for the privilege of leaving. Why? Pipex cannot do anything right; every time they 'fixed' my previous problems they regarded my service, thus restarting my clock. In their minds I had only been with the company a couple of months. Again more phone calls, threats, name calling, promises from them, and free months service to make up for it. Which should have taken me to the time I was able to migrate "free".

But no, they were true to form and I was still getting billed for phone service inappropriately, so leaving was not an option until it was fixed. I have found out that all of the following are true:

· Customer Service advisors have no idea what service is, or how to deal with people

· Credit Control is almost as useless

· No manager or supervisor is ever available to deal with the problem. Either they tell you there is no one there (as if) or you will get a call back (as if II).

· You can request assistance from their "portal", but all you will get id a long message back saying why "we cannot help because of data protection" you need to reply with your name, address, telephone number, Pipex account number, and password

· You can write to them but they never answer

· They have an office in Welwyn Garden City, and I pass the area twice a day; I have considered setting up camp in their reception area...

I moved to a new provider last month; never been happier. But in my inbox today I received an e-mail from Pipex: "We are delighted to inform you, your broadband has gone live and you can start using the service immediately." Aaaaaargh! I have forward this on the Trading Standards, and will see if I can find a court worth taking it to next...