Hi,

This is the first time really that I have come online with
the sole purpose of letting the world know how bad a company is.  Its not as if I have never had bad service
or things to complain about its just that Pipex seems to have touched a nerve
with me.

Right well I have had Pipex broadband, happily I must say,
since July 2006.

Ok well not quite happily. It started off on a bit of a bad
patch. I did not receive either the promised modem or even the actual username
and password to get online.  Getting the
username and password was the easy part that involved calling and waiting for
about 20mins.

At this point I decided to call it quits and cancel rather
then have any more hassle. So I wrote to Pipex telling them that I wished to
cancel and they have not fulfilled their side of the contract. This was a few
days after they connected me, so I thought at worst I am in the normal 7-day
thing and should not have too much a problem.

But no they wrote back saying that they count the 7 days
from the time I place the order, NOT from the time I am actually connected! So
how exactly am I meant to judge their quality of their broadband when it takes
them 14days to from order to connect you? I wrote back complaining again about
this and got no reply, wrote again and again no reply.

By this time it was around late august. I still did not have
a modem but the line was working fine and I admit I just gave up. I proceeded
not to have any problems with them, mostly because I never to contact them for
anything. Then came November 20007.

Now I now most people would be saying that’s well over a
year after the contract started, why the hell did I not just leave as soon as
the 12 months were over?

Well it a good point, I suppose I became lazy, line quality
was decent, and I was waiting for the market to calm down after CPW’s free
broadband deals and see if I can get a good deal with o2.

Then Pipex decided to hit me, not literally of course!

I got e-mail from their Credit Control demanding money (no
amount specified), giving no reason as to why I owed the undisclosed sum. Also
informing me that if I did not make the payment ASAP then my broadband will be
disconnected.

I tried to call but was kept in the queue so I gave up and
e-mailed them.

I then received a response the next day (prompt) saying that
I owed them £185.56????

No surprise I was quite shocked, as how the hell did I owe
then nearly £200. Noting else in the e-mail just that I owed this money and
that they will apply for it from my account in 7 days.  No explanation as to where this was coming
from, had they put a gold plated line down especially to my house? Had I breached
their fair use policy so badly that my usage exceeded a small African countries
annual usage?

Well not surprisingly I sent a rapid-fire e-mail back to
then telling them NOT to take a single penny from my account until they tell me
exactly where this amount has come from.

I then get a generic e-mail telling me that now I owed them
£219.55??????????

Hhmmmm. . . Worrying, very worrying.

I immediately respond again asking for clarification on
where these amounts are coming from. Then I get an e-mail saying that ohh
actually I owe just  £100.38, the rest
was for a set up fee and the modem which they have kindly wrote off.

What?????? 

A set-up fee that you remembered after 17months? And what
modem? The one I was supposed to get free but which never actually came? And
you remember the charge for it 17 months later?ll about 5 more e-mails on from that and I still do not
know where the money is coming from, what is the correct amount is or just
generally what is going on!

I have now twice told them to forward my dispute to their
complaints department and to send me a MAC code so I can leave asap! But again
another surprise in their responses to my e-mails the ignore mostly everything
and just say that the money will be taken in 7 days!!!!!!!!!!

So I continue and shall update if anything new comes up.

You MUST realise that Pipex (and Tiscali as they are the same company) are above the law.

They hold in complete contempt anyone who actually knows what they are talking about or who reverts to the courts to enforce action(s) against them.

You write a recorded delivery letter to their Stoke Mandeville registered offices and you demand to be released from their network with immediate effect. You also demand the MAC code by return of post in accordance with the OFCOM regulations.

Now you are unlikely to receive a reply or even anything approaching this, so once the seven day deadline expires, you write another letter to them (recorded) and demand the same things, but this time you are closing the direct debit and instructing your bank to do the same. Again, this is likely to result in nothing happening but now you have the power of BACS behind you. These useless to55ers are the ones responsible for telling us how good Direct Debit is in the first place and then reneges on anything to do with enforcement.

It took me six months, two court appearances, three bailiff visits and fifteen letters to get rid of this bunch - and still people go to them.

SHARK! 

Hi Stark,
 
Thanks for the advice.

In this day and age I really though people would go online and check reviews and comments before buying/signing up to anything but noooo. So many people just follow the slick advertising and sign away . . .

As for my problems, yes i suspect that going up to chief exec is now the only option. I have asked 3 time for my dispute to be passed to complaints but every time its just ignored.

not so . . .chilledout2012