We've had similar issues with their customer support... yes, they really are *absolutely* useless.

We had to get our domain released and had a nightmare of difficulty doing so.

After getting no progress via email-tennis, we decided to phone 'customer support'. We were kept on hold for ages before getting through to speak to someone - this is all after finding no information on their site (of an ISP no less!) relating to our requirements. Then after discussing what we needed to do, we were suckered with the infamous switch, and passed on to someone else. Surely that could have done earlier? We did state what we needed at the beginning of the call, so why he waited and listened to our questions and just fobbed us off with nonsensical information before admitting it was too technical for him and needed to transfer us is cause for wonder!

Several phonecalls (and switches) later we were given the info we needed. We had to supply an official letter stating our requirements.We supplied the requested information in the *exact* manner as requested by Pipex (after asking them to put what we needed to do in writing) and then they had the audacity to turn round and say they needed some other info!
Our management were not pleased to say the least!

After much more experience of dealing with the faceless & useless 'customer support' we finally wrangled free of them. (Though they did hang onto our domain for longer than they should of, and still needed some further prompting to get it free.)

Lesson learned, although the 'customer support' was absolutely useless we voted with our feet and
found a better vendor. The Web is a big market, and if Pipex have useless customer support maybe it is because they're hinting we should be another company's customer.

Hello to everyone out there in hate-Pipex land. I never normally use forums or anything like that, but I have joined this one just to vent my spleen at the cynical incompetence of Pipex. My dispute is not over the quality of the broadband service - I have never had broadband before and it's been great - my complaint is over the incompetence of the billing and "customer service" departments...I signed up to Pipex in Sept.06 as part of an offer from Onspeed - I got Pipex broadband plus 500 mins. talk time for £14.99 per month. This seemed OK until I realised that they weren't taking their monthly payments from the direct debit I'd set up with my bank. After 3 months I emailed them for an explanation. They asked me to set up ANOTHER d/d as they'd "had problems" with the previous one...I was assured that a payment would be taken in Dec.06...it wasn't. After more attempts at contacting them, I received a letter threatening me with suspension of service if I didn't pay the arrears...I pointed out that I'D BEEN CHASING THEM trying to pay...they wanted YET ANOTHER DIRECT DEBIT! To cut a long story short, I have so far set up 4 direct debits for Pipex - they managed to take payments for a few months (but also threatened me with suspension again when THEY failed to take a monthly payment) but since July 07 they have again failed to take a monthly payment. My emails are met with an automated reply - promising a response "within 5 days" and I have now been told I owe a sum of money - AFTER I TOLD THEM! - and that I would have to set up YET ANOTHER direct debit!!!

I contacted Watchdog some months ago but got no response...I have now emailed Pipex telling them that I will be looking for a new broadband provider...not sure what response this will provoke..! As far as I know I'm not bound by a contract...but I'm worried about all this talk of blacklisting. I'm inclined to send Pipex a registered letter saying my direct debit will be cancelled in 7 days so if they do not take their payment in that time I will assume they do not require payment - but I'm not sure where I stand on legal grounds.

And if I manage to leave Pipex, where do I go? I had heard good things about Tiscali - but now I read on this forum that they have taken over Pipex... but at least I now realise I'm not alone...! How does a company like Pipex get away with it in these days of "consumer power"?

Basically Tiscali was a pile of do-do long before they joined the stinking crap-moutain called Pipex. Now we have the two 'Everests' of ISP disaster in the form of Pipex/Tiscali in one corner and AOL/TalkTalk in the other. If there was ever a time for OFCOM to do something, it would be to get rid of both of these organisations once and for all. I'd pass a law today that said that ANY company passing its customer call centre to a place outside the UK would be automatically barred from trading until that call centre was shut down. Then I'd fine them unless they ported all the jobs to UK people.

Now, anyone want to disagree with me ...

SHARK! 

Dont expect your experience to improve. Tiscali bought pipex a month ago and you'll now have to deal with 1 of the 1000 disgruntled employees that Tiscali put on notice today of imminent redundancy. Nice of them. The good news is we wont lose our jobs until after christmas.

Thanks for all the input Landshark.

I appreciate you taking the time to help.
 

You are well and truly up *** creek and there's a fact.

Under UK law, stopping your direct debit was not a smart move although you have written and have demanded this to be put right so it is understandable - wrong, but still understandable.

I would re-instate the DD and then write a letter stating as I said before. You are disputing the amounts deducted and billed and this is covered in the Breach of Contract that you are claiming.

If you are being overcharged, then invoice them for the overcharging amount and stick with it. If you cannot afford to get credit blacklisted, then pay for the exit plan and count your blessings, but you'll have to take charge and sort this out because they won't.

SHARK! 

Thanks for your input.

Something that is worrying me though is this disconnect in a couple of days. I cant afford to be without internet and phone. I am on call for work and if I am without internet I will be unable to do this and therefore will lose a substantial sum of money each month. Also if I dont pay this ficticious invoice I am worried that they will report me to the credit bureaus. I am looking at purchasing property in the next 6 months or so and the last thing I need is a black mark next to my name at the credit bureau. They are demanding that I give them details which they can use each month to debit me. Seeing as they are overcharging me every month I am not prepared to do so because I have no trust in them not to just continue stealing from me.

The legal phrase you need is that Pipex are in Breach of Contract and you demand that they either (a) remedy to your complete satisfaction within a set time (say seven days) or (b) they release you without penalty from the remainder of your contract within the next fourteen days and issue a MAC code.

Write to their head office (not their useless e-mail addresses) and send it via recorded delivery.

Now, to set your expectations. Pipex couldn't find their ar5es with their hands tied behind their backs and an atlas. They will probably ignore your letter or worse still try to fob you off. Stick to your guns, and if they fail to deal with either issue, then write an ultimatum before you involve CISAS. OFCOM also couldn't give a tinker's *^ss for your problems so unless you do things by the book, you will not get any help from the so-called watchdogs and supposed help-sources.

Once Pipex have ignored your letters, you then write again, enclosing an invoice for the wasted time that you have incurred and demanding payment for every month that they hold your line without reason and in breach of contract. I suggest £150 per month as a fair charge. Each month, send an updated invoice. After three months take out a small claims action against them and keep the faith as it were.

Pipex and their spawn are the worst of an increasingly useless and expensive bunch of ne'er do wells. I was with them for a number of years but finally had to take them to court before I finally rid myself of them. They failed to adhere to ONE element of their agreement and even failed to acknowledge the court actions. It took the bailiffs three visits before the issue was finally settled. Anyone reading this: you have been warned!

SHARK! 

On checking my invoice for July I saw that two international phone calls were seriously overcharged. I was charged 50p per minute for each of these when I should have been charged 35p.
Following this was a 35 minute call which should be charged at 2p per minute which I was charged £14.00 for.

From my August bill they just decided to charge me an extra +- £11 on my rental each month.

Since this first occurred I have been calling their customer services team every week. Every week it takes almost an hour on the phone to explain to the Pipex representative on what my problem is. Every single one of these people has promised that they will escalate this to the accounts department and that somebody from there would contact me and sort this out. Needless to say after 10+ phone calls later and explaining the same thing to every person who picks up I have run out of patience. I have also sent around 20 emails to them explaining the situation. I have yet to have any answers to any of these mails. All I get is the usual "An answer is on its way..." automated reply. I have even written them a letter about this and posted it registered mail. That was over a month ago.

 To date I have still had no reply from any of these calls or emails. Eventually I just cancelled the debit from my bank. I am not prepared to have them just deduct whatever they feel like from my account. Today I recieved an email from their accounts department telling me that my services will be suspended within 6 days if my account is not corrected. The email also gave a different telephone number to call than the usual support number. I have tried that number about 5 times so far today but just get their stupid message saying how important my call is and to please hold. I have to work and am not able to just hold on for hours at a time.

 I honestly have run out of patience and have no idea on what to do now to get this resolved. All I want is my MAC so that I can move my service. Unfortunatelly I still have some contract left and they tell me that I will have to pay a penalty if I want to break the contract early.

So basically they are ignoring my demands to sort out my account and now they want even more money from me before I can move my account.

If anybody has any ideas or advice for me I would really appreciate it.

Thanks in advance.