Jim

Well things have moved on slightly for me. Tomorrow morning at 8am I've got a BT engineer coming out to my house. There's obviously a problem here and not only that, it couldn't be solved remotely and requires a visit. Broadband speed is still wobbling about all over the place. I've been up to 1.5MB and now I'm firmly anchored at 512K.

I'm hopeful about the visit tomorrow. If need be I'll handcuff the engineer to the kitchen table until he sorts it.

My previous 2MB connection was very stable, but I thought even if I only get a 3mb connection with this 8MB service it'll be an improvement on that. Also it's cheaper ... I was paying £24 a month before ... now I'm paying £19 but I wouldn't have done it had I known all the crap I was going to get.

The highest speed I've ever seen on my line is 4.5MB but that was during the stablilisation period and I have no idea how stable it was.

I'll keep you posted and don't give up.

Bestest, YC

Yellowcake, you have my sympathies! You're right - they aren't even honouring their own contract, so I could fight hard to get out of it... but is it worth the hassle? I can't even get a human being on the phone at the best of times, and if I'm lucky enough to get an email reply, it comes over a week later (if at all) and is NEVER any help. I bet trying to get out of the contract would be a nightmare.

Our latest is a reply via email, saying BT engineers have "looked at the line" and could I please test it again. Of course, NOTHING has changed, I don't think they've done anything!

Was your previous 2mb connection stable then, and did it give you around 2mb? If so, what was it called (the package)? I'd be happy to have 2mb stable than this promise of "up to 8mb" that NEVER gets anywhere above 1.3 and is usually below 600 kb!! And that's when we even HAVE a connection!!

SHITE doesn't even do their "service" justice!

Cheers, and let me know how you do!

Jim

Jimmibo

Your scenario mirrors mine exactly. The only differerence I have is that BT have contacted Pipex and want to come to my house to check out the line as there seems to be a fault on it. They gave me a series of appointments options and they're allegedly going to arrange for a BT engineer to visit me. I was on a 2mb service before and also decided to upgrade. Since then, the best I've got is 1.3MB.

You're absolutey right .... they are total shite!

I too have been with them for four or so years and they USED to be really good. I spent a lot of time choosing my ISP and Pipex came out tops in literally everything.

Just remember that they're not providing the service you signed up to and therefore are in breach of contract. The next step for me is to simply cancel. I have a year to go also but f**k 'em.

Yellowcake

After the appalling customer service I have experienced with Pipex, I posted on another forum (The Scream) - I thought I'd copy it here too, as it mirrors exactly the nightmare others have written about here:

I am now at the end of my tether with Pipex - if anyone has any suggestions as to any action I could take, please let me know!!!

We were on an old 1MB (Xtreme Solo) package, and recently upgraded to the "Up to 8 MB" package - we were told our line could handle 3MB - so great, we upgraded. NOW we get an average of 500 KB!!!! We get frequent drop-outs, and our connection speed varies wildly from 250 KB (yes that's right) to a best of 1.3 MB, to disconnecting completely. This is WEEKS after the 10-day stabilisation period.

I have been on the phone to the useless people at Pipex MANY times about this - I always wait on hold for sometimes over half an hour! And STILL we have the same problem, nothing has been done and our connection is as bad as ever.

This has been going on for over 6 weeks now. Our phone bill has gone up with all the 0845 calls to Pipex, to add insult to injury. I can't believe THEY charge US to phone them for THEIR incompetence, and keep us on hold for half an hour, THEN do NOTHING! We have just begun this new 12 month contract, and just look at the service we are getting.

I was told BT would be in touch about the line, and that was over 3 weeks ago - we've heard nothing. Pipex say we can't contact BT ourselves, as we are a Pipex customer, not a BT Broadband customer - fantastic. I tried to contact BT and ran into the same brick wall. This is not our problem, we have done every test they told us to - different cables, micro filters, using a different modem instead of our router, etc.

I rang Pipex this morning (AGAIN) to be told "due to the unusually large number of calls, we are unable to answer your call right now, please try again later."

This is a PATHETIC service, with even worse customer support, and meanwhile, we may as well be on dial-up. There is nothing we can do, except sit here and take it, hoping Pipex or BT may one day get in touch, while Pipex continue to take our money.

Added to all of this, we have a problem with our IP address - of course only Pipex can change that for us, and I won't even go into that fiasco - predictably, we still have the same IP address 6 weeks later, they have done NOTHING, after promising to sort it and contact us.

I have sent numerous emails, with either NO REPLY at all, or a useless one-paragraph reply outlining the tests we have already carried out, and told them about.

DO NOT SIGN UP WITH PIPEX.

I should also add at this point, we have been with Pipex for almost 5 years with little problems until this year (so we didn't just sign up with them, we would have read up on ISP's first!).