I thought I would post the reply Pipex customercare eventually gave me 16 working dats after wrting to them. Maybe this can be warning as to what potential customers may be letting themselves in for. Of course they may eventually sort themseves out, but you have been warned! I have refused their offers as outlined below and I'm leaving as I don't trust them any more: Here is their email, recieved 9/10/06:

I am writing in response to your complaint, I would firstly wish to apologise for the delays in my response.

It is my understanding after reading the various documents containing your complaint that your dissatisfaction stems from the following issues:-
Pipex did not send you the username and password via post
The long wait times in Pipex’s contact centre call queue
Pipex’s use of an 0845 number for customers to contact our customer services and technical support departments
Pipex agents are not adhering to the escalation procedure
Your e-mail did not receive a response from Pipex
Pipex are incorrectly invoicing you
You are still awaiting your Pipex Anytime service
Pipex are not withdrawing funds amassed on the account from the Direct Debit you set up


Currently Pipex are experiencing a range of system issues following a recent internal system refit. Part of these issues included some of the processes used to automatically create the welcome letters. It appears that you retrieved these details over the phone on the 20th of August. I wish to apologise that Pipex were not able to proactively provide these details. If you wish to have these details in writing, I would be more than happy to manually create the welcome letter for you.



Due to the aforementioned system issues Pipex are currently experiencing, Pipex are receiving large volumes of calls from customers who are affected. Unfortunately this boom in calls and the length of calls due to the content of the conversations was unforeseen. Pipex are currently employing new staff to deal with the increased volumes. Once the training is complete for all of the new agents, there should be a drastic improvement in the queue times. In the meantime Pipex’s system development team is sorting out the problems with the new system. This, after completion, will in turn reduce the volumes of calls to our contact centre.



Many service providers employ 0870 and 0900 numbers which are far more costly to the consumer, Pipex do not. Pipex employs a 0845 number for our contact centre charged at the local rate from a BT line. Unfortunately it is not financially viable for Pipex to sustain a free phone 0800 number for contacting customer services & support.



It has become apparent over the last few weeks that some of Pipex’s agents have not been adhering to the Pipex escalation procedure as defined on http://www.pipex.co.uk/legal/code-practice.php. A training meeting was called to discuss this procedure with Pipex agents. Also all agents have since been sent training documents to fully verse those who are not fully aware or have since forgotten the escalation procedure to prevent this situation from arising in the future.



It is the most basic requirement of Pipex customer service & technical support teams to respond to each e-mail received. If in the case that the query needed passing to another department it is a requirement to respond to the e-mail to inform the customer of this action. After searching through the e-mail logs for your e-mail, it appears that your query was forwarded to the technical support department regarding the lack of the ZoneAlarm Anti-Virus & Firewall package. Technical support did not respond to this e-mail. The customer service agent should have confirmed this action and responded to your other complaints. This matter has been raised with both departments and increased vigilance will be used in future.



The aforementioned system issues are also affecting many of our invoicing systems. The full list of billing issues that have arisen are as follows:-



Some customers are being incorrectly invoiced for free items such as ZoneAlarm Anti-Virus & Firewall, broadband set-up/connection fees, migration fees and the broadband starter kit.


After customers perform a regrade from one package to another, subscription for the first period at the new rate is not automatically being credited with the overlap of the previous payment made.


Some customers are being invoiced for an additional monthly subscription fee on top of fixed fee cancellation charges.


The discount prices for our bundle packages are not automatically being actioned with the exception of the first billed month


Your initial invoice has been amended; credit has been set against the incorrect amount of £62.36. The credits were raised as follows:-



£23.50 for the incorrect invoicing of the connection fee


£18.99 for the incorrect invoicing of the broadband starter kit


£5.88 for the incorrect invoicing of the ZoneAlarm Anti-Virus & Firewall package


This left the amount of £14.00 which includes:-



£6.50 for the monthly broadband subscription fee


£7.50 for the postage and packaging of the broadband starter kit


Your next two invoices currently on the account will also be credited to amend the incorrect invoices of £14.99 to their correct £6.50 price. Your rate will also be manually amended for future payments.



The issues also affected the set-up of customer’s direct debits. Pipex employed a company CCSG for additional manpower in order to correct this problem. You will need to re-establish your direct debit, as I can see from your complaint that you have cancelled your direct debit, before Pipex can take the outstanding £27.



In addition to the above problems the system issues are also currently affecting orders for Pipex Anytime. Pipex has attempted to place the orders manually in the meantime, unfortunately this has been met without success. Once this particular issue is resolved your Pipex Anytime order should not be subject to further delays provided that you are on option 1 BT line rental and do not have any other phone calls service orders pending. The other alternative to awaiting the resolution to this system issue is that Pipex can cross provide your services with the assistance of our sister company Pipex Homecall. Pipex Homecall are the result of Pipex’s purchase of Homecall earlier this year. Pipex Homecall provide the same calls service Pipex Anytime with their Line Rental. The costs of this package would be as follows:



Pipex Start £6.50 (as you are currently paying)


Pipex Anytime £12.50 (as signed up for)


Pipex Homecall Line Rental £10.99


This would mean your broadband and phone service would cost a total £29.99 and the phone order would take approximately 14 days to complete. Please reply to customercare AT pipex.net should you wish to go ahead with this option.



Pipex, as a service provider that values quality of service and product reliability, understand and fully appreciates that this situation is unacceptable.



Pipex are proactively combating the problems with intention of:



Sending phone package orders successfully as was possible before the internal system refit


Being able to issues letters and e-mails keeping customers constantly informed of their account as was successfully achieved previously before the new system was installed


Reducing call queues back to their former 0-2 minutes with long term aim to have a call centre without queues.


Having a billing system that bills accurately in any given situation as was previously the case before the new internal systems


I would like to apologise for the inconvenience that is currently being caused. In addition to my apologies Pipex would like to offer a credit of two free months as a gesture of good will. Your continued support and patience is much appreciated in this matter, we will attempt to keep you informed to the best of our abilities. In addition if you notice any further issues not mentioned above please inform us via the contact details below: