How difficult can it be for an international communications company to execute a customer’s request to be billed monthly by direct debit changing from a quarterly credit card arrangement. In the 21st century you would think it would be a silly question. When the company concerned is Pipex, the word silly, along with inept, unprincipled and unprofessional are appropriate.
Let me elaborate.
14th October I requested that my payment method to be changed from quarterly credit card to monthly direct debit.
17th October – e-mail acknowledgement from Pipex.
26th October – e-mail advising that finance department informed may take 7-10 days.
2nd November – e-mail from billing asking for id, account no. Information returned mentioning that I felt insecure sending this type of information by e-mail.
7th November – e-mail saying the information will be passed on to the right department.
16th November – phone call from Pipex asking to take quarterly payment from my credit card. I reluctantly agreed, this meant monthly payments would start in January 07.
22nd November – after checking my banking details, finding that no payment had been taken I contacted Pipex by phone, agent Chris told me, after a 14 minute wait, that nothing had been done, yes it was completely their fault, but there was nothing he could do about it until billing was open. I was angry and asked to speak to someone in authority, this did not happen, I said this service was appalling I had been a customer for almost 3 years, I was told that it didn’t matter how long I thought I had been a customer they only identify customers on a yearly basis. I was angry and requested a MAC code, as I would go elsewhere, the operator was very abrupt and unpleasant and was reluctant to give it to me, and he at length said it would be e-mailed. When it arrived the disconnect date was 22nd December 06.
23rd November – e-mail to Mark Carberry Sales & Service Director Pipex, thanking him for the code and told him the story so far and letting him know I would consider whether to migrate or not, and could he close the account on 22nd December as I had paid for the service till 20th January 07.
17th December – e-mail from Pipex: unable to locate my account please send details, these duly returned.
18th December – e-mail from Pipex confirming the account would be open until 20th Jan. 07. I returned an e-mail thanking Pipex and said I would still like to hear from Mr. Carberry.
I had a message from a Rob, a shoddily written one saying sorry and they had taken on board what I had said, -this was purportedly on Mr. Carberry’s behalf.
19th December – sent e-mail to Pipex asking for clarification of the service should I decide not to migrate, the service to continue as is, and payments monthly by direct debit starting 20th Jan. 07. This was duly confirmed and requested that I confirmed that I was NOT migrating. I sent that confirmation asking for all relevant departments to be advised, I received that confirmation and the migration request was cancelled. I returned an e-mail thanking them and looked forward to a future problem free service.
The total people involved at Pipex NINE, all assuring the highest customer service.
But wait there’s more.
On 19th January 07 at 8pm our Internet service became unavailable, I checked the router and all connections and at 9.05pm I called Pipex, they were closed.
20th Jan 07 (Saturday) I rang Pipex and was put through to the technical department, Asuf (the agent, my apologies to him if I have his name wrong) did what he could, he gave me another ID to log on with, authentication refused, then he ran a line test and found that there was a ‘seize’ on the line stopping Internet and other services. It turned out that Pipex had not informed BT and they had blocked the line, he couldn’t do anything about it until Monday, he agreed it was their entire fault; customer services would deal with it on Monday. I asked him if he thought this was fair, he said it wasn’t. I asked to speak to someone in authority, he said the supervisor would ring me back; of course this did not happen.
On 22nd Jan, in the morning I rang the infamous customer service and asked to speak to the imperceptible Mr Mark Carberry, Gala the agent didn’t know who this person was and what was my user id. I asked if she could give me Mr. Carberry’s phone number, she said they didn’t have a number for him.
I was determined to speak to someone in authority. Gayla was just as determined not to let me. I explained that I needed to speak to someone in authority as I was unhappy, and gave a brief explanation adding - I wanted to discuss some form of compensation for my inconvenience, she told me the line could not be enlivened, so I asked forcefully to speak to her line manager.
A man came to the phone and before I could say anything said the line could not be enlivened (A strange term), I said that it was their fault; he agreed that point, I repeated I wanted the line restored quickly, and said it was impossible. So what now? I asked. I could sign up for a NEW contract.
Would this contract be the same as the old one?
NO – It would cost £7 per month more making it £24.99
Will this tie me in to Pipex for 12 months?
Yes, it would.
I told him I wanted the same service they had broken, without a further 12month tie in, cant be done he said.
I asked to speak to his superior, he said he wouldn’t come to the phone, I asked again - he became quite loud and told me I could not tell him what I wanted and accused me of being abusive – I hung up. We were getting nowhere.
The technical service backed up the fact that the seize could not be removed, agreeing that it seemed it was their fault as he read an e-mail of theirs to me confirming the migration had been cancelled on 29th Dec. 06.
I tried to speak to Gayla - but couldn’t, so Shane checked the account. An Invoice raised on the 20th Jan 07 showed no value due, I was checking to see if they had taken money without providing a service, I told him that I wanted my account closing and all personal information removed from their system, only time will tell as I cannot check online, and they have not contacted me.
Pipex sees itself as a leading communications provider. It boasts of awards they have won, yet, they seem to be the worst for customer service among most providers, (many forums carry posts - dissatisfied with Pipex.). They have people like Mr. Carberry who are un-contactable, or do not exist, yet send e-mails. I believe their TV adverts should carry a warning about their inability to service simple requests from customers, and that they close in the evenings and at weekends, heaven help those who have technical problems, it seems that collectively this company could not be relied on to do anything that remotely resembles customer service.
Being disabled and partially sighted the internet brings the world to me, my wife uses it for shopping and banking, and our children need it for research, 2 are doing degrees and 2 A levels, another GCSE..
This episode has caused me stress and inconvenience, none of it caused by me. It was just a simple request; change from credit card to direct debit. Therefore, if you are looking to change ISP - I DO NOT recommend Pipex at all. If you feel you are stuck with Pipex, and if you have similar experiences like this (as the forums show many have) tell people and migrate, there are much better providers out there.