http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/pipex-86.aspxenCommunityServer 2.1 (Debug Build: 0.2)http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/never-deal-with-pipex-38425.aspxMon, 21 Sep 2009 17:16:29 GMTd60303e3-0d44-49ad-b329-9875dfa2f932:163775suzzy1http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/never-deal-with-pipex-38425.aspxhttp://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=86&PostID=163775Having had the misfortune of having to deal with Pipex when my mother moved address recently I would recommend that no-one should deal with this company. A simple cancellation of her phone line has become a 2 month stress filled saga of phone calls and letters resulting in having to pay for phone calls made after she moved out because of their policy of not listening to customers, giving different information every time you speak to them and their foreign call centres "Just following Policy" along with continous apologies and stating how they strive to "give high quality service". News for them......they fail miserably to give even a passable service. I have agreed to pay the extra charges not run up by my mother because I can't bear to speak to them any more and calling them has run up higher bills than their incorrect charges!http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/beware-pipex-1000.aspxWed, 20 Sep 2006 18:32:14 GMTd60303e3-0d44-49ad-b329-9875dfa2f932:2472curlew128http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/beware-pipex-1000.aspxhttp://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=86&PostID=2472I joined Pipex in July with a broadband/ Anytime contract. It was advertised as a £6.50 broadband and £12.50 phone call package, with free connection, free modem and free antivirus. I have a catalogue of complaints against Pipex: 1. They didn't tell me that the phone package wasn't available. 2. It still isn't available 2 months later, even though they aresstill advertising it.. 1,They didn't send me my username or password by either email or letter, as they promised they would. 2. I have had to phone them continually on an 0845 number, where part of the cost of the call is paid to Pipex, and where I often had at least 10 minute waits to be connected, just to find out what on earth was happening over the past 2 months, . 3.Customer services were not very helpful and were unsilling to pass me on to someone higher up, like a Team Leader. 4.When I looked at my online bills ( they still haven't set up my direct debit after 2 months) they had over £55 on them which shouldn't have been there. Pipex had billed me for the dsl connection, the modem and the antivirus, all of which were advertised as free. The anitvirus is still unavailable from their website. In addition they had billed my broadband at £14.99, which is the charge when one receives the broadband service alone. It should have been £6.50, as this was what it was advertised as within the package I bought. 5. I sent a long email of complaint a month ago to their Customer Services but it was never answered. After reading various posts on the ASDL forum I find that they have 3000 unanswered emails for August alone. After reading that someone who was wrongly billed for £60 had to ring them 3 times per week for six weeks to get his money back I have cancelled my direct debits and am about to send them a 14day 'time is of the essence' letter, as recommended to me by Trading Standards, as they have broken their contract with me, and with lots of other people I suspect. A few other posts on the ASDL forum indicate that Pipex' finance dept. is in a 'meltdown', so I am not holding my breath for them to rectify my bill. I rang them about it and they put me on hold while they said they were talking to the finace dept. They then said it was rectified, but 10 days later the incorrect bill appears unchanged online. This sort of thing, from what I have read, seemsquite usual with Pipex. If anyone wants to join them after reading this, they must be masocistic or mad. I have been in touch with other people who are in the same position as me and we can't wait to get out, sooner rather than later. Pipex is obviously in a real mess and the customer doesn't exactly come first in this situation as far as I have experienced.http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/pipex-a-communications-company-that-doesnt-commun-36054.aspxWed, 17 Jun 2009 16:04:07 GMTd60303e3-0d44-49ad-b329-9875dfa2f932:154058Marlin18942http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/pipex-a-communications-company-that-doesnt-commun-36054.aspxhttp://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=86&PostID=154058 I changed my line rental and landline package from Toucan when I was informed that PIPEX had taken over Toucan, I went to TalkTalk. Pipex screwd up the changeover and 3 months down the line I am still being hassled. Does Credit Controls Mr John Cox speak to Customer Services (a term which when used in conjunction with PIPEX has no real meaning). They just do not communicate within the company so I suppose it is stupid to think that they may communicate with their customers (this is a term for people who have not yet found out about this pathetic and useless outfit. Thanks to whoever it was who posted the Pipex MD's e mail, from what I read on the forum it seems that the adress has got AT where there should be a "@". I have e mailed them both, lets see what happens next. http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/pipex-traumarama-possibly-on-the-way-to-resolutio-33064.aspxThu, 19 Mar 2009 09:21:24 GMTd60303e3-0d44-49ad-b329-9875dfa2f932:142963noahlovesnesquick20http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/pipex-traumarama-possibly-on-the-way-to-resolutio-33064.aspxhttp://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=86&PostID=142963 Hello everyone. I've been reading with some distress the horror stories that folk are telling about Pipex these days. Let me add my own story. My list of problems goes back to Autumn 2007, when I was called by Pipex offering me a broadband upgrade. It sounded good - I was on their Xtreme Solo 1000 package, and they offered to upgrade it to Pipex Midi, which would save me a few quid. I found out soon after that the upgrade was never able to happen, as there was some LLU (?) issue with my line, and it physically couldn't be upgraded (or something). So I carried on as before, on Xtreme Solo 1000. Then in July 2008, Pipex called up again and said "hey! NOW we can really upgrade your broadband and phone. How about it?" I said YES to broadband but NO to phone (we were quite happy with calls from TalkTalk and line rental from BT). Hey presto, the next online bill showed that I was on Pipex Midi... but also now on the Pipex Anytime International call package, so now paying call charges and line rental to Pipex... even though I had specifically requested not to. By the way, I never received any written confirmation (letter or e-mail) from Pipex of the upgrade, new charges, new contract etc. It was only by checking the bills religiously ever month and phoning up that I found out, well, anything. Anyway, I wrote a letter, requesting a refund of the line rental charges, which we had already paid to BT. They requested some copies of bills, which I duly sent, and then I received a letter saying that I would receive a credit on my accounts for those charges (the amount, interestingly enough, was unspecified). So, the months passed and I never saw the credit appear on my bill. Eventually the line rental charges disappeared, I think even this took a couple of months. I eventually cancelled my whole broadband account with Pipex in December 2008. The chap at Cancellations was really nice, realised that the service I had been receiving was really poor and made a note on my account that I would not have to pay a termination fee. Guess what? My final bill had a big old termination fee on it of £81.17 - then I proceeded to receive letter after phone call after voicetext from Credit Control demanding payment. I never even had written confirmation of the cancellation (but praise the Lord, managed to transfer my broadband account to TalkTalk with no problems at all). I called Customer Service in early January 2009 and had a waiver actioned on the fee, and my account was put on hold. But still the RCC_PM letters arrived demanding payment, and still the phone kept ringing with "an urgent message from Pipex". I wrote a formal complaint in January 2009, sent it off recorded delivery to both complaints and the registered London address of Pipex UK Ltd. I've not had a reply to it. It was only when I received a RCC_PM3 payment demand (getting towards the 'final notice' stage) on 12 March 2009 (dated 5 March - thanks for the early posting!) that I really started to unhinge. I was calling Credit Control and Customer Care until I was blue in the face and skint and getting nowhere. SO HERE'S WHAT I RECKON - and thanks to guys on these forums and elsewhere on the web for hints - if you want a response, make a Public Relations case. State your complaint to the ISPA (a regulator of Pipex UK Ltd. - you may not get anywhere with CISAS), but more importantly: • E-mail BBC Watchdog • CC Pipex customer services (their e-mail is on the Pipex T&Cs page) • CC The Times Money section Troubleshooter, Daily Telegraph, some other bigwig newspaper, Office of Fair Trading etc. I e-mailed on Friday night and got a personal message regarding my "PR case" from the London-based Tiscali High-Level Complaints (THLC) on Tuesday. SWEET! The interesting thing is that the person I spoke to at THLC said that I had received that line rental credit - my account was in fact £32 in credit (?!?!?!?)... I asked why I was still getting payment demands, and she's currently investigating that. I can almost smell victory. SO moan to Watchdog! And the papers! And pray! You may just get a result... Further bulletins as events warrant. ;-) http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/pipex-toucan-i-give-up-35220.aspxWed, 20 May 2009 15:45:00 GMTd60303e3-0d44-49ad-b329-9875dfa2f932:151015macsufferer1http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/pipex-toucan-i-give-up-35220.aspxhttp://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=86&PostID=151015Spamhaus have me listed because Pipex, formerly Toucan, are totally incapable of servicing my account. It worked prefectly well until I changed my telephone number and they up-graded me to 8mb. Now in my outgoing subject header all messages begin [POSSIBLE SPAM] We know that it is the Pipex Server, Spamhaus, Apple et al have done all they can to help, but the people at Pipex haven't a clue! They used to clear it when I brought it to their attention and now they say they can't - more like they can't be bothered. Anyway, after many years of being a loyal Toucan customer they have lost me. My contract expires in August and I am off. Shame for Talk Talk who have just taken over but did they do their homework before doing so?http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/pipex-is-absolutely-mindbogglingly-3243.aspxThu, 01 Mar 2007 23:19:04 GMTd60303e3-0d44-49ad-b329-9875dfa2f932:12005SkyHighPhotographs12http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/pipex-is-absolutely-mindbogglingly-3243.aspxhttp://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=86&PostID=12005Joined Pipex about 4 months ago, just about one of the worst decisions possible I could have made, what an appallingly bad ISP provider!! Absolutely unbelievable!! If you want 4mb Pipex promised broadband connectivity, whatever you do, steer extremely clear of this company!! 4 months into the service and I promise you a dial up connection is faster!! Often we have to wait 45 seconds just to wait for a new webpage to load on the screen. On top of that, the connection is lost on average for us at least half a dozen to a dozen times per day, then we have to shut down the computer entirely and do a reboot right from the start, to say it's infuriating is just an absolute understatement. We have contacted Pipex Homecall a number of times, each time on their 0845 number for which we are charged, and still months later, despite telling them of our problems over and over, still are receiving this extraordinarily bad service. Tempted by the offer of free telephone calls 24/7, 7 days a week? DON'T BE!! Whatever you do, choose any other provider but this company, if you do join them, all you'll be giving yourself is added heartache and often, loss of data, when the connection is suddenly without warning is lost altogether. The worst we experienced recently was not being able to log back in for a whole 16 hours, the next day, finding out that it had affected every Pipex Homecall customer in the country. Not even an apology from the company!! Too, don't believe the utter baloney about the much cheaper call charges, it took Pipex Homecall on my account 3 months to get the billing correct. The trouble is, I'm now hooked into an 18 month contract with this bunch of loons, I'd like to get out of it under breach of contract and services which were promised, not being provided - Is there ANY way I can do this? Seriously, it's like going to a car showroom, ordering a new car and then upon delivery finding that each wheel, rather than being perfectly round, ensuring a smooth ride, instead has the width of the tyres 3cms wider than the vertical height of the same tyres on all four wheels. If a car was supplied like that, you would think you would have every right to say, 'Oi!!', to the company, 'put this right or else'!! Pipex Broadband - about as useful as a concrete hang glider - thats my opinion, steer absolutely clear of them, dreadful service provider. One very unhappy customer!!http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/cancellation-help-please-29272.aspxThu, 18 Dec 2008 00:04:41 GMTd60303e3-0d44-49ad-b329-9875dfa2f932:130057JBean10http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/cancellation-help-please-29272.aspxhttp://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=86&PostID=130057 In September 2008 my housemate who I share the bank account for the broadband phoned bulldog/pipex to cancel the broadband service with them as we were moving house and because the 12 month contract ended the same month this year. Two and a half months later he recieved a letter saying we have an outstanding payment of £70, plus £25 for sending us more than one warning letter. We havn't recieved any previous outstanding payment letters as we don't live in that old address anymore, recieving this re-directed one from my old landlord was just lucky. We moved out late June which means I actually paid couple months extra for not using the internet (stupid I know, but I calculated that an early cancellation would cost me more than just terminating the 12 month contract when the times up). My housemate called Pipex as soon as he recieved the re-directed letter and they told him that the account has now been cancelled but we will still have to pay the £95 (£70 plus £25). I don't see why i'm charged for something that Pipex got wrong (not cancelling our account with them) plus a £25 administration fee for send us a pre-written piece of paper than does not cost them £25 to print and send. Even if i'm paying a month extra after 12 month contract because it takes them 30 days to cancel, I shouldn't be charged 2 months worth plus £25 even though they know I don't live there anymore. I been looking online and seeing all these horror stories with Pipex cancelling. Can anyone advise me on what I can do to get Pipex to wipe the outstanding payment and not charge us anymore? http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/was-homecall-now-pipexhomecall-1492.aspxThu, 26 Oct 2006 12:25:36 GMTd60303e3-0d44-49ad-b329-9875dfa2f932:3986AppleKissesx14http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/was-homecall-now-pipexhomecall-1492.aspxhttp://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=86&PostID=3986Ok Before i registered I have read most of the Complaints, and i am not quite sure if you are Pipex or Pipex homecall which once was Pipex. I was Browzing for a New Broadband Supplier and came across this and thought id have a nosey as to what was being said and if you as customers thought of the service. And its quite Obvious alot of you are really unhappy I do apologise if you feel you are being badly treated by the agents i cannot speak for Pipex but for pipex homecall as i do work for them most of the agents at pipex homecall are very helpful and the best time to call to speak to one of these would be between 5 - 9 thats only for pipex homecall i cannot speak for pipex Thanks http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/pipex-pushes-us-over-the-edge-again-and-again-and-29720.aspxMon, 05 Jan 2009 16:05:02 GMTd60303e3-0d44-49ad-b329-9875dfa2f932:131730mollymole15http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/pipex-pushes-us-over-the-edge-again-and-again-and-29720.aspxhttp://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=86&PostID=131730 I am soooo incensed I feel I could rant for life. If you have problems with Pipex you will know how I feel, please bear with my rant, I feel it important to share all the facts! My husband and I were with Pipex for well over a year and suprisingly so it seems, we were happy with their service (obviously before we had to actually deal with any people who work for them). However our lives changed when we began the nightmare of TRYING to cancel our account with them after discovering that actually they couldn't give a stuff about their existing customers. In August 2008 having discovered that Pipex customer service may as well be non existent I decied to cancel our account with them, as was agreed with the lady that I cancelled with, we were over our contract period and were perfectly at liberty to do this with no penalty. The next day I wrote to Pipex confirning our conversation cancelling the account. When we still kept being supplied with their broadband I emailed them twice asking why they had not cancelled the account to which I got two automatic responses stating that I would receive a reply within 24 hours (neither of the emails were ever actually answered). I spent the next 3 months ringing customer services, credit control (in Lithuania) and the cancellations department (all on different numbers and none of which will speak to each other. I also wrote to them on numerous occassions, trying all different addresses sending each letter recorded delivery and enclosing copies of every peice of written communication and a summary sheet detailing every phone conversation with them, names and dates of whom I had spoken to and their responses. On the phone I was constantly passed from department to department (each time at a cost to myself resulting in a phone bill to Pipex alone of in excess of 10 pounds). To give them their due, the majority of the people I spoke to were cooperative and all agreed with me that yes the account had been cancelled, or whoops Pipex made a mistake and the account would be cancelled on a certain date. They did eventually stop supplying our broadband but put a bar on the line in order that we couldn't go with another provider, stating that we owed them money, we were even in receipt of a letter from a debt collection agency acting on their behalf. By now the demands for outstanding payments were stacking up, each one for a different amount (I think randomly picked out of a hat), I sought the advice of Citizens Advice and were given both OFCOM and OTELO's details. I was also following the advice of Consumer Direct. After my 3 months of dispute I rang OFCOM and made an official complaint, they refered me to OTELO but also informed me that it was illegal for Pipex to bar my line. I rang Pipex and informed them of this and about 10 days later I did get a MAC code (I had repeatedly requested one from them but kept being told that it was too late for them to give me a MAC code as the account had been cancelled - it hadn't) I was also now being informed by Pipex that we had not cancelled but downgraded our account, ringing to cancel it a week later and therefore we had begun a new contract with them and they were charging a cancellation fee. This was total nonsense as all the written correspondence proved. I rang OTELO and was told to write one final letter to Pipex (a new address was given to me) and if I didn't get a satisfactory response within 10 working days they said they would take over the matter and take the stress away from me. 10 days letter I received a letter from Pipex APOLOGISING for any inconvenience caused (what a joke), giving me my MAC code and informing me that the charges they were incorrectly trying to sting me for were being credited to the account and that therefore there is nothing owing. What a great end to a crap year I thought. Hey now its 2009, I have a new broadband provider and low and behold what have I now received but a threatening letter from Pipex stating that if I don't pay up they will bar my telephone line allowing me only to make 999 calls and the automated telephone calls have begun again stating that we need to ring them urgently to discuss the matter. I am at the end of my tether and my doctor has put me on tablets to deal with this and its all down to Pipex. I rang OTELO again this morning to explain the latest fiasco and was told I ought to ring Pipex again, I did so only to be told that as the account is in my husbands name they will not speak to me. I explained they had spoken to me for the last 4 months but the lady informed me that it was a new data protection matter and refused to speak with me. I asked that if she didn't speak to me she at least speak to their credit control department. I rang OTELO back and told them what I had been told, only to be told by OTELO that actually they only control Pipex Homecall and it would seem Pipex UK and Pipex Internet are dealt with by CISAS and given their number. I rang them only to be informed that they only help if Pipex write to me saying that there is no further ways to go and that they are therefore passing the matter to CISAS. So to summarise Pipex are now going to basically cut off my telephone with the exception of emergency calls unless I stump up money that they have already agreed in writing that I DO NOT owe and therefore will never in a million years pay and it seems NOONE will help me. My husband is suffering from severe depression as a consequence of this ongiong nightmare and is therefore unable to speak to them himself hence the fact that I have been dealing, unsuccessfully with the matter, now they are refusing to speak to me. I am in deadlock and it seems that they can do what they want. I am truly at a loss as to what to do next. I approached a solicitor about taking them on for harrassment and although she agreed I have an excellent case, because the money outstanding is below 5,000 it is a small claims matter and will cost me far more to persue in the long run. If you are still reading, thank you for listening to my rant. SOMEONE, HELP ME PLEASE........ http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/horrible-nightmare-pipex-30719.aspxMon, 26 Jan 2009 20:39:36 GMTd60303e3-0d44-49ad-b329-9875dfa2f932:135454Davoid0http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/horrible-nightmare-pipex-30719.aspxhttp://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=86&PostID=135454I have (I will be stopping as soon as I can) my business broadband with Pipex. I thought this year that paying £60+ per month was too much (for about 8 computers) for hosting my webspace and some primitive e-mail arrangements. I'm nervous about these things so I have been putting it off. I rang Pipex to see if I could amalgamate two old accounts into one. I found out (pleasant surprise) that they could provide a 16 times faster service for £14.50 per month ('Business Light'). This is much better, of course, so I thought that I would take it on the chin that I have been paying over the odds for years. I did wonder, by the way, why they didn't want to look after their customers (I've been with them for 10 years) instead of playing them for a fool. Leaving that aside, so far so good. They changed it straight away - Technical Services were good. There was a different technical issue about hosting my company's domain name which meant I needed reassurance that e-mail and hosting would continue OK. This just needed a phone with a person who was going to take responsibility. I had to ring through their ghastly phone system that didn't give me an option that matched my needs. This is OK once or twice, but the 12th time ... (I am running ahead of my story). But Technical Services don't deal with hosting, so I had to e-mail 'Probusiness' and 'Domains', who don't have phone numbers because, I was told, they are 'not client-facing'. I asked in my e-mail for someone to ring me and for confirmation by e-mail they had received my request. Anticipating non-reply, I asked the Customer Services person what to do if they didn't reply; she said ring Customer Services if they didn't reply within 48 hours. No reply; I rang Customers Services, spoke to a different person (or course) who said that I shouldn't contact Probusiness but should speak to 123.reg. I range 123.reg: they can't deal with Pipex-hosted domain names. I rang Customer Services - who can I complain to? They said e-mail the Complaints department; I e-mailed them; automated reply. The next I heard I had an e-mail to say that they were sorry I wanted to leave and that my broadband service would be cut off by the end of January - even though I have paid until the end of 2009. They don't give a direct phone number; when I rang the one they gave me (their standard 'Customer Services' number) they hadn't even heard of the woman who said my broadband service would be cut off - so here's me trying to complain about the complaints service. One bright spark: one bloke, Andy in Customer Services, has shown an interest in my problem and has promised to e-mail their Probusiness people to keep my broadband service on while I get ready to transfer everything (without a break) to another company who will host my company's webspace and e-mail/domain name. The moral of this story: if any company wants to keep its customers, it has to take an interest in communicating with them, and not bounce them between departments who don't talk to each other. This is a classic case of NTL-style Kafkaesque corporate paranoia-inducing non-communication. If they can't get this right, what, exactly, are they doing? Shareholders: sell your Tiscali shares now. Broadband users: don't use Pipex.http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/pipex-quickest-way-to-self-harm-possible-22931.aspxThu, 10 Jul 2008 14:27:17 GMTd60303e3-0d44-49ad-b329-9875dfa2f932:99883truthseaker2http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/pipex-quickest-way-to-self-harm-possible-22931.aspxhttp://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=86&PostID=99883 I can not say one good thing about this bunch of rabble that go by the name of pipex. I was with tiscali & the service I had from them was beyond belief, so I decided after some time to change my ISP. I was told by some people that pipex was a good ISP, so I changed to them. Within weeks of my changing to pipex, guess who bought out pipex ( tiscali ) the ones I was trying to get away from & the nightmare started all over again & is still going on. I have had a continuing problem since start up, well a few of them really. But one main one that is still going on after 6 months & all I can say is it drives me wild every time it happens. As we all know being on broadband, if we receive a phone call & make one, all should be well, no problems at all. Wrong!!!!! Ever since we joined this bunch of cowboys, each time we receive a call or make one we get kicked off the net. Now there is no reason for this at all, we do have a small extension, but we have had computer engineers look at this & they say it will not have any baring on this problem at all, the only thing it will or may do is to slow down the speed a little, but not much & in no way is it causing this problem. Other than that we have filters in two places as we are meant to, the firewall & anti virus we have are fine & again have been checked out by engineers. So there should be no reason why this keeps happening, but has it been sorted out, NO WAY!!!!. We have even twice followed there instructions on there customer services & both times they messed up our whole computer, to the point that we had to get in computer engineers to sort it out & fix it. We were told by off watch or offtell I can not remember what one to send them a letter explaining the whole problems & if they did not answer in 12 weeks, to them contact cesas. That 12 weeks in now one week away & not an answer at all & boy can I not wait for cesas. I want gone from this joke of a company, how one earth can they be allowed to get away with all they do, its beyond me. They are a running joke & there customer services, can anyone understand what they say, I can not???? Each time I have been forced to call them, at the end of the call I am close to screaming & I am sure not one of them knows what they are doing, as I am sure they are reading it all from a script. I would not advise one person to go to pipex as it will be the worst thing they will ever do & they will regret it for a whole year until they can get away from them. This is one company that needs to be closed down, well its tiscali really that is behind this whole thing, so as I have said before, how on earth they are allowed to get away with treating people this way is beyond me totally. They should be being fined millions truthfully, they should be made to deal with problems or there licence taken away from them, as I said at the start. This company & any dealings anyone has with them, is the quickest way to self harm I can think off & I am not usually that kind of person. Please anyone stay away from these people for your own sanity's sake. If anyone has any advice they can give me on how to get away from these people sooner, please let me have it. http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/pipex-direct-debit-not-taking-money-2938.aspxSun, 18 Feb 2007 17:27:20 GMTd60303e3-0d44-49ad-b329-9875dfa2f932:10320ryardley13http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/pipex-direct-debit-not-taking-money-2938.aspxhttp://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=86&PostID=10320I subscribed to Pipex Broadband and Talk in June 06; setting up a direct debit to my current account. Pipex have set up two direct debits on the same account! Pipex have not debited any money from the account. Dec 06: received a letter from Pipex, they would debit all money owing on Dec 08. They did not take any money. Jan 07: received a 'Payment Overdue' letter from Pipex; they would suspend the service if I didn't pay. Jan 07: Called Pipex, 'Payment Overdue' notices are sent automatically, ignore, they will debit money owing; Again nothing taken. Feb 07: received a 'Payment Overdue' letter from Pipex; they would suspend the service if I didn't pay; Haven't responded yet! Have not changed my account details since joining Pipex. Have tried to view account on My Pipex but the page comes back blank, although My Pipex always seems to have problems. Am concerned that debt is building up, if Pipex do, one day, debit all money owing, will likely send my account overdrawn!! What is my best course of action? I intend to leave Pipex in June this year. http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/pipex-noncustomer-service-29038.aspxThu, 11 Dec 2008 18:46:47 GMTd60303e3-0d44-49ad-b329-9875dfa2f932:129049robahob0http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/pipex-noncustomer-service-29038.aspxhttp://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=86&PostID=129049What a bunch of wasters!! Took 5 attempts to obtain a MAC code from them in mid 2007. Closed broadband and homecall account. Still trying to bill us. Had to get TWO indemnity charges from the Bank to get money back - they weren't surprised we had a problem as other customers had same issue!! Threatened to bar outgoing calls (which would be interesting to see as we are with BT!) have set us up with TWO separate account numbers and apparently we owe them TWO separate amounts despite not being with them since mid 2007! Have registered complaint with OFTEL and now feel the best option is let them take us to court where they wouldn't have a leg to stand on as we have been paying BT and SKY for 18 months. As for their customer care - forget it. Tiscali/Pipex - suggest you look at the other options and make your choice......http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/another-pipex-horror-story-28738.aspxThu, 04 Dec 2008 14:39:32 GMTd60303e3-0d44-49ad-b329-9875dfa2f932:127685Merv_Charles0http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/another-pipex-horror-story-28738.aspxhttp://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=86&PostID=127685 First of all, I would like to say that I was a longstanding Pipex customer, dating right back to 1994 when I was using their dial up a system on a PC running Windows 3.01 and the Macintosh Performa. I stuck with them through the teething problems with their FRIACO and Broadband service because back then they were a good ISP with helpful staff and a good product (for example back then they were one of the few ISP's to provide connectivity for the Mac. However, I find it hard to credit how low the company has fallen. Simple things like customer care and information have gone south. In my case, I think it first started back in 2006 or so when I changed credit card numbers. After repeatedly giving them the new card details, they were still not withdrawing funds to pay for my subscription. I set up a direct debit (four times in the end) and again funds were not being withdrawn. It got to a stager where I had to call them up every few months or so and insist the take a card payment to settle any due funds. Things really started to go downhill from a customer servide side when I changed phone numbers in 2007. Naturally, I informed Pipex of this and didn't pay it any mind after that. After all, how difficult could it be for someone to update customer records on a system huh? Things started to go belly up when lo and behold I was unable to connect to the broadband service in September. After three days backing and forthing to what passes for techincal support and customer services, I discovered that Pipex had cancelled my account for reasons known only to themselves. No-one could explain why my account had been cancelled nor could they committ to a date when it would be reactivated. Anyway, after three days of being on hold or listening to support staff reading from prompt cards to cover their refusal to help, I finally managed to force one of their customer reps to listen to everything I said and talked her through reactivating my account (it was a simple procedure that anyone with initiative could have done in thirty seconds). However, three months later I am back in the same situation. Actually this situation is worse because not only have Pipex again cancelled my account for unknown reasons, they are now unable to reactivate it as for some reason their systems will now view it as a new account and they are no longer accepting home accounts. Now we go back to the call I made to them in 2007, informing them of my new phone number. It seems that the information was not updated, as Pipex have somehow removed their tag from the old inactive number and not from my current number, the upshot being that their product, a product I can no longer access, is still sitting on my line at the exchange and stopping me from mopving to a new broadband provider. I will not go into detail about my experience dealing with the customer support staff, as I am sure anyone who has had to deal with Pipex in the last few months will know exactly what I mean. As usual it involved ages spent on hold, support staff refusing to do anything beyond read from their prompt cards, notes not being taken by support staff, scheduled call backs not being made, emails not being replied to and calls being treansferred to Tiscali, who promptly tell me it is nothing to do with them. Anyway, the long and short of it is that I am without broadband (and out of pocket) due to an error by my ISP and furthermore, it looks like I am unable to sign up with another provider in the immediate future. What about MAC codes I hear you say! Surely you can get one of those and be on your merry way to BT or someone else. Ah but if it were only that simple. After having a very in depth conversation with the supervisor at Pipex Cancellations and explaining in the situation to him about the phone numbers and phantom cancellations etc in detail, he somehow managed to request the MAC code against the wrong phone number. After five days the request was rejected. Not to worry though, says the supervisor at Pipex. He can rush through a request using their offshore Remedy system and I should have a MAC code in a few hours (he had to do that because he accepted that he made a monkey-up on the original process). Yet somehow, after 48 hours I am still without this code. Furthermore, the request that could have been fulfilled in a few hours at the start of this week (apparently) will now take five working days and to judge from the conversation I had with Pipex this morning. Also, I get the feeling that the Cancellations Supervisor has again ordered the MAC code against the wrong telephone number. I asked him to confirm the number against which he had ordered the MAC code and the number he gave me was the number that had been changed back in 2007. When I told him that this was the old number, he mumbled for a bit before he started to read out a second number that is my office number. Following that shambles, he claimed getting a code using this Remedy system meant that it does not matter which telephone number the code has been ordered against. I dunno if that is true or not but he did not sound convinced by what he was saying to me. By the looks of it, my request for a MAC code will take ten working days. Even then I would not be surprised if the request is again rejected because Pipex have supplied BT Wholesale with duff information. Ten working days? Now why does that sound familar? Oh I know. During my first conversation with the Cancellations Supervisor, I suggested that it would be easier if he sent someone to the telephone exchange and got them to remove the Pipex tag from my line. I was then informed that it would take ten working days for that request to be processed and getting a MAC code would save everyone a lot of time. If the new MAC code has been ordered against my old number or office number, Pipex suggest they will send an engineer to remove the tag from my line, the same thing I suggested they do nine days ago. However we are back to that ten days magic timeline again and to judge from that, it will be around the 19th of December that the line will be tag-free. I have been in contact with CISAS, who said I should put in a claim for any out of pocket epxenses. These will have reached £91 by the time I hear back about the new MAC code. Then throw in a potential £70 at the most if the MAC Code request is rejected because Pipex have again given BT Wholesale the incorrect information and another potential £70 before I get a new service up and running. After speaking to BT, it would actually be cheaper and quicker simply to get a new line installed and get braodband provisioned on that during the installation. And what is the long and short of my experience? Pipex were a good ISP. They were one of the best when I first signed up to them. Now though, a shocking level of customer support means I would not recommend them to anyone. Perhaps it is fgor the best that they are no longer accepting home customers but businesses should beware and the same goes for anyone looking to leave them. http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/pipex-complaint-nightmare-11302.aspxSat, 15 Sep 2007 10:19:33 GMTd60303e3-0d44-49ad-b329-9875dfa2f932:49813Dr Oxton2http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/pipex-complaint-nightmare-11302.aspxhttp://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=86&PostID=49813 Pipex nightmare...I have never written to a site like this before, but my experience with Pipex has been so bad that I thought it my duty to let others know. Reading about the other experiences on the site, I can see I am not alone. I have an inch thick portfolio of letters and a list of thirty plus phone calls (at my expense) to show all that has gone wrong.The bones of the story are that I signed up for Pipex from Orange, with free wireless Router in April 2007. They sent me two modem routers by mistake, before the wireless one arrived. However, some 63 days later I was still not on line - their literature suggested 23 days would be a reasonable expectation. All sorts of reasons were given for this, but no positive action taken to resolve the problems. In my first bill, I saw that they had taken £55 from my account (fraudulently in my view) for the "free" router. They were also taking money from my account and I was not receiving a service. They admitted this mistake and said it would be refunded immediately. This was in June. Most calls to Pipex produced generalised reassurance and fabrications about what was happening. The customer service people clearly had no authority to solve any of the problems and were struggling. At this point I had been without the Internet and emails for several weeks. Phones 4 U, who signed me up to Pipex were horrified by the way I had been treated. They advised immediate cancellation of the Direct Debit to Pipex and to end my relationship with Pipex altogether. I cancelled that day. That produced the first practical reaction from Pipex. They started ringing me up to demand to know why I had cancelled the Direct Debit as they were no longer able to take money from me. It is now nearly October (five months after signing up) and at last I received a cheque from Pipex, as refund for the 'free' router. I have recently offered to return the modems and router. They said I should do this at MY expense and they would refund me! This whole Pipex business has caused considerable stress and inconvenience to me. For someone with a less robust constitution or a business to run, it might have proved catastrophic. Post script: Orange, who were my previous providers, were most gracious. They understood the problems I had had in the changeover and wrote off £22 from the last bill from them as a gesture of goodwill. And incidentally, I am now with Talk Talk. Good easy, speedy connection process. No problems at all. So far the service has been as described. I am a satisfied customer. http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/more-longlasting-pipextiscali-woes-27602.aspxSat, 08 Nov 2008 13:48:38 GMTd60303e3-0d44-49ad-b329-9875dfa2f932:119878HarveySW21http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/more-longlasting-pipextiscali-woes-27602.aspxhttp://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=86&PostID=119878 Since June 2008 we have seen Pipex Broadband (up to 8MB), now part of Tiscali, deteriorate to the point at download speeds are so low that its like going back to dialup days 40-100 Kb!). This, despite Pipex supposedly having told us that they had "fixed" the problems that clearly come from their infrastructure. Our line can support up to 6Mb. We have made every possible check here and all is as good as it could be - new master socket, new filter, connecting new router directly to the master socket and even turning off the fire wall. After two weeks of trying and trying again to get through to the Pipex "help" lines and always getting an engaged tone, needless to say we will be leaving them after many years and having paid them many hundreds if not thousands of pounds. If Pipex/Tiscali is to dispense with its domestic customers, as has been suggested then this is hardly the way to do it. Even worse is that Pipex's website gives no advice on the problems it clearly has had over the last months, recently leaving many of its customers unable to collect email. Harvey http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/pipex-xtreme-email-problem-1845.aspxFri, 24 Nov 2006 22:05:57 GMTd60303e3-0d44-49ad-b329-9875dfa2f932:5135dazzler19714http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/pipex-xtreme-email-problem-1845.aspxhttp://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=86&PostID=5135I was wondering if anyone else was experiencing problems with their mail service on Pipex Xtreme Broadband. I have had this problem for 5 days now and I have spoken to their tech support at least 8 times to chase this problem up. Each day they tell me that they are working on it, and it will be back with me in a few hours. Anyway, 120 hours later it is still not working. My internet connection is fine, so I know my username and password are still valid. I can't login to my pop3 server via Outlook 2003 or via Webmail. Pipex have admitted that they have a problem and yet they still can't tell me what the problem is, when it will be fixed, and they also said they would not ring back when it is eventually resolved. I have worked for ISPs in the past and built and configured mail and directory servers, and it sounds to me like if they don't know what the problem is after 5 days is because they are covering up a major error and they will never recover it. I spoke to a Tech Support manager and he did not seem to care that I had been a customer for 4+ years with Pipex and that I was going to go elsewhere. His only response was that I would have to honour my contract. Has anyone else experienced this problem/still experiencing it? If so, what is the latest and what do you suggest I do? Regards.http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/pipex-have-added-over-a-month-to-my-contract-leng-26206.aspxThu, 09 Oct 2008 18:12:01 GMTd60303e3-0d44-49ad-b329-9875dfa2f932:110846laura3011http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/pipex-have-added-over-a-month-to-my-contract-leng-26206.aspxhttp://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=86&PostID=110846 I started my wonderful experience with Bulldog on 13th November 2007 and unsurprisingly was unsatisfied with the service after a couple of weeks so I emailed them and asked them the earliest date I could end my contract and they emailed me back (an email which I still have) saying that it would end on 13th November 2008. Then on 20th December without request from me they wrote to me and told me my contract name would be changing but that it would make no difference to my account. I had been paying line rental since 13th November and had already had a fairly major row with them by this time! But this didnt bother me as there didnt seem to be any real problem if my account wasnt changing materially. Fastforward 11 months to now when I thought I best email them and give them notification on my not renewing my contract and check that I would not be charged if I ended it on 13th Nov. Well lo and behold they told me my contract end date was 20th December! I send them the email from themselves saying it was 13th November they still say 20th December. I send them the email showing the installation date of my line as 12th November, they still say its 20th December! I send them the email from them saying about the change of details on 20th December but they just ignored it! Anyway sick of their emails I decided to give them a ring and see if I could get some more sense out of a real person (I should be so lucky!) On the phone they keep telling me that my contract ends on 20th December despite my explaining it all again. Well after pressing them a bit to check their records and see that I was making calls and paying line rental since November they finally admitted the truth - PIPEX DONT HAVE ANY REAL RECORDS OF BULLDOG ACCOUNTS. They cant see any bills youve paid, any complaints youve made or when your contract started while you were with Bulldog. Despite me having records of my contract starting on 13 Nov and them not they will not entertain the thought that I might be right. So beware - if you are signed up to Bulldog now Pipex you could have had the end date of your contract changed without your knowing about it. Has anyone had the same experience as this? And have any miracle answers of how to get them to listen to you!? http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/pipex-intenet-connection-live-but-slow-dial-up-st-25241.aspxThu, 18 Sep 2008 10:51:26 GMTd60303e3-0d44-49ad-b329-9875dfa2f932:107226rw742http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/pipex-intenet-connection-live-but-slow-dial-up-st-25241.aspxhttp://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=86&PostID=107226 Hello, For the past month my 8 Meg line has been working like its the 'dreaded old' dial up. Established websites like Amazon, Ebay and even Google take 5 to 10 minutes to load up and anything hosted outside the UK or wothout UK mirrors doesn't load at all. If I do the speed checks it tells me I have 7 Meg or 6 Meg or even 8 Meg - but you could have fooled me!!!! I am experiencing the slowest server responses I have ever seen since the dial up days of the late nineties. I have made repeated calls to their helpline and been taken through the 'technical help'. They asked me to clear all my cookies and cache (ZZzzz...) I was then asked to restart my PC and router (Bound to make a big difference!) - eventually they wanted me to unscrew the phone socket and plug my cabling into the test socket. Sooner or later I had to draw the line on this wild goose chase and tell them the problem is simple. I am connected to the internet at 8 Meg - that's great. But I need their datacentre to respond to my requests and send me the data from the world wide web at a reasonable rate to enjoy my big speeds. It seems to me Pipex have a bottle neck somewhere in their system, probably in the datacentres and as a result have a massive bottle neck reducing us all (The internet forums are full of similar complaints) to a crummy internet service. I asked for the MAC code from customer services. This allows you to port your service over to another provider. It takes 5 days for them to send you the code both via email and post. (That should tell you something about the speeds of their service.) Once you have the MAC code you can call up an alternative and they will seemlessly move you to a new provider. My advice would be don't move to Tiscali, they now own pipex. As much as it pains me - I am moving to BT. I think the problem is with the Credit Crunch in full swing, a number of Telco providers are struggling to upgrage infrastructure in time for demand. You need to be with a player that has the redundancy to cope. Unfortunately, that is most likely to be BT. Good luck RW74 http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/help-please-bailiffs-threatening-23096.aspxSat, 19 Jul 2008 21:17:25 GMTd60303e3-0d44-49ad-b329-9875dfa2f932:100407Sweetrevenge4http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/help-please-bailiffs-threatening-23096.aspxhttp://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=86&PostID=100407 Can anyone please advise what to do? Changed from Pipex to Talk talk 16 Nov 2007. Talk talk specifically told me that they would handle the changeover and i wouldn't need to do anything. Confirmation received from Pipex on 2nd Nov that my telephone service and line rental would be changing. Changeover took place smoothly, couldn't access Pipex account from mid nov. Some time later (Feb 08) got bill from Pipex for broadband services to march 08. Asked what was going on, was told I hadn't cancelled my broadband provision. Said that this was handled by Talk Talk, was told talk talk had tagged the line and it was their fault. Asked Talk Talk who said that pipex were unable to provide broadband service to me from mid nov, so they shouldn't be charging me. From $6.50, they have then charged for April to May, so another £6.50 (which is when pipex say I actually cancelled the broadband contract) and then added £25 admin charges. The debt collection agency they have sent this to are threatening bailiffs and I cannot get any sense or confirmation of anything out of either customer services (pipex or talk talk). I am so frustrated and upset by Pipex attitude on the phone, being passed from pillar to post, spending a fortune on 0871 numbers and not getting anywhere. What can I do to resolve this? Do I owe them the money, is what Talk talk did wrong? Please help if you can. http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/nildram-pipex-customer-services-23594.aspxWed, 06 Aug 2008 12:33:18 GMTd60303e3-0d44-49ad-b329-9875dfa2f932:102030Twee0http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/nildram-pipex-customer-services-23594.aspxhttp://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=86&PostID=102030 I am having problems with getting anywhere with Customer Services re a missing Voice Service on my account email sent : I have given up counting the number of emails sent to Support and Customer Care re my missing voice service I upgraded my account to 25Gb "lite" service over 3 months ago and until last month - my voice service continued as if nothing had happened. Then last week - I happened to check my BT on-line account and was surprised to find that I was being billed for calls and on checking my Nildram account - I found that I had "lost" voice I instantly enquired as to why and it was inferred that this was due to my upgrading my account - which clearly is not the case My BT bill is now £10 more than normal - so can "Voice" please be reinstated on my account together with a refund of £10 for my BT bill I have threatened to leave Nildram unless this happens and this is not an idle threat If my voice is not reinstated by this Friday at 12:00 - You will lose a valuable customer. http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/incompetent-in183com183pe183tent-adjective-not-co-23515.aspxMon, 04 Aug 2008 16:19:00 GMTd60303e3-0d44-49ad-b329-9875dfa2f932:101813iamacup0http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/incompetent-in183com183pe183tent-adjective-not-co-23515.aspxhttp://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=86&PostID=101813I am writing this because since the top result for ‘pipex review’ is very good I feel obliged to point out, further searching will reveal this is not representative of the service you will receive today. I am currently a customer with pipex, waiting for the day my contract expires so I can switch. They are crap. They used to be very good, I was with them from the start almost and they were excellent, then all of a sudden they grew, their support got worse. Their network stayed the same and because I had no problems I was happy as I didn’t have to ring for support. But they just merged with tiscali and now I have noticed a massive drop in download speeds, torrents are fubar and basically their service is worth next to nothing. Overall, once upon a time they were good, but if your going to go with anyone this is not the choice, overpriced for crap connection and terrible customer service. be there is where i will be going. http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/pipex-schmipex-21173.aspxFri, 25 Apr 2008 13:51:07 GMTd60303e3-0d44-49ad-b329-9875dfa2f932:92247grey_man11http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/pipex-schmipex-21173.aspxhttp://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=86&PostID=92247I’m a reasonable man, a patient man – the backbone of the English middle class, middle of the road job, not one to get over-excited. You know the sort of person. But. It is my opinion it’s time that Pipex were hung out to dry on TV (BBC Watchdog perhaps ?), for the sake of anyone out there who might still be thinking of using their “services”. Here’s my story. 1999 – I became a Pipex dial up customer, because they were recommended for their excellent technical reputation by the IT geeks at work. No problems. 2005 – I switched to their broadband service. No problems. Late 2007 – I received a call from Pipex asking if I wanted to switch to their broadband AND home telephone package. I said thanks, but no thanks. Later in 2007 – I had an email from Pipex to say that my order for home phone was about to go live. I emailed them in reply to say I had already told them that I didn’t want to change. Later still in 2007 – Had a letter from my existing telephone supplier saying they were sorry to be losing my custom. After calming down, I rang Pipex customer services. Nice lady said they would put things right. A bit later in 2007 – I found out my phone had been switched to Pipex only when I got a bill from them. Sod you lot I thought, so a few days later I contacted another telephone supplier and ordered their telephone and broadband service, which went live in early 2008. A bit after that – I rang Pipex to make sure they had cancelled my account with them. They hadn’t and they blamed my new supplier for not letting them know. Told me they would cancel my account from the date of the call but that I would have to pay a contract cancellation charge. I said - what contract ? The 12 month one you had from the date you switched to Pipex home telephone say they. But I didn’t order Pipex home telephone say I. I asked them for proof of a contract with me – letter, telephone call recording, whatever. Heard nothing more. January 2008. Discovered that Pipex had taken around £150 from my bank account by direct debit, as a contract cancellation charge. Went ballistic. Had a lot of wine. E-mailed Pipex. No reply. Tried to ring them, gave up waiting for a reply. Feb 2008. Wrote a formal letter of complaint to Pipex. Three weeks later. I had a very polite and apologetic reply to my formal complaint, admitting their shortcomings and promising me a full refund – a cheque within three weeks. Three weeks went by. No cheque arrived. I rang them. I was asked to wait a few more days. So I waited a few days. Nothing happened. Then I emailed them. And I waited a few days. No reply. So I wrote another formal letter to them asking the whereabouts of my cheque. And I waited a couple of weeks. I had a letter back from them today, addressed to me at home. They want confirmation of my home address.... (EH ????) Rang Pipex Customer Services yet again. Spoke to a nice lady with a foreign accent who turns out to be in Manilla. She promises to forward my enquiry to the right department and that I will get a cheque in the next 28 days. I hang up the ‘phone and carefully replace my blown top. I have today issued a formal letter of intent to take them to court for the money they have already admitted they owe me unless I get a cheque from them in the next 28 days. (I said I was a reasonable, patient man didn’t I ?). I have sent it recorded delivery to their registered office (thanks to the advice on this forum). And now I’m waiting again. Everyone who has written something about Pipex on these forums has my utmost sympathy and understanding. Good luck to all of you. They are the worst company I have ever dealt with in my life, bar none. Which is a shame in some ways, because ten years ago I would have recommended them to anyone. http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/nildram-pipex-tosh-23055.aspxThu, 17 Jul 2008 15:22:42 GMTd60303e3-0d44-49ad-b329-9875dfa2f932:100260Twee0http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/nildram-pipex-tosh-23055.aspxhttp://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=86&PostID=100260 I queried with my ISP (Nildram) why I was unable to access "MY USAGE" on "MY CONTROLS" to check just how many Gb of my limit, I had used up - the response amazed me.... "Unfortunately I have been advised that as you do not have a Static IP for this service you will be unable to view your usage on my controls." I have been with Nildram for 5 years and have never had any problems before with them - do they honestly expect me to believe this "tosh" ? Why should I need a static IP in order to tell how close I am to my monthly limit I went 5 years without a static IP and have always been able to check ......... http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/pipex-the-definition-of-frustration-22617.aspxMon, 23 Jun 2008 12:53:38 GMTd60303e3-0d44-49ad-b329-9875dfa2f932:98654AdamK4http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/pipex-the-definition-of-frustration-22617.aspxhttp://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=86&PostID=98654 What can I say about Pipex other than that they are quite possiby the worst company I have ever had to deal with. I have no idea how a company can continue to operate the way they do. I had a contract with Bulldog/Pipex at one address, I changed address and was told by pipex that wouldn't be subject to a new contract period. However when I came to cancel the service I was sent a bill for early cancellation. So after 3 seperate phone calls to Pipex, with all their representatives agreeing I don't owe the money and promising to correct the error I find that Pipex has issued a claim against me at court. I can't seem to get a written answer out of their Customer Care team as it would appear they don't respond to letters despite their own policy to acknowledge receipt of letters within 2 working days. I'd be very interested to hear from others who may have had similar experiences in the past with this company. Below is a copy of the latest letter I have sent to Pipex Customer Care (as laid out in their complaints policy) to which I have had no reply. Dear Sirs, You have instructed Commercial Credit Services to recover the amount of £189.06 from myself, which represents an early cancellation charge for Bulldog broadband service at [address removed] It is my belief that I do not owe Pipex/Bulldog this amount. In August 2006 I subscribed to a 15mb Bulldog broadband service, including line rental at [address1]. In September 2007 I called the Bulldog cancellations team as I wished to cancel the service at this address due to me moving residence. I explained this to your representative and I decided that as I had no issues with Bulldogs service I would continue to have internet provided to me at the new address of [address 2]. While speaking to your representative I asked if the contract would be treated as a rolling period and would I be subject to a new minimum term of service. Your representative informed me that I would not be subject to a minimum term of service as I was an existing customer and I was just being treated as a house move. I was given a new BDOL number and logon details for the connection at [address 2]. When I asked why I had been given a new BDOL number I was informed that this was purely for ‘administrative convenience’ and would not affect my status as an existing customer. In February 2008 I again moved home to my present address. I called the cancellations team once again and informed them that I was moving home and that I wanted to cancel my subscription to Bulldog broadband services. I was informed that I was still under contract for the remaining 6 months and that my cancellation would be subject to a cancellation fee. I explained to the representative on the phone that I shouldn’t be under any contract and informed them of the previous conversation (above) that I had had with Bulldog when changing moving into [address 2]. The representative I was speaking to said that she would have to put me through to her supervisor on the cancellations team. The representative I spoke to introduced himself as Chris and informed me he was supervisor of the cancellations team. I spoke to Chris and related the full story to him. He then agreed that I was not liable for the cancellation fee and informed me that I would not be charged. It was agreed that I would pay for the due monthly fee for March 2008 as it was near to the billing period that I made the cancellation request. I ended the call to Bulldog/Pipex happy that my query had been resolved. Bulldog would terminate my service at the end of the March billing period and I would not be charged any fee for this. At the end of March I received an e-bill (a bill/statement sent via email monthly to subscribers informing them of the coming charges for the next month) which was asking for the amount of approx £250. This obviously wasn’t correct to I once again called Bulldog customer services. I spoke to customer services and related to them the full story so far. I was informed that as the cancellation fee was being waived by the cancellations team, I would have to speak to them as it was nothing to do with the customer services team. The representative wasn’t as helpful as you would expect but none the less I redialled and spoke to the cancellations team. I once again related the full story to date to the representative on the cancellations team, explaining what had happened and asking to speak to Chris if he was available. I was informed that Chris was engaged with another customer. The lady who I spoke to was very helpful and assured me that the e-bill was in error and not to worry as I wouldn’t be billed, Chris would solve the problem once he came off the phone. As far as I was concerned the problem had finally been solved. I had spoken with the cancellations team and had been assured that no further charge would be made. I was happy with that outcome and thought nothing more of the problem. In May I received mail forwarded on to me at my new address from the current occupiers of [address 2]., enclosed within this forwarded mail were several letters from Pipex/Bulldog informing me that they had no payment details set for my account. This was interesting as so far as I was aware Pipex had no need for payment details from me. I was no longer a subscriber to their services, I had no debt to the company (as had been agreed twice by their representatives), also my payments were managed by debit card, a card that had not changed and was still valid (still valid to this day in fact). Enclosed with these letters from Pipex I also found a letter from Commercial Credit Services dated 12 May 2008 informing me that they had been instructed by Pipex to recover the debt of £189.06 and threatening court action for non-payment. I was obviously annoyed at receiving these letters. I had twice called Pipex/Bulldog and been assured no monies were owed by me. Now I am receiving letters threatening legal action for a service long cancelled and a bill twice agreed to be in error. I once again called Pipex and spoke to the cancellations team. After relating the story once again to the representative I was informed that the cancellations team couldn’t deal with this matter and I would have to speak to customer services. I redialled and spoke to customer services. Again I told the full story to the representative there only to be informed that they couldn’t deal with the problem, only the cancellations team could as it was only that team that could cancel the bill/fee charged. When I informed the representative I had just spoken to the cancellations team and they had told me to call the customer services team I was assured that the cancellations team were in error, only they could help me. At this point I’m naturally frustrated, no matter what I do to contact Pipex/Bulldog this problem seems to persist with nobody willing to actually sit down and sort the problem. I feel like I’m being constantly passed around by people trying to avoid what is certain to be a difficult job. So for the third time that day I call Pipex/Bulldog cancellations team. I immediately asked to speak to a supervisor to which I am asked to relate the problem to the representative who will try to help (I was not put through to a supervisor). I again told the now all too familiar story to the representative, who told me I would have to speak to customer services. I told the representative that I had already spoken to customer services and had been assured by them that the problem could only be dealt with by the cancellations team. After some wrangling I was finally permitted to speak with the supervisor who did genuinely seem helpful, he introduced himself as Steve. After yet again relating the full story to date I was told that the problem could only be dealt with by the customer services team. I told Steve that I was literally ripping my hair out, I’d already spoken with them and they were saying that it was the cancellations team, the cancellation team were telling me the opposite. I just seemed that nobody actually cared about solving the problem, just more about who they could shift my problem on to. Steve apologised but told me that it was the customer services team I needed to speak to. I asked if Steve would speak to them himself and try to get to the bottom of the problem on my behalf. Steve agreed to do this and my call was placed on hold. After approximately 10mins the female representative I originally spoke to before speaking to Steve came back on the line and informed me that the problem had been sorted out. The bill I had received would indeed be cancelled and I should receive a letter from Pipex confirming this. I thanked the representative and hung up. I immediately placed a call to Commercial Credit Services and informed them of the conversation that I had just had with Pipex/Bulldog. CCS thanked me for my call and informed me that they had placed a hold on the account for two weeks while they confirmed this with Pipex and awaited new instructions. At this point I thought that after all the trouble, the phone calls I had made and the assurances that I had from the Pipex representatives that this problem could finally be laid to rest. After two weeks I received a call from CCS saying that they had not had any contact from Pipex regarding my account. I related the story again to the CCS representative who said that she would email Pipex with a request for clarification. I asked the representative if they could contact me when Pipex had responded. The CCS representative agreed to this. I was called by CCS again in the evening on 16 June 2008 who informed me that they were in receipt of an email from Pipex stating that there had been no change in my account and that the monies of £189.06 were still owed. I informed CCS that this wasn’t the case and explained that I have contacted Pipex numerous times via telephone about this. I informed CCS that I would write this letter to Pipex and that I would also send a copy to their office. Obviously I can’t believe that a company can be so inefficient and fail to communicate between departments as much as Pipex seem to be. My cancellation of services seems to have been one error after another, with ultimately me being in the firing line because of a series of errors and miscommunication/no communication between the various teams and levels of your organisation. I have a few questions that I would like answers to: Why have I been consistently lied to by your representatives? All your representatives I have spoken to have promised to solve this problem, they haven’t and I am facing legal action because of this. Why have I had to make multiple phone calls to Pipex over this issue when surely this should have been sorted out at the first call, at worst the second? Why were my valid payment details removed from your system and by whom? It is my suspicion that these were removed by your cancellations team to ensure I didn’t receive the bill for April 2008 when I called the second time to Pipex. If indeed I was sold a new contract back in September 2007, why was this misrepresented to me by the Pipex representative? Is it standard practice for your staff to ignore your customers queries, and deliberately fail to resolve them as promised? Will I be contacted should this matter go to court? It is my intention to appear in Court to dispute the amount owed and to show the Court that I have made all reasonable attempts to resolve the dispute with Pipex. Will you remove any negative feedback placed upon my credit report, without penalty or detrimental effect to my ability to gain credit in the future? I would like to receive written confirmation of receipt of this letter within 7 days. I would like this matter to be resolved within a further period of 14 days. It is my intention after this time to seek legal advice and report my complaint to OFCOM as I feel Pipex have consistently not met reasonable standards for dealing with complaints. I also feel that Pipex representatives have consistently failed to deliver upon their promises, and have at times been untruthful in their representation of the company, I feel that I have taken every step reasonable to resolve the dispute. I have contacted Pipex at every juncture in which I have received correspondence and have been assured the dispute would be resolved at no cost to me. To say I am disappointed with the attitude and customer service delivered by Pipex would be a gross understatement. Every time I have had to contact Pipex this has been done at my expense, often spending 30mins plus on the phone/hold to your representatives which is time I could have invested in more gainful manner. I am constantly tired of having to repeat the same story time after time to your people, and believe that your pursuit of the monies you believe I owe is tantamount to harassment given the attempts I have made to resolve the issue. It is safe to say that I will not be using Pipex/Bulldog services again, nor would I recommend them to anyone. I eagerly await your reply.