Dear Jason,

I was most interested in the various comments regarding Pipex beware! I also had very bad experiences with Pipex (see the attached correspondence and emails. Anything you can to help would be appreciated.

Regards

Commercial Credit Services

Bellway House

7 Worcester Road

Bromsgrove

Worcestershire B61 7DL

25^th July 2008

Dear Sir or Madam,

Ref: Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

I am today in receipt of your Notification of Legal Proceedings under the above reference.

I have spoken to your representative Alex and given him a Case Number regarding my complaint against Pipex concerning the lack of service, which they promised to provide. He said that he would investigate this with Pipex and come back to me. I have also spoken to The Office of Fair Trading: Consumer Protection and The Trading Standards Central. They have advised me that I should pay the amount of £187.98 ‘Under Protest’ which I am now doing (cheque and tear off slip) enclosed. They further advised me that Credit Services are unlikely to be interested in the details of the complaint I have against Pipex so I shall be writing to Tiscali UK Ltd under separate cover.

In taking this advised action I totally refute the statement on your letter that ‘You have chosen to ignore repeated reminders from our client in respect of the above debt’. On the contrary I was in contact with your client on multiple occasions, a matter I shall be taking up with them.

Finally I would like to state that whilst it may be claimed that I broke my contract with Pipex, I consider it scandalous that they can apparently breach their contract with me by failing to provide the promised service.

I look forward to confirmation of receipt by return.

Yours faithfully,

Head of Customer Service

Pipex Internet Ltd

PO Box 273

Welwyn Garden City

Hertfordshire AL7 1YA

25^th July 2008

Dear Xxxxxx,

Re: Account Number xxxxxxxx – User name xxxxxx

I am writing to record my total dissatisfaction with the lack of customer service provided, and the treatment I have been subjected to by your company.

On 13^th May you wrote informing me that my Pipex Broadband would be activated within 7 to 10 working days and that ‘My Pipex is your gateway to managing all aspects of your Pipex services…to do things like Create and personalise additional e-mail addresses. On 17^th May I received and e-mail to my old e-mail address informing me that ‘your broadband has gone live and you can start using the service immediately’. Unfortunately the ‘My Pipex’ gateway was inoperative initially so I called the helpline number mentioned in your letter of 13^th May. This first call was made on 21^st May. I spoke to someone identifying himself or herself as Chris and was informed that the matter would be reported to your offshore technical support. I was given a case number 1693287 to quote in future follow-ups. I was told that the matter would be corrected within 24 hours and that several people had complained of the same problem. On the 22^nd and 23^rd I called again on 0871 2226395 since the gateway was still inoperative. On the second occasion I spoke to Hirnan. Eventually I was able to open the ‘My Pipex’ gateway, but could not access the ‘Manage your account section’, which posted a message that there was a temporary fault and I should call technical support. On 3^rd June I spoke to Petrus who informed me that the engineers were working on the problem and that I should check the system on 4^th June after 1300 hours. This I did but the problem had still not been resolved. I tried again the next day and the day after with the same result. On 6^th June I spoke with Bev who advised me to call back the following day. This I did speaking to Gavin this time and was informed that ‘Mailbox’ would be active within 48 hours. This did not happen and I spoke to Petrus again on 10^th June. On this occasion I expressed total dissatisfaction with the service and asked to speak to a Manager or Supervisor. Petrus told me that he would speak to the Team Leader and get back to me. This never happened so I called again on 13^th June and spoke with Amrit and out of total frustration asked to be provided with a ‘migration code’ since clearly Pipex were incapable of providing the service they had promised. During this entire time I was unable to send emails or receive e-mails on the service and had to rely on my old e-mail address. At this point my opinion was that Pipex had breached their contract to me and that I was entitled to some compensation for the amount that I had already paid. I spoke to a Jen and subsequently Sophie who said that I could not be compensated or refunded until such time as the service was up and running properly. Then and only then could Pipex assess how much service I had lost. This seemed a ‘catch 22’ situation since I could do nothing until the system worked properly and you couldn’t provide the correct operation. On 6^th June I received and e-mail to my old address informing me that ‘We will collect your payment of £17.04 on or immediately after 18/06/08.’ Since I still could not access the ‘manage your account’ area, I decided to put a stop on the Direct Debit and so informed your accounts department. On 25^th June I received a further e-mail from John Cox at Credit Control as follows…’Unless the balance is paid and a new Direct Debit/Credit Card Instruction is received within the next 6 days your Pipex services will be suspended….You can make payment over the phone on 0871 221 2212 with one of our dedicated customer service representatives. In the meantime if we can be of any assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us.’ On 26^th June I called the above number three times to speak to John and was told that he was unavailable. In fact between 21^st May and 26^th June I called Pipex on thirty occasions!

Out of total frustration I moved my broadband service to TalkTalk where the service has been exemplary.

The final insult came today in the form of a collection notice from Commercial Credit Services for an amount of £187.98 representing what I suppose is the balance of a 12-month subscription to Pipex. I have spoken to The Office of Fair Trading: Consumer Protection and The Trading Standards Central. They have advised me that I should pay the amount of £187.98 ‘Under Protest’ which I have now done. They further advised me that Credit Services are unlikely to be interested in the details of the complaint I have against Pipex and advised me to write to you under separate cover. Hence this letter.

Finally I would like to state that whilst it may be claimed that I broke my contract with Pipex, I consider it scandalous that you can apparently breach your contract with me by failing to provide the promised service. Certainly as the Head of Customer Services I would think you would like to be aware of these events.

I look forward to hearing your comments.

Yours sincerely,

Xxxxxxxxx

Customer Complaint – xxxxxx

Following on from our conversation on 20/01/2009, the Credit for the 10 months of service you did not receive has been sent to the Billing department and should be actioned shortly. This letter is to advise the investigation is complete and your complaint has now been marked as resolved.

I hope your issue has been resolved and if you need any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact us again.

Kind regards
Pipex Business Support Engineer

Note: Personal details removed to prevent spam. Please ensure you read the moneysupermarket.com Community Standards and Terms of Service before posting. Thanks

Customer Complaint – xxxxxx

Following on from our conversation on 20/01/2009, the Credit for the 10 months of service you did not receive has been sent to the Billing department and should be actioned shortly. This letter is to advise the investigation is complete and your complaint has now been marked as resolved.

I hope your issue has been resolved and if you need any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact us again.

Kind regards
Pipex Business Support Engineer

Note: Personal details removed to prevent spam. Please ensure you read the moneysupermarket.com Community Standards and Terms of Service before posting. Thanks

Customer Complaint – xxxxxx

Following on from our conversation on 20/01/2009, the Credit for the 10 months of service you did not receive has been sent to the Billing department and should be actioned shortly. This letter is to advise the investigation is complete and your complaint has now been marked as resolved.

I hope your issue has been resolved and if you need any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact us again.

Kind regards
Pipex Business Support Engineer

Note: Personal details removed to prevent spam. Please ensure you read the moneysupermarket.com Community Standards and Terms of Service before posting. Thanks

Customer Complaint – xxxxxx

Following on from our conversation on 20/01/2009, the Credit for the 10 months of service you did not receive has been sent to the Billing department and should be actioned shortly. This letter is to advise the investigation is complete and your complaint has now been marked as resolved.

I hope your issue has been resolved and if you need any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact us again.

Kind regards
Pipex Business Support Engineer

Note: Personal details removed to prevent spam. Please ensure you read the moneysupermarket.com Community Standards and Terms of Service before posting. Thanks

As I'm sure you already know, Tiscali's UK business was sold to the Carphone Warehouse group on 8th May. Maybe Charles Dunstone, Carphone Warehouse CEO, will be a little more sympathetic then the elusive Mary Turner was. His email address is cdunstone(at)cpw.co.uk, or you can write to him at The Carphone Warehouse Group plc, 1 Portal Way, London, W3 6RS. Got to be worth a try.

I echo the above. I posted months ago the problems I was having with Pipex and at that time I said for anyone who was becoming desperate about the letters and threats of outside credit agencies coming to the door to contact their CITIZEN'S ADVICE BUREAU which I did and they spent the best part of two hours on my behalf 'phoning various departments in Pipex and explaining the situation. Hurrah! No more letters for six weeks then they arrived having added to the already so called outstanding bill. When this started again I again went to CITIZENS ADVICE and they immediately contacted CISAS on my behalf. You will get an explanatory letter from CISAS but the letter states that it has to be no later than NINE MONTHS into the problem or they can't help you - SO GET STARTED! For CISAS, all letters between you and Pipex need to be send in duplicate to them - one copy will be sent to Pipex and the other filed. Today I got a letter from Richard Hemes, High Level Complaints Executive, Tiscali UK Ltd., The Icon, Lytton Way, Stevenage, SG1 1AL. apologising and stating 'Having reviewed your account, this outstanding balance has arisen due to your account being active after your services were moved to another provider in December 2008. .........' No reason of any kind was given as to why the account was still active. He also states 'We realise in an increasingly competitive market not only out products but also our level of customer care are paramount in both retaining and generating new custom. I would like to apologise for the problems that you have experienced with Pipex. It is not out intention to cause inconvenience or frustration to our customers and for this i sincerely apologise' He has agreed to pay £150 and cancel all bills.

hate to say it but i have given up its costing me more now than they owed me in the first place(£125), I'm self employed so don't have time to chase them or others around anymore.


SO EVERYBODY AVOID PIPEX THEY ARE ROBBING B@$£RDS BE WARNED...............

I managed to get £240 in compensation from Pipex (plus a full refund of the money that I was forced to hand over to their debt collector). This was before I got as far as raising an official complaint with CISAS.

If you raise a formal complaint, Pipex has to pay the arbitrator around £400, irrespective of the eventual outcome of the complaint. However, raising a complaint costs you nothing.

So, assuming that you're claiming less than £400, it's cheaper for Pipex to meet your claim than to let you raise a formal complaint. Unfortunately, you have to wait 12 weeks after first raising the matter with Pipex before you can go to arbitration. During that time, Pipex will do their utmost to p*ss you off so much that you'll simply give up.

Stick with it, though. When they know that you're about to go to the arbitrator, they'll cough up.

This "fight" has now taken me a year!! After I complained via CISAS Pipex/Tiscali/Bulldog agreed to return the £9.75 they owed me with an additional £10 "as a gesture of goodwill". Unsurprisingly the cheque never arrived so I contacted CISAS again - the online process is simple to navigate - part of the form asks what you expect Pipex/Tiscali/Bulldog to do and the compensation you are claiming. Innocently I thought any amount claimed would only be negotiated down - I was wrong. I received letters from both CISAS and Tiscali dated 28 May 2009 advising that my case was being settled in full. I have today received a cheque for the £9.75 originally owed and £100 compensation I claimed.

It has been an uphill struggle all the way but why should they get away with holding onto our money? I urge everyone having problems with Pipex/Tiscali/Bulldog to contact CISAS - 24 Angel Gate City Road London EC1V 2PT website www.cisas.org.uk email info AT isas.org.uk Phone 020 7520 3814 Fax 020 7520 3829.

Please do not give up.

Same advice as I have given before. Obtain the appropriate Complaints procedure. They are required to have one to comply with their OFCOM licence. Follow it scrupulously and keep meticulous records. Note the right to take the issue to whatever dispute resolution service they are signed up to in accordance with their OFCOM licence. Make sure they know that you intend to go down that route if you do not reach agreement. You have a right to do that approximately 12 weeks after first raising the complaint.

The poetic justice is that the dispute resolution process costs the company a case fee of several hundred pounds but the complainer nothing. Unfortunately it may not be a quick process and it may not find in your favour but you do not lose your legal rights.

Good luck.

Hi, new to this forum, discovered it whilst trying to investigate my pipex problem!
I was a pipex customer up until april last year and decided to migrate after i had found a better deal. i was sent my migration codes with no problem and am told my account is cancelled so i happily moved on to another provider.
so six months down the line whilst in my bank i realize i am still being charged for their service! so i cancel my direct debit and go home to make the call to customer services!!. I am told it's their mistake and they will cancel the account again and refund the charges, great!. A month later i get a late payment charge due to canceled direct debit, SO i call back again and try to tell my story (getting harder now) i am told the usual problems with admin have slowed the process down and they will rectify it and refund the original charges. Another month later the same thing again another late payment charge AND i still haven't received my refund! SO back on the phone again the usual wait and re- telling of story to another person i am assured a refund and a cancelled account. Fast forward a couple of months and several phone calls to a few weeks before christmas i have a phone call from a debt recovery agency demanding the two months owed from after i cancelled my account , i tell them my story and they put a stop for a few days, i call pipex get the same old story off them and off i go again, over the next two weeks i get calls from the debt collectors every day and i call pipex every day! Christmas eve i receive a court summons unless the debt of £27.98 is payed by january the 5th! i opted to pay the debt collectors to get them off my back and try to recover the costs from pipex, although they still have not settled the first debt!!
During all off this messy business pipex have been brought out by tiscali, which is my current provider and passed my problems on, so now i am arguing through pipex to my provider about funds i owed but i was paying tiscali all along!!! all getting very confusing and harder to explain to the various customer care operatives.
So to cut an already long story a little bit shorter nearly a year down the line after a million phone calls and several letters i am still out of pocket, have lost more money on phone calls to them through their own service! and my own time as i am self employed. i I have lost hours of time on hold or explaining the same story over and over and over, i am on the verge of giving up as my costs are reaching the same amount as what they owe me.
sorry to go on but im at a loss as to what to do now any ideas great fully received thanks for your time. dave

Hi,

Time will tell. If things don't work out I'll keep you posted!

Sheila

Sorry to contradict the last poster, but that's just the problem: Pipex don't listen. Good luck!

Hi, I'm new to this forum but just want to add my pennyworth to what has been said about Pipex. I had been with homecall for years with great service. The telephone line o/s the house was in bad state of repair and I asked Pipex to please get it repaired as I was paying them money for broadband and telephone service. Open Reach arrived last July and left again without doing anything about the problem. In Nov.'08 I decided the only thing to do was join B.T. to get them to repair the line as all lines are owned by them. I did so over the internet where they say they will take care of leaving the previous provider. I got a MAC code from Pipex, sent it to B.T. Everything appeared to be going great - the telephone line was fixed which took an entire day and I was very happy with the broadband which never fell out, and I could start hearing people who were 'phoning me.

Then at end of December '08 I received a letter from Pipex headed Outstanding Balance £18.85 - the next four paragraphs were taken up with how I could pay it but not telling me what it was for. Many automated phone calls then usually at eight o'clock in the morning asking me to phone them. I did pay this bill against my better judgement, and was 'rewarded' with a letter on 27th January, '09 from them saying they would refund the £18.85 pence once they received a 'Go-Live' letter from B.T. (I asked B.T. about this 'go-live' letter but they said that once the MAC code is put in place by them then automatically I receive the broadband from them as I only have one moden and it can only take one server.) End of problems, I thought, with Pipex, but no ........

On 9th February, '09 another letter received from Pipex headed Outstanding Balance £28.01 threatening to put a temporary bar on my outgoing call facility and not explaining what the bill was for and despite the fact I had been with B.T. from beginning of December. I did not pay the amount requested. On 5th March, '09 letter received from Pipex saying there had been system issues with cancelling the broadband service from the account and the writer had tried processing a request for cancellation again! I had no broadband service from them from 27th November until I put in the hub from B.T. which, incidentally, does not need to be wireless but can go through the phone line. The latest letter sent from them on 9th March, states that the bill is not now £28 but has risen to £52.45 with the threat that if payment is not received immeddately they will give the matter to an external debt collection agency. With this threat on me I did the VERY BEST THING and got in touch with the CITIZENS ADVICE BUREAU who were very helpful and have managed to get Pipex to stop all letters to me until they look at all the information. SO I WOULD SUGGEST THAT ANYONE HAVING A PROBLEM GO TO THE CITIZENS ADVICE BUREAU. They are extremely helpful and Pipex do listen.

Well this saga continues, Today I got a bill from CSS (Commercial Credit Services) debt collection agency threatening legal action against me, also adding costs not yet incurred and interest. Now I decided to be polite and dial the 0871 number to be greeted by a woman called Angela, and was treated like a dose of syphilis. However, I let her follow her debt collection procedure and refused to give her my email address or mobile number.

In true Doctor Livingstone fashion, I asked her to hold her horses, however she insisted on treating me like sysphilis as most debt collection agencies do and refused to listen to anything I had to say until she actually ran out of steam.

I informed her, it is Bulldog/GXnetworks/pipex/tiscali and Centrica Company (which owns British Gas too for those interested), actually owe me money.

I told Angela she will have to send the file back to Tiscali as what is owed, is in dispute and legally a requirement. Still she was not interested.. By now I am wondering when this woman "lower than a snakes belly" would shut up and listen.

Eventually I told her this case is with High Level Complaints and gave her the name of the person I am dealing with including the direct line number, she then said right, I will email him and was insistent I still owed money.

You can also add CCS to your list of "spineless people". Hopefully in her rage, you might find our recorded conversation on You Tube at some point in the future that she used as a weapon. You are guilty until proven innocent!

Really, you have to laugh about this abuse. I am not about to compromise my case until it is finalised. At that point I shall make some details public, to prevent others having to go through this systematic abuse.

Regards,

The Home Guard aka Dads Army hahah

I can totally relate to this post.I have been paying pipex/homecall to bar withheld numbers from my landline.This is not happening. So after a fruitless conversation with the Phillipines I decided to request a MAC code even though I have 8 months left of a 12 month agreement. The Phillipino girl told me I would have to repay the discount (£5.24) X every month outstanding I thought £40 ish to get away from these halfwits was worth paying. When I called to request my MAC code I was told this information was incorrect (surprise,surprise) and that I would have to pay the remainder of my contract at £19.99 per month.

Add this to the fact that I have had no call backs , as promised, to previous issues. and I was given my existing number when I moved house , despite asking for a free of charge new number, Now they are not providing the service I am paying for (barring witheld numbers) I feel Pipex/Homecall are in breach of contract and I will now be contacting Ofcom to discuss if I have any grounds to take my business elsewhere without paying the remainder of my contract off.

When homecall was totally UK based , 4 years ago, I had no problems Now Since Pipex/tiscali got hold of it my message to anyone considering using them is as above

A shocking service a lousy lying company

I voted with my feet. After being a Pipex for 7 years I called them to request a MAC code on the basis that I was going over to BT to get their 'To Go' broadband package.

They tried a retention tactic on me and offered to cut my monthly bill by almost 50%!!! I would have taken this but when i enquired about removing the Homecall package they then offered me a £4.99 deal instead. Obviously I accepted. I was paying £25 a month.

Following month I checked my statement - £25 charged.....called, queried....oh sorry Mr Randall....it hasnt been processed on system yet, sorry Mr Randall, there was a problem with the order, its been put through now and so on.

Each time I got the call centre people to check the history of conversations and each time they confirmed that I should be being charged £5. I'm a patient guy, what can I say - I really didnt want to leave them (changing email addresses etc) but earlier this month I gave it one last shot. Same story...sorry sorry , processing error - done for you now and then my Feb end bank statement....£25!!!

Called back - got through to Manila call centre in Phillipines. The girl tried to tell me that my £25 charge was some rental fee and a one off.....then i pointed her at the £25 charge for the previous month and she changed her tune and admitted that this was the monthly charge on my account. Then when I got her to read the history on the account and asked her what happened to £4.99 she had the gall to tell me that this was only ever a DISCOUNT offer e.g. that my standard bill would be discounted by £4.99 ...not that I would be charged £4.99 per month. A total misrepresentation of the facts and I challenged her to review recorded calls but she accepted that I had probably been misadvised (on repeated occasions).

Last straw. After another failed call back promise I got on the phone to Ofcom and registered a complaint and then called Pipex and got my MAC code.

They have made enough margin on me as a long standing customer - they have systemically failed to act in a manner which is fair and not misleading and I look forward to my new Broadband provider doing a better job.

Moral of the story....dont trust them, dont use them.

RESULT - well sort of. I received a phone call from Pipex earlier today assuring me that my cheque is now being drawn and a "goodwill gesture" amount of £10 added. I did ask him to forgive my cynicism but this is the 3rd time I have been promised the cheque. Only time will tell.....