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

You were not to know.

It is not in Pipex' interests to convert from a debit/credit card subscription to a Direct Debit system as they are forced into adhering to the Direct Debit rules and regulations. If you wish to cancel a Direct Debit, you write to your bank and that's the end of it.

With credit/debit card subscriptions there are no such protective measures and they can keep taking money from your account for as long as they like - call it legalised robbery if you like and you would not be far wrong. This can even happen when your credit/debit card has expired and there's almost nothing you can do about it.

I shall not keep on about this criminal company. Ofcom is impotent and no-one seems to care so all we can do is keep telling the truth and HOPE that this company eventually goes bust - but that's unlikely.

---

For every positive action, there's an equal and opposite government plan.

I've fared quite well in my communication endeavors - I was piddled around just a little too much, and went to the top of the tree with every problem:

peter.dubens AT pipex.net
 
mike.read AT pipex.net

Peter's the Chairman, and Mike's the Chief Exec.

You'll find you suddenly get calls returned very quickly !

---

My humble attempt to assist newbies with spyware and virus problems, in non-techy language where possible !

http://www.coreutilities.co.uk

Thank you for the contact details above. I've been a Pipex customer for over 13 years and must say I have always been happy with the actual internet connection/service provision of their dial up and ADSL services. I have had very few interruptions over the years and found them better at dealing with immediate technical difficulties on the phone, than many other companies I've dealt with over the years.

Having said that I could not agree more that *their customer service is appalling!* Over the years I have only had to deal with their customer services department a few times, but every time it has taken multiple emails, phone calls and faxes to get a basic response or rectify the issue!

My current Pipex nightmare: I have tried to get an answer as to why my two Pipex accounts (Pipex Dial & ADSL) have *6 live direct debit mandates* on my bank account!?... I tried phoe's suggestion of going to the top today - and will keep you posted!

O.

Hi Mate

 I have tried emailing both Peter and Mike but the email is not going through.

Is it right?

I haven't had an undeliverable message yet... I sent two messages so I am *assuming* that both went through. Needless to say I haven't had a reply yet - to either message.

thank you for posting these email addresses, I have been having an ongoing 5mth long problem with overcharging and have spoke to almost every blooming customer service advisor and been promised the earth, of course nothing happened to sort out my prob and emails werent answered. I found your posting this morning and sent off a quick to the point email to MR Dubens and Mr Read and hey presto, my problem answered and apparently resolved by 4pm today, about 5 hours after I emailed, It pays to go to the top, Im so glad I found your posting

Wow pensilva....

Sounds like a complete nightmare.

But I see why they do this now.... *sigh*

Wow..... what a nightmare.

Ah... rather sly with the direct debit thing huh?

But yes... Customer Care.... or lack off Line will get you no where.

Pipex keep phoning us saying that we want to sign up for broadband. We have recently signed up with virgin.

They have phoned us 8 times in 5 days.

They keep saying, "oh, sorry about that we will remove you from the list to phone." They never do.

AH get away. I don't want one of the worst companies phoning me every 2 seconds!

How did they even get our number?

I would like to add the following experience my husband and I have had with pipex...

 

An example of
Pipex customer service, dated 11 August 2007

 

We switched from Pipex to NTL in July 2006,
getting rid of our landline, and purchasing NTL’s internet/TV services only.

We wrote to cancel our Pipex homecall account by
August 2006, and received a letter of confirmation in September 2006. Come
November 2006, Pipex were still debiting money from our bank account, so we
cancelled the direct debit with the bank, having not had a landline or any
Pipex services for months.

We are still waiting for a refund for those
unwarranted direct debit payments.

Instead, we have continued to be harassed by
debt collection agencies acting on Pipex's behalf, trying to collect further
fees for services we have not had or used. We have made uncountable phone calls
to Pipex staff, sent faxes, and had verbal assurance by Pipex staff that they
are ‘dealing with our account’. I will add that a few months ago, a Pipex
employee told us during one of our phone calls that there had been some sort of
‘computer failure’ in August 2006, and that our account was one of a few which
had been affected by this, and that a ‘special team’ had been organised to deal
with these customers, from whom we would hear from in due course.

 

Yet this week, over a year on, we received yet
another letter from a debt collection agency, and we have had to make yet
another premium rate phone call to try to get this issue resolved.

We made two more phone calls today after
receiving this last invoice.

The first phone call resulted in our being told
that, in fact, we owed Pipex line rental, because we did not respond to a
letter from Pipex, which confirmed receipt of our letter giving them 30
days notice! And as such, line rental had accumulated up to November 2006, and
administration charges, (a line which had been disconnected in July 2006). This
was the first time that an explanation of the fees owed had been explained in
this way.

I quote from the letter dated September 2006
from Pipex:

 

“ We are sorry you wish to leave Pipex”,
(therefore acknowledging our intent).

 

“If your request to cancel is due to you moving
house please contact us immediately as we may be able to offer you some great
savings”,(we were not moving house).

 

“If you would like to discuss these options in
more detail”, (we had phoned and written to say we did not want Pipex’s
services, and yet were being invited to pay for another phone call for a sales
pitch.

 

During our second phone call today, we asked to
be put through to someone who would deal with a complaint, the outcome of which
was for Pipex to clear our account.

We think that this treatment is unacceptable.

We initially called to say that we wished to
terminate our service, and were told to put it in writing to give 30 days
notice, which we did. Not once have we received an apology from Pipex, and
although Pipex have agreed not to bill us, the money that was taken from our
bank account up to November 2006, 3 months after our cancellation letter, has
not been refunded to us. We have also had to pay for many phone calls
throughout, and we are very concerned that by having had this matter passed
through 2 different credit agencies, our credit rating will have been affected.

Hi  -  sorry  to  hear  of  your  problems.  Unfortunately  I  signed  up  with  pipex  early  this  year (2007)  Homecall & Broadband - phone  side  is  ok  but  pipex  will  not  return  emails  or  letters  about  their  inability to provide the broadband service.  I  am  at  the  stage  where  I  have  lost  all  confidence  and  have  written  to  request  termination  of  our  contract,  but  have  had  no  replies.  My  reason  for  contacting  you  is -  I  am  thinking  of  stopping  my  direct  debit,  and  wondered  if  you  could  say  how  it  affects  your  credit  status  if  Pipex  start  sending  the  debt  collectors  round.  For  example  did  it  affect  your  credit  card  etc.

Any  advice  or  input  would  be  appreciated.

Regards

Spike 

peter.dubens AT pipex.net



mike.read AT pipex.net

 try emailing them direct, these pair are the chief executive and managing director of pipex, also try

Sheena Shah <customercare AT pipex.net>

 

when l complained to mike and peter l had a reply from sheena within 5 or 6 hours and my problem resolved after 5 months of being ignored. I dont know if they send debt collectors etc because l am still with them and since l dont live on the uk mainland debt collectors arent legal over here, anyway, give the above a try, good luck :-) 

Hi -  thanks  for  quick  response.  I  have  sent  emails  to  the  above  addresses.  I'll  let  you  know  the  outcome.

Thanks  again

 

Spike 

I have just skimmed your problem but it sounds like your having a problem with them contacting you.

 We are the opposite. They will not leave us alone. They have been phoning at least every day! It's 2.20pm 25 august 2007 and today they have already phoned 2 times!!!

 

I would say GET OUT OF PIPEX!!! In my experience Virgin have been really good. Their website is a bit quirky because it is blueyonder,ntl,telewest and virgin.net all in one but you get used to it and they are trying to pull it all together. Also they are really cheap! We have unlimited (3-5 meg due to my area) broadband and unlimited calls and free TV for £20 a month. (non-cable)

 

Want a cheap phone number? saynoto0870(.)com!