"talk to your bank and see if they can help you out."

There is no if about it. The DD Guarantee states:

"If the amounts to be paid by Direct Debit or the payment dates change, the organisation collecting the payment will notify you normally 10 working days in advance of your account being debited or as otherwise agreed.

If an error is made by the organisation or your bank or building society, you are guaranteed a full and immediate refund from your branch of the amount paid.

If any payment is made in error, you should contact your bank or building society who are responsible for giving you a full and immediate refund - even if the original error was made by the organisation collecting the payment."

http://www.bacs.co.uk/BPSL/directdebit/generalpublic/yourrights/


Everyone with DDs with Pipex need to be very wary. They ride roughshod over the DD rules. Even when customers cancel DDs to protect themselves, Pipex illegally create new ones pretending that they have the customer's authority for this.

Among the DD FAQs:

Q. Can money be collected from my/our account after I have cancelled a Direct Debit Instruction?

A. No. The organisation would have to get your authority to reinstate a cancelled instruction.

The bottom line here is that many people don't have Direct Debit protection as they use a credit/debit card to set up the subscription and this is NOT protected by DD mandates.

The UK banks know of this problem and I find it completely unacceptable that they often refuse to help people who are being ripped off by rogue organisations such as Pipex. However, this pile of proverbial is hardly alone. AOL is also there at the top of the pile of people who keep taking money that they are not entitled to.

---

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

Back in June 2006 I applied for an upgrade from 1mb to 2mb serves, I
never got the 2mb serves from Pipex and the serves was cancelled.
In January 2007 I decided to join another broadband supplier so I
had to get a migration code from Pipex. So I gave them a call.
I had to call them 3 times before I got the code.
On the 15th of January 2007 Pipex took £264.75 and £23.99 from
my account. I phoned them, I explained the situation and after about 1 hour
on the phone they told me I did not get the 2mb serves and they will refund the
money they took in error. They told me the refund can take up to 30 days.
On the 7th of February 2007 they took £85.02 from my account, I phoned them,
They told me this was for the 2mb serves up till April 2007 and I should apply for
a refund from the 11th February to the 4th April. I told them I never had this serves.
But because I am no longer a customer they can not check my line and therefore
can not prove I did not have the 2mb serves.
After a long conversation it looks like they will not refund any money now and
have to email costumer serves about it.
I am, as you can imagine furious!

MaxT2000:Back in June 2006 I applied for an upgrade from 1mb to 2mb serves, I
never got the 2mb serves from Pipex and the serves was cancelled.
In January 2007 I decided to join another broadband supplier so I
had to get a migration code from Pipex. So I gave them a call.
I had to call them 3 times before I got the code.
On the 15th of January 2007 Pipex took £264.75 and £23.99 from
my account. I phoned them, I explained the situation and after about 1 hour
on the phone they told me I did not get the 2mb serves and they will refund the
money they took in error. They told me the refund can take up to 30 days.
On the 7th of February 2007 they took £85.02 from my account, I phoned them,
They told me this was for the 2mb serves up till April 2007 and I should apply for
a refund from the 11th February to the 4th April. I told them I never had this serves.
But because I am no longer a customer they can not check my line and therefore
can not prove I did not have the 2mb serves.
After a long conversation it looks like they will not refund any money now and
have to email costumer serves about it.
I am, as you can imagine furious!

The best thing to do is get in contact with your bank and put an indemnity request in. Keep a note of any E-Mails or conversations you have with Pipex and the bank will sort the rest out for you. Make sure you also take proof to the bank of the cancelled service / lack of so they know you should not be getting billed.

And 1 other thing, dont take no for an answer from your bank, they sometimes try to pass the buck and you can end up ringing backwards and forwards between your ISP and the bank trying to get someone to take some responsibility.

---

'Now, I have become Death, the destroyer of worlds.'

Pipex kept charging me every month for five months after I cancelled my Pipex service. After five months of e-mails, letters and phone calls I finally got a statement from them this month which showed that they had cleared my supposed debt. According to them I now owe them nothing and my contract has been terminated. And how did I get this result? I eventually e-mailed their Press Officer. I had a return e-mail assuring me that it would be sorted and lo and behold it appears that she meant business.
Forget the chimps on the phones at customer care. Go for the big wigs.

I have spoken to NINE agents in all, some so called team leaders, and all of them are obstructive and unhelpful, perhaps you might discuss the poor level of service agents and team leaders provide at the next staff meeting.

Do you know who is ultimately in charge of customer services at pipex, most of the agents did not know who was in charge any further than their team leader, these team leaders are just as awkward and unsupportive.

Pixex - the company you defend so vehemently has a poor record when it comes to dealing with the public, and you know it.

The majority of agents I spoke to agreed that pipex is inept, and all the problems I was experiencing are their fault, it seems that you alone take a pride in their work, so come on, lead a revolution at pipex. However, I do not believe there is anything a person in your position can do.

Perhaps you could post a list of names of these helpful managers so we can all benefit.

I am slowly putting together a list of staff contacts and emails on the dedicated site www.pipexproblems.co.uk which I set up in response the the problems they have caused me, it would be really helpful if you guys could also post the names in the forum on there also.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Hi to all who have been ripped off by this so called supplier. I am lucky, I do not use this ISP thank god but know of friends who use them and they too have had a few problems.

As an Accounting Technician I have to know a little concerning the "Sale Of Goods Act" and the "Consumer Credit Act".

Hopefully everyone who has had a problem have reported the problem within a reasonable time scale (lets say 14 days to be safe) and given Pipex the opportunity to put things right, again within a reasonable time scale (for safety, lets say 28 days). Provided that all this has been done then you can call up Pipex and tell them that the supply that they have given you is not fit for the purpose of the costs involved.

Make sure that from the date you have given them to improve the service that you do NOT use this service
If they maintain that the service is suitable then if paying by Direct Debit you must stop the Direct Debit
if paying by Credit Card then you must advise the Credit Card company that you wish to stop the payments and the reasons why

When Pipex threaten with legal action let them, they will try and frighten you into paying, but make sure that you have details of every letter, email and telephone conversation with them (make sure that when you call them you ask for the call reference). If they do sue through the county courts make sure that you make a "counter claim" against them using the "Sale Of Goods Act" -- Suitability. Also make sure you claim your expenses and interest on money you have already paid. Expenses are any costs involved in getting the problem sorted

This has worked for my friends, but, like I say they will try bully tactics and scaring you into making the payments

As for speed tests I find that the most accurate is at the following

http://www.dslreports.com

Please tell me how you managed it!

I have been trying to obtain a MAC key from them for 4 weeks now!

PLEASE HELP ME!!!!!!!!

in an email conversation with someone from 'customer service' they state that they 'feel' that a 2mb is adequate for the 'up to 8Mb service' in spite of the fact that i was told my line would enable me to receive speeds of 6.5Mb.

needless to say, they are NOT even supplying 2Mb, but their 'systems' say that is what i am downloading at.

i have then replied that i shall pay a quarter of the 25 quid a month, for this quarter of the speed they are supplying.

unlikely that this will be fruitful, as this company is a total farce, run by incompetent cretins it would appear.
roll on next november when i can get out of this contract.

on another note, what is the score with moving house - do you have to start up a new contract, or will they continue to supply the service.

if i was to move to guernsey, for example, do pipex offer a service there?

cheers for any advice

I really feel sorry for all you guys with Pipex.Seeing all this no one would touch them with a barge pole. Is there the possibility of the Broadband expert here asking to meet with the Chief Executive to show the ongoing damage being done to their business? Surely,someone with authority at Pipex must be able to respond with some hope and efforts to improve matters.What about this Press Officer?

Has anyone tried Watchdog or Which or the Times which have powerful media voices?

Good luck.

Hi everyone, this is my first post so please bear with me.

I too have had the same problems since upgrading to 8mb broadband with pipex in Nov last year.

I noticed that my p2p downloads were maxingin at 20k/s which was really annoying considering it was supposed to be an unlimited and un-capped service. Hadnt even heard of the Fair Usage Policy until a few weeks ago.

I have tried setting my utorrent connection to Encription enabled but still no improvement. At my wits end and pondering another 9 months of this restricted service i found this link on the net and am now getting a peak of 108k/s this morning!!!!


Below is a link to the forum that i found this information:

The changes i made were to the MTU settings (under "Slow downland speeds" heading ). My netgear router was already set, so i only had to make the change on my computer only (there is a link to the software to do this).

http://www.mobilemaster.co.uk/Clientsites/pipex/index.php?module=pnForum&func=viewforum&forum=1


There is also an explanation of the time periods that PIPEX use to to calculate their FUP(under "Bandwith Restrictions" heading), so as a temporary measure i have stopped all of my d/loads from 17:00 to 23:00 on weekdays to see if this also helps my speeds.

Well i hope that this information helps at least some of you.

Cheers, J.

Hey a second post from me so quickly!!

Anybody having problem obtaining a MAC code should read the following link that came into effect on the 14th Feb 2007.

http://www.ofcom.org.uk/media/news/2006/12/nr_20061213

I remember hearing something on the radio that they must supply it within 5 days, somebody else may be able to shed more light on this new ruling.

Cheers, J.

Today I received a letter from Pipex saying I was a heavy user and was outside their Fair Use policy. I checked what this was - it talked about heavy use during peak periods - but didn't say what was FAir Use during peak periods.

I spoke to Pipex Technical Support and Customer Service - who both said that I needed to reduce my total download usage for the month - not just cut back in peak periods. This makes a nonsense of the "Unlimited" claims for PipexMax.

I have made a complaint to Trading Standards - I recommend that anyone else who has the same issues does the same.

that is outrageous

in a similar issue i have with them, when i was told by the sales rep that i could expect speeds around 6.5Mb, i have been informed by some cretin on their customer support line that they do not have a recording of that conversation. funny that they do record the proof of them reading out the terms and conditions that tie you to them for a year.

roll on november when i shall be out of their contract.

and i have found out that if you move house i.e. to somewhere where they do not supply broadband connectivity, you still have to pay the balance of your contract.

what kind of racket is this?


i hope fulham get relegated and pipex's share price goes through the floor.