Unwanted Pipex line rental

Nitey

My landline up to a couple of months ago was with BT I then started getting bills from Pipex, as I was not to my knowledge a Pipex customer I didn't pay the bill. I then got cut off I contacted BT who confirmed Pipex had talen my landline, this was without my consent and BT apolagised. I have since spent many minutes trying to talk to a Pipex employee in the Indian sub continent without getting any sense. I have written to Customer Service at Pipex but naturally got no reply. I have made a complaint to Ofcom and Otelo but have to go through a proceedure but they did tell me it was a serious case of 'slamming'.
I will not be paying Pipex and indeed would like to sue them for stress, inconvenience and expense they have caused me.
Any advice would be appreciated.

Heinz

I thought Pipex was taken over by Tiscali in 2007 and Tiscali was taken over by Carphone Warehouse (Talk Talk) in 2008.

Or perhaps that explains it.

BTW, why should BT apologise?

macman

Might have helped had you contacted BT/Pipex as soon as it they billed you, rather than ignoring the bill, that way you might not have been cut off.

Mark_In_Hampshire

I seem to come at this from a completely different perspective to everyone else.

Your contract was with BT.

Pipex can send you as many bills as you like, but you have no obligation to pay them as you have no contract with them.

When the line got cut off, and now, it's up to BT - the contracted party - to reinstate your service and put you back in the position you were in.

There was and is no need or reason to pursue Pipex, only BT, who have been shafted by Pipex and as a result have breached their contract to supply with you. So it's up to them to put it right. While the line remains non functional BT remain in breach of contract.

Anyone care to offer a different interpretation?

macman

Agree totally that it's BT's job to remedy this. But contacting either BT or Pipex at the outset would have prevented the line being cut off-Pipex don't just bill you 'in error', they bill you because the system says you have a service with them.
How the service came to be with Pipex is of course another matter...

Nitey

BT apolagised because they agreed that I had not contacted them and asked to be transferred to Pipex also they didn't send me a letter to say sorry you are leaving, I will be back with BT very shortly as they are re-instating my service. I don't agree that I should have paid Pipex bill, why should I if I have not asked them to take my landline, as I said as far as I was concerned I was a BT customer, and have you ever tried to contact a Pipex rep and get sense, impossible. They also lied to me saying I had been a customer of theirs since 2007 and when I asked how I had been paying my bill up to then they said with a credit card! They wouldn't tell me what credit card it was unsurprisingly. I believe Pipex got my details as I was a customer of Toucan 3 years age who are now Pipex (they were rubbish also).

Mark_In_Hampshire

Nitey wrote: »

BT apolagised because they agreed that I had not contacted them and asked to be transferred to Pipex also they didn't send me a letter to say sorry you are leaving, I will be back with BT very shortly as they are re-instating my service. I don't agree that I should have paid Pipex bill, why should I if I have not asked them to take my landline, as I said as far as I was concerned I was a BT customer, and have you ever tried to contact a Pipex rep and get sense, impossible. They also lied to me saying I had been a customer of theirs since 2007 and when I asked how I had been paying my bill up to then they said with a credit card! They wouldn't tell me what credit card it was unsurprisingly. I believe Pipex got my details as I was a customer of Toucan 3 years age who are now Pipex (they were rubbish also).

I don't think anyone suggested that you should have paid Pipex a penny, quite the reverse.

One further aspect of this I]line[/I] [I]slamming[/I which is concerning though is not simply that the new, thieving provider has "the line" but how they get the personal details to know where to send the bill in the first place but in your case it seems they had your details to begin with.

Presumably in other situations where a provider thieves a line, they end up with a line they pay Openreach for, but with no end customer and nobody to send a bill to.