Pipex Problems

tonyg_2

I today received an invoice from Pipex for almost £100 despite cancelling my account months ago and receiving confirmation by phone (and I think email) multiple times. This letter even had the audacity to say "We recently spoke to you regarding an issue with your Direct Debit. We would like to confirm that the current outstanding amount is..." - no, they didn't recently speak to me - really impolite.

So I phone up their 0845 number and when they answered a voice was laughing on the phone for about 20secs. I try to talk to him/her and they put the phone down. I phone again and this time another agent appears to be laughing, but just a little this time.

I ask him to transfer my to a CS Manager, who after a lot of persuasion does so. After explaining the incidents to the CD Manager he says "what is it you want to talk to me about, I'm in a meeting."

Eventually he confirms that my account was closed ages ago and that this letter is a "standard letter." A standard letter that tells me that I owe money and that I spoke to them about this when I didn't!!!!!! Wow!!!

Pipex. Completely shameful, shameful, shameful service.

The CS manger has now promised to email me to confirm that my account is closed. He told me to throw the letter away. He has promised to inform me that they have identified the CS agents and that appropriate action has been taken.

In the meantime - let's name and shame such terrible customer service attitudes.

Jo6673

I was with Pipex and wish I'd bl%dy stayed!
Like I posted the other day
TALK TALK- I got so mad the other night after an hour on hold or being told boll... er.. rubbish, I told the person in the India call centre that if my company gave customer service like i'd had from them I'd have been shot.
After a long silence I had to explain that it was an English saying- I didn't mean literally!
Brought the smile back to my face though!
Won't even tell you what I said to someone trying to sell me Talk Talk in Wilko's in Leeds this afternoon .....GGGGRRRRRRR!!!!

Bernie

I too was with Pipex and am using TalkTalk. Had no problems getting connected but the speed is nowhere near agreed. In debate (via email) with TT. If they cannot sort it, I am accusing them of breach of contract.

Pipex suffer badly from the "New Customer Only" syndrome. They ignored all my requests to review my service after I completed my contract - I was paying £23.99 for a 1 mb service, my friend was paying £15.99 and received a 2.2 mb service. While their tech support is brilliant, marketing is really poor so I left for the green fields of TT. They did nothing, even when I contacted them to close the account. I reckon that TV ad was based on Pipex...

TT's tech support is non-existent on-line, contrasting starkly with Pipex's excellent technical help pages. I cannot obtain the newsgroup service with TT, something I've set up dozens of times with straightforward ease. To sort it out, they expect me to phone them on one of their 0870 numbers. Yeah! Right!

I'll do my time with TalkTalk and will be dropping them like a brick as soon as possible...

star69_2

I'm just in the process of leaving pipex, bless em , they have charged me a cancellation fee even though i have left within the agreed time slot my,they are telling me now i cant have my money back until the 12 of december when the contract finishes. It 85 quid, im going to ring them back today and ask them for the interest back on it as well.... idiots.

im off to talk talk , i shall see what happens, so far they have called me 4 times for my mac code which they already have, better to be safe than sorry i suppose, and i can only get 1mb on my telephone line so speed isnt a issue... saving money is..

Frell

I had a letter from Pipex this morning about thier direct debit issues have been sorted and that they will retake the blance out on the 7th of December, So gave them a call they picked up stright away (yes I was surprised) and spoke to the woman there, She said ahh yes your account is over £200 I said !!!!!!, I said you havent taken a payment since June, And you;ve had all my details on file, and you have taken payment, "Oh but we;ve had trouble with DD" I thought ok then went on to say "Why didnt you call me for a card number or something to take a payment, I refuse point blank to pay the full balance as its not my fault" Then I was put on hold for a few minutes, Then she came back and said "I just spoke to to a manager and they said we can write off £90 and you must pay the rest, and we can set up a payment plan over 3 months so all you need to do is to pay just over 60 a month for the next 3 months"

Shameful service, I dont begrudge paying them the money thats owed because of course i used the service, (even though how crap it is after all i paid AoHell), But it would have been nice if they could have wrote more of the debt off, When I call them next week with payment info I will try and get more knocked off.

Just before the convo finished I said "Next June I better not have no trouble getting my MAC from Pipex as I want to leave this service its dire, And I cant see how you can countine to run the way you are"

So meh I wouldnt recommend pipex to noone. Now I need to look in to getting a different broadband service, next year I might even buy out the rest of my pipex contract.

max_biaggi

I was a happy Homecall customer who got "transferred" to Pipex in August. What follows is a copy of my most recent letter to Pipex.

A tip to avoid the 0845 (if you are on a free calls package) use the 0161 number at the very bottom of the bill in small print.

Dear Sir/Madam,

I have made numerous calls to your company trying to sort out my bills
since my September bill, and all subsequent bills, arrived incorrect.
The last of these was to N****i (ext 1*****) where the following 3
actions were agreed.

1) Recalculation of Sept, Oct and Nov bills, as calls had been wrongly
routed through BT and all UK landline calls at anytime were
included and this to be credited on the Dec bill

2) £35 owed to me previously and £5 on the then current bill (Nov) to
be credited on the December bill.

3) Switch to an 8Mb + all UK calls (inc 25% off mobiles) + line rental
tariff for an all in cost of £29.99 per month. Subject to a new
12 month contract.

I phoned again today just to check that all the agreed actions from my
last call had been carried out.

I was answered by S***** on ext 1***** who told me that the "Notes did
not support" my version. ie. NONE of points had been recorded, yet
alone actioned! He also said he was "unable" to let me speak to his
manager (Mr C**** H******) or N**** (who was there but "too busy doing
something else to take calls").

Please listen to my call with N**** ext 1*****on 29/11/2006 between
approx 1.45 - 2pm, in which these actions were VERY CLEARLY agreed.

My account number is 1********and my telephone number is ***********
I would appreciate an email of acknowledgement ASAP (today) and a
timetable of when this is finally going to be sorted out.

I would also expect some compensation for my time and trouble trying
to untangle this mess, which has dragged on since September.

Yours Sincerely



I'm not holding my breath

danbilling

All these stories of Pipex and Talk Talk customer service issues sound so familliar. I have been with them both, and dispair completely that they can get away with delivering either shoddy or non-existent product and expecting us to pay through the nose for it.

chrispyphillips

Man, i'm with Pipex too, and I cant stand them. Well, i say i'm with them, I really mean they are providing a service to my old address, which i moved from a month ago and still havent had the service reconnected at my new address, and i'm still paying them for this!! Appalling. I've also sent them emails regarding a set up account from last year when i should have had 2 months free where they only gave me one month - no reply, and then i was told moving to my new address would take 7-10 days, a month later i'm still waiting

"I'm sorry Mr Phillips but that information you were given is incorrect, it actually takes 31 days to move an account with us"

WELL I WASNT TOLD THAT WAS I?!!?! :mad:

how come the right and the left dont fancy talking to each other at these companies.

Sometimes i wonder if we like to whinge cos we're 'British' and all that, but with companies like this operating, i really do think we have a right to do so.

Oh yeah, a word of warning, !!!!!!, dont ring their 0845 number, get put in a queue and hang on the phone for ages and ages! ring 01707 299507 for customer services, or 0161 4511000 for custiomer services (homecall)

We're already paying them enough money for a pathetic service, why pay even more!!!

The thing is, who can we go with next thats any good?

Gazpablo

I have been a Pipex customer for over three years and have experienced a sharp decline in service over the past 12 months or so. When the customer and technical services were good I was happy to pay a somewhat premium price for a good, rock-steady internet service but now Pipex is over-priced for existing customers and the service is poor, particularly if you experience billing problems. This is a common experience which has been posted on this forum and others such as the ADSL Guide.

It should serve as a stark warning to everyone - Pipex is chasing new customers and has concentrated their energies on short-term revenue and profits growth. I really would not be surprised to see Pipex sold to another company in the near-future. In the meantime I am watching closely to see which ISP to move to - to be honest I'm very wary of all internet service providers. It is a shame - broadband should not be a miserable experience but it sure is with Pipex.

The new OFCOM ruling out today, and effective from 14 February 2007, requiring internet service providers to supply MAC codes on request is a very welcome move to stop some of the internet service bandits. After all as customers we have a right to a reasonable service when we have paid and expect the supplier to honour their side of the contract.

chezzers

Got to be fair, I've been with Homecall/Pipex for 2 years now, and apart from one billing issue (which was sorted out straight away), i've had very good service from them. I use the 0845 number and always get through to the british call centre.
I'll agree that they do pursue the new-customer business, but who in the service industry doesn't.
To be honest the new customer only offers were starting to get to me, so I decided to call them yesterday regarding this. At the moment I recieve the Homecall Anytime/Line Rental and 1mb Broadband package for £35.97 and wanted to upgrade my broadband. After calling the customer service line I now have the 2mb package at £29.99. Ok i don't get the immediate new customer package, and I have to sign a new 12 month contract, but i'll have faster broadband and save £5.98 a month.

Bangor79

Yeah i also had bad experiences with Pipex and have just switched a couple of weeks ago. They charged me the £85 cancellation fee even though i was outside 12 months and after contacting them have said they will refund within 14 working days - they must make quite a lot of interest doing this to everyone.

Over the months i also had problems with very slow internet connection and them asking for money which had already been paid.