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After V21 my nightmare wasn't ended elsewhere (Pipex)

I was essentially happy with V21 then came the Net servies nightmare. When my tag was removed I then applied to Pipex for broadband, line and calls bundle. It has taken me three registrations, 9 phone calls and inefficency from them. This means it will be well into January causing me a lot of inconvenience after the previous nightmare. At one point my application was cancelled becaue THEY spelled Glasgow wrongly twice and also altered my postcode.

It means I will have waited around 5 weeks to get a broadband connection. I think I would probably have got the bundle faster had I given Biscit a try. I really am angry that it is taking me so long to get broadband because this dialup is yet another nightmare addition.

There seems no end to this for me. If I have any more hassle from Pipex I wll cancel and look arounf for a bundle elsewhere as the lack of BB is a headache for my work, etc.
 
I'm sorry to hear you are still having problems. It's about time ISPs got their act together in this country, it's a shambles.

A work m8 of mine is still waiting for a cease on his line. He rings Netservices daily, but they are not doing anything as they don't deal with real people, only resellers.

Things arn't all tickety-boo with ezeedsl. Still waiting to get on new package I signed up for, no customer service etc. Just like Biscit when it comes to communication.

We deserve better than this. These companies need a kick up the xxxx

Merry Christmas m8. Hope things get better for you in 2007
 
This whole situation with V21 and Biscit is an absolute nighmare. I was one of the lucky ones who still had service after the Netservices issue, however the level of service from V21 had declined so i decided to swap to Biscit. What a nighmare, still after 3 weeks, 30 phone calls 20 emails there are unresolved technical issues, now all I want is a MAC so I can leave and go to a propor ISP. All their Customer service does is take your name and details and promise a phone call back. IT NEVER HAPPENS. You are best off away from this company, and if ever I can get away I will be joining you!
 
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This whole situation with V21 and Biscit is an absolute nighmare. I was one of the lucky ones who still had service after the Netservices issue, however the level of service from V21 had declined so i decided to swap to Biscit. What a nighmare, still after 3 weeks, 30 phone calls 20 emails there are unresolved technical issues, now all I want is a MAC so I can leave and go to a propor ISP. All their Customer service does is take your name and details and promise a phone call back. IT NEVER HAPPENS. You are best off away from this company, and if ever I can get away I will be joining you!

When you find a proper ISP could you share it with the rest of us?;)
 
I was essentially happy with V21 then came the Net servies nightmare. When my tag was removed I then applied to Pipex for broadband, line and calls bundle.
Sorry to hear that's happened. I applied to Pipex, they successfully submitted the order to BT within hours of me signing up, and my line was connected on the scheduled date roughly a week later.

I actually also signed up with Eclipse first - but I realised that my line hadn't been cleared by the time I signed up with them. This meant that as far as Eclipse were concerned, my line had a problem on it, I tried chasing them on the phone to say it's okay now, but they still didn't put the order through. I got fed up of waiting after only one extra day - and that's when I signed up with Pipex, which went through without a problem.

So my advice to you is firstly to check whether there's a cease or provide order on your line or not - you can find this out from this link, signing in with your BT account username and password. If you haven't registered a BT online account yet, then you will need your most recent BT phone bill to hand to do this. If you don't pay BT for your line rental, then unfortunately this facility will not work.

If you can't see the cease order, then it means you were never disconnected from Netservices. Hopefully you shouldn't have this problem by now! But if you do, then post here and get onto Ofcom about it!

If you can see the cease but can't see the provide, then it means that due to Pipex's administrative bunglings, they haven't actually placed the order for you yet. This means there's nothing stopping other ISP's connecting your line.

As soon as one ISP has successfully placed a provide order, this will prevent other ISP's from ordering on your line - so it really doesn't matter if you sign up with more than one ISP. Sign up with as many as you like, and it's simply a question of who gets there first. If you offer to pay by direct debit, then most ISP's will not collect the subscription fee unless they successfully connect you. For that reason, I'd suggest you don't worry about trying to "cancel" anything with Pipex unless and until a different ISP successfully connects your line.

Of course, if you can see the provide, it means that Pipex have got their act together, and it's simply a matter of waiting for BT to do it.

Hope that has helped.
 
I have sympathy for your predicament having also gone through the NetServices fiasco. I resisted the Ezeedsl option that seemed to be forced upon us preferring to wait for the cease, only for the "tag" to be a stumbling block preventing me from signing up to a new ISP until late on the Sunday after the Friday "cease order".

After checking around for a decent ISP and looking at complaints pages I signed up to the "BE 24Meg" at around 11pm on the Sunday and come Monday 9:30am I was informed I would be online by the Friday after.

I checked my account page each day and the order progressed exactly as they described including the delivery of the ADSL2+ modem (order tracked to my door) 2 days before the activation. On the Friday my line was activated at 9:37am synchronising at 10.9 megs and apart from an emailed warning of a possible outage between 1am and 6am the next day(which didn't happen) I have had a solid connection ever since.

After the shoddy treatment I have received previously from a variety of ISP's it came as a surprise and relief to find such efficiency.

As yet I have not tested the customer service or call centre which is foreign based but the forum seems to be well staffed and informative and at least they email warnings of planned outages for maintenance.

I realise BE are now owned by O2 and things may change but I have no hesitation in recommending BE especially if you live close to a BT exchange and so can get near the 24 megs download potential. Even so nearly 11 megs for £24 a month seems pretty good.

I wish you luck with your continuing problems, most of us former V21 members sure need some.
 
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When you find a proper ISP could you share it with the rest of us?;)

I'm an ex V21 victim who was able to piggyback with a local wireless signal while I waited for my cease. I went through all the reviews. Firefly seem great. I was connected 4 days early and the speeds are consistent and fast. Good service based in UK with calls (in my experience) within a minute. Good support website and you can read about them here http://www.ispreview.co.uk/review/censura.php?cmd=details&itemid=286

Good luck! :D
 
Correct me if I'm wrong, but aren't Firefly just another Netservices reseller? :crap:

The only two isp's that I'm hearing good things about at the moment are IDNet, and Entanet (Freeola/UKFSN etc etc...).

I'm with Sky Broadband, but I wouldn't recommend then to anyone just at the moment - they've still got customer service issues to sort out first! My connection's been great so far, so thankfully I've not had to call them. :D
 
I was essentially happy with V21 then came the Net servies nightmare. When my tag was removed I then applied to Pipex for broadband, etc.

Mine Gott Pipex,
Ha ha you are unlucky,for god sake don`t sign up with them,they are one of the worst ISP`s in the country.They just don`t give a fig about their customers
and their service is terrible with throttling and non existant support.They have done you a favour by messing up your application,escape now while you can:eek:

DE
 
Pipex OK

Sorry, have to defend Pipex here - activated by them on the date stated after leaving the v21/Biscit fiasco. Monitored the speeds over the 10 day settling in ADSL period - sent off the results and within 24 hours speeds were up to what I expected. Yesterday had phone call from their customer service dept asking if things were OK, told me BT had worked on the line to get speeds even higher. If Pipex continue as they started, then I'll have no cause for complaint. Just seems that unlike Biscit they do take an interest in customers.
 
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bobm
Sorry, have to defend Pipex here - activated by them on the date stated after leaving the v21/Biscit fiasco.
Thanks for that, but to be honest I don't think there's much to tell between any ISP. Now is not the time for mis-placed brand loyalty.

If you're really worried about being stuck with an ISP you don't like, then find out what their quit fee is before you sign up. At the moment, Pipex's quit fee is £58.75. It's not the cheapest - Eclipse is £47 and Virgin is £50, but it's not the most expensive either - Demon's quit fee can run in to several hundreds of pounds.

I think Pipex is great too, my connection was on schedule and speeds have been fine since. But my point is, don't let misplaced loyalty stop you signing up elsewhere if they're not delivering. I don't think rjhowie is in a position to decide what to do until after checking the BT landline orders.
 
Those of us who've been burnt will avoid netservices' associates like the plague but how can you tell?

Unless you sign up for BT or one of the cable companies (and the Lord knows they're not all they're cracked up to be!) isn't there a risk with any company.

Someone has said that there might be problems with BE 'cos they're an O2 company - well didn't O2 used to be a part of BT?

A few people are saying that Fast4 are great - well they used to be. I was with them and never had a problem that they didn't resolve with courtesy and understanding - then they switched me to V21!

At least I'm back on-line with V21's dial up for the time being (they might eventually realise that I stopped my direct debit when the whole netservices fiasco began) but I want my broadband back - I've paid for it and I'm getting nothing in return.

Perhaps BT should have some sort of policy where really really hard done to customers could ask BT to switch us for a nominal fee without a MAC code.
 
You could use entanet supplied ISPs as they all give out MAC codes most do charge an activation fee but I hear freeola is a no activation fee.

Some Nestervices supples ISPs do give out MACs it seems those that didn't or couldn't owed NS money. From Feb 14th this will not be allowed as MAC codes cannot be help onto for your ISPs debt.
 
I do believe that we have all been victims but to add a positive to this: I signed up with BT Broadband Option 3 had my router delivered 4 days later, plugged it in and 3 days before the official go live I was on. They had put me on the 512kbps service because my line wouldn't support any faster, according to their remote test. Once I was live and 24 hours after my official go live I phoned them again and had the line tested. They said it could support 3.5-4.5 Mbps so put the order through. I was told that this takes 7 days but 3 days later I was getting speeds in excess of 3Mbps. I now have a rock solid 4,256 Kbps Upstream and 448 Kbps Downstream line. The 10 day testing is not over yet but the router has not changed other than a couple of 100 kbps downstream for the last 2 days.
Their customer service has been excellent and on an 0800 number ..... Well except for a Edited please lets think before posting. from India trying to tell me BT Home Hub does not work with Linux and I would have to cancel my contract with them..... "I have news for you pall the router runs on Linux and all works fine except I couldn't activate my BB phone because you need to run some **** applet from the supplied CD." Eventually I found that you can run the applet on-line and it activates the router for you.

One of my neighbours signed up with Fast4 on the Sunday after the cease was completed and on Monday he got an e-mail to say he was live. He called me up a little sceptical and asked me to come and set up his router with the details they sent him. I went round on Tuesday 4pm and set it up and he was indeed on-line at 3.9Mbps now that is service.....

I hope Biscit and Netservises become infested with a thousand flies... and both burn and collapse.

One good thing is that OFCOM have pushed through the new MAC code protocols as a result of the debarcle. So at least in the future we can just tell our ISP to go and whistle if they do not deliver and as long as you do it properly they can't even chase you for leaving a contract early as they will have broken the contract not you.
 
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That's fine for you bobm but I have hardly got much comfort or joy from pipex's care for customers. I appliedon 4th December and I would remind you that i have had to register THREE TIMES and went through my tenth phone call recently. My phone swithce on 10th January and as the info pulicised by them states your broadband is 15 days after that it means I will have waited just short of two months!

My nephew had some probs getting onto Pipex and did get a good service once on but I am being bodyswerved getting to someone in authority. My letter to the Sales bloke is still not responded two nor my 2 emails. The next time I have to phone I will not get off until I get someone in a supervisory role.

It is sheer inefficiency to have to register 3 times due to their inefficiency. For goodness sake, they spelled Glasgow TWICE as 'Glassgow'. And on top of that added to my poscode which cancelled me out on their system. It took the third registartion to find that out. Even the woman who told me felt I should be getting some form of compensation. And by the way after I had registered that second time the next day when I checked I wasn't anywhere on the system! I must be the longest application on Pipex.

It has been damn inconvenient and a big problem being left on dialup since early December. It doesn't take much folks to see that I have been shoddily treated by Pipex to date. The next letter is going to someone further up before I loose the "heid" at this saga of gross hopelessness at Pipex.
 
I would like to advice your listeners not to go anywhere near v21/biscit. the once fair priced realiable service has now changed into an answerphone , no support, no BB and no internet ISP. I was cut off in November, and I havnt recieved internet from them since, but they are still taking the money for it..I can not Contact anyone to find out what or How to connect, all i get is an answerphone. So i cant get a MAC and i cant get the blog off of my telephone line.

If i could , i would like to ask how i can get out of this loop that im in? do i disconnect my BT line with BT and reconnect again next week, what can i do?

Please help, Adie

Oh Happy New Year Everyone
 
I would like to advice your listeners not to go anywhere near v21/biscit. the once fair priced realiable service has now changed into an answerphone , no support, no BB and no internet ISP. I was cut off in November, and I havnt recieved internet from them since, but they are still taking the money for it..I can not Contact anyone to find out what or How to connect, all i get is an answerphone. So i cant get a MAC and i cant get the blog off of my telephone line.

If i could , i would like to ask how i can get out of this loop that im in? do i disconnect my BT line with BT and reconnect again next week, what can i do?

Please help, Adie

Oh Happy New Year Everyone


Hi if you was on the NetServices network witht hem your tag should have already been removed freeing you up to join any ISP you wanted.

Try calling 0800 169 0934 (Option 1) which is the BT Wholesale Marker removal line that end users can call. Ask them if your line is tagged and who has the tag. we can then sort out the best path as for money going from your acount and no connection. If its a CC then contact them and ask them to claim the money back explain why. If this is a recurring charge to a master card or Visa card then they will be quick to step in as htey have changed the ruling on recurring charges on CC.
 
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