Sponsored Links

Pipex - 2 Months without service...

Hello.

I am currently experiencing the joys of Pipex's "Customer Service". Although I use that phrase very loosely because they do not appear to have such a department now.:mad:

Two months ago on the 29th Feb, my broadband service stopped overnight.

The first advice given by their Tech Support (and I think that this was then in the UK) was to replace my filter. I duly popped to Maplin's and bought / put in the new filter. Still no ADSL light on my router. The config on the router looks healthy (login names etc.. are still there)

After this I was fobbed off a number of times, until the 25th March as I was told that some equipment was due to be replaced at the exchange.

Upon testing the service a few days after this date, absolutely no change. Surprise Surprise! I sent an email to advise them of this issue. (Previously email had seemed to be the best way of getting a decent response to any query, I think at that point their support went overseas..) Now getting a response to an email took an age... just under two weeks. And when I did get a reply it was to ask for all of my security information. Unfortunately they hadn't noticed that the subject title was a reply to one of their helpdesk responses, and that all of this information along with previous responses were all listed below.

I gave up on the email approach at this point and reverted back to phoning them (that has been costly!) After yet another week they finally decided that it would be a good idea for BT/Openreach to check out the line from my house. Great - that sounded like a positive step!

Unfortunately - this has proved nigh on impossible.. I provided three potential visit dates for BT, but advised that I would need confirmation of which of these slots it would be that the engineer would visit, so that I can arrange to be at home, I was told that I would be notified which of these days had been chosen in the next 24 hours... No news.. until the day before... Unfortunately (and I really regret this now) something had come up for work and so I had to ring up and cancel this appointment. (I actually had to call twice and explain this as the first time their systems were down.)

Unfortunately it seems they did not cancel the visit with BT (or the message didn't get through. As I received a card from Openreach advising me to contact my provider to rearrange a visit.

I then provided three more half day slots: Mon, Tues - today, and Weds this week... Since then I have contacted Pipex numerous times, at least 6. In order to try and determine which of these days to stay at home and expect an Engineer.

It seems that the First Line Helpdesk do not have access to this highly important information, and can only send a message to 2nd line "Engineers" at Pipex, to try and determine what is happening.

I almost fell about with laughter after speaking to the self-proclaimed "Most Senior Supervisor / Manager on shift" to be told that he would not be able to phone me with this information as he is not able to make an outbound phonecall.. (I know they are in another country, but would you not allow the staff to contact the country that they are dealing with... or maybe that is just my radical view of things!). I have contacted them twice today and still they do not know what is happening. At one point they tried to infer that I had asked for an engineer to visit, when this was their suggestion.

I am at my wit's end with Pipex. They have seemingly made more money from my phone calls to them in the last month that they are making from the rent I am paying for no-service at the moment.

I am just about to start their formal complaint process. (Oh yes... email is listed as the first stage... that is just a joke..)

Does anybody have any advice to offer to help minimise the pain involved in getting my Internet up and running again?! Unfortunately I am tied in to Pipex until Dec because I changed my plan last year, although I am almost at the point where I will pay my way out of the contract I would much rather transfer to another provider with a working service.

Many thanks for reading (and any responses!) Sorry it is so long..... just had to vent!

Tim.

P.S. When they reply to an email from their complaints address... the "reply-to" address is incorrect so if you just hit reply and send back a message the email will fail:eek:... Great for an Internet company!
 
Pipex is now owned by Tiscali bet they were moving you onto Tiscal LLU and somehow lost you in the move. You need to keep contacting them send a letter in to complain sending a copy to OFCOM, trading standards and Tiscali ADR something will be done but I would say change ISPs ASAP..
 
just a random idea but it might be worth asking BTWholesale if theres still a tag on your line, and if not if they can look it up or tell you where to ask about any faults at your local exchange if they are tying to fob you off with lies hopefully this will work towards your case when speaking to Ofcom it might also be worth asking if they keeps logs about any ceases that were sanctioned on your line, in which case when all is said and done you might be able to call their conduct "breech of contract" and be able to claim back the months of service paid that you didnt get...

just some random ideas that might be of help, even if its a lost cause through BTWholesale at least BT should be able to tell you if there was some sort of problem at exchange level then they should have some knowledge on system, the best part of this solution is finding out or trying to is using 0800 numbers, as for their idea of engineers as far as lm concerned lve never found a time where ISPs and BTs system was up so its pretty hard to get them arranged when you want em, finding a tech who knows what he is doing is harder as well (my last fault they sent the same engineer out twice, both times l canceled him and both times he rewired my setup even tho l told him that it wouldnt work basically two filters on one line dont work hence why l split it off into phone and DSL)
 
Sponsored Links
Update

Thanks for your feedback and advice.

In the end last week, Pipex admitted that BT would not be attending on the Weds. They didn't say it, but I assume that BT had never been booked for Mon/Tues or Weds. Unfortunately this took a long time to get out of Pipex, the agent I was speaking to only transferred me to a Manager after four times of asking and being put on hold...

The Supervisor then clarified the situation as best he could and I have got another engineer visit booked for Thursday. So hopefully they will find something then.

I this goes wrong then I guess getting hold of BT Wholesale would be the way forward...

As for after that, well, I am keen to be shot of Pipex. So will have a look at the feedback on this site before choosing my next ISP.

Thanks again
Tim
 
Top
Cheap BIG ISPs for 100Mbps+
Community Fibre UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Virgin Media UK ISP Logo
Virgin Media £22.99
132Mbps
Gift: None
Vodafone UK ISP Logo
Vodafone £24.00 - 26.00
150Mbps
Gift: None
NOW UK ISP Logo
NOW £24.00
100Mbps
Gift: None
Plusnet UK ISP Logo
Plusnet £25.99
145Mbps
Gift: £50 Reward Card
Large Availability | View All
Cheapest ISPs for 100Mbps+
Gigaclear UK ISP Logo
Gigaclear £17.00
200Mbps
Gift: None
Community Fibre UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Virgin Media UK ISP Logo
Virgin Media £22.99
132Mbps
Gift: None
Hey! Broadband UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Youfibre UK ISP Logo
Youfibre £23.99
150Mbps
Gift: None
Large Availability | View All
Sponsored Links
The Top 15 Category Tags
  1. FTTP (6026)
  2. BT (3639)
  3. Politics (2721)
  4. Business (2439)
  5. Openreach (2405)
  6. Building Digital UK (2330)
  7. Mobile Broadband (2146)
  8. FTTC (2083)
  9. Statistics (1901)
  10. 4G (1816)
  11. Virgin Media (1764)
  12. Ofcom Regulation (1582)
  13. Fibre Optic (1467)
  14. Wireless Internet (1462)
  15. 5G (1407)
Sponsored

Copyright © 1999 to Present - ISPreview.co.uk - All Rights Reserved - Terms  ,  Privacy and Cookie Policy  ,  Links  ,  Website Rules