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PIPEX - What gets up your nose?

As Pipex are reluctant to come here directly and answer questions and complaints, I have been in correspondence with Mark.J (ISPR Administration) and he has kindly :) offered to talk with Pipex on our behalf and get them to answer our questions.

Please reply to this post with questions you would like to be answered and I will liaise with Mark.J to speak to Pipex.

Here's one for starters:-

1. Why didn't you tell anyone that Pipex Xtras had finished by email, instead of assuming we always look at The Control Panel on a regualr basis and thus found out too late?
 
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What I really want to know is:

Why is your customer service so crap?

Outsource to India, whatever, just get your customer service sorted out so that I can regard Pipex as a friend rather than company who's customer service a)dont know what they are talking about/incompetent/innefective b)never respond until half an hour of waiting c)never respond to emails until 2 weeks later d)attempt to squeeze every penny out of us in every possible way including charging us for calling customer service in the first place d)lack of communication with customers concerning anything unless its to bill us more money.
 
I've been with Pipex for three years, having changed from BT, and previously Prestel in the past.

1. Ditto about Pipex Xtras. Why has this happened?
2. Why is it taking so long for the Pipex website to allow existing customers to upgrade to the newer, faster, 8Mb services?
3. Why is it currently taking so long (>30 minutes) for anyone to answer the phone at Pipex HQ - particularly customer services - so that I can change my service? On one call, I waited 20 minutes only to have someone the other end pick and instantly put down the phone. I've discovered that it's faster to contact BeThere's customer services in Bulgaria (<1 minute) compared to Pipex.
4. Why do existing customers have to agree to a new contract to get the newer services? (If I have to have a new contract it may as well be with someone else).
5. Bulldog, now owned by Pipex, offers 16Mb ADSL+2 for the same price as Pipex Max. When will Pipex offer the same service as Bulldog?
6. My router gives the impression that I'm currently recieving a 2Mb service, when the ispreview speed test shows, on average, I'm only getting 800Kb. I now know that this means that my connection is 'capable' of receiving 2Mb - but why can't Pipex be more honest with loyal customers on the true connection speed?
7. The strong impression is created that with all the Pipex buy-outs of other ISP's that Pipex - alongside poor customer care and communication issues - is fast becoming an inferior and 'also ran' company. What can Pipex do to improve its increasingly tarnished reputation amongst existing customers?
8. Pipex Max comes with a free security suite for PC owners. Other ISP's - such as Sky, for example - also offer similar security suites for Macintosh owners too (such as McAfee Virex). Why can't Pipex do the same?
 
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3. Why is it currently taking so long (>30 minutes) for anyone to answer the phone at Pipex HQ - particularly customer services - so that I can change my service? On one call, I waited 20 minutes only to have someone the other end pick and instantly put down the phone. I've discovered that it's faster to contact BeThere's customer services in Bulgaria (<1 minute) compared to Pipex.

Exactly! Whats the point of emailing someone to tell them to call cust services when you cannot even get through to them:mad:

6. My router gives the impression that I'm currently recieving a 2Mb service, when the ispreview speed test shows, on average, I'm only getting 800Kb. I now know that this means that my connection is 'capable' of receiving 2Mb - but why can't Pipex be more honest with loyal customers on the true connection speed?

This is the classic "up to" syndrome. ISPs have using the term "up to" since the BB market ever existed, so its nothing new


Mark.J, get the pipex rep to come back to the ispreview forums, that way our complaints wont fall on deaf ears and at the very least we wont feel Pipex is ignoring us
 
Ditto all of the above, plus:-

1. Why don't they inform existing customers of changes in their T&Cs? Who on earth randomly goes on to the website to check these? I'm referring primarily to the fair usage policy, regarding port throttling P2P file sharing networks.

2. I strongly agree that existing customers should not be tied to a new contract by upgrading, or by moving house. I have been with Pipex for 4 years, but having made the mistake of upgrading to the Max service, only to be recieving less than 2Mbps, I am now stuck with this for another year.

3. I have been told by email that I must ring to report my line speeds issue. Why can't this be done by email, given the amount of time it takes to get through on the phone? Do they think we all have hours to spend on the phone each day, or is just so that they can rake in a commission from BT for the 0845 number? If the information MUST be given by phone, they should bloody well call me, as I am the paying customer. Failing that, how about a dedicated number for existing support tickets, rather than trying to get through on the main number?

4. When are they actually going to acknowledge the loyalty of existing customers, and give us some 'customer care', rather than treating us like dirt, because they know we are tied to a contract and can't leave?

5. I strongly believe there should be some legislation, to make it easier to migrate between broadband ISPs. The migration process into a new ISP is often automated, so why can't the provision of a MAC code also be automated? Furthermore, as a customer of 4 years, they have more than had their return from me of the original BT activation costs, so why should I have to pay the £58.75 cancellation fee, should I decide to cancel in month 2 of my contract, due to poor service?
 
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Further to the above, it looks like they've changed the T&Cs, again, without notification:-

What if I don’t like my current service or any of these new services and want to leave Pipex?

You are free to leave Pipex if you wish, but depending on your product and how long you have been with Pipex there may be a cost associated with cancelling. All Pipex residential services have a 12 month contract, this means that if you would like to leave within 12 months of joining you will have to pay any outstanding balances.

So, if I wanted to leave in month 2, I now have to pay the 'remaining balance' of another £249? Is this legal? How can they imprison people like this, especially if the service they are providing is not to the standard that the customer was promised when signing up? This seems to me like an unfair contract, and I believe there is legislation to protect consumers from such, but whether it covers ISPs could be another matter.
 
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Thanks for all your "questions", which have been summised and sent to Mark (ISPr Administration). We must now be patient and hope Mark can "tackle" someone at Pipex to answer them or better still for them to come here and answer them directly.
 
Going through their PR agency it looks like this should be possible and I'll know more soon. Hopefully we should have an interview done before too long =).
 
We sent off a list of 12 questions yesterday, mixing yours with some general ones of our own. It could take a couple of weeks before we hear anything back.
 
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bets are that if they do send a pipex rep he will be scared off in less than a week. Better to have somebody for a shortwhile than nobody tho.

If they are just doing an interview then they had best be constructive. If we get the usual sort of ISP parroting, "we are endeavoring to do this, and we are doing that... 99.99% of our customers are happy look at our website!!!1, u are just the minority!!" then i wont be happy.

I look forward to it nevertheless.:D
 
Bad news folks, Pipex's PR agency was unable to get anybody at the ISP to issue us with a response to the problems or indeed any of the questions:

Hope you are well. Apologies for the delay in getting back to you, but I was on holiday last week. Unfortunately, on this occasion, Pipex will not be commenting on the questions raised.

Apologies for this.

I think it's disgusting that they can't respond to customer concerns, most ISP's would at least communicate with some sort of general statement, but this complete lack of reply perhaps bares out what people are saying about their 'support' shortcomings.
 
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They got too many problems to deal with any one.

Billing is up the flues, DD's being raised that don't comply with the DD mandate and Guarantee. Banks now raising queries about their DD practices.

I count the days to leaving and then start the real battle to stop them trying to continue to get money, from posts on AG (as was), for some years after leaving.
 
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Not true with Pipex, they just raise another DD mandate and send it through, believe me it has happened many times since I posted.

Advice on TBB is to contact the bank and tell them never to accept another DD mandate from Pipex.
 
I sincerely hope they don't anon! I've just checked my bank balance which is bad enough as it is and so far they haven't, but I think, as we're popping in tomorrow, I'll have a word with our bank.
 
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