Here are the emails that have been exchanged between [Pipex][] and myself so far (automated responses excluded). Names have been replaced by initials.
[pipex]: http://www.pipex.co.uk/
> **Sent:** 14 September 2006 11:53
> **To:** customerservices@pipex.net
>
> Customer Services,
>
> I have a payment from my credit card to PIPEX INTERNET to the value of £35.19, dated 11 September 2006. This payment for such a high value is completely unexpected. I am concerned that it might not be legitimate, in which case I will have to phone my bank and cancel my cards. Please get back to me as soon as possible regarding this payment.
The reply came six days later.
> **Sent:** 22 September 2006 11:10
> **From:** customerservices@pipex.net
>
> Dear Sir,
>
> Thank you for your email
>
> This includes the zone alarm fee which has been charged in error, I have sent a request to my finance team who will have this refunded back to you, please allow 28 days
>
> I thank you in advance for your patience
>
> Kind regards
>
> SS
> Customer Services
All good. Three days later, I noticed another erroneous transaction on my account. The snowball starts to roll down the hill…
> **Sent:** 25 September 2006 20:34
> **To:** customerservices@pipex.net
>
> SS,
>
> Thanks. I’ve also noticed that my account seems to have been debited twice – once at £23.44 (the old monthly fee) and once at £25.99 (the new monthly fee). I think that the first transaction has been applied in error – that account should have been cancelled on the 15th September.
A week and a day later:
> **Sent:** 3 October 2006 10:53
> **From:** customerservices@pipex.net
>
> Dear sir/madam
>
> Thank you for your email
>
> I can confirm that I have forwarded your email onto my Finance Department who will endeavour to respond to you as soon as possible.
>
> At the moment they do have a response time of 7-10 working days so I thank you in advance for your patience
>
> If you have any further enquiries please do not hesitate to contact us on 0845 077 2455
>
> Kind regards
> JB
It took them a week and a day just to forward my email on to the correct department. Haven’t they considered the possibility of hiring more staff to deal with these emails? Preferably someone who can tell that “Pete” is a “sir” and definitely not a “madam”.
Ten days elapsed:
> **Sent:** 13 October 2006 16:33
> **From:** billing@pipex.net
>
> Dear Mr P [redacted]
>
> Thank you for your recent enquiry and on behalf of Pipex, I would like to apologise for the delay in responding to you.
>
> I have looked into the account [redacted] and can only see an invoice for the amount of £25.99. Is it possible that the charge for £23.44 is from your old account? Can you please provide us with the user id or contract service number for this account? We can then look into issuing you with a refund if necessary.
>
> We look forward to hearing from you soon.
>
> Kind Regards
>
> LJ
> Finance Adminstrator
I responded immediately (well, within the hour)
> **Sent:** 13 October 2006 17:14
> **To:** billing@pipex.net
>
> LJ,
>
> Yes, £23.44 is the amount that I used to pay for my old Pipex account, which should already have been cancelled at that time. The user id was [redacted].
The response to this email arrived eleven days later. Despite addressing it to billing@pipex.net, it had clearly been re-routed back to the dummies in customer services.
> **Sent:** 24 October 2006 10:01
> **From:** customerservices@pipex.net
>
> Dear Sir,
>
> Thank you for your email
>
> I can confirm that I have forwarded your email onto my Finance Department who will endeavour to respond to you as soon as possible.
>
> At the moment they do have a response time of 7-10 working days so I thank you in advance for your patience
>
> If you have any further enquiries please do not hesitate to contact us on 0845 077 2455
>
> Kind Regards
> GD
Firstly, it angers me that it is taking them so long just to pass an email on to the correct department. Secondly, it angers me that every single email comes from a different person. I’d much rather deal with one representative until my questions are answered.
My frustration begins to emerge. I address the email to GD, even though I know that there is not a chance in hell that she’ll be the one to receive it.
> **Sent:** 24 October 2006 17:55
> **To:** customerservices@pipex.net
>
> GD,
>
> Thanks very much. I must confess to being a little concerned that it has taken 11 days for this email to even be forwarded on to the right department. Is this normal?
The following day, at 11:25am, I then receive an email from yet another person using the address customerservices@pipex.net. The content of this email is just GD’s previous email, forwarded back to me. Helpful.
Meanwhile, remember SS and the erroneous zone alarm fee?
> **Sent:** 26 October 2006 13:07
> **To:** customerservices@pipex.net
>
> SS,
>
> It has been more than 28 days since your email, but this fee has not yet been refunded.
>
> When is this fee going to be refunded?
Back to the matter of the overlapping month. I receive this email:
> **Sent:** 27 October 2006 09:38
> **From:** billing@pipex.net
>
> Dear Mr P [redacted]
>
> Thank you very much for your e-mail. I apologise for the delayed response to this. I can confirm that I have checked your account and I have raised a refund for the amount of £7.98 excluding VAT this is for when your account was cancelled on 03/10/06 and you were billed on 16/09/06 – 15/10/06 so we did a pro rata refund. Please note that we are currently dealing with a backlog of refunds and this will receive you within 28 days. If you have any other queries please don’t hesitate to contact us.
>
> Kindest Regards
> GC
> Finance Administrator
What? Where did this 03/10/06 come from, all of a sudden?
> **Sent:** 27 October 2006 17:40
> **To:** billing@pipex.net
>
> GC,
>
> I’m sorry, I think that someone at Pipex must have made a mistake. I requested that my original account be cancelled on the 15th September 2006 (not the 3rd October, as you said below). There should have been no
overlap between the two accounts. A refund of £7.98 will not be sufficient – I demand my £23.44 back.
>
> Pete
What are they playing at? What on earth makes them think that they can charge me twice for the same month? I am absolutely incensed that they have abused my credit card in this way. I didn’t give them my credit card number so that they could start apply transactions willy-nilly!
I’m also rather angry that they are taking so long about this. My money is loitering in their account, accruing interest. Sure, it’s not a significant amount of money as far as I am concerned, but something tells me that I am not the only person that they are doing this to.
And I still haven’t had an email from the same person twice.
More as it happens.
26 replies on “Pipex Taking Their Sweet Time”
And I thought NTL were bad…
I think we should all go back to paying for things by cheque. Otherwise companies just keep on taking advantage of the fact that they have our credit card numbers and direct debit arrangements, and simply help themselves to our money. I don’t think this is acceptable at all.
I think we should go back to the barter system. Oxen for broadband, that’s what I say. There would be no more of this confusion.
You could then say – no, look, you walked into my field and took one of my oxen! I saw you! You have too many oxen! Give me my oxen back!
That would be better.
They are all the same – Demon screwed me over big time and still waiting for the Ombudsman to respond… amazes me how incomptetent big companies are.
It’s not incompetence. It’s the fact that nobody in the company (a) has the authority to actually deal with your query, all they can do is make apologetic noises at you, and (b) actually cares how well the company does.
Think about it – if Pipex post record profits, do the customer services team get big bonuses? Maybe a small one, but not worth making extra effort for.
I’d love to be able to pay for things by cheque. Sure, it requires a monthly effort, but at least I’d be in control. I hate being out of control.
On that note, I’m implementing a new comments system. Instead of getting a box to type in, you will, in future, have a little drop-down list of feedback options to select from.
Only kiddddddding.
which surely makes them incompetent? If they dont give their staff the power to do their jobs? And I know how Barclays complaints/customer service teams work.. ..
+1 Good for this comment thread
It’s down to a very careful allocation of responsibility. They give their staff the power to take your credit card details, but not to give you a refund. If you want a refund then you have to be passed on to the finance department, ten days later.
I’ve considered phoning them up to see if I can get things moving a little quicker, but I’m sure that after fifteen minutes in the queue, I’d be told that I “need to speak to the supervisor/manager” who is “at lunch at the moment”.
yep that’s about right!
If you keep yelling you get somewhere, but slowly. I’m glad someone else has noticed how by removing the ability for staff to solve problems companies have to deal with less problems. They just have poor CS staff who people hate. But less refunds.
Pipex has just taken over bulldog. Bulldog wasn’t great CS but this looks worse. I need to find a decent LLU ISP. I’m not sure any exist.
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[…] Back on the 27th October I told you about the trouble that I’d been having with Pipex. Here’s a short update. […]
I’m having similar problems chasing a refund from Pipex. Numerous emails and calls promising me a refund within 14-28 days. This has been going on for over two months and haven’t received anything.
Dave: The story continues here – in brief, I did get the refund for the Zone Alarm fee in the end, but they seem intent on keeping the money for the month overlap.
The underlying problem with Pipex is that they don’t have a mechanism for moving house – you have to cancel your existing account and set up a new one. This gives them the opportunity to try and gouge an extra month’s fees out of you. To any Pipex customers who are moving house in the near future, I suggest that you take this convenient opportunity to investigate alternative ISPs. Until they give their customers the ability to move house while keeping the same account, there’s no convenience factor or other benefit to remaining with Pipex.
I’m having the same moving house problem. I’m disgusted and want to leave them permanently but will be charged £150 ish for the remainder of the contract. If I cancel my D/D can they pursue me for the money? This was never pointed out to me when I joined (i.e. they don’t have a moving house policy) and I feel they are effectively breaking the contract themselves by not being able to set up telephone and internet services at the new address for around four weeks. Does anyone know the legal position if I leave?
I’m having almost exactly the same sort of problem. I moved address and because I was in a 12mth contract I had to cancel that. They charged me £287 on the 9th October 2006. I moved into my new address and they charged me twice. Once for my old address and once for my new address.
I was told that as soon as my broadband was setup at the new address my £287 would be refunded. I could copy and paste all the emails which look IDENTICAL to the ones posted above which basically bounce me from dept to dept and nobody actually doing anything.
Finally they promised to repay me within the next 28 days. Surprise surprise 28 days later (22/12/06) I have still not received any payment. The only thing I have got is an extra £10.31 interest on my credit card.
Pipex are a joke.
My broadband supposedly ends on 26th Jan (not moving house). Today (17th Jan) I have just been charged full rate for the forthcoming full month.
Rang them and the guy asked “Are you moving house?” No mate, just cancelling the broadband. In that case you need to email “unintelligible”(twice)@pipex.net. Erm, so I just emailed customerservices and billing@… as I figure it’s clearly going to take me ages to get the pro-rata refund anyway (if ever).
I don’t understand the big deal with all these companies now, they’re so terrified you’re gonna take your business elsewhere that they just charge you for not giving you any product anyway. Totally held to ransom!
I wish I came across this earlier. They took £187.xx from my account just before Christmas. It should have been £19.99. They said they’ve refund me £164.08. I said it should be £168.25. I’m still waiting.
They kept on going on about a non payment in July 2006. Why take 6 months to realise something wasn’t right? Anyhow, I’ve sent them proof that I did pay that. Now they’re giving me some guff about pro-rata payments which no one mentioned to me before. And like you they said there’s a backlog to deal with – not my problem!
Finance are clueless and completely incompetant beyond belief.
I too have made the fatal mistake of taking a broadband contract with Pipex. One month later, I still have no broadband, but I can’t cancel the contract, as I didn’t cancel by email within seven days. The thing is, as I don’t have internet access, I couldn’t cancel by email. Meanwhile, every day I phone their customer services, and every day another different story. They send out modems which are incompatible with Windows Vista, and they expect their new customers to scarabble around finding (and paying extra for ) drivers to install and use their equipment. Pipex are a joke, don’t go there!
Thanks for all your stories here, guys.
I hope that Pipex are reading this and it is helping them to realise where they need to improve.
Have you tried to phone Pipex and actually managed to speak to someone? It is almost impossible to get through. They must rank as one of the most incompetent companies of all time.
I closed my account with PIPEX in April 06, they keep sending me letters demanding £24.99 with no explanation for what this is for; dates, service etc. When I phone them they are unable to say why I owe them £24.99 but say they will credit my account and that will be it. A month or so later I receive a similar letter and the same cycle of phone calls continues.
I think this is a scam by Pipex and whilst I thought their ISP was good the rest of the company is clearly a shambles and I’m just happy to be rid of them, I hope!!!!
I am having trouble with Pipex too and wish I’d never changed my internet to them. They told me they were updated to Vista so i thought it would be better to change to them. We get connected sometimes but when someone phones it disconnects the phone and doesn’t connect again for a while. They keep saying the fault’s at my end but I don’t believe them. I wish I could go back to my old provider, Onetel.
One idea that might warrant a thought. Get in the habit of cancelling your debit/credit cards every six months. This way you can ensure that your card details are not lingering on a suppliers system. My current switch card is valid for years – due to expire in 03/09, that is a lot opf transactions to keep track off especially if you are ordering goods over the internet or phone.
I am cancelling it tomorrow.
Just to let people know, Pipex should start to become a better company now that the senior management have jumped ship and inflicted themselves on the staff and customers of Grattan (the catalogue). THANKYOU VERY MUCH PIPEX!!!!!
I could not agree more with the comments I have read regarding Pipex’s approach to business. I myself have also suffered them taking money via a
direct debit, three days after we had migrated from them. On the same day they also, without Mac Codes or our prior knowledge or consent, took our service from the new provider. I have tried the usual torturous route to try to get satisfaction and a refund; and have been told three times that we would have one within a month. Needless to say this has never happened. This firm is not unethical but outright crooked .
Why not do the same as I am, report them to Offcom and launch a small claims court action against them.