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This is a little off topic but I am so annoyed that I simply have to voice my feelings.

Pipex are a UK ISP (internet service provider) I have been with them many years as I felt that their service was very good. Unfortunately of recent years this is not the case as you will hear.

I have now been without my Pipex internet for 2 weeks and 10 hours. I rely heavily on the internet for many of my websites. I really cannot be without it for more than a few hours without it affecting my day to day activities.

Just to give a little on my Pipex experience before I begin, I first started to doubt Pipex and their customer care/admin abilities when I first moved to them. They lost my order and subsequently it took the 10 days or so for them to reactivate the account once my previous ISP had switched off my broadband - frustrating but these things happen.

The service was good - I think I had only a day in total with the internet being down in the four years or so I used them. I recommended others to use them above the many other ISP’s that were emerging.

2 years ago I moved properties. Being cautious I had a 2 week period of being in my new property without having to leave the old. I explained to Pipex the situation and I looked for a nice clean change with then Pipex connection from the old to the new property. 2 weeks was plenty of time for this to be actioned. After hanging on, on hold, on an 0871 number (they earn money from this) for 45 minutes it looked like I had the move all sorted. Now all I had to do was wait for the connection to go live.

Guess what…………? It did not go live. once again Pipex had messed up. After a 45 minute wait on hold listening to a lovely lady tell me every 2 seconds how important the call was (not important enough to get enough staff!) They blamed the fact that the new phone line was not set up correctly when they tried to set it up their end so they just cancelled the order. The guy seemed quite surprised at my question “did no one think to possibly phone on all the numbers provided or email to check if the order was mean to be cancelled? ” So another 10 day wait here.

Meanwhile another friend had moved house. They experienced exactly the same issue apart from Pipex managed to lose his order twice. Great stuff so far - at least the connection seemed reliable.

On Wednesday 2 weeks ago my internet stopped working. I confirmed in my own mind that my equipment was not to blame. I received a call from a friend who was in the same situation. It had to be a fault with Pipex as we were both with them. I then phoned Pipex.

25 minutes later my call was answered. I cannot fault the guy on the phone. He went through all the checks he had to make. He said there were no know faults although I knew full well that my friend had previously phoned. He asked me to do some checks that involved unplugging the line and disconnecting the call. I told him I would happily face the charge if BT found a fault my end as I was certain that it was them.

He accepted this and said that he would log a call with BT. This would take between 1 and 6 days. I asked if there was anything that he could do to speed it up but he said not. He took my numbers and said that as soon as they had an update they would call to let me know.

Days passed and still nothing. I phoned Pipex a couple of times. After laboriously working through the automated message, I just got a message to say they were experiencing high volumes of calls and to phone back.

After 5 days with no word, Furious, I called Pipex. I could not get through to the technical department as they were too busy to even allow me to hold on the 45 minutes. I opted to speak to customer service.

They guy at customer service said there was nothing he could do - it was a technical support issue. I explained I firstly could not get through to them, but also I wanted to speak to a manager regarding compensation and cancelling my contract. “There is no manager available” he said. I explained I was happy for a manager to call me back the following day. “not possible” he said, “this is the wrong department. ” . Getting quite annoyed now I explained that I was speaking to the right department as I was looking for compensation and to cancel my contract as well as getting some answers. If this wasn’t customer service, I didn’t know what what. He explained that he was customer care and I needed customer service. Of course, he could not get anyone to call from customer service as it was a separate department. I asked for my migration code - no another department. What a total joke.

Meanwhile I had written to Pipex demanding answers as well as emails. No response whatsoever from these.

Day 10 and still no word from Pipex. I called again. Another 40 minutes holding at my expense. It was the same person I had originally spoke with. He sad there was nothing he could do, no one he could get to call me back. He said he would put a note on the system saying I was furious about not being updated and that a call back was necessary. I asked why I had not been updated after the 1 - 6 days he had previously promised. He said he did not know and apologised. I said that I would doubt anyone would call back from teh note he had put on the system and it was just a way to get me off the phone. He said he could not categorically promise that I would receive a call but he did say that people did get calls back from the company.

Surprisingly I did not hear back from Pipex and this brings me to yesterday.

I got a message in the morning from my friend saying we were back online. At last I thought. Got home and checked the connection. Nothing.

Another call to Pipex. At first I could not get through. They were surprising experiencing high call volumes again. I persisted. Eventually I was allowed to join the holding queue.

25 minutes later someone answered. They said that there had been a note put on the system that BT were going to visit the exchange to carry out repairs in 2 days time. he said that my friend must be on a different line that had been fixed - how many lines could possibly have gone down? I queried why I had not been contacted when there was an update to be given. he could not provide an answer. I asked for a call back from a manager but surprisingly (since my last promise of a call) they had turned into an inbound call centre only.

Not believing a word of it I said “I am certain your managers have the ability to make outbound calls”. “Yes” he said. “Well get one to call me back then”. “Ok no problem” he said “although, you will still need to speak to technical”. “You get technical to call me, I’m sure you are able to communicate between departments”. “yes” he said.

I got the distinct impression that once again I was being fobbed off. As yest I have received no calls and I have put into place a new service provider. I will never use Pipex again. It looks like I will have been without internet access for over 2.5 weeks before they finally put me back on.

Rumors have it, on the internet, that Pipex are sneakily moving their customers onto Tiscali lines which is probably where the problem generated from. Of course, they will not admit anything to anyone.

Check out on the internet. I have now read loads of reports that Pipex have been deteriorating for some time - Poor customer care as well as poor internet service, unreliable connections, slow speeds are all noted all across the board.

In the mean time I have had to make do with expensive and painfully slow dial up connection where every page takes a minute to load. I have had to site on hold for hours to finally not even get an answer or any help.

So bottom line, Do not use Pipex, do not touch them with a barge pole, If you want reliable internet go elsewhere, if you want decent customer care run away as fast as you can as Pipex will provide quite the opposite.

If you have had a similar experience then please post a comment.