Pipex

**eviljawa** · 6th September 2003

Hi, chaps, going to be moving to BT to pipex in another month or so, can anyone tell me what the service is like?

I've had a number of problems with BT, dropped connections, slow web pages, email probs, and now some BT/Yahoo portal which they plan to use.

I see pipex are going to start trialing the 1000 kbps service mid Oct for �28 per month so I may wait, but I'm just trying to get some feedback from what their normal 500 kbps service is like 1st before taking the jump

Cheers

Jawa

**stu99** · 6th September 2003

I have had Pipex for over a year now, no problems at all. The current deal of �17 for the equipment is good too. You may already have the equipment but I'm sure the new stuff would fetch more than �17 on Ebay.

If you wanna join, I can recommend you and I'll get a free month for which I'll make a donation to DF.

Stu...

**flipper321** · 6th September 2003

Haven't got the connection yet but the sales service has been brilliant. Have see horror stories of it taking months to get broadband. I ordered last Saturday and connection will be with me Monday - thats 6 working days. This is my first broadband connection so when with the solo2go - free connection and get the equipment for �17. My ADSL modem is already with me and raring to go!!!

**fe_man2000** · 8th September 2003

I'm with Pipex, faster than my old Zen connection which is saying somthing.

cheers
Ironman

**Mr Nice** · 8th September 2003

Had pipex for ages, never had a complaint.

**stu99** · 8th September 2003

I never had a complaint - until now. THey have launched the 1mb service to home users at a competitive price - brilliant, except if you are an existing customer and they ask you to pay a �35 + Vat upgrade fee.

If I was a new customer it would be free - so much for loyalty.

I wrote to them last night -

I heard on a news forum that Pipex were now offering a new 1MB service to home users and came straight to the Pipex website to have a look with the intention of ordering the upgrade. I have to say I am absolutely disgusted in the way that you have handled this enhancement to your services.

I have been a Customer of Pipex ADSL for over 1 year now and have
convinced many a person to join Pipex over other providers and as reward you are prepared to charge me an upgrade fee, when if I were a new customer it would be absolutely free of charge, that is just disgraceful.

I hope you take time to re-consider your decision as I have already
spoken to several unhappy Pipex 512kb customers who wanted the 1MB upgrade, in a competitive market such as this, surely you ought to be doing your best to keep your good customers and not alienate them.

They replied -

It's certainly not our intention to alienate or upset any customer of PIPEX - quite the reverse, in fact. As you may be aware, we have priced our 1Mbps service extremely competitively; if you compare the price with other ISPs on a like for like basis I don't think you will find anyone offering the same level of service for a lower cost.

To upgrade an ADSL line, BT charge ISPs �35 + VAT and we are passing this charge on to users, unchanged (even though we incur cost beyond this to process the request manually as BT do not yet accept upgrades online).

Whilst you are free to cease and reprovide to avoid this upgrade charge, you will then be committed to a further 12 month contract. Feedback from those we asked indicated that they preferred a monthly contract for a 1Mbps upgrade for many reasons, including their possible wish to downgrade again for some reason. (There would also be the further complication of handling upgrades for customers who were already subject to a contract commitment.)

Overall, the most favoured and least complicated route was to pass on the BT upgrade fee (something that other ISPs offering this service are also doing). You might also like to compare prices with those ISPs and see how long it will take for you to save the cost of the upgrade fee in reduced subscription costs compared to other like for like offerings.

Finally, I would note that if you have referred several customers, you only have to have received "Refer A Friend" free month credits for two of these and your upgrade fee has been more than paid already - how many other ISPs offer you that sort of value?

We value all our customers, and we pride ourselves on listening to those customers and delivering the products they want. In this case, the overwhelming message was that customers wanted an extremely affordable, no limits, 1Mbps ADSL connection and we believe that we have delivered on that with terms that are highly competitive in the market.

Thank you for choosing PIPEX as your Internet Service Provider, and for taking the time to contact us with your views. I apologise that on this occasion we were not able to meet your expectations, but I hope you can agree that overall PIPEX continues to offer excellent value to all its customers.

Yours sincerely

Mark Cook
PIPEX Internet
markc@pipex.net

So what he appears to be intimating is that you should cancel your subs then sign up again for the new service - which would obviously cost them more!!

**flipper321** · 8th September 2003

Hows about agreeing to a 12 month contract on upgrade seeing as this appears to be part of their problem - any ideas what they'd think of this?

**stu99** · 8th September 2003

i have just replied back with this -

Sirs

I wrote yesterday concerning the upgrade fee for existing customers � detailed below.

Sirs

I heard on a news forum that Pipex were now offering a new 1MB service to home users and came straight to the Pipex website to have a look with the intention of ordering the upgrade. I have to say I am absolutely disgusted in the way that you have handled this enhancement to your services.

I have been a Customer of Pipex ADSL for over 1 year now and have convinced many a person to join Pipex over other providers and as reward you are prepared to charge me an upgrade fee, when if I were a new customer it would be absolutely free of charge, that is just disgraceful.

I hope you take time to re-consider your decision as I have already spoken to several unhappy Pipex 512kb customers who wanted the 1MB upgrade, in a competitive market such as this, surely you out to be doing your best to keep your good customers and not alienate them.

I look forward to your reply.

I have today received a reply back from a member of your team explaining that you have no intention of allowing existing customers to upgrade free of charge in the same fashion as new customers. The reply did contain the following line: -

�Whilst you are free to cease and reprovide to avoid this upgrade charge, you will then be committed to a further 12 month contract�

Which intimates to me that you are prepared to allow me to cancel my current contract and start a new contract, possibly even with reduced price new equipment, to avoid the upgrade fee. Surely this is a ridiculous situation, it does not make commercial sense. It must cost Pipex more in Admin fees and the new equipment if were to take that route.

I look forward to your next reply

That would appear to be a sensible option Andrew, perhaps we could get jobs there!!

**hxbro** · 8th September 2003

If you cancel you'll probably get downtime (probably in the order of a week at least) whilst the btwholsesale database gets updated saying you don't already have adsl on the line so it can be re-ordered, the re-grade to 1mbit wouldn't have any downtime (or very little).

Also as a lot of isps do the activation fee is free if you stay with them for 12 months, if you cancel early you have to pay the fee - I'm not sure what pipex do in this case, but it'd work out cheaper to just pay the 35 quid.

Hx

**stu99** · 8th September 2003

I have been with them for over one year anyway so I wouldn't have to pay. They only condition I am aware of is that if you took the free equipment offer and canceled early they charged �57.95.

**flipper321** · 8th September 2003

That is correct stu99, with the position you are in there is nothing to stop you cancelling and then signing up again - however you are then tied in for 12 months again (min 1 month contract but cancellation within first 12 months incurs a �57.95 cancellation fee - whether you take the free equipment or not) Only problem of course is the down time.

**gunner** · 8th September 2003

I have been with Pipex for over a year and I rate them very highly, unless people in my area ask and I tell them that they are sh1t - to avoid contention.

**flipper321** · 8th September 2003

Hoorah, nice new Pipex connection installed and running - not bad in 6 working day!!!

**MancIsSoMaD** · 9th September 2003

Pipex are the Bees Knees, just signed up for the 1mb, not too happy about the �35 but feck it, �6 a month more for double speed sounds great to me.

One Q, Anybody know if we still get stuck with 30k up?

**Pegasus** · 9th September 2003

Originally Posted by gunner

I have been with Pipex for over a year and I rate them very highly, unless people in my area ask and I tell them that they are sh1t - to avoid contention.

As I have already said to somebody else Gunner, it doesn't matter where in the country you are because you all go down the same pipe from the BT RADIUS (and that is where the contention is applied).

**hxbro** · 10th September 2003

Originally Posted by MancIsSoMaD

Pipex are the Bees Knees, just signed up for the 1mb, not too happy about the �35 but feck it, �6 a month more for double speed sounds great to me.

One Q, Anybody know if we still get stuck with 30k up?

Yes it is still 256kbit/s up - thats set by BT.

Hx

**gunner** · 10th September 2003

Originally Posted by Pegasus Team

As I have already said to somebody else Gunner, it doesn't matter where in the country you are because you all go down the same pipe from the BT RADIUS (and that is where the contention is applied).

Hmm, this contradicts the information I was given. I was told that the contention was applied at the exchange?

Well as long as I still get full speed then I'm happy.

**FireBlade** · 15th September 2003

A little point before you chose pipex i just canceled thier service to migrate to another isp and they have been ****ing me around for 40 days now they just wont cease the line :annoyed: :annoyed: :annoyed: :annoyed: :annoyed: