I've been with them for a good few years now (possibly around 5 years+) when they were still fairly new. At the time I signed up to their 1/2 meg connection for about 20 odd quid. I found the connection pretty decent but they went through a patch when they were very short staffed, I was suffering connection problems and I was hanging on the phone for them for sometimes over 1 hour just trying to get hold of someone in customer service - this was at all hours of the day! Anyway I stuck by Pipex and got their 1 meg connection probably around 2 1/2 years ago (maybe more) of which I paid around £25/month.
Since then I've not really had any problems (apart from my phone line that BT sorted out which gave me dropped connections). The other day I just saw an advert for Bulldog and their 8 meg connection, so I checked my control panel on Pipex website and noticed I could get a maximum of 2 meg for something like £14.99/month. At the time I didn't know how much I was paying for my 1 meg service, so I called them up.
She told me I was paying £25/month of which I explained that they are offering 2 meg now at £14.99/month - not really a great start! I'm paying over the odds for a service which is half as good. Some people could say that is my due diligence, I say that being a valued customer my prices/service should have been altered/upgraded like how NTL, BT etc upgrade their customers FOC - it's a nice gesture from the ISP's to show their valued and loyal customers a bit of respect. Anyway, we're just touching the iceberg here....
I went on to ask her to upgrade my connection to 2 meg so I had a faster connection and my monthly bills were cheaper. Her reply was, "well, you'd have to pay a DOWNGRADE fee to 2 meg and looking on my screen your line doesn't support it". WTF!? Downgrade fee from 1 meg to 2 meg - NEVER HEARD SO MUCH CRAP!
She then went on to say, "we do have a MAX service and you could get up to 3 meg"... right let me get this straight - my line doesn't support 2 meg, but I can get this MAX service 3 meg connection...."however, we are only offering the MAX service to new customer...." - Fantastic!!!!!!!!!!!!
That's not all folks - when I was online checking my control panel and looking at my 2 meg possible upgrade at the bottom it said, "as you pay by credit card / postal order, a £1 surcharge will apply". I quered the lady at customer support as I pay by credit card - direct debit comes off each month - she said that debit cards are classified as credit cards so the £1 surcharge applies to debit cards as well!
Totally gobsmacked. I can't believe how a company like Pipex can expect to keep existing customers with this level of service and ignorance.
I managed not to swear at her (she was really getting me annoyed at this point) so I asked her to cancel my contract. She replied, "okay", then I asked when it comes into action and she replied, "30 days"..... so she wanted to get another payment out of me! B*stards.
I will be cancelling my direct debit to Pipex this afternoon and have already told my friends I recommended them to a few years ago to seriously consider changing their ISP.
I used to think Pipex were a good ISP - even recommending them to anyone who wanted a good ISP.
How wrong I was!
If you are considering Pipex as your ISP, think about it that little bit more! This is just an example of what customer support you could be receiving somewhere down the line.
Thanks for reading.