Just another week in the life of a 'Pipex' user

There's nothing worse than someone posting to newsgroups just to vent
their frustrations. I mean, get a life... it's only the internet, right?
And other people's connection issues are like other people's babies... of
very little interest! So look away now. ;-)

Sunday:

Broadband working as usual. Ok, I'm only limited to a 1Mb connection
which delivers a solid 120kb/s day or night on a Max package, despite the
fact my router consistently connects at 7600+kbps speeds and I can almost
hit the exchange if I spit out of the window. I can live with that...
I've no choice, as I was told a while back that they/BT won't investigate
as I'm getting more than the minimum guaranteed speed. Cheers!

Monday 3am:

I get out of bed after a lie-in (I work nights and it's my night off).
Router connects at 8000kbps+ (a little higher than normal), but nobody's
home. Zilch. Nowt. Ne authentication pas. Still no joy by 11am so I try
to call 'Pipex'. Support automation says they're very busy and to ring
back later. I take their word for it. I try later. Same again. I try
again. Same. I give up.

Tuesday 10am:

Ignore 'ring back' message and find you can get through to support if you
wait long enough. Go through all the usual support hand-holding blah,
blah then let slip I haven't tried with my old router this time. Support
want me to try with that despite the fact my router's clearly connecting
to the exchange and I've quintuple-checked all the setting at my end.

Two hours later, after hunting for my old router settings, I get exactly
the same problem with the old router. Connects happily, but I'm knocking
on a locked e-door. So it's back to support after another 30 mins or so
of 0871 muzak. Buying an album from iTunes would be cheaper.

Bloke is puzzled as they can see me connected. Go through the usual blah,
blah again, then he wants me to go back to my Netgear router because he
knows it well. I try to swap while on the phone and -- as it's well past
my usual bedtime by then -- manage to unplug the phone. Ooops. Much
swearing ensues.

Can't face another wait, so I give up and go to bed.

Wed 9am:

Another hour on the phone to some poor girl with someone helping her in
the background. They eventually want me to contact Netgear for details of
how to get deeper into the router interface and check hidden settings. I
-- hanging on to my sanity by a thread by then -- point out forcefully
that as I've had exactly the same results with another router I think I'm
right to expect a better response from them.

They decide to escalate the fault to BT. I thank them and bugger off to
bed.

Wed 9pm

Broadband back to normal! Whoop-de-freakin'-whoop! Now I can sort through
my 550 emails. Oh joy. :-)

Thursday:

Everything in the garden seems fine. Back to my reliable old 120kb/s
downloads.

Friday 3am:

(another night off): Connecting fine, but the router won't connect faster
than 192kbs... despite trying again and again over a period of hours.

Friday 7:30am: Sitting at PC whingeing on newsgroups instead of getting
on with something more sensible. Wondering whether to try support again
later... they'll probably just say I'm getting a working connection that
is within the terms and conditions. At that point I may well snap after
all the hassle this week.

I dunno. In five years with Pipex I only had one outage I was aware of.
But this Tiscali era is really getting on my e-tits. Maybe it's time for
a change. I doubt it'll be any better, but at least I'll get to listen to
different tech support muzak! :-)

Andrew 'get a life' McP

Andrew MacPherson wrote:

> There's nothing worse than someone posting to newsgroups just to vent
> their frustrations. I mean, get a life... it's only the internet, right?
> And other people's connection issues are like other people's babies... of
> very little interest! So look away now. ;-)
>
> Sunday:
>
> Broadband working as usual. Ok, I'm only limited to a 1Mb connection
> which delivers a solid 120kb/s

Do you mean 120 kBps (bytes not bits) ?


> day or night on a Max package

What a 'Max package' if you say you're on a limited 1Mb connection ?


> , despite the fact my router consistently connects at 7600+kbps speeds

That's NOT 1Mbps.


> and I can almost
> hit the exchange if I spit out of the window. I can live with that...
> I've no choice, as I was told a while back that they/BT won't investigate
> as I'm getting more than the minimum guaranteed speed. Cheers!

There's nothing to investigate. If the router's synching that fast you should
be able to get ~ 7Mbps data rates.

Any problem lies clearly at the door of Pipex. Simply sounds like they're
outright lying to you.

Graham

Andrew MacPherson wrote:

> I dunno. In five years with Pipex I only had one outage I was aware of.
> But this Tiscali era is really getting on my e-tits.

Yes, they're complete rubbish.

Do you have an aversion to moving to a decent ISP ?

Graham

(E-Mail Removed) (Eeyore) wrote:

> Do you have an aversion to moving to a decent ISP ?

I transferred to a Max package last year and I think my new 12 month
contract might still have time to run if I don't want penalties. But no,
I'm not so attached to my email address that I want to stay. I just think
pointless churn is to be avoided... everyone chases the Holy Grail,
constantly turning good ISPs into overcrowded ones.

Anyway, this morning I've just spent 20 minutes talking to a guy who
wanted me to cure my router's 192kbps (20kb/s downloads) connection speed
(288kbps upstream!) by flushing my cookies.

He gave me a speedcheck site to use which wouldn't load for me...
http://www.speedcheck.ispconnect.co.uk/
....and I also get an error message when I put my number into the BT site
at http://www.speedtester.bt.com/ "Authorisation failed Incorrect
Telephone Number - Please try again".

Other websites sites (including alternative speedcheck sites) work fine,
albeit slowly. But because none of this fits the support script, and I
don't have speedcheck results covering 24 hours, I don't fit the criteria
for this being raised as a fault, despite this week's history.

Repeat after me... it's only the internet, and low paid tech support
people in a call centre hundreds (thousands?) of miles away aren't to
blame. :-)

Andrew McP... finding himself inclined to seek out a more expensive and
hopefully reliable service.

> Do you mean 120 kBps (bytes not bits) ?

Put it this way, I was on a 1Mb package before going for an 8Mb Max deal.
Previously my maximum download speeds were reliably 120kb/s at any time
of day (consistently twice as fast as the 60kb/s on the old 512kb service,
as expected).

My router connected reliably at 7000kbps+ though, so I thought a Max
package ought to make use of that. After the move to that package my
maximum download speed stayed at a rock solid 120kb/s, never any more and
only ever less from congested sites. When I eventually tried to query
that, I was told I was getting more than the guaranteed minimum and
logging a complaint would be difficult. I tried, but gave up in the end,
as I was more puzzled than annoyed... I don't download so much that it
was a big problem.

This week's issues have been on a different scale of annoyance altogether!
:-)

(E-Mail Removed) (Andrew MacPherson) wrote:

> I transferred to a Max package last year and I think my new 12 month
> contract might still have time to run if I don't want penalties.

Yes, I just checked with their cancellations dept (funny how you can get
through to them pretty darned quickly!) and they'll stiff me for £67.25
if I bugger off before September. That's what 5 years of loyalty gets
you.

I think I'll pencil that into next month's budget.

Andrew McP

On Fri, 18 Apr 2008 10:05 +0100 (BST),
(E-Mail Removed) (Andrew MacPherson) wrote:

[snip]>
>He gave me a speedcheck site to use which wouldn't load for me...
>http://www.speedcheck.ispconnect.co.uk/
>...and I also get an error message when I put my number into the BT site
>at http://www.speedtester.bt.com/ "Authorisation failed Incorrect
>Telephone Number - Please try again".
[snip]

I used to use www.speedtester.bt.com but since I got my ISP to move me
to their LLU for BB that is the message I get when trying BT's
speedtester. Leads me to believe you are not using BT's stuff in the
exchange.

--
brightside S9

address@replyto_is_not.invalid (brightside S9) wrote:

> Leads me to believe you are not using BT's stuff in the
> exchange.

Thanks, that would certainly explain it. According to Sam knows, my local
exchange has Tiscali LLU kit, and when I run the speed test
http://www.speedtest.net/ it tells me my ISP is Tiscali.

Andrew McP

"Eeyore" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
>
>
> Andrew MacPherson wrote:

Some crap I couldnt be bothered to read.

>> I dunno. In five years with Pipex I only had one outage I was aware of.
>> But this Tiscali era is really getting on my e-tits.
>
> Yes, they're complete rubbish.

Pipex started going downhill after UUNet sold them.

> Do you have an aversion to moving to a decent ISP ?

Easier to come on here and whine ;o)

Also consider that Pisscalli are rumoured to be the target of a takeover.

"Andrew MacPherson" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:memo.20080418114546.1152A@address_disguised.a ddress_disguised...
> address@replyto_is_not.invalid (brightside S9) wrote:
>
>> Leads me to believe you are not using BT's stuff in the
>> exchange.
>
> Thanks, that would certainly explain it. According to Sam knows, my local
> exchange has Tiscali LLU kit, and when I run the speed test
> http://www.speedtest.net/ it tells me my ISP is Tiscali.
>
> Andrew McP
>

Just move - I had similar problems with Pip/Tisc and it got silly ...like
you after several good years and paying over-the-odds. Rubbish service,
passing the buck, awful technical help, etc.etc. Never actually sorted the
problem.

It's a pain changing your email address, subscriptions, sites, etc., but
worth it in the end.

Get your MAC and do it today!

Good luck, Barb.

(E-Mail Removed) (Gizmo.) wrote:

> Easier to come on here and whine ;o)

As I said. :-) And in my defence I did attempt to make it a partially
entertaining read.

Anyway, this is part venting, part exploration. I've learned at least one
thing from the thread, so it's not been in vain. Thanks to everyone who's
replied.

There is also a wider issue in that I have always been wary about
switching because ISP churn makes it hard to choose a provider which will
start well and *stay* that way.

I guess ultimately there are no guarantees with internet access, and it's
only when your particular corner of the ip-cosmos starts to wave its legs
in the air that you pay close attention to what's going on out there.

Andrew McP

PS Yes, I agree about the UUNet thing. In fact the reason why I chose
them originally in 2002 was that UUNet were -- I thought -- a pretty big
and probably reliable provider with a good reputation. I didn't mind
paying a premium for that, and for several years that decision paid off.