Pipex billing error - solved?

It's a long story, but I think it might finally be resolved. After
querying the over charge for April, I was sent the following response
from Pipex:

--------
Dear Mr Luff,

Thank you for your email.

The payment of £25.76 has occurred due to your last invoice covering
more than 30 days. This has occurred because your billing date is the
last day of each month but as there were 28days in February. The period
for April has started from 28th of March, the period it covers is from
28/03/07 - 30/04/07. This is to sync your billing date back to the end
of the month and will continue to cover 30day periods as usual.

If you have any further enquiries please do not hesitate to contact us.
--------

This still didn't add up, and I am still waiting for them to take money
from me for two months that were unpaid for January and February due to
a problem with them charging me. Therefore I sent this reply to customer
services, (E-Mail Removed) and (E-Mail Removed):

--------
I am in disagreement with you regarding the charge for April. My invoice
date clearly states the 1st of the month not the last day.

I had already phoned your support line to query invoice ####### which
was for February. This was only billed at £17.71 but was told it was due
to February only having 28 days. This seemed odd to me because I have
been a customer since 2002 and always paid £23.44 regardless of the
length of the month.

I do not understand how the period for April could start on the 28th of
March. I have already paid for the whole of March (invoice #######) at
the standard £23.44. So I am effectively paying for the last few days in
March twice!

I must also bring your attention to the Direct Debit guarantee which
states that you must notify me at least 10 working days prior to the
charge if it is different. As my invoice was issued on the 1st of April
and you took the money from my account on the 4th of April that is only
a period of 2 working days. The 1st being a Sunday and the 4th the date
the payment was taken. This is clearly in breach of the direct debit
guarantee and I shall be contacting my bank Tuesday morning for advise.

As it is I am still waiting for someone to contact me regarding
outstanding payments of £44.25 on my account which you failed to take. I
have been chasing you for several weeks to resolve this, sent numerous
e-mails, made several phone calls and been unable to get anyone from
Pipex to do anything about it.

I initially spoke to Richard in your accounts department on the 21st of
February. I offered to pay the debt off on my credit card immediately.
However, he advised me that he was unable to take a credit card payment
over the phone and instead asked me to write to you with a direct debit
mandate form and a covering letter requesting you to take the monies
owed from my account. I did this on the 22nd of February and a few days
later the direct debit was activated. I waited for you to take the
£44.25 until eventually the standard monthly subscription of £23.44 was
taken on the 6th of March. At this point I made another phone call to
your support line and spoke to someone else who apologised for the
failure to take the money. The lady I spoke to said that she would
organise a direct debit payment that day and I went away assuming
everything would now be sorted out. A few days later I checked my
account, but the payment had still not been taken.

Another phone call to your support line ensued on the 12th of March and
I spoke to another or your representatives. This time I was offered the
chance to pay by credit card, which I had previously been told wasn't
possible. However by this point I wasn't going to argue and was happy to
just have the situation resolved. I gave him my credit card details and
he said the payment would go through later that day. After a further
week had passed and no charge had been made I sent another e-mail to
your customer support team on the 25th March. I was told someone from
the finance department would be in touch. It is now over two weeks later
and the payment still hasn't been taken, nobody has contacted me and now
I have been overcharged for April!

It would seem to me you finance department are totally incompetent. All
these problems have led me to seriously consider leaving Pipex after 5
years of loyal custom. Unless these issues can be fully resolved in the
next few days I will be terminating my service agreement with you. I
have given you every opportunity to sort this mess out. The ball is in
your court to fix my billing problems, I really can't do any more than I
already have.
--------

They sent another reply:

--------
Dear Mr Luff,

Thank you for your email

I can confirm that I have passed your email onto my Finance Department
who will endeavor 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.
--------

I wasn't satisfied with this response so followed it up with this, also
sent to customer services, (E-Mail Removed) and (E-Mail Removed):

--------
Thank you, but I have heard this before and nobody ever does contact me.
Please be advised that I will wait until Friday to get a satisfactory
response from you. At that time I will start proceedings to take my
custom to another provider.
--------

Approximately 10 mins later I got a phone call from a representative
apologising for all my problems. She has organised for the outstanding
amount to be taken by direct debit and credited me the overcharge. I
have been told that management are currently investigating how the over
charge for April occurred. If Pipex have charged you more this month,
get in touch with them asap!

I'm still waiting to see if anything I have been told will actually
happen. But it seemed like she knew what she was talking about so I will
let her try and sort it out.

--
regards, James Luff Gamertag: Lufferov
remove 'nospam' to e-mail
"There are 10 types of people in the world:
Those that understand binary, and those that don't."

In article <(E-Mail Removed)>,
(E-Mail Removed) says...

<snip>
> This is to sync your billing date back to the end
> of the month and will continue to cover 30day periods as usual.
<snip>

Where do they get the 30 day period from? According to their site you
are billed on a monthly basis (not 30 day), be it a 28, 30 or 31 day
month. You should be billed on a specific day within the month.

Mugwump wrote:
> In article <(E-Mail Removed)>,
> (E-Mail Removed) says...
>
> <snip>
>> This is to sync your billing date back to the end
>> of the month and will continue to cover 30day periods as usual.
> <snip>
>
> Where do they get the 30 day period from? According to their site you
> are billed on a monthly basis (not 30 day), be it a 28, 30 or 31 day
> month. You should be billed on a specific day within the month.
>

Indeed, and as I mentioned I have always paid a fixed monthly fee up to
now. If they did make a mistake and charge me less for February they
should have been open and honest about it. I would happily pay the extra
to make up the shortfall if they wanted to pursue it. However, they were
trying to dodge the issue and try and confuse the customer with that
response (I wasn't the only person sent that e-mail). I wasn't going to
let them just get away with that.

Hopefully the issue is now resolved and others will not have to endure a
similar saga if they have also been overcharged. If it turns out they do
not resolve the issue now I have had assurances that it will be. They
can expect a lot more hassle from me as I I will require a full
breakdown of all charges before I give them another penny.

--
regards, James Luff Gamertag: Lufferov
remove 'nospam' to e-mail
"There are 10 types of people in the world:
Those that understand binary, and those that don't."

*Update*

I have just had another phone call. This time from Sarah, who introduced
herself as the finance manager. She has informed me that they will
credit my account with the outstanding balance of £44.25 and I will no
longer owe them for this.

She also explained they had problems with their billing system in
February. As I suspected I should have been charged a standard monthly
fee for that month. As such the higher bill for April is to bring my
account back to normal and make up for the cheaper invoice in February.

I now seem to be fully sorted with them, however it could all have been
resolved so much easier. If they had been upfront about the billing
error for February to start with I wouldn't have had a problem with the
higher April invoice. I was also perfectly willing to pay them the
outstanding balance if they had only got themselves organised and given
me an opportunity to pay it.

Regards,
James Luff

James Luff wrote:
> It's a long story, but I think it might finally be resolved. After
> querying the over charge for April, I was sent the following response
> from Pipex:
>
> --------
> Dear Mr Luff,
>
> Thank you for your email.
>
> The payment of £25.76 has occurred due to your last invoice covering
> more than 30 days. This has occurred because your billing date is the
> last day of each month but as there were 28days in February. The period
> for April has started from 28th of March, the period it covers is from
> 28/03/07 - 30/04/07. This is to sync your billing date back to the end
> of the month and will continue to cover 30day periods as usual.
>
> If you have any further enquiries please do not hesitate to contact us.
> --------
>
> This still didn't add up, and I am still waiting for them to take money
> from me for two months that were unpaid for January and February due to
> a problem with them charging me. Therefore I sent this reply to customer
> services, (E-Mail Removed) and (E-Mail Removed):
>
> --------
> I am in disagreement with you regarding the charge for April. My invoice
> date clearly states the 1st of the month not the last day.
>
> I had already phoned your support line to query invoice ####### which
> was for February. This was only billed at £17.71 but was told it was due
> to February only having 28 days. This seemed odd to me because I have
> been a customer since 2002 and always paid £23.44 regardless of the
> length of the month.
>
> I do not understand how the period for April could start on the 28th of
> March. I have already paid for the whole of March (invoice #######) at
> the standard £23.44. So I am effectively paying for the last few days in
> March twice!
>
> I must also bring your attention to the Direct Debit guarantee which
> states that you must notify me at least 10 working days prior to the
> charge if it is different. As my invoice was issued on the 1st of April
> and you took the money from my account on the 4th of April that is only
> a period of 2 working days. The 1st being a Sunday and the 4th the date
> the payment was taken. This is clearly in breach of the direct debit
> guarantee and I shall be contacting my bank Tuesday morning for advise.
>
> As it is I am still waiting for someone to contact me regarding
> outstanding payments of £44.25 on my account which you failed to take. I
> have been chasing you for several weeks to resolve this, sent numerous
> e-mails, made several phone calls and been unable to get anyone from
> Pipex to do anything about it.
>
> I initially spoke to Richard in your accounts department on the 21st of
> February. I offered to pay the debt off on my credit card immediately.
> However, he advised me that he was unable to take a credit card payment
> over the phone and instead asked me to write to you with a direct debit
> mandate form and a covering letter requesting you to take the monies
> owed from my account. I did this on the 22nd of February and a few days
> later the direct debit was activated. I waited for you to take the
> £44.25 until eventually the standard monthly subscription of £23.44 was
> taken on the 6th of March. At this point I made another phone call to
> your support line and spoke to someone else who apologised for the
> failure to take the money. The lady I spoke to said that she would
> organise a direct debit payment that day and I went away assuming
> everything would now be sorted out. A few days later I checked my
> account, but the payment had still not been taken.
>
> Another phone call to your support line ensued on the 12th of March and
> I spoke to another or your representatives. This time I was offered the
> chance to pay by credit card, which I had previously been told wasn't
> possible. However by this point I wasn't going to argue and was happy to
> just have the situation resolved. I gave him my credit card details and
> he said the payment would go through later that day. After a further
> week had passed and no charge had been made I sent another e-mail to
> your customer support team on the 25th March. I was told someone from
> the finance department would be in touch. It is now over two weeks later
> and the payment still hasn't been taken, nobody has contacted me and now
> I have been overcharged for April!
>
> It would seem to me you finance department are totally incompetent. All
> these problems have led me to seriously consider leaving Pipex after 5
> years of loyal custom. Unless these issues can be fully resolved in the
> next few days I will be terminating my service agreement with you. I
> have given you every opportunity to sort this mess out. The ball is in
> your court to fix my billing problems, I really can't do any more than I
> already have.
> --------
>
> They sent another reply:
>
> --------
> Dear Mr Luff,
>
> Thank you for your email
>
> I can confirm that I have passed your email onto my Finance Department
> who will endeavor 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.
> --------
>
> I wasn't satisfied with this response so followed it up with this, also
> sent to customer services, (E-Mail Removed) and (E-Mail Removed):
>
> --------
> Thank you, but I have heard this before and nobody ever does contact me.
> Please be advised that I will wait until Friday to get a satisfactory
> response from you. At that time I will start proceedings to take my
> custom to another provider.
> --------
>
> Approximately 10 mins later I got a phone call from a representative
> apologising for all my problems. She has organised for the outstanding
> amount to be taken by direct debit and credited me the overcharge. I
> have been told that management are currently investigating how the over
> charge for April occurred. If Pipex have charged you more this month,
> get in touch with them asap!
>
> I'm still waiting to see if anything I have been told will actually
> happen. But it seemed like she knew what she was talking about so I will
> let her try and sort it out.
>

--
regards, James Luff Gamertag: Lufferov
remove 'nospam' to e-mail
"There are 10 types of people in the world:
Those that understand binary, and those that don't."

> I now seem to be fully sorted with them, however it could all have been
> resolved so much easier. If they had been upfront about the billing
> error for February to start with I wouldn't have had a problem with the
> higher April invoice

On a slightly related note, now that i've left Pipex i've changed my
billing details from Switch to Direct Debit.

Let the buggers try and charge me in error now - i'll just claim it
back :-)

Colin Wilson wrote:
>> I now seem to be fully sorted with them, however it could all have been
>> resolved so much easier. If they had been upfront about the billing
>> error for February to start with I wouldn't have had a problem with the
>> higher April invoice
>
> On a slightly related note, now that i've left Pipex i've changed my
> billing details from Switch to Direct Debit.
>
> Let the buggers try and charge me in error now - i'll just claim it
> back :-)

But only if the invoice is issued / dated less than 10 days before the
payment is taken.

--
regards, James Luff Gamertag: Lufferov
remove 'nospam' to e-mail
"There are 10 types of people in the world:
Those that understand binary, and those that don't."

> > Let the buggers try and charge me in error now - i'll just claim it
> > back :-)
> But only if the invoice is issued / dated less than 10 days before the
> payment is taken.

No - not at all - i'm not a customer of theirs now, and my account is
due to terminate before the next payment date.

I've *never* received an invoice from them, so unless they're issued
electronically - if my account has been closed will be inaccessible...

> > > Let the buggers try and charge me in error now - i'll just claim it
> > > back :-)
> > But only if the invoice is issued / dated less than 10 days before the
> > payment is taken.
> No - not at all - i'm not a customer of theirs now, and my account is
> due to terminate before the next payment date.

The little fuckers have taken another full months' payment from my
DEBIT CARD (the day *after* I changed my payment method to direct
debit)

Complaint letter sent !

-----
(E-Mail Removed)
(E-Mail Removed)
(E-Mail Removed)
clare.chapman@p***x.net
stuart.wakefield@p***x.net

Further to my previous message, i've hit upon a problem:

You have taken money from my account beyond the 30 day notice period
from when I first asked for a MAC code (which your operatives screwed
up comprehensively until Clare became involved).

I had previously had confirmation that the 30 day notice period for
closure of my account would count from my FIRST REQUEST for a MAC
code, yet my account has been further debited for another full month
at full cost of £23.44 as of 11th April.

- I asked for a MAC code on the 10th March
- The 30 day notice period was up on the 9th April
- the MAC code was issued on 26th March, over two weeks late
- I changed** my billing details to direct debit on the 10th April
- Money was taken from my *debit card* on the 11th April

** to allow me to get a refund direct from my bank under the terms of
the direct debit guarantee in case of "erroneous" payments being taken
by yourselves...

Can you please arrange a refund to my account immediately - I do not
believe delays caused by your failures should be costing me money.

(and lets' face it, at £23.44 a month for a good 18-24 months after
cheaper packages were available from yourselves, you did quite well
out of me - a once loyal and proactive "recommender" of Pipex !)

As an aside, and Clare knew about this, at least two people signed up
via your referral scheme through me - I was never credited with the
free month as advertised (I can provide the full name and address for
one of these, but possibly only the name of the other, just in case
you wanted to verify this)

Thanks

Colin Wilson

* Please note my email address has changed since my original message *