Pipex Homecall

Joined Pipex last September, subscribed to the Max unlimited service, was
advised that I would get about 4 Meg in my area, ok not bad I thought, was
ok for the first month or so, then it turned into utter rubbish. Great if
you want to download at 9 O'clock in the morning during the week, evening
and weekends you couldn't even get your email.

Last weekend was the straw that broke the camels back, couldn't connect for
more than five minutes, couldn't download the BBC home page, it was a
completely useless service.
Sent them an email saying "please disconnect this useless service ASAP"
Monday morning working fine, download speeds of 200kps + ....... then they
cut it off!
Great just what I wanted, never thought I sing the praises of ntl but
believe me compared to Pipex they are fantastic.
3 days later on Thursday my service returns to life and I get an email from
Pipex saying the usual bullshit about I have signed up for a 12 Month
contract, I should telephone the technical helpline, Blah Blah bullshit!

Isn't a contract between 2 parties? and who as broken it? Isn't this
legalised theft, can they legally enforce this, doesn't the consumer have
any rights at all?

"Mick" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:45a8a674$0$7847$(E-Mail Removed) m...

> Sent them an email saying "please disconnect this useless service ASAP"
> Monday morning working fine, download speeds of 200kps + ....... then they
> cut it off!

You asked them to cut you off, and they did.
If they hadn't cut you off you would presumably have complained that they
were not carrying out your instruction.

If you read your contract there will be a clause about speed.
This has only happened because ISP's moved from fixed speeds (that were
broadly attainable and they could put you on one that would work from your
location) to variable ones where peoples expectations are higher than what
is technically possible.

I blame the advertising of 8MB broadbands when hardly anyone will be able to
achieve those speeds.
To get a decent speed from many locations you need to use interleaving which
can cause problems with VOIP and other activities that people on broadband
expect to be core functions now.

The other problem is price.
Its actually not possible for any of these ISP's to provide those services
for the prices they are charging.
It only works because they are only paying the interest on their loans or
because they can subsidise it from other areas of business.
Its not a good business model at all.

Consumers in the UK tend to get the services they deserve in that respect.
Everything is price driven.

I bet you could find a more reliable service if you were prepared to pay a
bit more.

"Gordon Hudson" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:45a8b308$0$765$(E-Mail Removed)...
>
> "Mick" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:45a8a674$0$7847$(E-Mail Removed) m...
>
>> Sent them an email saying "please disconnect this useless service ASAP"
>> Monday morning working fine, download speeds of 200kps + ....... then
>> they cut it off!
>
> You asked them to cut you off, and they did.
> If they hadn't cut you off you would presumably have complained that they
> were not carrying out your instruction.



The point I was trying to make is that it was working perfectly Monday
morning so obviously it's company policy to throttle bandwidth to an
unusable limit on evening /weekends.
Then why was it reconnected on the Thursday? Just so they could send me a
warning email?
Any other Pipex users having problems?

"Mick" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:45a8a674$0$7847$(E-Mail Removed) m...
> Joined Pipex last September, subscribed to the Max unlimited service, was
> advised that I would get about 4 Meg in my area, ok not bad I thought, was
> ok for the first month or so, then it turned into utter rubbish. Great if
> you want to download at 9 O'clock in the morning during the week, evening
> and weekends you couldn't even get your email.
>
> Last weekend was the straw that broke the camels back, couldn't connect
> for more than five minutes, couldn't download the BBC home page, it was a
> completely useless service.
> Sent them an email saying "please disconnect this useless service ASAP"
> Monday morning working fine, download speeds of 200kps + ....... then they
> cut it off!
> Great just what I wanted, never thought I sing the praises of ntl but
> believe me compared to Pipex they are fantastic.
> 3 days later on Thursday my service returns to life and I get an email
> from Pipex saying the usual bullshit about I have signed up for a 12 Month
> contract, I should telephone the technical helpline, Blah Blah bullshit!
>
> Isn't a contract between 2 parties? and who as broken it? Isn't this
> legalised theft, can they legally enforce this, doesn't the consumer have
> any rights at all?

Well you did break the contract which you agreed to.
Have you made considerable attempts to find out the cause of the fault?
Have you raised tickets with Pipex? Have you reported any faults? Have you
had your physical line checked for faults?

> The point I was trying to make is that it was working perfectly Monday
> morning so obviously it's company policy to throttle bandwidth to an
> unusable limit on evening /weekends.

Compare the connection to a motorway - if no-one else is using it, you
can do 70mph quite happily... try doing that during rush hour at the
same time as everyone else, and you get 20mph. Perhaps evenings and
weekends on your exchange are bonkers ?

> Then why was it reconnected on the Thursday? Just so they could send me a
> warning email?

Have you considered the possibility that it might be out of Pipex's
control, such as the phone lines in your area being shit / waterlogged /
some lines might be down due to the weather ?

You buy broadband on the basis that it sits on top of someone elses'
service, and a failure to that buggers up your internet.

Add to that we don't know what hardware you're using, i.e. a wired /
wireless connection, and that opens possibilities for other issues - my
wifes' friend was having murder with a wireless router, and the DECT
phones her neighbour had appear to have been the cause of the connection
problems.

> Any other Pipex users having problems?

Not as yet, but i'm on a fixed 1mbit connection, any contention issues
seem to have lessened since everyone else moved to RADSL in the
expectation they'd get more speed for less money.

On Sat, 13 Jan 2007 10:23:10 -0000, "Gordon Hudson"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:


>The other problem is price.
>Its actually not possible for any of these ISP's to provide those services
>for the prices they are charging.
>It only works because they are only paying the interest on their loans or
>because they can subsidise it from other areas of business.
>Its not a good business model at all.
>
>Consumers in the UK tend to get the services they deserve in that respect.
>Everything is price driven.

Depending on what package you choose the price for 8 meg broadband via
Pipex varies from £14.99 to £24.99 per month. (and £6.50 - £24.99 if
you complicate things with their pathetic inclusive call packages)

Are you suggesting that paying £14.99 in no way reflects the cost of
the service and that £24.99 does?

How much should a broadband connection *really* cost to the customer?


For a laugh have at look here where pipex say:

"Find your perfect Pipex package."

"At Pipex, we do everything we can to make life easier.
We've even made, choosing the perfect Pipex plan simplicity itself. "

Simplicity? FFS you advertise a package that just offers just off peak
calls but costs £2 more than one that offers free calls all the time.
Fuckwits!



http://www.pipex.co.uk/compare/


--

> The point I was trying to make is that it was working perfectly Monday
> morning so obviously it's company policy to throttle bandwidth to an
> unusable limit on evening /weekends.

I get really good speeds on Pipex 8 meg (syncs at 5 meg). They do throttle
P2P apps down to 25kb/s if you go over a particular limit but I don't do a
lot of that anyhow.

If its the locals downloading in the evenings and you just want to web surf
you might be better off with a heavy handed ISP who chops people off who
download too much in a month, too much during peak hours, or leaves P2P
apps running 24x7.

Have a google for signal to DSL noise ratios particularly why things are
worse at night and better during the day, that might also be another issue.

Regards, Dave

Mick wrote:

> Joined Pipex last September, subscribed to the Max unlimited service, was
> advised that I would get about 4 Meg in my area, ok not bad I thought, was
> ok for the first month or so, then it turned into utter rubbish. Great if
> you want to download at 9 O'clock in the morning during the week, evening
> and weekends you couldn't even get your email.
>
> Last weekend was the straw that broke the camels back, couldn't connect for
> more than five minutes, couldn't download the BBC home page, it was a
> completely useless service.
> Sent them an email saying "please disconnect this useless service ASAP"
> Monday morning working fine, download speeds of 200kps + ....... then they
> cut it off!
> Great just what I wanted, never thought I sing the praises of ntl but
> believe me compared to Pipex they are fantastic.
> 3 days later on Thursday my service returns to life and I get an email from
> Pipex saying the usual bullshit about I have signed up for a 12 Month
> contract, I should telephone the technical helpline, Blah Blah bullshit!
>
> Isn't a contract between 2 parties? and who as broken it? Isn't this
> legalised theft, can they legally enforce this, doesn't the consumer have
> any rights at all?

If the goods weren't 'fit for purpose' then you should have a legal case to
cancel.

Graham

Gordon Hudson wrote:

> "Mick" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
>
> > Sent them an email saying "please disconnect this useless service ASAP"
> > Monday morning working fine, download speeds of 200kps + ....... then they
> > cut it off!
>
> You asked them to cut you off, and they did.
> If they hadn't cut you off you would presumably have complained that they
> were not carrying out your instruction.
>
> If you read your contract there will be a clause about speed.

It's not allowed to be so bad as to be unusable though.

Graham

"Mick" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:45a8a674$0$7847$(E-Mail Removed) m...
> Joined Pipex last September, subscribed to the Max unlimited service, was
> advised that I would get about 4 Meg in my area, ok not bad I thought, was
> ok for the first month or so, then it turned into utter rubbish. Great if
> you want to download at 9 O'clock in the morning during the week, evening
> and weekends you couldn't even get your email.
>
> Last weekend was the straw that broke the camels back, couldn't connect
> for more than five minutes, couldn't download the BBC home page, it was a
> completely useless service.
> Sent them an email saying "please disconnect this useless service ASAP"
> Monday morning working fine, download speeds of 200kps + ....... then they
> cut it off!
> Great just what I wanted, never thought I sing the praises of ntl but
> believe me compared to Pipex they are fantastic.
> 3 days later on Thursday my service returns to life and I get an email
> from Pipex saying the usual bullshit about I have signed up for a 12 Month
> contract, I should telephone the technical helpline, Blah Blah bullshit!
>
> Isn't a contract between 2 parties? and who as broken it? Isn't this
> legalised theft, can they legally enforce this, doesn't the consumer have
> any rights at all?
>
>
>

It takes 14-17 days to cease through pipex homecall so the loss of service
you experience was more likely to be an area fault than a cease. It may also
be that your welcome letter was delayed so you received it way after you had
connected and may still be live on the original contract. As far as they are
concerned you have 14 days lead time which you have most likely exceeded if
you are live. To be honest you will have trouble getting your breach charges
waived.