Pipex woe and making their lives difficult! ;o)

[camdbug]

I won't go into a length description of all the problems (unless people really want me to!) - partly as it's similar to everyone else. However, a brief (ha!) summary below, followed by what I've been doing to make their lives as hard as possible as a result!

* Broadband quality/speed/connections started to go really bad in November.
* Several calls to customer services/tech support resulted in slight improvement + 1 months free broadband.
* Around Christmas went terrible again to the point of being unusable.
* Impossible to get through to tech support/cust services
* Emails not being responded to, or the "You have since called customer services, so we assume the problem is resolved" response when I had called them about something entirely different (such as getting them to send me an itemised phone bill as they were STILL unable to provide this via the website... whole other issue!)
* 12 month contract ran out in Jan, so requested MAC code - fun really starts.
* Was put through to tech support 2nd line, who tried to fix broadband. Had agreed not to migrate while they were trying, although still had my MAC code. Went on for several weeks with no success.
* Meantime, got an email stating they were stopping my phone service.
* Calls/emails, promise by Pipex not to terminate phone.
* Found they had removed £150 "early disconnection charge" from my direct debit with no warning - violated every point of the DD guarantee in fact.
* Got bank to refund.
* Found a random new invoice for twice my previous broadband charge. Cancelled DD immediately and contact cust serv to tell them I had done so and why.
* Received email saying voice service had been stopped. Found out that it had actually stopped 3 days previously, and I had accrued about £20 of BT charges in the meantime making calls to family in Holland! Very angry, so...
* Formal letter of complaint - reg post. No response received.
* Further nasty letters.
* Second formal letter of complaint - reg post.
* Requested new MAC code as previous had just expired. Immediately gave it to O2 to move away.
* Another invoice was raised for £80 for "early disconnection charge". DD still cancelled.
* Response to second letter only. Ignored all of my *many* points of complaint - esp request for refund of BT charges, just acknowledging incorrect billing and promising to correct the balance on my account - which has still not been done!
* Third formal letter of complaint - reg post. No response.
* Another threatening letter - threatening to disconnect me - phone now with BT and BB with O2!

etc. etc. You can see why I didn't want to do a full detailed description!

So, in an attempt to make their lives as painful as possible, and especially after having 2 formal letters of complaint completely ignored, and a third essentially ignored, I have done the following;

1) Lodged a formal complaint with the ISPA. Expect a response within 5 working days according to their site. That would have been today, but Good Friday and Easter are messing with that, so will wait until next Wednesday. No response or even acknowledgement from Pipex has been received so far of course.
2) Next Wednesday I shall be lodging a second complaint with the ISPA which apparently raises priority significantly!
3) After receiving yet another letter demanding money (for the cancellation fees that I am not liable for!) I sent them a Data Protection "Subject Access Request" much as done for the banks. I have requested copies of all invoices, detailed charges and itemised phone calls, all emails and letters sent to or from them, all internal communications, logs, memos, or other communications relating to me or my account, and copies of all call centre logs and phone calls! £10 fee submitted (I'm more than happy to pay this ), received by them on Tuesday.
4) Heard no response, but started receiving the automated phone calls today - how surprising! Automated call put me through to customer services because of a "problem on my account, which may result in the imminent disconnection of my Pipex services"! and stated I would not be charged. 2 minutes later it disconnected me while I was still waiting.

All good fun from my point of view - guess that makes me pig headed and stubborn! But frankly I've had enough of being screwed around by big companies. I am currently seeking compensation for the BT charges incurred due to their incompetancy, the exorbitant amount of time and energy I have spent on this matter, and due to the large number of letters (more than listed above) sent by registered and special delivery post - 90% of which have been ignored - the postage charges I have incurred.

I am currently waiting to see what comes out of the ISPA process, and whether they're even going to respond to the S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) I've hit them with (quite a long wait there though - 40 calendar days...) And I will quite happily take them to court next if they don't get their act together. If they don't respond to the S.A.R - (Subject Access Request), I'm also going to consider popping into the local police station as it's a criminal offence not to provide the details as requested... probably won't achieve much, but that's not going to stop me

I would strongly recommend other people having a problem - irrespective of the supplier, to try the formal complaint method, if that fails (allow the relevant amounts of time), go to the ISPA - supplier must be registered with them, but most of the big ones are - and hit the supplier with a Subject Access Request - I can post a copy of the letter I sent for this if anyone wants me to! It will cost you about £11.50 for the Subject Access Request (£10 charge + about £1.50 for recorded delivery), but it's going to cost them a hell of a lot more to produce the details!

What will happen next? More threats and failure to produce responses?? Will they back down??? Will they just ignore me???? Tune in next week to find out more

[Thorn]

I had a problem with Pipex since day 1.... we joined in September 2006 a talk and broadband package. They installed the broadband but not the phone service. After 3 months, of not being billed, and no phone service.

I contacted them and requested my MAC code we moved to madasafish and paid the balance of our account for the broadband minus the cost of the talk service which we did not receive.

After disputing the figures for months and seeking advice from trading standards we wrote to the chief executive etc 3/4 times but received no reply (they wanted to charge us for the talk service) Finally one Indian lady from accounts accepted our payment.

I thought that was the end of the saga until today !!

That was back in December 2006.....fast forward to today March 27th 2008

I have received a court summons from a debt collector threatening court action and saying unless I pay now they will raise an action against me.

I have no idea how they worked this out and I am not sure yet what to do. But it seems so many people have had major problems with Pipex.

I guess it's time to go to CAB for some advice

[camdbug]

Assuming you kept copies and records of all correspondance (you will at least have bank records showing all payments to them), or can reconstruct such records - hit the debt collector with an Subject Access Request as this will force them to produce all information they have regarding this debt. If they cannot provide full details of the debt and previous attempts to collect it, they will have to pass it back to Pipex and get them to do the same.

From your perspective it remains the same though - issue the collector with a Subject Access Request (costing £10 + registered post) and they have 40 calendar days to respond.

If they do not respond, then they will stand very little chance in court. If they do respond, but fail to provide the details that you know (and hopefully can prove!) to be true, then let them take you to court - they stand very little chance indeed of winning.

Just get all the documentation and information together. No harm in consulting the CAB at all. In addition, check out the debt collection areas of this forum, as I'm sure people will be MORE than happy to confirm what I say above (or correct it if I've got it wrong!) and will give you loads of advice - especially about the court side of things. Remember though, courts can work in your favour as well - they just use it as a threat to scare you, and don't often expect people to say "come on then, let's do it!" Make their lives as hard as possible, and - under no circumstances call the collectors! Put EVERYTHING in writing, recorded delivery, and put "I DO NOT ACKNOWLEDGE ANY DEBT WITH YOUR COMPANY" in bold at the top of every letter!

Let me know how you get on.

[camdbug]

And yes - they decided on the "more threats" path. ANother automated phone call, two letters, and an email - all threatening to "reluctantly disconnect your Pipex services"... Yep... I beat you to that by quite a long way.

No response to the Subject Access Request at all.

Submitted the second ISPA complaint yesterday, and of course still heard nothing.

I shall patiently await their response, while ignoring their pointless destruction of rainforests by sending me letters.

[Thorn]

hi,

thanks for the advice...I have drafted a S.A.R - (Subject Access Request) letter and was planning on sending it to Pipex....should I send one to Pipex, and the debt collector?

[camdbug]

Problem is that you need to send a fee (£10 - postal order is best as they can't claim they had to wait for it to clear!) If you send a Subject Access Request to Pipex and the debt collectors, you'll need to send £10 to each - and I don't think you'll want to do that!

I would probably be tempted to send it to the debt collectors - especially if in their letter they've put any wording such as "we have been given this debt" or similar as that means they are now handling it. However, I would include wording such as;

"I require copies of all information relating to this alleged debt and the account upon which it was incurred. This should include, but is not limited to, copies of all correspondence, written, faxed or electronic, all internal memos relating to the account or the alleged debt, copies of all call centre logs, and copies of all recorded telephone conversations." Don't forget to include the "I DO NOT ACKNOWLEDGE ANY DEBT WITH YOUR COMPANY" at the top of the letter and change every other reference to "debt" with "alleged debt"!

There is a 100% guarantee that no debt collection agency will have this information, so they will have no option but to pass it back to Pipex (or, in the worst case return the Subject Access Request and PO back to you, although I am not 100% sure if they are allowed to do this in these cases...) And, until the Subject Access Request is satisfied, they will be unable to chase you for the debt, as it is "in dispute".

Remember 40 calendar days for the Subject Access Request starts from the day the DCA receives it. It is irrelevant when Pipex receive it from them - if the DCA are claiming responsibility for retrieving the debt, serve the Subject Access Request on them and it's their problem then.

Also, if either Pipex or the DCA continue to chase you for the money, send them a very simple response in writing by recorded signed for delivery (about £1) saying "Regarding your letter of the X/X/2008. This amount is currently in dispute. I am awaiting a response to my Subject Access Request received by you on the X/X/2008 [and my formal complaint received by you on the X/X/2008]. I will consider any further communication regarding this amount prior to responses to the above to be harrassment and will contact Trading Standards and the Office of Fair Trading if such attempts continue."

If you haven't already sent a formal complaint, I'd send one now - directly to Pipex, referring to the DCA letter you have received and basically asking WTF?