In the UK when you move house, most companies can cope with that. Utilities such as electricity and gas can just transfer your details to your new address, without any hassles. When you alert British Telecom (the UK’s main provider of domestic telephone lines), they let you know when your old number will be disconnected, and an approximate time when the line at your new address will be activated. They even SMS you when it’s done, and let you know your new telephone number in advance. It’s easy, and all taken care of for you.
You might have thought that the same would be so for the supposedly mature DSL market. Just let them know you’re moving, tell them your new phone number, and let them do the rest.
Well, not so if you’re with PIPEX, one of the UK’s longest established ISPs. I called them on Friday, and told them just that. I’d moved house - I wanted them to activate broadband on my new line and expected (perhaps naively) them to do the rest. Not so.
I was told that they would have to terminate my account, and I would have to reapply. Not only that, termination could only be done by email. I calmly explained that I did not have any email, because I have no internet access in my new house. I was asked “Is there an alternative email we can send our form to?”. Gah!
I knew I shouldn’t have left it too late, but then I could survive a few days without connectivity. To be told that not only could they not do anything until I had responded to the email, I was also subject to 30 days notice for suspending. So I’d have to pay for 30 days of DSL I can’t use! Utter madness, and as far as customer service goes, this is the pits.
It’s a shame, since I had been with PIPEX for nearly 4 years, and the service had been very reliable. I’d even recommended them to quite a number of others. I shan’t be doing that again in the future.
Not to mention their PIPEX Xtras loyalty scheme. Any points I’ve saved up are now nicely null and void. What a waste.
Here’s a copy of my comments to PIPEX submitted with my online termination notice:
Dear PIPEX, I have just moved house. I hoped, as with other telecommunication services, that I would be able to transfer my account to a new number, notify you of my intention, and have you handle the processes involved. That I have to go through the process of closing my account and reapplying as absurd.
I have been a customer of PIPEX since June 2002 - getting on for 4 years as a ‘valued’ customer. I am saddened by your inflexibility when it comes to moving house. This is very bad customer service, and with the broadband market being such a competitve place at the moment, I really did expect more from you.
I have recommended many people to your service in the past, as it has been so reliable. I shan’t be doing that again in the future.
To add insult to injury, I also have to pay for an extra month of broadband for a number which doesn’t exist any more, so I’m £23.44 out of pocket too.
I shall be blogging this process to make sure others are aware.
Yours in regret,
TG
So if you’re thinking of signing up with PIPEX, but not sure if you need to move house, think again. Other ISPs can cope, so why can’t they?
Tom,
Sorry to hear it, but this exactly what happened to Doug and I when we moved. Having phoned BT and been told i simply needed to pass a reference number to Pipex, i phoned Pipex and it was all downhill from there. I was told there was no such facility, BT were wrong and i would have to cancel my account and get a new one, paying 60 odd quid for the privilege (early termination). I stated that on no account should i be charged as it was not i who was cancelling rather it was a matter of Pipex paperwork, nothig to do with me, but the robots took the money anyway. I ended up being charged the cancellation fee (still to be refunded 6 months on!) and paying for a months service as i didn’t provide enough notice (it takes AGES to cancel an account). Plus, i went on holiday for two week a couple of weeks after moving in: I left with no broadband expecting it to be back on my return only to find Pipex did absolutely nothing while i was away as they needed ME to phone THEM to give them authorisation to set up a ‘new’ account, my previous phonecalls and emails obviously not being sufficient. The whole thing was a farce and to make it worse, try complaining. Emails ended up going to a different person each time, nothing was done, pass the buck… I’m hopefully getting it sorted now (ie getting the money they owe me back; haven’t even had an apology for the extended break in service provision or being charged when i had no service).
Paul.
Pipex are not the same small independent firm that they used to be - when you could always get personal help or chat with the MD on as number of forums - they grew and got bought. Still, I get a very good deal from them, and the connectivity is still good, so I have no intention of moving yet - but should I need to move - I will heed your experience! Sorry to hear of your misfortunes… Finding a good ISP is akin to finding a good financial adviser.
They were very good in terms of reliability, such a shame it went sour, but then as you said, they are now a huge company and don’t seem to care much about smallfry domestic customers it seems…
I’ve just signed up to Demon HomeOffice, so we’ll see how that goes. It’ll be nice to be back online again, so I can get blogging properly!
I once had to threaten Pipex with legal action after they continued to send me invoices for a W-DSL account for six months after I’d closed it. Eventually they issues a credit-note and paid me the money, which was nice since I’d been ignoring their invoices anyway!
Zen had issues transferring my 2Mb line in Winchester when I moved recently. Since I was moving within an exchange (I moved about 300 yards within a small area of Winchester!) I thought they’d just take the copper out of the DSLAM and put it in a different card in the same rack. Not so. The process goes something like this…
I ask for my DSL to be moved; the ISP (it’s not just Zen that go through this process) puts an order with BT Wholesale to deactivate that DSL line and activate *a different line* on the new number.
As soon as that line is deactivated it becomes “free” as far as BT Wholesale is concerned, so gets issued to the next customer on the waiting list. (At the time there was a list of customers wanting to get 2Mb lines in Winchester). So I “gave up” my 2Mb and went to the *bottom* of the list of people waiting.
I had to wait for my exchange to have a capacity upgrade before they could activate my DSL at the new address! This isn’t Zen’s fault, it’s the ridiculous BT Wholesale process that ties the hands of any ISP. :( Anyone who has opted for an ISP who have invested in LLU won’t have this problem.
Thanks for the pre warning! I’m moving next month and wondered why Pipex didnt have an ‘i’m moving home’ section…..
I guess it’s back to dial up for while then…….
Yippee! A resolution: Pipex have returned my cancellation fee and the money for the peiod without broadband. No explanation at all (other than ‘we have no records…’) of why it took them quite so long to get me reconnected, but i guess you can’t win them all!
I agree, their service is generally splendid so i think i’ll just stay put for now (that is unless i move again!).
We’re back on broadband, this time with Demon. I’m not sure if they’re any better, but we’ll see…
I doubt I’ll hear anything from PIPEX, but if a company are rubbish - vote with your feet and leave them! And tell the rest of the world about your experience. Otherwise us proles will just be little more than specks of dust to them…
I too have just found out that pipex have continued to take payments for a dsl service, I cancelled in august last year. They took no payments for november then decided to debit me a monthly payment after.
Thank god I decided to check my online account today.
I just hope they sort it and it doesnt turn out to be something of a battle.
Colin
I just moved house and told pipex to close my account.
I expected to pay 23.99 for my 30days notice.. but i also have a charge of 82.74 (strange number)
After calling support and being on hold for 29mins they cut me off… aargh!
I too have just cancelled my pipex account to move house. They have charged me £287.59 as they needed the rest of my contract amount in case I didnt come back to them! When the broadband was setup at the new address the line died (i’m guessing some BT engineer has fudged the line?) so I have no service until another BT engineer can come and fix it. 1 month down the line and my first bill has been debited from my account, so I am currently over £300 pounds out of pocket with no internet service at all.
Just to make it more of a mess I have to now change the phone number at the new address as we recieve lots of calls for the previous owners and prank calls etc. Pipex tell me that they will need to cancel my account AGAIN and I assume this will incur yet another cancellation fee of £300 ish as its a new contract.
So thats a nice £600 round figure for my internet which does not work…
Emails take 10 days to be replied to (with little or no helpful info) and the phone lines are permanantly busy and hang up on me. I cannot wait for the time when this contract runs out and I can happily move away from Pipex, and I urge anyone reading this to do the same.
Again the same raw deal by Pipex, tried to move but it would cost me £130 to setup BT as my new place has Telewest. So to cancel my contract with Six months left would cost me £140 pounds. Pipex we’re not interest in even answering their phones, cutting me off.
I tried the sales line (surprisingly answered within 1min!) and asked them to put me through to Customer Services after a long ‘computer says no’ situation I then told him that I tried calling CS for over 1 hour, he replied ’some people wait 4-5 hours to get through’ what a great way to treat customers.
So I’m paying for 2mb broadband at my previous property via DD and if I cancel I would have to pay the full 6 months contract… Hmm I might just cancel my DD as I feel they’ve broken the agreement with me by not being able to provide broadband via Cable. But that could land me in court, or with a mark against my credit-rating.
They won’t even reduce it to the lowest tariff as their not providing anything at all?
I had to got with Telewest instead so I’m now paying £50 a month for Broadband for 6 months. You can imagine my anger at being put into this position with Pipex.
This stinks of rip-off Briton again, time we all got together a sued them for the stress they’ve caused us.
One anti-pipex customer.
Hi,
I am moving house soon and need to take my pipex service with me as my contract lasts until september 2007. They told me I need to cancel and reapply and pay a cancellation charge (and I’m waiting to hear from them whether I need to sign a new 12 month contract).
I don’t want to pay the cancellation charge as I fear I’ll never get the money back! Also, I can’t sign a new 12 month contract as I’m leaving the country in october.
I’m trying to decide what the best thing to do is, and wondering does anyone know the legality of what pipex is doing is?
Can they charge a cancellation charge when you are moving? (note they told me in clear terms I can ‘take the service with me’ if I moved when I first signed up!)
Can they force you on a new 12 month contract?
Many thanks,
Caroline
Im also due to move house and have been told the same thing, i will have to cancell my existing contract and re apply.
However on the FAQ on their website:
==================================================================
What will happen if I cancel my BT line?
Unfortunately if you cancel your BT line your Pipex Broadband and phone calls services will automatically be cancelled.
==================================================================
Is this a work around?
Jason
Hi Jason,
I think these days, in practice, they will waive any residual charges on your contract if you reconnect with them within 30 days. Be firm when you phone up to inform them of your move, and make a note of the advisor’s name. Inist that you will not pay any money to them, as you intend to stay with them in your new home.
I’m with Demon Internet these days, and their process isn’t any different to PIPEX, sadly. But when I moved I didn’t have to pay the excess (5 months) if I reconnected after I moved.
So, be firm, make a note of peoples names, and times and dates that you called, and what was said. You are not terminating your contract, you’re moving house! They won’t see it that way, so you’ll have to persuade them that this is a perfectly normal thing for humans to do, and no, it won’t cost you extra to do that ;-)
Good luck!
Thanks for your reply.
My point is that i want to keep my existing contract, not renew a new one for another 12 months.
Were you able to do this?
No, I had to enter into a new 12 month contract - no amount of firmness would make them budge on that front :-(
Having also recommended Pipex to many people as I had been a customer for 10 years with 2 separate accounts I have also experienced the problems closing an account. One was closed 1 1/2 years ago and as of this week I have suddenly had 2 threatening emails about what they are going to do.There is no reply email address and I don’t accept being put on hold for more than 5 minutes (Zen much better) and they will not respond to my emails to general inquiries (even included my new tel No).They got too big too quickly I am afraid.
I also have found pipex to be shocking for customer services, We have to move with the forces every six months and was not made aware when I signed up for a twelve months contract it would only be at the one address. Why? when other companies can move your contract with you can they not? and then how can they get away with charging you a huge cancellation fee or forcing you to sign a new contract? I personally dont want anything to do with them any more and would tell everyone to avoid them as I have just had problem after problem with them…if you can go with another provider, do it, these guys are shocking for customer services!
Thanks to everyone for their responses to this post.
I’ve recently heard that Pipex will be changing their name, and since I left them to use Demon as my ISP some time ago now, I’ve decided to close comments on this post.
We must keep ISPs on their toes though. We must push for better customer services. I recommend that people wishing to comment further head over to the excellent forums at Think Broadband. Good luck people - I’ll see you there!