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☆☆☆☆☆

“I received a phonecall recently from the lovely people...”

written by jimmy menz on 03/08/2006

Good Points
Cheap Cheap Cheap

Bad Points
They lie, they bite off more than they can chew, their internet is provided by tiscali!

General Comments
I received a phonecall recently from the lovely people at pipex homecall. As a current pipex broadband customer, they made they lovely offer of a free broadband upgrade to 8mb from 1mb providing i took out my line rental and phone calls with them, which they promised would be cheaper. Anyway, i wanted the upgrade and i was told i would have to wait 2 weeks. Great i thought, no more waiting around for sluggish downloads! Well after 2 weeks had passed, no upgrade. after a month, no upgrade. After 2-3 months, well you get the picture!



So i called the people at pipex homecall today asking what the hell is going on. I was told that they would take my name down and call me back within 7 days. Nice diversion tactics i think. Well i wasn't happy and demanded answers. They then gave me some story about how they were waiting for pipex to upgrade me and that i should call them. So i phoned pipex broadband asking for answers. They told me that with the upgrade, my line speed would increase, however my service would be reduced to a capped service of 15gb a month. Not much of an upgrade when you consider i was on an unlimited service previously. Then to add insult to injury, pipex told me that pipex homecall failed to tell me that this would include a brand spanking new 12 month contract! At this point i felt cheated considering lying to cutomers to get them on their books is fraud.



So there i was, confused some more about what the hell has been going on for the last few months. So once again, i phoned pipex homecall (a national rate number that was costing up to £1 for every 15mins). This time i demanded to speak to a manager, who was reluctant to talk to me after the previous, heated conversations i had had with them. The manager then spoke to me who was happy to be honest and clear things up for me. He told me that it was not pipex homecall that signed me up to their services, it was actually pipex. Although their names are similar, they are 2 different companies with completely different systems so how can one company sign me up to another? Pipex homecall stated that pipex mis-sold me (aka committed fraud) the service and they shouldnt have done what they did in the first place. This was strange as when i was sold the service, the representitive told me they were calling from pipex homecall, not pipex (confusing eh?)! By this point i was fed up of being lied to. I had been passed from pillar to post too many times now and the blissful, hassle free memories from BT came flooding back. I left pipex homecall no option, i was cancelling and there was nothing they could do to stop me. Even when i tried to cancel, the manager told me that he would need to take my details and call me back in a few days. Well i wasn't falling for that and told him that i do not want to be with pipex homecall for another day. I was put on hold for a while and then received a nice touch from them. They told me not to cancel, rather contact BT and switch back to them as this will stop my line going dead and avoid a £75 reactivation charge! I was touched, but also relieved that this would be the end! Anyway, i phone BT and the switch over is going ahead, i'm so pleased!



Before i end, i would like to bring one more thing to people attention. Pipex homecall offer unlimited broadband at a bargain basement price. I repeat, unlimited broadband, no download limits! As with most isp's, theres a fair usage policy. Bellow is pipex homecall, which seems very reasonable:



"Our Fair Usage tool automatically identifies the very small number of extremely heavy users and manages their bandwidth only during peak hours (6pm to 11pm Monday to Sunday, inc. Bank Holidays), to protect the service for all our other customers. Outside peak hours, the use of the Internet by these heavy users is unaffected."



So basically its saying, don't download a lot during peak hours, but download as much as you want during off-peak and there wont be a problem. Well i thought i'd question this when i called earlier (not the manager, just some lady). I said to her, if i dont download during peak hours but constantly downloaded during off-peak then this won't be a problem. She replied by saying yes. I then said if i downloaded a terabyte of data in a month, off-peak, then this would not be a problem. Once again, she said yes. I still wasn't convinced, so i asked the manager the same questions. his responses somehow differed from the previous representatives. He told me that although the service is unlimited, they have a cap of around 40gb! Hardly unlimited is it? He then went on to tell me that their broadband services isn't even provided by pipex, its provided by tiscali, the worst isp in the world ( I should know, i left them a few years back because of poor service).



I could go on for hours, but to hell with it, i'm sure you get the picture. However, i will do a quick recap of what to expect if you sign up with pipex homecall or whatever they are calling themselves these days!



1. They will promise to give you lots of goodies if you sign up, but you will never get them (fraud), but you will probably still have to pay for them (theft).

2. If you try to question them, expect diversion tactics and be left on hold indefinatly.

3. Unlimited broband isnt unlimited. Their lies are hard burned into their policy so to be sure to be screwed from the start.

4. Free upgrades arent free. Expect to be signed up for the rest of your life without being told (fraud).

5. Whatever one staff member tells you, you'll have piece of mind that its a pack of lies (fraud). Then whn the next person corrects the first persons mistakes, you'll be sure that you have been told even more lies (fraud).



Please please please take note of this review. It doesn't matter how good the offer is, how low the price is or how much you will be getting free, you will never get it! Avoid like i wish i did, it will save you so much time and hassle.



Lets hope that pipex homecall tke note of this and at least attempt to improve their services.

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