Computeractive magazine, Article in Issue 239, 19 April – 2 May 2007, Page 15

Peculiarity with Pipex

In issue 237 we told readers about the very nasty situation that Phil and Jane Marsden had found themselves in with internet service provider (ISP) Pipex. They were billed for a service they never received.

The Marsdens had been wooed by the promise of broadband with Pipex, which has a service that goes up to 8 Mbits/sec. But as readers will by now know - the crucial wording here is "up to". This is because these advertised speeds are dependent on the technology available today and the distance the customer lives from the exchange.

The further you live from the exchange the slower your speed will be because broadband signals degrade over distance. The technology is improving but some people may never get the highest advertised speeds.

This was the case for the Marsdens - they just lived too far from their exchange to take advantage of Pipex's services. Although it took a couple of months for Pipex to inform them of this, they continued to get their broadband from BT.

So not surprisingly they were astonished when Pipex started to bill them for broadband. They called and wrote to Pipex customer services which agreed a mistake had been made and said it would be rectified.

The problem is it wasn't -instead Pipex hired a debt collection agency to harass the Marsdens. Not knowing which way to turn they contacted us.

We told them to write to the debt collection agency, Pipex and the regulator Ofcom with the details of their complaint. We also contacted Pipex and asked the ISP to sort this matter out and we are glad to report it finally has been solved.

Pipex has now told us that it has apologised to Mr Marsden for any inconvenience caused and written directly to him acknowledging the issues. "The matter is now fully resolved," it told us.

It is also going to give him a goodwill gesture of £30 for any inconvenience caused to them although this may take a few weeks to come through.

We are glad this matter has been resolved but remain appalled at the crass handling of this complaint by Pipex; redirecting the debt to a debt collection agency after a couple of months was the thin edge.

We also think £30 a derisory amount to offer as a way of apology considering the phone calls, postage costs and sheer worry that the Marsdens went through.