Email about Pipex from Sophist

Email from Sophist 17 February 2007

To Alfred

Had a letter from Pipex today saying that I was too heavy a downloader on an Unlimited broadband connection - spoke to them - they said 50GB was the Fair Use level.

I am making a complaint to UK Trading Standards - if you want to start a new thread on your site about this I would be happy to provide more detail.

Sophist

Email from Sophist 18 February 2007

Alfred

Here is the text of the letter and my comments on it. Please let me know if you need this editing or need any further information.

Sophist

------------------------------

Letter Sophist received from Pipex Director of Sales & Service, Mark Carberry on 14 February 2007
"

"14/02/2007

Dear ......

Important notice regarding your broadband usage

Pipex introduced network traffic management in 2005 to help manage the network and provide a fair service for all our customers particularly during busy periods of the day. The usage behaviour of a small minority of our customer base has led us to introduce, with immediate effect, a Fair Use Policy to ensure that we can continue to provide a good and fair level of service. You can view the Fair Use Policy online at www.pipex.co.uk/legal .

We have established that your usage levels are in excess of the levels we would expect for normal home use, and your behaviour along with a small number of other customers may be having a detrimental effect on the service available for the majority of the Pipex customer base.

We would like you to change your usage behaviour immediately or let us know if you think we have got this wrong. If we don't see a reduction in your usage in the next 14 days we will contact you again and may take further action.

In addition to changing your usage behaviour there are a number of alternatives for you to consider:

You can move to our Midi Broadband product which has a usage allowance of 15GB per month with the opportunity to purchase more allowance on a monthly basis. We would allow you to continue with your current level of usage on this product as long as you confirm in writing to us that you are complying with our Acceptable Use Policy and using your connection for normal home use.
You can switch to our sister company Bulldog Broadband where the service may be more suited to your needs. You need to purchase a telephone service and line rental with a new 12 month contract. We advise that you visit bulldogbroadband.com first to check that you can receive their service. If you then decide to take this option please call us on 0800 1075902 to request a MAC code.
You can switch to an alternative provider that offers you unrestricted use of your broadband connection. If you wish to take this option please call us on 0800 1075902 to request a MAC code.

Finally, can you please confirm to us in writing within the next 14 days using the attached form that you are complying and will continue to comply with our Fair Use and Acceptable Use Policies.

Yours sincerely

Mark Carberry
Director of Sales & Service"

Comments by Sophist

If you go to their web site and look for the Fair Use Policy ( http://www.pipex.co.uk/legal/fair-use-policy.php ) you will see that it was introduced on 14/02/2007, the same date as on the letter. The Fair Use Policy is quite vague and doesn't define what is or isn't Fair Use. Other pages refer to limiting downloads during peak periods in order not adversely to impact other users.

I am supportive of any Fair Use policy designed to ensure that other users are not adversely impacted during peak periods as I have no wish to spoil others usage on what is a shared contended ADSL service. I have already taken steps to reduce my usage during what Pipex state are peak periods to 25% of my bandwidth and during non-peak periods to 50%. However I have no idea whether this will meet Pipex's Fair Use policy.

So I telephoned Pipex and spoke to both Technical Support and Customer Service to request clarification on what constituted fair use and what degree I needed to cut back. The only response I got from them related to total bandwidth usage during the month, rather than to usage during peak periods. They stated that if I reduced my bandwidth usage to 50GB per month that would fall within Fair Use. They would not provide me with a hard bandwidth limit above which they would terminate my service, but they said that if I didn't write to them within 14 days to confirm that I would stay within their (non-specific) Fair Use policy, they would terminate my service. During the phone call, despite my assurances that I was committed to fair use and was seeking clarification, they repeatedly tried to offer me a MAC code to transfer my service elsewhere.

50GB per month represents approximately 7% of my total 2Mb download + 256Kb upload bandwidth on what is stated as being an "unlimited" service. If Pipex talk only about total monthly bandwidth usage, they appear to me to be placing limits on the bandwidth - hardly "unlimited".

I feel that Pipex's approach has been aggressive and threatening in nature.

I would encourage anyone else who has received this letter to do as I did and make a complaint to Trading Standards as Pipex definitely appear to be placing limits on what they sell as an "unlimited" service - which would appear to be contrary to consumer legislation.