[MERGED] Pipex - A Reliable Alternative?

Ignition · 27-06-2004, 12:42

Although those of you that have already made the jump to the ISP which alledgedly provides top quality customer service, mail that actually works, a reliable service, and clicked for a real ISP won't be able to see this, those who are thinking about it might want to take a look at:

http://bbs.adslguide.org.uk/showflat...0&fpart=1&vc=1

Since the very early hours of this morning Pipex customers have lost connectivity. Not some, all of them, with a very few exceptions. Also no mail, and the Pipex website has been down too intermittently. Due to the failure of a single network component.

Think the words are 'resiliency' and 'single point of failure'.

Just thought I'd best mention this for those concerned, for whatever faults ntl may have single points of failure that kill all customers connectivity 100% are not one of the added features.

Shep · 27-06-2004, 12:50

I would have to agree with the n00b here, it seems the isp in question has not prepared for this kind of situation at all (and you will find alot of dsl providers to be in the same boat). Weather as a certain cable co with their faults has most eventualities covered, has a better network and is offering free upgrades to 300/750/1500. What else can i say.

p

Bifta · 27-06-2004, 12:53

I've yet to find a decent ADSL ISP (and I've tried a few now), but Pipex were most definately the worst of a bad bunch.

Ignition · 27-06-2004, 12:55

They weren't the greatest in my experience either, CS was appauling in all ways and all times I had contact with them - rude, unhelpful, promising + not doing - apart from the very last contact when I moaned in a public forum and a member of staff helped me (to transfer away from them!)

Bifta · 27-06-2004, 12:58

Quote:

Originally Posted by JustAnotherN00b

They weren't the greatest in my experience either, CS was appauling in all ways and all times I had contact with them - rude, unhelpful, promising + not doing - apart from the very last contact when I moaned in a public forum and a member of staff helped me (to transfer away from them!)

That sounds awfully familiar, I'm still waiting for a refund from them 2 months on. I remember pointing out that they claim it's "up to 28 days" to reply to emails to CS, I was wrong, it's a minimum of 28 days. When I move house, I'm going back to BT, at least then my ISP can't keep using excuses like "I'm waiting to hear back from BT".

Ignition · 27-06-2004, 13:00

I had to beg and plead to be allowed to leave, they dragged and dragged their feet over it.
Connectivity itself wasn't bad just everything else, dodgy mail, dodgy news service, dodgy webspace, dodgy CS.

Shep · 27-06-2004, 13:02

I never thought you would be one to beg and plead tbh n00b. it must have been bad lol.

p

Ignition · 27-06-2004, 13:04

Hah it was holding me up from taking up a very good deal elsewhere which gave me more for less cash, they managed to hold it up just past billing date (purely coincidence obviously)

Bifta · 27-06-2004, 13:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by JustAnotherN00b

I had to beg and plead to be allowed to leave, they dragged and dragged their feet over it.
Connectivity itself wasn't bad just everything else, dodgy mail, dodgy news service, dodgy webspace, dodgy CS.

Unfortunately the service I had from them was terrible, constant packet loss coupled with complete lies and ignorance from their tech. support people, e.g. I moved my ADSL router, laptop, cables and filter over to a friends house who was with a different ISP, the problem never manifested itself there, yet Pipex continued to blame my equipment (and probably still do despite it dissapearing when I moved ISP).

Bifta · 27-06-2004, 13:06

Quote:

Originally Posted by JustAnotherN00b

Hah it was holding me up from taking up a very good deal elsewhere which gave me more for less cash, they managed to hold it up just past billing date (purely coincidence obviously)

AHHH! Thats EXACTLY what they did with me, 1 day over the billing cycle, then they insisted on not refunding the difference for the month.

Shaun · 27-06-2004, 13:07

J.A.N. I've not had any dealings with Pipex personally, and I agree that having a whole customer base with no connectivity in less than ideal, however your post does seem to come across as bitter, after all is not been a week since you were slagging off Neils signature.

Pipex may have lost all connectivity today, but if you take into consideration the number of customers they have (less than Ntl, hence less slack in the system, well ideally) and the fact that normally (or so I'm told) their systems run pretty much without blackouts normally (something Ntl could only wish for), they aren't doing too bad.

I'm on ADSL and I'm more than happy with my provider, at the moment they have caused me no trouble, I've had about 2 hours since I joined (Oct/Nov) which is wonderful compared to the days on end I spent with no connection with Ntl.

Swings and roundabouts anyone?

Bifta · 27-06-2004, 13:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by dellwear

</snip>

Who's your ISP?

Ignition · 27-06-2004, 13:09

Quote:

however your post does seem to come across as bitter, after all is not been a week since you were slagging off Neils signature.

I think you have me confused with someone else there.

Their customer base is around 100,000 DSL users by the way, they're the largest DSL ISP apart from the BT Retail ones (BTBroadband, BT Yahoo)

Quote:

Originally Posted by bifta

AHHH! Thats EXACTLY what they did with me, 1 day over the billing cycle, then they insisted on not refunding the difference for the month.

Woo spooky heh.... and no refund here either for the unused over 3 weeks.

Shep · 27-06-2004, 13:15

Dellwear, if you ever have problems with dsl. BT and the isp are gonna pass the buck until you get fed up. Do you think BT are ever gonna send out a engineer to sort out a problem with your telephone pair, not a chance. I work for a certain cableco and i was suprised to find out bt's process for sending out an engineer, they will never ever do it. And the isp is either gonna blame your equipment or BT's equipment.

p

MetaWraith · 27-06-2004, 13:22

I'm currently trawling for a reliable ISP, and suprising though it may be AOL's ADSL is currently in pole position.

The reason i'm searching is the *insert your own adjectives here* poor response and downright lies (different excuse every time, even with same hour) from NTL's Customer & Technical Support services during the recent 2 weeks of repeated outages in Reading.

I've already had my BT phoneline reconnected, SKY installed, am informing everybody in my addressbook of the new #. When that's done i'll cancel my NTL phone line, they havent as yet come to collect the cable decoder box, but then it's an old analogue one.

Today, after a week and half of great connection my broadband once again started the yoyo mode. No outages reported in Reading, according to server status line, no outages anywhere!!!!!! Phoned C/S took 35mins to get answered (managed to finish cooking sunday lunch in that time), they were less than helpful, which as you can guess boosts my resolve to search for a more reliable provider and leave NTL completely.

Strange thing is, soon as C/S answered the connection came back.

We pay for different speeds, pity there is no "Service Level Agreement"
I dont need that fast a connection, but i would pay more for a decent, defined SLA, with more availability/uptime than I have now.

Any thoughts, or comments ?