Don’t stop, never give up

Hold your hand high and reach the top, let the world see what you have got, bring it all back to you….. Sorry I was struggling for a headline and got my inspiration from an old S Club 7 song that was just playing on the radio. Anyway my point is that sometimes you have to resist the urge to give up and keep going, and that’s exactly what I have been doing with Pipex to get back the £11.72 they owed me from over charging me when I cancelled my service.

It’s taken over 5 months of arguing with them via email but finally today I received a cheque in the post which provides a moral victory for me. It has not been easy and I very nearly gave up back in September and even drafted (but never until now published) this post trying to justify me giving up:

Last month I wrote about how I was switching broadband providers as O2 were offering me 12 months free. However the switch has not been straight forward as Pipex were reluctant to let me go.

You need a MAC code to switch broadband providers so I requested this from Pipex on the 1st July, however they ignored my request and I had to follow it up with another request a couple of weeks later. This time they noted the request but failed to generate a MAC code as their system showed an error (although I only found out this when I called them to find out if there was any progress). It was only on the 3rd attempt that I finally received the code and in little over a week I was enjoying life on the O2 network.

However, Pipex continued to invoice me arguing that the T&Cs stated that I had to continue paying for 30 days from the date of cancellation, which they deemed to be the 2nd August. They then started harassing me with automated telephone messages asking me to call their premium rate number to discuss my account. After numerous phone calls, using alternative cheaper telephone numbers that I had found on the web, they agreed to credit my account and I thought the matter was resolved, until 2 weeks ago when I received a letter from a debt collection agency threatening to take me to court if I did not pay the balance outstanding on my account.

So again I got on the phone to Pipex, and having been passed around from department to department I finally ended up speaking to someone in their finance department who confirmed that a request for a credit had been submitted but had subsequently been rejected, no explanation of why could be given. So it was back to the ironically named ‘Customer Care’ department to again explain my case, where after about 20 minutes of arguing I was finally put through to a supervisor who I recalled the whole story to again. After much deliberation, and I am not kidding her taking a toilet break, it was finally agreed that another request would be made to have my account credited.

Despite promising this credit they could not write or email me to confirm, the only way I could receive confirmation was by submitting a support ticket, which from prior experience I knew normally takes a week to receive a response. Nevertheless I went ahead and did as they suggested. This however left me with a dilemma as according to the letter I had received, if I did not pay the debt collector I was due in court in 10 days and they would be adding their fees to the outstanding bill amount.

As I was going to be away in the meantime, and having been repeatedly let down by Pipex, I felt I simply had no choice but to pay the outstanding amount to prevent additional fees being added by the debt collection agency. Since then they have responded to my email confirming a credit is being processed, which I followed up with a phone call to find out whether my card would then be refunded. Apparently this would require me to make an official written complaint and a quick google search suggests I wouldn’t get far with that, as there are thousands of Pipex customers complaining all over the internet that Pipex simply ignores their complaints.

It is very rare that I let a matter like this go as the principle of the matter is important to me, regardless of the relatively small sums of money involved. But I have already wasted enough time writing emails and calling Pipex, and having experienced just how bad their customer service is I do not feel they could do the right thing even if they tried. So it is at this point that I grudgingly withdraw from the battle, instead I will be sure to recall this story to as many friends and family as possible, warning them of the dangers of signing up with Pipex or their parent company Tiscali for that matter.