Pipex - cancelled in Jan - they are now threatenin

I left Pipex Homecall (formerly Bulldog) in Jan 09. They’re still sending me bills, I’ve now got a warning that they may take action which may affect my credit rating.
I have phoned and emailed them several times over the last few months. On Thursday 19/03/09 I started recording the calls for use in court evidence if need be.

I'll let the recordings speak for themselves:

http://www.digitaltoast.co.uk/pipex-homecall-bulldog...

Before I send ANOTHER recorded letter, what's a reasonable amount I can counterclaim for my time and costs? (also bearing in mind that I now find that they had been diverting my calls to the wrong number, even though my request was correct?)

Unless you have informed them the calls cannot be used in court, and not sure of your standing for making them publically available either.

Transcripts from the calls are OK I believe.

It would be best to get some advice even if just CAB

Andrew Ferguson, andrew@thinkbroadband.com
www.thinkbroadband.com - formerly known as ADSLguide.org.uk

I checked - it's a sort of legal anomaly - as long as the recording and telephony equipment is separate (ie: not a "telephony recording device") apparently it's OK to do whatever you like! I use a handsfree phone and a mic recording on the PC.

Well I managed to get £150 out of them for their harrassment (debt collectors) and the time and cost of responding to them.

I read somewhere that drinking was bad for me - so I gave up reading!
Ex-PIPEX

Good man - as it happens, I am on the phone to them right now. Been on for 22 minutes - they are "experienceing some system difficulty"

fwiw, if you continue to have problems with Pipex, I suggest you file a complaint with ISPA

http://www.ispa.org.uk/cgi-bin/complaints.cgi

A case officer from Tiscali High Level Complaints team should contact you in due course and help sort out the billing problem and call off the debt recovery agency. You can then negotiate compensation.

Trying to resolve an ongoing problem with Pipex by phone, email or post is often a waste of time.

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Poopex (05-06)->NewNet (07-08)->PlusNet (08-)

Thanks for that tip - I've just spend another 32 minutes on the phone.

HOWEVER - finally, it looks like it's sorted. We'll see on April 1st!

I almost feel bad - I had to be quite rude to get the point across, however, once I made it very clear that not only was I recording this call, but I had recordings of previous calls, and it became very clear that all documentation relating to this hell at my fingertips, that helps. I had to be almost like a machine. It was a bit embarrassing at one point - I made him read the notes out in chronological order (I was setting a trap to see if they were telling me everything!) and one note said:
"Customer called to cancel account because people in the call centre did not speak English"! How bad did I fell!
I actually read my notes out to him to explain that this was one of only three reasons, and by that stage, we had already found three notes where someone had clearly noted something different to what I had said, or had said they would do something, and then did something else. So he did say he understood my point and didn't seem to be offended.

PHEW! Tell you what though, for the compensation I got (or have been promised - different thing entirely!), it values my time at about £2.50/hour. Not surprising most people don't bother.

Why should one feel bad for being frustrated due to the company YOU ARE PAYING failing to employ people who speak English to the required level for providing telephone support and advice? I speak 4 additional languages, but none of them sufficiently well to provide support to customers from those countries nor to access customer support in those languages (well, 1 maybe). So I would not expect a company to ask me to do so.

These companies use call centres in other countries to save costs to the detriment of your end experience, and many make you pay extra for the privilage! Don't feel bad, demand good customer service and people whose grasp of your language is good enough to provide the support you pay for. What next? Will they expect us to learn another language? Will the contract be written in a foreign language?

I'm unhappy enough that we all seem to have to have a technical knowledge far beyond what we should need just to send documents and email and view web pages.

What's embarrasing or racist about not wanting to pay for a service that you cannot access due to a languge barrier that the company never advertises in the first place?

I absolutely agree - no dissent from me there! And I never, ever felt that criticising a foreign call centre or accent is racist - that'd be as daft as saying that criticising Islam is racist, or saying you don't like KFC means you're a veggie!

I merely meant that I felt a little bit bad when a guy from a foreign call centre was reading out notes saying I hate foreign call centres

When I get a bit more time, I'll purge the recordings of my personal details and upload them - they really are unbelievable.

In reply to a post by digitaltoast:

I merely meant that I felt a little bit bad when a guy from a foreign call centre was reading out notes saying I hate foreign call centres

I never got quite that far, but I do understand your frustration as I have had similar problems with call centres where I had to spell out my name and address for them because they simply could not understand me well enough. (And no, I don't have a strong regional accent)
Sadly with Pipex my experience is that even when they do understand you (and are also English so there is no question of misunderstanding) this does not guarantee that they will do what they promise.

The other problem with call centres in general (wherever they are) is that so many of them have a fixed script and are totally incapable of coping if you actually know what your problem is or have enough information to short-circuit the "normal" process. I'm sure that this generates frustration for all concerned.

Judy