Toucan/Pipex/TalkTalk? Read this

I posted in June re slamming of my Pipex line after many satisfactory years with Toucan/Pipex. To recap, on June 17 Pipex sent a letter advising me that another provider was taking over my line. I called their helpline to say I had not made any switch and was told I had done so, the target date was June 29 and the transfer could not be stopped.
On June 23 I lodged a slamming complaint with Ofcom. On June 28 Ofcom told me that Pipex had said the letters had been sent in error to some customers, that they were merely carrying out an internal upgrade, so my line was not slammed.
On June 29 my broadband was cut off. I made many calls to try and have it restored. On July 19 I was told my line had been transferred but they did not know to whom. Then another 'adviser' told me Pipex rented from BT and BT had put a cease on the line, so perhaps I should call BT.
BT (in Belfast, happy days, no Indian voices) was very helpful and said ISPs often blamed BT for their own mistakes, that other Pipex customers had approached them in the same situation, and that I should ask for a Pipex manager to take ownership of my problem. One adviser even gave me her direct line to use if I had no luck with Pipex.
Pipex adviser in India said I could speak to a manager, came back several times to assure me my call would be put through shortly, said I was being transferred now ... and disconnected. Ten minute 0871 call at 20p/min on my mobile. Tried again, exactly the same happened.
Back to Pipex cancellations in England, adviser said my line had 'definitely gone' and might be with TalkTalk. Surprise surprise! Said his TalkTalk colleagues might be able to help, transferred me to TT sales who could not help but who tried to sell me a new package.
Back to BT where the very helpful Karen said BT could fix it. I agreed a 12-month contract and my service was installed on the date promised, with several text updates beforehand to assure me of progress. My BB came on the instant I plugged in the Hub, so full marks to BT, so far.
The final touch was to access my Pipex final account to find they had debited me £30 line rental termination fee. This fee is dated April 7, ie two months before all this started.
I thought it worth while outlining this rigmarole to demonstrate that calls to Pipex are a waste of time and money. From now on I do it by the book.
Ofcom, while sympathetic, do not take up individual cases. Otelo will do so, but only after the ISP complaints procedure has been exhausted.
Pipex complaints procedure requires customers to write by recorded delivery to Pipex Customer Services, Pipex UK Ltd, PO Box 14503, PO Box 14503, Birmingham B46 9BD.
I have done this, enclosing a log of the telephone calls, and requiring the refund of their £30 cancellation fee, and a further £20 in respect of my phone calls to their premium rate help lines and postage costs. If this payment is not received I shall sue them.
Next step is the Small Claims Court, which I have found effective and useful. Legal documents require the company's registered address, so for claims purposes one should use Pipex UK Ltd., 20 Broadwick Street, London W1F 9BD.
I hope other posters will join me in submitting complaints to Pipex, followed by a blizzard of court claims. If enough of us complain, maybe even Otelo will take action; I see from this website that Otelo can order compensation up to £5000.
After all, one of the first suggestions from our new coalition Government was to provide more government services online, so reducing costs. All very well, but what happens when ISPs behave like Pipex/TalkTalk?

Informative post but do not take this the wrong way but a bit more spacing of paragraphs would help our members I'm sure and help make your points more accessible .

Such a mass of prose is somewhat daunting.

Could be me getting old though....

In reply to a post by Malwaremike:

Next step is the Small Claims Court

No, once you have gone thro' the ISPs formal complaint procedure and failed, you should take it to OTELO. Courts like you to have exhausted all other avenues before you take it to them. You do mention OTELO awards later in your post.

In this case it was surprisingly readable for me. The fact it is broken into paragraphs is more significant than an extra line between those paragraphs.

To the OP : hope you get somewhere with them. I still am incredulous that a company can slam like this - scary in this modern world of t'internet.

Fair point SOM, wouldn't think I spent my working life on newspaper design would you? Maybe I'm getting old too.

Probably will go to Otelo, if they get enough complaints they might impose a couple of decent fines as well as awarding compensation.

Since OP I had a 'courtesy call' from TalkTalk. I had phoned them recently, could they be of further assistance? Indeed there was something anatomical they could do, but they would find it very uncomfortable.

Also spoke to my elderly neighbour who has been quite happy with TT this past few years apart from evening slowdowns. He had a courtesy call a month or two back, asking if his service was satisfactory and whether it could be improved. He said it could be faster in the evenings. His monthly bill has just gone from £20 odd to £30; seemingly he agreed to some extra package.

I do have sympathy with salespeople in their battery-hen call centres, but there's no excuse for these con-tricks which prey on people's natural courtesy. From now on these callers will receive a two-word reply, the second word being OFF.

Indeed there was something anatomical they could do, but they would find it very uncomfortable.

Classic
Sorry to hear of your plight, you are correct we are too courteous and it gets us no where, I am finding myself losing patience more and more, especially on the phone with sales people. I normally pick up the phone and before a word is said, my answer is two worded, ending with OFF. One of these days I may drop myself in it but until I do I shall carry on as it makes me fell better
Hope you get some redress.

There is an alternative. Don't answer the phone to them in the first place. With caller display and an answerphone any number I don't recognise gets left to be picked up by the answerphone - if they don't leave a message then it wasn't important.

I do have caller display, Ian, and you're quite right. But I wanted to highlight sales calls disguised as help calls and designed to con the customer. A willingness to listen, a courteous agreement that yes, perhaps this or that feature would be a good thing, and the customer (especially vulnerable customer) is taken to have consented to the purchase -- at best an extra service, at worst line slamming. One ISP in particular seems worse than others.

I now understand why today's 30-somethings instruct their older relatives not to talk to any unknown caller, just say no, no, no. It's sad that pressures on sales staff are such that they resort to these tactics. I'm sorry for them, but I'll still tell them to ---- off.

Agreed, they should make it very clear what the implications are - especially when it either transfers a service from another provider, increases cost or ties into a contract.

Companies all too often do these things without providing the "small print". My brother does the right thing - he always tells them to put any offer into writing before he will agree to anything.

The complaints mechanism has ground its way to a result: Otelo tells me that Pipex has agreed to refund their £30 termination charge and pay £20 compensation. I'll believe it when their cheque arrives, otherwise of course I can and shall sue them.

It's a long and tedious haul and suppliers such as Pipex/TT know this, which is why their robots are programmed to refuse everything, they know that few customers will persist. Could I say again: COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN following procedures laid down in your ISP terms and conditions. You usually need to send a registered letter; the Otelo website and its staff are very helpful.

I read this week that insurance companies have to pay £500 for every complaint to the Financial Services Ombudsman whether or not the complaint is upheld. Now there's a real incentive to resolve problems instead of fobbing off a customer. If the Government is serious about putting more of our affairs online, surely BB is as important a service as insurance?