I've now found an email from Pipex dated August 2011 -

"Dear Customer,

You may have heard that Pipex has been acquired by the TalkTalk Group, a publicly listed company with 4.2 million customers in the UK. Since the acquisition we have been working hard to bring Pipex customers even better phone and broadband services.

What does this mean for you?

What will stay the same, now & going forward -

Your existing, reliable broadband connection
Your Pipex email address (if you have one)
Your telephone number
Your Pipex �Your Account� online username and password details


Your current Pipex service uses the TalkTalk Next Generation Network. This is the UK�s biggest network, which is capable of delivering reliable phone and broadband services to 22 million homes. TalkTalk has won many prestigious awards, including Best Value Broadband and Home Phone Bundle winner 2011.

What happens next?

Later this year your Pipex phone and broadband account will be moved onto the TalkTalk billing system.

You don�t need to do anything to benefit from being part of TalkTalk, one of Britain�s leading phone and broadband companies, and we promise to continue to keep you informed of what is happening.

Yours sincerely,

Dido Harding
Chief Executive Officer

Edited by deleted (Tue 14-Aug-12 13:59:27)

Which predates that transfer of Pipex to Home Telecom in Feb. 2012, which incidentally coincides with the ceasing of taking DDs from you.

What puzzles me about that Home Telecom transfer is that it makes no mention of TT. It's as if they took over Pipex directly and not from TT. Yet this letter says TT acquired Pipex in Aug 2011 .

Could it be that your BB was transferred to TT in Aug 2011, as per this letter, but the billing wasn't; it remained with some Pipex shell? Then this rump of Pipex was transferred to Home Telecom in Feb 2012, who promptly stopped billing you as you did not have any BB with them. And now TT has ceased your BB as you haven't paid them for a year. What a mix-up!

Hi Barrowfordred,

If you tweet us @TalkTalkCare or join the TalkTalk Members Forum we can investigate into this for you.

Regards

Mark
TalkTalk Online Community Department

The Pipex Home Telecom site states this -

"IMPORTANT NOTICE

Please be advised of the transfer of customer accounts from Pipex UK Ltd to the Global 4 Communications Ltd service Home Telecom which completed in January 2012. We have written to all customers affected by this transfer who should note that all customer pricing and terms and conditions remain unchanged. If you have any concerns at all please do not hesitate to call our support line on 01403 216138.

If you normally collect your email through an email client, such as Microsoft Outlook or Thunderbird, the settings should be as detailed below:
�Inbound mail server: pop3.bulldoghome.com
�Outbound mail server: smtp.bulldoghome.com
�Inbound mail server type: POP3 or IMAP
�Username format: [email protected] or [email protected] or [email protected] Must contain the @ part
�Website access: To access your website you now must use an ftp client. ftp your webpages to upload.bulldoghome.com, using your username and password, including the @ part of the username"

Seeing as I've not changed my Outlook settings from the Pipex ones then I'd assume I'm not with Hoome Telecom. But, who knows.

Edited by deleted (Tue 14-Aug-12 15:03:25)

Thank you Mark.
I've tried several times my account number and telephone number are not recognised and thus I cannot register.

In reply to a post by TALKTALK_SUPPORT:

Hi Barrowfordred,

If you tweet us @TalkTalkCare or join the TalkTalk Members Forum we can investigate into this for you.

Regards

Mark
TalkTalk Online Community Department

The OP has already stated he cannot join the TalkTalk Members Forum as it refuses to recognise his details.

Shows what a stupid contact system TT has when an customer in dispute or an ex-customer cannot contact you because they don't have the details you insist on.

Worth someone affected complaining to OFCOM that as a recent ex-customer or customer in dispute it is impossible to talk to TT sensibly.

Getting somewhere, a member of another forum (non telecom) happens to work for TalkTalk, he's got the line tested and come back with this -

Date Test Requested - 14/08/2012 14:24:31
Date Test Completed - 14/08/2012 14:25:20

Test Outcome - Fail

Fault Location - FU

Fault Description - FAULT - Dis in exchange



Explanation - The break could be along any cable or at any jumper point between the HDF and the exit from the exchange.

He says they can't do anything unless I set up a TalkTalk account, something (as you understand) I'm loathe to do. I've rung BT who despite me not being a customer are going to escalate my call to another level to try to resolve the exchange fault.
TALKTALK TAKE NOTE!!!

Edited by deleted (Tue 14-Aug-12 16:02:21)

I wouldn't Tweet them as their Data Protection procedures might stop you from accessing their answers!

Isn't this just another case of when TT was fined millions by OFCOM for failure to cleanly integrate taken-over customers into their system. TT's perennial excuse was that the many billing systems were so different.

Hi BB66,




VIa twitter we have a standard contact form which is used for DPA checks. We have relevant processes for this via twitter that we cannot use for forums.

If the OP wishes to contact us and cannot reigister on the forum they are welcome to use Twitter or the Contact us Form on the Forum.

Alternatively they are free to use any of the contact methods that are not online based should they wish.

Regards

Mark
TalkTalk Online Community Department