ISP suggestions - P*pex now sucks!
Discussion
Any suggestions as to a reliable ISP? Currently using Pipex at 34.95 a month and the service is hopeless. Quite often nothing will load for a 10 minute period or pages only half load. This happens with all sites including major sites like news.bbc, yahoo, google, etc. Strangly it seems to go stupid everynight at 11pm or slightly later...
I worked in ISP's and their shit responses to a trained engineer explaining how their system was broke and what needed doing was the finishing touch
that and the "if you have a support problem look on our internet" repeated every 10 seconds whilst on hold trying to explain why my net isnt working to them did it for me
who on earth thinks it is a soothing thing to know that support can be found on their website, why do people phone support? What idiot thougt that was a good idea?
that and the "if you have a support problem look on our internet" repeated every 10 seconds whilst on hold trying to explain why my net isnt working to them did it for me
who on earth thinks it is a soothing thing to know that support can be found on their website, why do people phone support? What idiot thougt that was a good idea?
I was recently a customer of Sky broadband, who had the worst customer service I've ever come across, and was looking for a new ISP. I went with Zen, who have been fantastic so far. They've been in touch, regularly, by email to let me know exactly what the status of my account activation is. They will have my service active within a week, unlike Sky who wouldve taken 7 weeks.
PJR said:
I left them for Nildram who were good.
Then switched to NTL/Virgin Cable which has been fine too.
P,
Nildram and Pipex share an office above mine! Do you want me to go up and have a shout at them for you? (I know a couple of the guys up there).Then switched to NTL/Virgin Cable which has been fine too.
P,
Another vote for NTL/Virgin from me - I've been with them for years in various different houses.
Pipex and Nildram are pretty much the same company. If you're sticking with the BT line then worth looking at Zen, if you've got the option of cable, Virgin are doing some good deals on L packages. Just dont expect the advertised speeds to be anywhere near the actual speeds. And upstream isnt great either. It works pretty much all the time. When it doesnt, prepare to be without internet for a few days, as the tech support people are quite happy to deny all knowledge of any problems. Nothing to do with their DNS servers....oh no, couldnt be that 
few issues as I highlighted with virgin yesterday
they seemingly did an upgrade during the day, rather than the middle of the night. Also from 1st July its a premium rate phone line to report faults. Thats right, got an internet problem with the service they provide failing? Call em up, let em know and line their pockets in the process
they seemingly did an upgrade during the day, rather than the middle of the night. Also from 1st July its a premium rate phone line to report faults. Thats right, got an internet problem with the service they provide failing? Call em up, let em know and line their pockets in the process
The profit margins on broadband are almost non-existent these days which is why customer service can be a bit poor.
However if your service is poor it's often down to the quality of the copper into your house, which will make it crap regardless of your ISP.
I've had a Pipex connection for nearly 8 years and have never had an issue.
However if your service is poor it's often down to the quality of the copper into your house, which will make it crap regardless of your ISP.
I've had a Pipex connection for nearly 8 years and have never had an issue.
If you are looking at Virgin, rack your brains to see which of the two companies it actually is in your area, they might have rebranded but have two totally different support mechanisms, infrastructure and such.
If you are in the old NTL catchment area, forget it. They're rubbish.
If you are in the old Telewest catchment area, go for it. They're much better.
Oddly enough all the VM gumf I had when moving from STB to cable modem pointed me to Telewest's old numbers, where I spoke to several people in EU based call centres (he had an Irish accent but that means nowt) they punted me to NTL's queue and I had a nice LONG CHAT with 'bob' in Bangalore, whilst paying a premium to listen to him read his script at me.
If you are in the old NTL catchment area, forget it. They're rubbish.
If you are in the old Telewest catchment area, go for it. They're much better.
Oddly enough all the VM gumf I had when moving from STB to cable modem pointed me to Telewest's old numbers, where I spoke to several people in EU based call centres (he had an Irish accent but that means nowt) they punted me to NTL's queue and I had a nice LONG CHAT with 'bob' in Bangalore, whilst paying a premium to listen to him read his script at me.
One nice thing about Nildram, is no annual contract. Its monthly. So if you dont like it, its no hardship to switch again to a different company.
Pipex & Nildram may well be closely related. But their policies are very different, plus Nldram was/is cheaper. The only reason I left Nildram for cable was because my phone lines had deteriorated and I could only get .5mb adsl, which doesnt cut it for me these days. So I got a 4mb cable line, which is fast enough, and costs me less than the adsl line did too.
P,
Pipex & Nildram may well be closely related. But their policies are very different, plus Nldram was/is cheaper. The only reason I left Nildram for cable was because my phone lines had deteriorated and I could only get .5mb adsl, which doesnt cut it for me these days. So I got a 4mb cable line, which is fast enough, and costs me less than the adsl line did too.
P,
I've been with Pipex for almost 10 years now through dial-up and then to broadband. Currently on their 2Mbit business offering and wondering when the hell they're going to offer something faster.
To be honest, we've had very few dropouts or disconnections and so far aren't moving despite there being faster and cheaper alternatives at the moment. Part of that is inertia and part of that is that we're still using Pipex email addresses quite heavily and haven't totally moved across to domain-based email addresses yet.
On the whole, they seem ok but their customer service is appalling and, get this, if your account is compromised then you have to phone them, then fax a request to them, and they allocate you a new password within about 2 or 3 days!! Can you imagine the damage that could be done with a compromised account in 2 to 3 hours let alone 2 to 3 days?
To be honest, we've had very few dropouts or disconnections and so far aren't moving despite there being faster and cheaper alternatives at the moment. Part of that is inertia and part of that is that we're still using Pipex email addresses quite heavily and haven't totally moved across to domain-based email addresses yet.
On the whole, they seem ok but their customer service is appalling and, get this, if your account is compromised then you have to phone them, then fax a request to them, and they allocate you a new password within about 2 or 3 days!! Can you imagine the damage that could be done with a compromised account in 2 to 3 hours let alone 2 to 3 days?
JonRB said:
On the whole, they seem ok but their customer service is appalling and, get this, if your account is compromised then you have to phone them, then fax a request to them, and they allocate you a new password within about 2 or 3 days!! Can you imagine the damage that could be done with a compromised account in 2 to 3 hours let alone 2 to 3 days?
That's because they have cut the staff to the bone and the rest of the staff are in fear of their jobs because PIPEX is up for sale. In my recent experience I didn't find one person who gave a damn in the the whole organisation.Gassing Station | Computers, Gadgets & Stuff | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff