View Full Version : [MERGED] Pipex - A Reliable Alternative?
Ignition
27-06-2004, 12:42
Although those of you that have already made the jump to the ISP which alledgedly provides top quality customer service, mail that actually works, a reliable service, and clicked for a real ISP won't be able to see this, those who are thinking about it might want to take a look at:
http://bbs.adslguide.org.uk/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=pipex&Number=1289719&page=0&view=expanded&sb=5&o=0&fpart=1&vc=1
Since the very early hours of this morning Pipex customers have lost connectivity. Not some, all of them, with a very few exceptions. Also no mail, and the Pipex website has been down too intermittently. Due to the failure of a single network component.
Think the words are 'resiliency' and 'single point of failure'.
Just thought I'd best mention this for those concerned, for whatever faults ntl may have single points of failure that kill all customers connectivity 100% are not one of the added features.
I would have to agree with the n00b here, it seems the isp in question has not prepared for this kind of situation at all (and you will find alot of dsl providers to be in the same boat). Weather as a certain cable co with their faults has most eventualities covered, has a better network and is offering free upgrades to 300/750/1500. What else can i say.
p
I've yet to find a decent ADSL ISP (and I've tried a few now), but Pipex were most definately the worst of a bad bunch.
Ignition
27-06-2004, 12:55
They weren't the greatest in my experience either, CS was appauling in all ways and all times I had contact with them - rude, unhelpful, promising + not doing - apart from the very last contact when I moaned in a public forum and a member of staff helped me (to transfer away from them!)
They weren't the greatest in my experience either, CS was appauling in all ways and all times I had contact with them - rude, unhelpful, promising + not doing - apart from the very last contact when I moaned in a public forum and a member of staff helped me (to transfer away from them!)
That sounds awfully familiar, I'm still waiting for a refund from them 2 months on. I remember pointing out that they claim it's "up to 28 days" to reply to emails to CS, I was wrong, it's a minimum of 28 days. When I move house, I'm going back to BT, at least then my ISP can't keep using excuses like "I'm waiting to hear back from BT".
Ignition
27-06-2004, 13:00
I had to beg and plead to be allowed to leave, they dragged and dragged their feet over it.
Connectivity itself wasn't bad just everything else, dodgy mail, dodgy news service, dodgy webspace, dodgy CS.
I never thought you would be one to beg and plead tbh n00b. it must have been bad lol.
p
Ignition
27-06-2004, 13:04
Hah it was holding me up from taking up a very good deal elsewhere which gave me more for less cash, they managed to hold it up just past billing date (purely coincidence obviously)
I had to beg and plead to be allowed to leave, they dragged and dragged their feet over it.
Connectivity itself wasn't bad just everything else, dodgy mail, dodgy news service, dodgy webspace, dodgy CS.
Unfortunately the service I had from them was terrible, constant packet loss coupled with complete lies and ignorance from their tech. support people, e.g. I moved my ADSL router, laptop, cables and filter over to a friends house who was with a different ISP, the problem never manifested itself there, yet Pipex continued to blame my equipment (and probably still do despite it dissapearing when I moved ISP).
Hah it was holding me up from taking up a very good deal elsewhere which gave me more for less cash, they managed to hold it up just past billing date (purely coincidence obviously)
AHHH! Thats EXACTLY what they did with me, 1 day over the billing cycle, then they insisted on not refunding the difference for the month.
J.A.N. I've not had any dealings with Pipex personally, and I agree that having a whole customer base with no connectivity in less than ideal, however your post does seem to come across as bitter, after all is not been a week since you were slagging off Neils signature.
Pipex may have lost all connectivity today, but if you take into consideration the number of customers they have (less than Ntl, hence less slack in the system, well ideally) and the fact that normally (or so I'm told) their systems run pretty much without blackouts normally (something Ntl could only wish for), they aren't doing too bad.
I'm on ADSL and I'm more than happy with my provider, at the moment they have caused me no trouble, I've had about 2 hours since I joined (Oct/Nov) which is wonderful compared to the days on end I spent with no connection with Ntl.
Swings and roundabouts anyone?
Ignition
27-06-2004, 13:09
however your post does seem to come across as bitter, after all is not been a week since you were slagging off Neils signature.
I think you have me confused with someone else there.
Their customer base is around 100,000 DSL users by the way, they're the largest DSL ISP apart from the BT Retail ones (BTBroadband, BT Yahoo)
AHHH! Thats EXACTLY what they did with me, 1 day over the billing cycle, then they insisted on not refunding the difference for the month.
Woo spooky heh.... and no refund here either for the unused over 3 weeks.
Dellwear, if you ever have problems with dsl. BT and the isp are gonna pass the buck until you get fed up. Do you think BT are ever gonna send out a engineer to sort out a problem with your telephone pair, not a chance. I work for a certain cableco and i was suprised to find out bt's process for sending out an engineer, they will never ever do it. And the isp is either gonna blame your equipment or BT's equipment.
p
MetaWraith
27-06-2004, 13:22
I'm currently trawling for a reliable ISP, and suprising though it may be AOL's ADSL is currently in pole position.
The reason i'm searching is the *insert your own adjectives here* poor response and downright lies (different excuse every time, even with same hour) from NTL's Customer & Technical Support services during the recent 2 weeks of repeated outages in Reading.
I've already had my BT phoneline reconnected, SKY installed, am informing everybody in my addressbook of the new #. When that's done i'll cancel my NTL phone line, they havent as yet come to collect the cable decoder box, but then it's an old analogue one.
Today, after a week and half of great connection my broadband once again started the yoyo mode. No outages reported in Reading, according to server status line, no outages anywhere!!!!!! Phoned C/S took 35mins to get answered (managed to finish cooking sunday lunch in that time), they were less than helpful, which as you can guess boosts my resolve to search for a more reliable provider and leave NTL completely.
Strange thing is, soon as C/S answered the connection came back.
We pay for different speeds, pity there is no "Service Level Agreement"
I dont need that fast a connection, but i would pay more for a decent, defined SLA, with more availability/uptime than I have now.
Any thoughts, or comments ?
Ignition
27-06-2004, 13:25
Yup try someone like Plusnet, Nildram, etc www.adslguide.org.uk is a great place to look for an ADSL ISP.
Regarding Reading - fault may not have been a widespread one may be specific to you or your street, so unlikely to be put into service status.
MetaWraith
27-06-2004, 13:31
Yup try someone like Plusnet, Nildram, etc www.adslguide.org.uk (http://www.adslguide.org.uk/) is a great place to look for an ADSL ISP.
Regarding Reading - fault may not have been a widespread one may be specific to you or your street, so unlikely to be put into service status.Was looking at wireless with Tele2 and Netvigator, but they dont cover my postcode, and there's always the possibility of something in the future affecting line of sight transmissions.
I just want a service that works!!!
I live close enough to walk to the Winnersh Data centre, you'd think service would be be good here, but sadly not.
Ignition
27-06-2004, 13:33
Sadly your uBR isn't in Winnersh, and local network has no respect for where the data centres are :(
Cheers
Yup try someone like Plusnet, Nildram, etc www.adslguide.org.uk is a great place to look for an ADSL ISP.
Regarding Reading - fault may not have been a widespread one may be specific to you or your street, so unlikely to be put into service status.
Heh, Plusnet are completely useless, my first experience with them thankfully ended the other day, a month after I arranged for a migration to them, it still hadn't been done. I called them, they said "we've left messages for you", I said "where?", they said "on your phone", I said "how? I don't have voicemail and you don't have my mobile number" they said "well, we definately left messages". They confirmed the correct telephone number and all but told me I was lying and that I'd ignored them. They then went on to waffle about how they hadn't heard back from BT add in the constant streams of emails telling me about direct debit and I lost my rag, cancelled said direct debit and told him to go whistle.
Nildram are .. alright I suppose, the service is "ok", a bit slow at times, but their billing is absolutely awful, they took the best part of £300 off me in the first month due to constant billing errors. Their technical support is ok, not the most knowledgable people in the world but fairly polite and willing to help and the CS staff did actually take the time to fix their billing f*ck up.
Who's your ISP?
Bulldog
I think you have me confused with someone else there..
:blush: sorry
Their customer base is around 100,000 DSL users by the way, they're the largest DSL ISP apart from the BT Retail ones (BTBroadband, BT Yahoo)
Has Ntl never had 100,000 customers offline then? Their e-mail was certainly very flaky when I was with them, how many would that affect at a time?
As Ntl like to remind us they don't offer a fault free service ;)
Dellwear, if you ever have problems with dsl. BT and the isp are gonna pass the buck until you get fed up. Do you think BT are ever gonna send out a engineer to sort out a problem with your telephone pair, not a chance.
The only part of my service that is provided by BT is my line from the house to the exchange, approx 1km, the rest is provided by Bulldog.
As for BT not sending out an engineer, I agree that they can be difficult to deal with and they try not to send out an engineer, but when pushed they will.
I had do have one come out a week after the line was installed as the engineer forgot to do something and they picked it up on one of their automated tests but there was never any trouble over it.
All I can go on is my personal experience and for me ADSL is much much better than NTL, I only hope I've not jinxed it by saying it out loud. :(
Ignition
27-06-2004, 13:59
Hahaha glad you've had a good experience with Bulldog, they are a much maligned provider as their adslguide forum goes, however my ISP is a wholesale customer of theirs, not using that much of their network, and touch wood been alright so far.
Hahaha glad you've had a good experience with Bulldog, they are a much maligned provider as their adslguide forum goes, however my ISP is a wholesale customer of theirs, not using that much of their network, and touch wood been alright so far.
Some have very bad things to say about Bulldog, personally they have been great, there ISPreview rating seems to be improving every month though, which is the way it should be going.
I've only had to call them a couple of times and they weren't that helpful, but I'm just happy I've got a ISP who I don't have to ring every week with a complaint of some sort or another. :)
Im with Pipex, got in about an hour ago from work and my comp was still downloading.. no problems here at all.
Never had a single outage on Pipex (touch wood).. then again, I never really had any outages that weren't fixed within a few hours from NTL.
I've been trying to get online since 10am this morning and all I've been getting is "connection denied because the username or password is incorrect" and "connection was cancelled because the remote computer did not respond in a timely manner". I've called tech support only to find....they're not open on sundays :grind:
And who is my ISP?
Pipex :grind:
Charlie_Bubble
27-06-2004, 14:14
Strange, because I'm on Pipex. I woke up at about 11am and saw my news downloads had stopped. I restarted them and it started ok. Email was down, but my connection was fine.
BTW, mail came back about 45 minutes ago for me. :)
Charlie_Bubble
27-06-2004, 14:19
In fact, my pipex at the moment is better than it has been, apart from the email. The last week or two my connection speeds have gone up about 13KB/s. When I first started with them about 6 weeks ago it was connecting at about 109.7KB/s, about 15KB/s slower than NTL, which was a little disappointing. For the last couple of weeks though it has gone up to 123KB/s. :)
Oh, and in the weeks I've been with Pipex I've had one single spam email. Compared to the hundreds a day through NTL, that's a blessing in itself!
scrotnig
27-06-2004, 14:26
Seems we need a Pipexhellworld forum.....
It's interesting to note that that the grass isn't always greener on the other side.
I can feel a sig coming on.....:D
http://www.pipexwoe.org.uk/forum/
scrotnig
27-06-2004, 14:39
Not bad...they could do with vBulletin though for a bit of street cred. I mean, Snitz? We're talking 'teenage cybering and abuse board' here!
I certainly didn't expect the grass to be much greener - all I wanted was a working product with accountability - this is the first time my pipex connection has been pooched and I want their tech support to be aware of it and to give me some idea of how long it will take for a resolution. They have failed on that part.
My problem with ntl was not the product - I was fortunate enough to have a fairly problem-free internet connection from them. No, it was the complete lack of accountability I had from from them whenever I tried to call or report something, hence I turned to the good people who post here and they always came up trumps for me.
Naturally I am hoping Pipex serve me better but if they continue like this then I'll end up seeing them in the same light as ntl.
scrotnig
27-06-2004, 15:06
I am of the opinion that pretty much all 'big' companies these days are short termists, looking at how much money tyhey can save by dropping standards and pretending they haven't.
been quiet for a week has it? Right, sack some staff. What if it gets busier again next week? That's next week, not interested.
That seems to be how it all works. The network/infrastructure/buildings are all fine now, so lets save some money and fire the people that maintain them. What happens if they need repairing in the future? Oh, that's the future, never mind about that, I want to make some money NOW!
All big companies are the same in the UK, which is why virtually everything we make or sell is a load of crap. The attitude is always 'do it as badly as you can get away with', not 'do it as well as you can'.
scrotnig
27-06-2004, 15:06
PS if anyone thinks Pipex is bad, try Tiscali for a good hearty laugh.
oh dear - how the mighty pipex have fallen ..... :erm:
Just goes to show that ntl are not as bad as some make out, nor pipex as good as some would have us believe. ;)
For those who've suffered at the hands of ntl, YES they ARE as bad as people make out. There are some who've had no problem at all, there are others who've had a terrible time with them, it's all subjective. As for Pipex...time will tell.
ntl customer
27-06-2004, 17:28
Luckily I've not been affected by the connection outages. My connection has stayed on since yesterday when I changed filters because it kept dropping nearly every week although it hasn't affected my connection terribly as these have been whilst I have been out or asleep.
Email has been down for most of the morning but came back up at around 1pm. I've always found their email to be much more reliable than ntl's - after all I'd accept the occasional outage of a few hours every few months or so, but nothing like ntl's. :erm:
What I'm a little concerned about though is that the failure of one piece of equipment can cause so much havoc and nearly everything to go awry. No email, no company website, no connectivity for customers.
Don't they have any spare gear that will kick in if the gear currently in use fails? :disturbd:
Ignition
28-06-2004, 08:41
Moved to where?
Can't seem to find it :dozey: probably just Monday morning effect.
Anyway to save anyone else duplicating, I've arranged an engineer to visit MetaWraith and hopefully sort his cable out, so that none of the most helpful bods here do it again :)
Taken from Pipex's server status page regarding yesterday's problems...
During the morning and early afternoon of Sunday 27 June 2004 many PIPEX customers were either unable to connect to the network, or if connected, unable to access some PIPEX servers, including email and Web.
Network connection and server connections would not have been possible, though many customers who were already connected to the network were unaffected.
A full engineering team was deployed to site and service was restored just after 2pm.
This issue was caused by the failure of a key network router, but in such a way that backup capacity was not brought online as a result of the failure. This issue has not occurred before during the 2 1/2 years that the router has been in service and so the affected hardware was changed out as a precaution, and a full investigation will be carried out by the supplier to try to determine what went wrong.
Please note that due to the nature of the outage some connections may have been "default accepted" within the BT network and so may require your PC/router to be disconnected and reconnected (or in some cases, powered off and on again) before normal access is restored.
We sincerely apologise for this interruption to service and any inconvenience it may have caused.
skyblueheroes
28-06-2004, 09:24
Never had a major problem with Pipex. People talk about their customer service, but as I have had no probs, I have not even had to contact them.
zoombini
28-06-2004, 09:54
Hardware problems are inevetable, they happen just when you dont want them to & they happen to all ISP's.
It happens... It certainly did with NTL.
skyblueheroes
28-06-2004, 09:56
Hardware problems are inevetable, they happen just when you dont want them to & they happen to all ISP's.
It happens... It certainly did with NTL.
Did ?
More like...........does, will, part of deal !!!
Ignition
28-06-2004, 10:05
Yup, happens a fair bit, as you'd expect considering the massive size of the network.
Most of these issues aren't noticed by customers, or are confined to a relatively small set of them though, which is nice :)
Not so nice for those affected.....
MetaWraith
28-06-2004, 10:31
Anyway to save anyone else duplicating, I've arranged an engineer to visit MetaWraith and hopefully sort his cable out, so that none of the most helpful bods here do it again :)
Thanks for that JAN,
I wonder if my flap count is a record ?
As I said in PM, somebody left a message on my answerphone early sunday evening to say hat somebody would call monday to arrange a date/time for the engineer visit. Haven't heard yet tho.
Ignition
28-06-2004, 10:38
Not so nice for those affected.....
Find me anyone with a carrier class sized network that doesn't have issues. Considering the size of network the availability of the main network components is excellent IMHO.
Local issues do happen, but again considering the thousands of miles of cable, amps, nodes and taps that can't be given redundant capacity most of the time it works very well....
If it can be redundant it is though - after uBR there's multiple levels of it. Not too shabby.
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