Author Topic: Upgrade nightmare (Read 1792 times)

Lona · « **on:** July 28, 2005, 23:20 »

I was upgraded a couple of weeks ago to 2mb from Pipex.

For a start, I should only have been upgraded to 1mb but on checking with Pipex, they told me that Bt does that to make it easier for them should I ever want to upgrade to 2mb but it will be downgraded soon back to 1mb.

Since the upgrade all I get is constant disconnections.

I phoned customer support (what a joke) the bloke at the other end of the phone could hardly speak english let alone Broad Scots lol. He told me to run the bt test line for 24 hours and if it still kept being disconnected, he would then contact BT and promised to get back to me.

After 2 days, I never heard anything and was still being cut off. I decided to email support to find out what was happening. They didn't bother answering me.

To-day I phoned and got a guy who could actually speak the Queen's english and he said he could see that it was a BT problem and they would take it up with them. He said my line was probably not capable of running 2mb and that BT would have to put it back to 1mb.

I asked him why nobody had bothered getting in touch with me and he just said they were very busy and that he would get back to me in another 6 days. In the meantime, I have to tolerate being disconnected every 15mins or so. :tony:

Simon · « **Reply #1 on:** July 29, 2005, 00:02 »

A friend of mine, also on Pipex, is having the same trouble, Lona. I can't comment for certain on what you have, but when I got my upgrade to 1Mb, the bubble which pops up when you connect said it was a 2.2Mb connection speed. Aftre gloating for a while, I then discovered that it was only 1Mb after all. :blush2: The guy from Pipex told me it was a Windows error, but I didn't know whether to believe him or not - anyway, it mattered not here or there, I still only had a 1Mb connection regardless of what Windows said it was. However, my connection remained as stable as ever, with no disconnections at all. My friend is going to ring Pipex when he gets a chance, but he's one of these 'once a week to check my e-mails' people, so it's not all that high on his list of priorities. I will let you know if and when anything happens.

Lona · « **Reply #2 on:** July 29, 2005, 00:52 »

Was he having constant disconnections?

I'm definitely on 2mb Simon. Did a speed check and it matched up with somebody who is actually on 2mb.

The bloke at pipex said I would be on 2mb until Pipex sorts it at their end.

Simon · « **Reply #3 on:** July 29, 2005, 09:00 »

Well, his last words to me on the subject were "The bloody thing keeps disconnecting!", so from that, I assume yes, he was having constant disconnections. I will be seeing him on Monday evening, so I'll let you know if anything has transpired.

I have to admit, Pipex's support services do seem to be on a bit of a decline at the moment. I'm not sure if it's the people they have working for them, or what, but we have had a number of hosting issues with them over the last few weeks, which now seem to have been sorted, but the answers we received to our queries were mostly bullsh*t and brush offs. They even managed to set up the direct debit for payment of hosting fees on the wrong account! They did, however, get things sorted in the end, and one thing I have to give them credit for, is that they always answer the phone.

Lona · « **Reply #4 on:** July 29, 2005, 14:34 »

Quote from: "Simon"

They did, however, get things sorted in the end, and one thing I have to give them credit for, is that they always answer the phone.

Yes the always answer the phone but you never get to speak to anybody for at least 15mins which as it's an 0845 number your phone bills rocket.

Just to update you Simon, my connection speed has now been altered to 1.1 mb. Bt acknowledged that it was a BT fault. They must have been working on it last night and early this morning as I could only connect for 1min then cut off again.

At the moment I am sustaining a connection so fingers crossed I hope everything is sorted now. Had I not put pressure on Pipex, I doubt if anything would have been done and I'm still waiting for an email from them either to say I have been upgraded or that my connection problem has been sorted. I would advise your friend to phone them and kick up merry hell as it's the only way things seem to get any attention these days.

I spoke too soon there, that was another disconnection. Never mind at least I got most of this post typed before the bu**ers cut me off again.

Simon · « **Reply #5 on:** July 29, 2005, 16:29 »

Ahh, :blush2: I forgot about the 0845 number. The only time I have had to ring them is with hosting queries for Pals, and we have a normal landline number for that, which they answer straight away.

So, are you saying it's BT's fault, or Pipex's fault? Who should my friend ring? Going by what you have said, I would be more inclined to advise him to ring BT, if it's a BT fault, but I suppose he will have to get clarification from Pipex as to what they have done.

Lona · « **Reply #6 on:** July 29, 2005, 18:31 »

Your friend has to contact Pipex. They have to have proof that it's Bt's fault before they will excalate your complaint.

Tell your friend to run his connection using the following

Bt_test@startup_domain and put in as his password adsl.

Tell him to leave the connection running like that and if it disconnects, then it is a BT fault.

He can't surf the net while this connection is running so what I did was connect before I went to bed and sure enough it was disconnected in the morning.

Pipex can then take his complaint to Bt Wholesale. Pipex won't contact Bt without this test as if it's found not to be a Bt fault, Pipex is charged for it.

Simon · « **Reply #7 on:** July 29, 2005, 20:54 »

Thanks a lot for that, Lona. He's bound to ask me, how long does the test take? I have just run it myself, but as mine doesn't usually disconnect, it didn't really do anything. Do you get some sort of result at the end of the test, or is this sent straight to Pipex? :?

Lona · « **Reply #8 on:** July 29, 2005, 21:14 »

It's sent straight to pipex.

The bloke told me I didn't need to run it anymore. They were quite satisfied that it was a Bt fault.

I ran it intermittently when I wasn't needing to surf.

The first guy told me to run it for 24 hours solid but I told him I wasn't prepared to do that as I needed access some of the time.

After your friend connects to the bt test connection tell him to type in the address bar ..................

http://193.113.211.125/digitaldemo/

and keep refreshing. I did that and it cut off after a few refreshes.

Simon · « **Reply #9 on:** July 29, 2005, 21:41 »

Thanks Lona. I'll probably end up doing this myself when I see him on Monday evening.

Lona · « **Reply #10 on:** July 30, 2005, 18:20 »

Further update.................................

Last night was horrendous trying to sustain a connection. I phoned Pipex this morning and gave them a good piece of my mind.

I was able to tell them that Bt had closed the complaint as being sorted as they didn't have a clue what was going on.

The only information they had was that BT had put my connection back to 1mb. When I told them my connection was worse than before, they told me nothing could be done until Monday to which I replied that if nothing was done by then I was cancelling my contract with Pipex as it is their responsibility to supply me with a service.

It is now after 6pm and my connection has been constant since around 3pm.

Is it possible that somebody has got their finger out and got things sorted at last. :tony:

sam · « **Reply #11 on:** July 30, 2005, 18:36 »

..give it five minutes now you have said that

Simon · « **Reply #12 on:** July 30, 2005, 19:15 »

It does seem rather a coincidence, if it's suddenly fixed itself after you having a go, Lona. We have had similar problems on the hosting side - you may have noticed the forum kept having mini-outages, for periods of about 15 minutes, during the last week or so. After a firm e-mail and a phone call, expressing my dissatisfaction with the service, it miraculously became solid as a rock, despite their denial of anything being wrong! It seems you just have to make a bit of a noise with Pipex, to get something done.

Lona · « **Reply #13 on:** July 30, 2005, 22:32 »

Further update.....................

Not one single disconnection since the last time I posted on here.

I have kept the connection going just to see if it did.

Maybe the "Wrath of Lona" worked as it usually does. :wink:

OR has the sneeky wee Pipexians put me back to 512?

chorleydave · « **Reply #14 on:** July 31, 2005, 11:17 »

It really is a sad state of affairs when you, as the customer, have to shout to get something done. I had a terrible problem with Wanadoo, no connection at all for over a week, and it was only when I became abusive, offensive, racist (I told them I wanted to discuss it with someone who can speak English and not someone sat in a prefab in Delhi) and threatened to cancel my direct debit if it wasn't sorted within one hour that my connection was back within ten minutes.