View Full Version : Pipex broadband any good?
charlie angel
30-09-2004, 13:29
Hi people - I'm about to make my fist steps into the realms of broadband; are Pipex any good? I've been looking at their £23.44 a month package, which is half meg, no limit downloads & they chuck in a modem & activation for nowt.
Is their service any good?
yep, ive had them for about a month. I ordered the friday, the modem/filters arrived tuesday, and myline was activated wednesday! Not too shabby I thought.....
welshmatt
30-09-2004, 13:46
Im very happy with them, although i might suggest getting a different modem to the one they offer.
Thats the package that I have been on for just over a year now, and, other than bt going down for a day or so, it has been very good. I was a bit miffed when they limited their usenet downloads to 10GB a month, but at least they became useable again. Other than that I haven't seen any better offers tempting me to leave them yet!
pompeyfan
30-09-2004, 13:57
I've been with Pipex a year now on the 512k service - apart from a couple of outages during the year of a few hours, no problems, and I've no intention of changing atm.
charlie angel
30-09-2004, 14:14
Thanks chaps, very helpful.
One more question though - I see the minimum contract is 12 months; if I move house within that 12 months, can I tak the service with me? Or do I have to disconnect, pay their fee, then start all over again?
Muchos gracias :)
You will have to pay a connection fee, as its bt who charge Pipex, but your 12 months contract should continue
charlie angel
30-09-2004, 14:27
Great, thanks for that Stunno :thumbs:
Bravoman
30-09-2004, 14:58
Another :thumbs: here, been with them for 18 months, although they are not the cheapest around. Tesco offer a similar service for £19.99 a month.
I've been with them for around 9 months now and am happy with them so far. I have only known one outage and that was only for 15 minutes.
If you want newsgroups forget Pipex as its capped.
Tesco broadband is cheaper and gives limited but unlimited newsgroup access (as in limited groups but not capped).
Thanks chaps, very helpful.
One more question though - I see the minimum contract is 12 months; if I move house within that 12 months, can I tak the service with me? Or do I have to disconnect, pay their fee, then start all over again?
Muchos gracias :)
AFAIK Pipex don't currently allow migration of accounts - you'd have to completely cancel and resubscribe (not sure if they'd charge the full 12 months though). I had Pipex at my old place but couldn't move it so I'm with PlusNet now, £22pm uncapped.
AFAIK Pipex don't currently allow migration of accounts - you'd have to completely cancel and resubscribe (not sure if they'd charge the full 12 months though). I had Pipex at my old place but couldn't move it so I'm with PlusNet now, £22pm uncapped.
Yes, I asked if I could move it to my new address and was told I couldn't. I cancelled and opened a new account at my new place (it was after 12 months). I think the cancellation fee is about £60 under the 12 month contract though. Give them a bell, they are helpful.
Overall, a big thumbs up from me, I have been with them for a couple of years now and have no complaints. :thumbs:
Toilet :(
news server seems to be down 50% of the time, connection issues at there end once a month (at least), customer service harder to get through to than NTL in my experience, slow in response to e-mails and a bad overall website. They don't have 2mb options and no one at there end has a clue if and when they will. Expensive for a 1mb connection these days as well
I've been with them for 12months and in fact about to change over to plus.net tonight through a direct transfer thing.
pipex as an isp is fine... no down time, no restrictions, fast speeds.
however, pipexs customer services/tech support is very poor... long phone ques, idiots at the other end of the phone and they never reply to ur emails...
sorry if ive offended anyone pipex employees but ive spoken to half a doesn tech/cust support guys from pipex over the last 2 years and they were beyond useless. one of them even srewed up my cancellation and i was almost charged £60 even tho my 12 month contract was up, i had countless problems getting this sorted and im still not sure if its over with.
im still with pipex now but if i had to move address or cancel my subscription i'd simply stop the direct debits via my bank as i dont trusted them to do it correctly and when i ask.
personnaly if u think u may need technical support or ur one of these unlucky types of people who'd get a problem with ur adsl line id stay clear. if ur technically confident and know u'll be with them for ur full 12 month contract then go for it.
chainsaw
30-09-2004, 18:39
Pipex is great unless you need support, especially out of hours. The line is always busy and if it is out of office hours they are closed.
Radiohead
30-09-2004, 18:57
Plus.net are worth a look.
charlie angel
30-09-2004, 19:02
I was looking at plus.net, but I was trying to save dosh on the modem/activation fees - just being a cheapskate I spose :D
Internet access - fast. I've had two ISP outages in the last 12 months.
Email - do not know as I do not use it.
Newsgroups - 10GB (inc. headers) per month limit from Giganews. This includes two connections, top download speed approx. 40KBps, ie does not fill a 512Kbps circuit. Additional 5GB per month at £2 each. This also gives you an additional connection (per £2) to the newsserver. If you buy extra download volume and do not use it, the unused volume does not carry over to the next month.
I'm staying with Pipex for now and wait to see how other ISPs deal with the newsgroup volume download issue.
Regards
Grandmaster
30-09-2004, 19:14
Hi people - I'm about to make my fist steps into the realms of broadband; are Pipex any good? I've been looking at their £23.44 a month package, which is half meg, no limit downloads & they chuck in a modem & activation for nowt.
Is their service any good?
Pipex used to be the best, with superb newsgroup access. Now I would rate them as "average". I have two ADSL lines - the other with Plus.net and if I had to lose one, it would be Pipex like a shot.
charlie angel
30-09-2004, 19:15
This may well be a thick question, but bare with me - what are newsgroups?
Dean[SAS]
30-09-2004, 19:17
:suspect: The old news servers still wokr fine for me
This may well be a thick question, but bare with me - what are newsgroups?
http://www.slyck.com/ng.php
Jimmyboy
09-10-2004, 14:51
Has anyone else found themselves getting disconnected in the early hours of the morning? My connection keeps terminating sometime between the hours 7am to 10am. This has happened about 5 times in a row now. Anyone else experincing this?
internetuser
09-10-2004, 17:02
Toilet :(
news server seems to be down 50% of the time, connection issues at there end once a month (at least), customer service harder to get through to than NTL in my experience, slow in response to e-mails and a bad overall website. They don't have 2mb options and no one at there end has a clue if and when they will. Expensive for a 1mb connection these days as well
I've been with them for 12months and in fact about to change over to plus.net tonight through a direct transfer thing.
news groups are good now, although capped as they are outsourced to a 3rd party to suppy them
internetuser
09-10-2004, 17:03
Has anyone else found themselves getting disconnected in the early hours of the morning? My connection keeps terminating sometime between the hours 7am to 10am. This has happened about 5 times in a row now. Anyone else experincing this?
early hours of the morning . . . half the day has gone by that time :nuts:
Malabbey
09-10-2004, 19:41
Pipex are good until you want to cancel or migrate your account. That's based on my personal experience. Was with them for 15 months and had more outages in the last three months than I did in the whole of the year before. As someone mentioned earlier, they are now quite average. I'm with PlusNet now and had no problems and no capping either :thumbs:
']:suspect: The old news servers still wokr fine for me
Me too. Only the new servers are capped, the existing ones are still uncapped & more than usable. Been maxing out my 1/2 meg connection & only using the new servers when retention is an issue :thumbs:
ben.bayliss
09-10-2004, 23:30
Take a look at Nildram too... a bit cheaper if you dont get webspace and their customer service is fantastic.
abarthman
10-10-2004, 07:49
All the pros and cons seemed to have been covered in this thread already.
I've been with Pipex for nearly two and a half years now and I have no significant complaints. Absolutely rock-sold connection (59Kbps on a 512 connection at all times) The few times that I've had to contact their admittedly overstretched/undermanned* customer services, it turned out that I'd screwed something up, but they were very patient, helpful and understanding. :)
I realise that there are now cheaper ADSL providers, but I'd rather stick with with Pipex and pay a wee bit more, than try to save a couple of quid and go for a cheaper provider who might let me down.
And there's always a possibility that they might restructure their prices in the near future and become the cheapest provider again.
* delete as appropriate
Grandmaster
10-10-2004, 08:10
But with all due respect, Plus.net does everything that Pipex does and in my experience does it better. I'd rate Pipex as very good if I hadn't tried Plus.net, who show them up as being rather average and over-priced.
But with all due respect, Plus.net does everything that Pipex does and in my experience does it better. I'd rate Pipex as very good if I hadn't tried Plus.net, who show them up as being rather average and over-priced.
worth knowing so :thumbs: for that. What are their newsservers like ?
I was with Pipex for about 2 1/2 years. I found there was typically a nights outage every two or three months. When recently transferring to plusnet Pipex dragged their feet agreeing the transfer date, so we wound up losing half a months subscription. We've been unable to contact Pipex since - personally I wouldn't recommend them.
I've been looking round at alternatives, as I'm hoping to move out soon so want free activation as well! I found both Demon (http://www.demon.net/adsl/expresspackages/home500-home.html) and Supanet (https://signup.supanet.com/cgi-bin/signup?_origin=dslre20041007&_showbb=y) are offering 512kbps unrestricted at £20 a month with free modem and activation. I know Demon offer email facilites, but no webspace - I'm not sure about Supanet. Supanet also offer 1mbps for £23 a month.
I'd be interested in hearing any thoughts on either of these or others :thumbs:
snowball
16-10-2004, 13:13
I'd be interested in hearing any thoughts on either of these or others :thumbs:
Hi IC
:wave:
I have been with Pipex for about 2.5 years now and I can honestly say Ive not had any major problems... I do get the odd downtime every 3 months or so and it lasts a couple of hours but it doesnt really cause any incovenience so Im not really complaining at the price which is £19.99 + VAT.
I hear Plus Net are good. You're better off doing a little research on http://www.adslguide.org.uk/ and their forums are better suited to your type of question really :)
With Pipex now having excellent usenet feeds I think I'll stay with them for the forseeable future.
Big :thumbs: from me for Pipex. Best ISP I've used to date.
Pipex great for me - with them for over 2 1/2 years now, and had very little outage problems, and most of them have been BT issues anyway!
I was with pipex for 2 yrs...
Took the oppurtunity to move to plus.net when the 1 meg adsl limits changed. Saved myself £4 a month.
Pipex = ***
plus.net = *****
Fantastic customer support and fantastic pricing.
Also do a lot of flexible pricing plans.
snowball
18-10-2004, 16:58
I was with pipex for 2 yrs...
Took the oppurtunity to move to plus.net when the 1 meg adsl limits changed. Saved myself £4 a month.
Pipex = :thinking:
plus.net = :thinking: :thinking:
Fantastic customer support and fantastic pricing.
Also do a lot of flexible pricing plans.
I see plus.net have got some pretty good pricing there for the 1Meg ... whats their usenet server like?
I see plus.net have got some pretty good pricing there for the 1Meg ... whats their usenet server like?
Yeah I'm interested in knowing this also. Been happy with Pipex for nearly 3 years now but if a decent 1 meg alternative came up it would be rude not to :)
Been with Pipex about 18 months no real problems, but they are looking very expensive now so im looking to move.
sideshowbob
18-10-2004, 18:17
I think the asterisks were stars, snowball.
I was with Pipex for a year before moving to a non-broadband village. Although the speed on Pipex was OK (nothing special) I wouldn't go back to them for the following reasons:
1. their customer service is poo - takes forever to get anywhere with tech support, if you can ever reach them
2. we had a good few days of service outages in the year I was with them. They don't compensate for loss of service.
3. they completely fudged up our direct debit and when we cancelled they overcharged and never once responded to emails regarding the matter.
Maybe they've turned into ISP angels since then, but when my exchange goes live next month, I'll not be putting my business their way.
Dustybin
02-11-2004, 17:43
however, pipexs customer services/tech support is very poor... long phone ques, idiots at the other end of the phone and they never reply to ur emails...
Tell me about it, bunch of morons if you ask me! Id sooner give my custom to another BB supplier! :mad:
Anyone finding browsing a bit slow on Pipex tonight ?
EDIT - Seems fine now, must have been something my end.
Now it's slow again, weird.
Against my better judgement I have signed up with Supanet, and, since I asked Pipex for my MAC code, my connection is as slow as hell!
Mines definitely slwo at the minute. I was playing poker and dropped connection to the server a couple of times.
edit- rebooted router now it's fine :shrug:
morleyian
02-11-2004, 22:45
http://www.pipex.net/cgi-bin/nsus-display-2.pl?site=PIPEX§ion=Connectivity
damianbyrne
03-11-2004, 07:07
I have been with Pipex since day 1 over 2 years now, started on 512, then 1Mb, now signed up for the 2Mb connection, had a couple of problems in the past but support for me has always been top class, I did have problems connecting last night for the first time ever, all seems ok now, download speeds, emails are all ok, I would highly recommend them.
DB
red marauder
03-11-2004, 07:39
Pipex support is abysmal.
If you're lucky enough to get through on the phone you end up talking to somebody still wet behind the ears who hasn't a clue how to solve the simplest problems.
I'm going for a cheaper ISP.
I've heard loads of problems with Pipex support, but I guess I was just lucky on the one occasion I happened to ring them. I got through straight away & they solved the problem pretty swiftly too. Maybe I should have bought a lottery ticket that week :)
craig1912
03-11-2004, 08:13
My first renewal is coming up for Pipex this month- Does anyone know if I renew is it for another 12 months or can I cancel any time now I've done the first 12 months.
Can't say I've had any problems but they do look a little overpriced-might look at plus net.
Once your 12 months is up you are on a monthly contract. So you can either give them 30 days notice, in which case your adsl will be turned off and you will need to get it reconnected by your new isp, or you can get a MAC code from Pipex and use this to migrate to another isp. You need to talk to the 'provisions' dept for the MAC code
craig1912
03-11-2004, 12:46
Once your 12 months is up you are on a monthly contract. So you can either give them 30 days notice, in which case your adsl will be turned off and you will need to get it reconnected by your new isp, or you can get a MAC code from Pipex and use this to migrate to another isp. You need to talk to the 'provisions' dept for the MAC code
Thanks for that
charlie angel
03-11-2004, 12:50
I ended up going with Central Point - they've been top so far; I had a problem configuring my email, so mailed them & had a reply within 5 minutes :o
I'll piggy back this thread if you don't mind. Also looking to get my first broadband connection (finally got a copper overlay on TPON line) and was undecided between Pipex, Plusnet and Zen Internet.
Sounds like Plusnet might be a better option. Checked out the ratings on adslguide and they're fairly close, Zen comes out best over the last three months but is slightly more expensive, then comes Plusnet and finally Pipex.
I know a few people on Pipex already so any more views on the other two would be appreciated.
Grandmaster
03-11-2004, 16:54
I think I've mentioned this before - I have two ADSL lines at my gaff, one on plus.net, one on Pipex. In terms of value and performance, I'd rate plus.net well ahead of Pipex.
Yep, saw that one. Suppose you couldn't really get a better comparison than someone using both.
Just looking for a bit of reassurance before I take the plunge.
sideshowbob
04-11-2004, 17:42
Worth noting that Pipex are offering the BT Home 2000 trial - so £39.99 with unlimited bandwidth etc. and IPStream connection. However plus.com are doing the same anyway with their 2mbit premium service - with the benefit of better customer service, larger webspace etc.
Worth noting that Pipex are offering the BT Home 2000 trial - so £39.99 with unlimited bandwidth etc. and IPStream connection. However plus.com are doing the same anyway with their 2mbit premium service - with the benefit of better customer service, larger webspace etc.
Just signed up tonight for the Pipex Solo 2000 trial - too lazy to switch providers and I get a free regrade due to myself being a customer longer than 12 months! :clap:
karellen
04-11-2004, 18:13
I ended up going with Central Point - they've been top so far; I had a problem configuring my email, so mailed them & had a reply within 5 minutes :o
How long did Central Point take to activate your ADSL?
I have just moved from a cable area and I am currently waiting for Central Point to activate.
In the meantime I am suffering the eternal damnation of dialup. :brickwall :doh:
Just signed up tonight for the Pipex Solo 2000 trial - too lazy to switch providers and I get a free regrade due to myself being a customer longer than 12 months! :clap:
Hi m8 - mind explaining a bit further ? When you say regrade do you mean upgrade ? I've been with them for years (1/2 meg line) Is it worth me asking to see whats on offer ??
Cheers
If you sign up on the website, a standard user who has been there less than a year has to be a £15 regrade/upgrade fee but to rewards long term users, that fee is waived! :D
Double the speed for another £6 a month - a good deal in my eyes :D
Beware tho if you dont pay the fee i understand you are locked into another 12 month contract with £50+ fee if you cancel.
There was a post on adslguide about it.
Not arsed to be honest - the crap I went through changing providers from Virgin means for me to ditch Pipex, they'd have to become absolutely dismal and they are far from that IMO
charlie angel
05-11-2004, 09:30
How long did Central Point take to activate your ADSL?
I have just moved from a cable area and I am currently waiting for Central Point to activate.
In the meantime I am suffering the eternal damnation of dialup. :brickwall :doh:
Took a couple of weeks to activate & has been hunky dory ever since :)
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