Written By : Wayne Brooker
January 2005

Customer Comments

I joined Tiscali Broadband in February 2004 and everything went smoothly, I was up and running in about 7 days from first contact, I then found the Tech Forum and started reading, the posts were basically the same as they are now, 'Slow Speeds', 'Unable to Connect', 'Billing Problems' and 'Line Release Problems' and I became a little worried at what I had signed up to (I realised why you had to join Tiscali first, before you could view the forums)

To my surprise, I had no problems, everything worked fine and I was quite happy with my Tiscali Broadband, the only thing I found lacking was, 'Customer Support' or lack of it and I refused to use the Customer Support phone number to India at National Rate, anyhow, I had no reason to use it.

Then in December, I visited Tiscali's website (I had no reason to beforehand) and noticed that the price for 256k Broadband (which I am on) had dropped to £17.99 (I was paying £19.99), I emailed the billing dept and was sent a mail back telling me to downgrade to the £17.99 package, using the Upgrade / Downgrade option on the website, I tried, only to find out that this was 'temporarily unavailable' as Tiscali had some 'Exciting New Packages' due for release in January, I was not too pleased.

I was even less pleased, when I found out that the £17.99 price had been in since April 2004, Tiscali had not contacted me to inform me of the price change, as they should have done in the T&C's, so I had been overcharged for 9 months, but worse was to come.

I went to do an update of my anti virus software on Saturday 14th Jan 2005 only to find that the download appeared to take ages, I went to the Speed Test to check my bandwidth and found I was getting 42kbps (Slower than Dialup), I went through all the basic stuff that Tiscali throw at you, check this, delete that, download this and download that. Now I am at the 'send us Speed Test' stage.

I suppose that I am lucky, at least I have some replies to my mails but I know that some customers don't even get that, also I know that some cannot even connect using Broadband and have to use Dial Up connection, but my problem still exists, I can get full speed in the mornings (when I and most others are at work) but evenings it's terrible, mainly around the 80kbps mark, sometimes faster and sometimes slower.

Stuart Widdowson

++

Tiscali offer great prices, got me connected in great time and have been a great waste of my time and money. From the call centre in India that I can't understand to the forums where I'm either ignored or fobbed off with excuses and told to try things I've already tried the whole operation is completely lame.

My speeds become unusable after about 5.30 or so and as I'm at work all day I may was well be back on an ordinary modem. I give them 1 more week then I'm off.

No name please, they might make my connection even slower!

++

I have been with Tiscali Broadband for over a year and had no problems until 6 January 2005 when i got in from work and discovered a error 721: could not connect to remote computer. I phoned Tiscali Broadband up in India, and told them my problem. After 20 minutes and after a load of line tests and holding i was told by Ahmed that there was some work going on in my area and that the network would be up in 24 hours. I phoned up every day and was told another 48 hours or another 24 hours. It is now 16 January and i still cant connect, dont know if this is something to do with the upgrade of broadband, but a letter or a e-mail telling me that the network was going down would have been nice considering i am paying £25.00 a month for the broadband. Never mind, Ahmed informs me that Tiscali have put £10 in my account to cover the inconvenience, wow that will cover the money ive lost already from my shop online! I am still unable to connect, anybody had the same trouble?

Chris

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Well this is going to be very unpleasant reading for some one @ Tiscali but it has to be done and it better get a response on here otherwise I think what very little credibility you have left will be well and truly binned.

Contacting Tiscali as per the sticky has been adhered to btw.

First contacted Tiscali 03/11/04 with respect to awful speeds and disconnections every 4 hours.

Result VP upgrade.

Subsequently received several telephone calls from technical support, 1st of which stated it wasn't a VP issue at all. New modem promised as unable to cure the 4 hourly disconnections.

Result - Nothing happened, still waiting for modem.

Reported said issue again during Decemember

Result had 3 letters over a variety of dates saying a VP upgrade was being done. (That's 4 VP upgrades now)

Reported issue again Jan '05

Result got the standard "Plug your RJ11 cable into the Modem / Filter" email.

OK so now upto date, Is anyone going to try resolve this 4 hour disconnection issue or am I to withold payment and demand a release from the contract with no penalty to me as you (Tiscali) clearly can not provide the service I'm paying for?

Nip

++

It seems to be fairly common knowledge that Tiscali treat their customers with contempt and rip them off at every possible opportunity.

I know that many, many other people have gone through hell trying to get away from this thoroughly unscrupulous company - and I'm now in the same situation.

The question is - are Tiscali deliberately blocking customers who try to cancel their accounts with them?

After I had experienced serious billing problems with this bunch of sharks I tried to cancel my Smart Talk account. Tiscali's so - called "Customer Services" told me that I had to ring a certain phone number to cancel the service. I tried to call the number and it was unobtainable!

I double checked with CS and they insisted that I had to ring the (unobtainable) number to cancel. I eventually found an alternative number a rang and cancelled the service.

Once my 12 months with Tiscali Broadband was up I then tried to cancel that too. After much hassle I was given a cease order reference by Tiscali (I-4DQM53) and told to ring BT.

BT intially refused to speak to me and referred me back to Tiscali, who bounced me back to BT.

Various cease dates have gone by - and Tiscali are still on my line.

BT told me today that Tiscali have a "marker" on my line. They hinted that this happens frequently and that the lines of former Tiscali customers are being deliberately blocked in this way.

How is Tiscali continuing to get away with using such dodgy tactics when customers try to leave them?

Anonymous

++

I WAS ONCE I TISCALI COSTUMER...i had very bad Customer Support and Very Very Bad Speeds I got speeds of a DAIL-UP and maybe Lower Speeds then a Dail-Up and i sometimes get very high Upload Speeds for no Reason!...damn what a weird company full of LIES trying to get u off the phone...i phoned them 2-3 times a week complaining of the speed they didint really care...all i got was a indian person on the line knowing nothing, and in the end didnt help me...i am now a happy BT Broadband Customer ( 15GB ALLOWANCE ) im always having good speeds and good CUSTOMER SUPPORT and now know the power to BROADBAND...

Waleedos

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I served a one year sentence with tiscali (read some of my hundred odd posts) and nothing has changed, they are useless, total gansters, I swear right after you get off the phone to them they forget you and move onto the next poor soul.

What makes me laugh is that I was one of the first on their so called adsl service and suffered slower than dail up for eight of the twelve months(@ full cost), people kept saying it was because they had only just set the service up and they may be having teething problems, but coming in here one year later shows they have done nothing to improve their service one bit.

I think the best thing you could do , is what I did, and thats to warn as many people as you can about them and their pisspoor service,.

they have to sign you up to twelve months because they know full well you would bail-out when you realised you had been well and truely ripped off.

Im on zen now (have been for a year) and I have had nothing wrong what so ever, oops I tell a lie my router lost sync the otherday for about 2 seconds.

Remember people!
warn as many as you can, I know I have put atleast 30 people off them, and Im sure many more are running from these gansters.

R

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Yet another customer with billing problems.

I opened an ADSL account in May04 and monthly payment was taken every month until September. In October a letter arrived stating the account was overdue. I rang customer services who took payment over the phone and ensured the credit card details were correct for subsequent payments. YEAH RIGHT!

They didn't bother taking that payment at all and never took the next months either. I rang them to pay the outstanding amount and again didn't bother taking the money and just sent out another overdue amount letter.

So, they won't take my money but complain that I am not paying.

AVOID!

woooshuck

++

I am at my wits end, I cancelled my account with Tiscali on the 6/10/04 (I have email confirmation to prove it). Guess what they are still billing me and taking money from my credit card. I am now with a different ISP and it driving me mad I have spoken to my credit card company, they have told me to speak to Tiscali (a very had thing to do). I have emailed and emailed phoned and phone and STILL NOTHING. What I am I to do.

Rocky1980

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Tiscali have now decided out of the blue to refer my long cancelled account to Hillesden Securities Limited (dba Direct Legal & Collections), demanding the sum of ~£28.

They are threatening court action! The ~£28 seems rather arbitary given the account has long been cancelled, the annual fee was >£200 and the monthly fee was ~£20.

Has this happened to anyone else.

I am tempted to let them raise court action and then defend my case refusing to pay the charges due to the fact the Tiscali service was unusable and sub-specification.

Any ideas. I dont know if I can justify court costs over this.

but they are a bunch of SCO-esque limey [censored] litigious [censored]

Eggz

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if, like me you are a heavy user of your connection then you are doomed.

even though we all signed up for a no download limit always on connection where now slowly being kicked of.

i had an email from broadband services last night letting me no they were canceling my account for me on the 23rd of april due to me being a high user.

i've been capped for the last 3 months so only get a decent download speed for 12 hours of the day and they still say i'm degrading the line due to my usage. well if they cant cope with me downloading for 12 out of 24 hours then there service is worse than i thought.

theres now 3 people including myself that have had this email so expect a lot more to be booted of before long.

if your out of your 12 month contract then i would strongly surgest you change isp now. and just cos there upgrading peoples accounts aint a good reason to stay cos the faster you download the faster they will capp you and then kick you of.

and while i think of it. i rang there cancelation line to tell them to shove there connection and there as much use as the tech call centre. they told me i had to email there bb support addy to cancel my connection.

so tiscali, why have a call centre thats no use to anyone and why have a cancelation number that cant cancel your account when you phone them.

if you done away with both then you would save money and that money could be used to supply people with a decent connection instead that could take more than 1 user per line.

now all i hafto do is wait for them to release my line so i can get on with an isp that actually knows what there doing.

nohope

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Dear misslead fools,

I am not a Tiscali user and I never will be, since as far as what you seem to be saying here I would be a heavy user, as I have a 2Mbit connection with a very good ISP that doesn't rip me off nor have a call center located in India.
Neither of you seem to have bothered to read the post on 3DVelocity as he's not downloading 50GB a month, he's downloading 5GB a week, or rather, he's using 5GB of bandwidth a week, which can be done by using web conference software, online gaming and uploading of files and just about any thing else you can do on the web these days.
I will only be writing this single one post, as I have no interest in this, but since there seem to be so many if you that are missguided and really should consider moving ISP I just had to post something.
Every person I know that has used Tiscali, be it in the UK or abroad they have all had the same poor experience with slow speeds and poor technical support.
Oh and I know this post will be deleted as it goes against Tiscali's policies, but as I am a journalist as a high profile IT publication, they might just leave it but I have no big hopes.
Personally I would have to agree on the fact that Unlimited means that there is no limit to how much you can use something and if that changes then the company in question should infrom its users about the changes to the T&C's as by the law in this country. If this has not been done, then the user(s) can take this to the Consumer Ombudsman who will then investigate the case, which I would do if I were in your shoes.
I have used several ISPs and I have been quite happy with all of them and I was one of the first to sign up with Freeserve when they launched ADSL as they offered free installation. I have since moved on twice, due to finding cheaper and faster options.
I have also work in a call centre answering calls from people having problems with their internet connections and I have helped a lot of people sorting their problems out, but this was before ADSL (or broadband to the non techies here) was available so I guess I'll get accused of getting away easy.
I did however not provide the kind of service that Tiscali seems to offer which is, if the person who answers the phone doesn't have the correct answer on the screen infront of them, they will ask you to send an e-mail, which I think is a very poor show.
And to be honest, any other company that would treat their customers in this way would have closed shop a very long time ago.
And I have to add one last thing, I think you're all cowards, since you don't have to suck up to your ISP just because you're affraid that they will put you on a slower speed connection, as this would be against the law again, so tell the truth you missguided fools.

LGN

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Hi Wayne

Interesting article about Tiscali. We have them here in South Africa as well. We have ADSL here too, but compared to the rest of the world it’s quite pathetic – 512kb/s download, 3 GB Cap (thereafter, also < 1 kb/s for international traffic). This is why we have to use a combination of ADSL (outbound) & Satellite Internet (inbound) at our work. Alternatives, such as digital lines (not ADSL, but known as ‘Diginet’) are way too expensive.

Check out some forums on www.myadsl.co.za and www.hellkom.co.za

Peter

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My complaint about Tiscali is with their Customer (Dis)Service Dept., and
conning their customers with regard to prices.

I am a silver surfer, and technophobe to boot, and these are the only areas
that concern me.

I wanted to change from Tiscali dial-up to broadband a couple of months ago,
and had a choice of £15.99 and £17.99. I chose the former, but was informed
that it was not available in my area, so opted for the latter. As I see this
is no longer available, I phoned the (freephone) sales number, who told me
that I should be getting a letter (do pigs fly?)telling me that I would be
upgraded at no further cost. I replied that I wanted to be downgraded, with
the same speed etc. Guess what, I was told I`d have to phone the 0870
number! No way am I going to put more money into that company when it is
conning me!

To date I have sent 3 emails to them. After 3 days I received a reply asking
me for my details, which I immediately replied to.3 days after that I
forwarded the email again. as I had not received a reply. I did inform them
that, unless they are prepared to sort this out, I will break my contract
with them, as I consider they have broken their contract with me.

Perhaps if they receive enough complaints from dissatisfied customers, it
will be a wake up call for them. If not, they`ll go under!

Sorry this has been so long winded, but lets all stick together and show
Tiscali what people power can do.

Maureen

++

My parents "upgraded" to tiscali ADSL earlier this year from the old
dial up connection which I had convinced them to sign up to when I still
lived at home.
After being wowed by my fast 1Mbit connection they decided it was time
to get something a little faster as their dial up connection had become
dreadfully slow. Strangely enough, their connection only seemed to have
slowed down after the local exchange had been broadband enabled.
While installing a new video card into their machine, I needed to visit
the ATi.com site to download the drivers. Imagine my suprise when I see
their 512Kb internet connection downloading at 10k/sec. This was at
three in the afternoon as well. Thinking this was a little unusual, I
tried to download from other sources to no avail.
My father also points out that "its really slow at peak times" - peak
times being anything from 6pm onwards - "and sometimes doesn't connect
at all".
I appreciate that they dont live next door to the exchange but they dont
live at the end of the line either and as such I wouldn't have expected
the connection to be as bad as it is.
Unfortunately, after convincing my folks to move from Tiscali they have
now decided to stay with them as Tiscali have told them they will now be
upgraded to 1Mbit ASDL for free. Dad being Dad and not knowing any
better thinks he's now going to get 100% extra free - which I'm
convinced he's not.

Mark

++

Tiscali SpA and Tiscali UK in particular are to be avoided at all costs. They are nothing more than asset strippers who view the customer as a mere income generator.

Don't think the problems that prompted these web pages are new because they aren't. Tiscali almost immediately destroyed the well earned good faith built up in the companies such as Lineone etc that it acquired in it's quest for world domination.
Problems at Tiscali UK became apparent almost immediately with the dialup service virtually collapsing overnight whilst Tiscali "Support" initially blamed everyones computers, then BT and finally buried their heads in the sand. Eventually they pleaded the pitfalls of merging their several acquired networks. Only threats of litigation spurred them into action but the service was never restored to it's former glory. Those who complained were punished by having their mail addresses sold to spammers. Even email addresses outside the Tiscali operation were sold. Of course, as the service was down for so long and customer helplines were abandoned we had to use alternative providers to contact them. Every one of these external addresses were sold on!

The row over this episode slowly died down with the same dismal levels of support being offered to customers when out of the blue, random disconnections became the complaint of the month. Strenuous denials of any faults serverside were as usual issued with customers running around like headless chickens trying to troubleshoot their systems. Of course, all this was in vain as a Tiscali employee leaked the news that a two hour cutoff was now in operation on all their "24/7 Always on" services. This was of course in direct contravention of their then T&Cs and current broadband customers may recognise a pattern emerging here. Their solution was to extend the cutoff period of those of us who complained the loudest and most likely to cause embarassing problems for them to four or eight hours and rewrite the T&Cs for the rest.

Then of course there was the famed "secret forum" which was supposed to be hidden from all but moderators and admin. Yet again they displayed their technical impotence by leaving it open to all and sundry. This "hidden" foum was used by admin staff and moderators to "secretly" ridicule customers. Many long term customers and excellent forum contibutors left for good over this debacle.

It wasn't long before broadband arrived. With most of the UK public still unable to even set their video recorder timers correctly, this relatively new technology offered an opportunity to dodgy providers fleece even more unsuspecting consumers.
This is when things really started going downhill! Serious under investment in infrastructure was accompanied by massive ad campaigns which of course led to huge over subscription. Their solution this time was to sack most of their experienced front line staff, close their service forums to outside viewers and put callcentre jobs out to contract in India!
That under investment and over subscription is evident now as current customers will attest to. The company was even so devious as to rig the results of their online speed tester as a method of fooling customers into believing that their service was better than it actually was. Of course, as usual, this got totally out of hand after a while. (See attachment)

What really hurts me and others like me about this dreadful organisation is the sheer contempt in which they hold the people who pay their wages- Us! We are treated like imbeciles who don't have a modicum of intelligence or technical nous between us.

We've all seen the recent events with regard to caps and P2P etc. Lies were trotted out this started and they are still being told now. The figures dreamed up by "Community" make no sense whatsoever and the method of bandwidth management is very seriously flawed. Even ex-Tiscali staff are aghast at what's being claimed and they're well used to such nonsense. How many of you download flat out 24/7 31days a month with absolutely no letup? That's what would need to happen in order for the claims of "Community" to be met. Other figures issued from this source are equally invalid and fly in the face of research from major UK and international highly respected bodies.
There are statutes within UK consumer law that outlaw this type of behaviour. Everyone affected should contact their local trading standards department in the first instance. Advise them that complaints have been passed on to Milton Keynes trading standards officers (Where Tiscali UK is based). Your local CAB may also offer advice and help and there are a few online complaints forms issued by the likes of The DTI, the trading standards association, OFTEL, the ISPA, OTELO (Tiscalis Alternative Dispute Resolution Provider) and other consumer departments within OFGOV etc.

I could say a lot more about the past and present but let's get to the future.
Tiscali SpA and Tiscali UK are in a precarious financial position with huge debts having to be repaid during the first half of this year. Their expectations of a "trough fest" in Europe were of course wildly wrong when the internet bubble unexpectedly burst in their faces. Broadband, the expected saviour, turned out to more of a whimper rather than the huge bang that was greedily anticipated.
In an attempt to cut costs, Tiscali broadband customers are being moved over to the DataStream system. This method allows the "less scrupulous" ISP much more control of bandwidth and contention ratios etc than with the consumer favoured IPStream system. DataStream rather conveniently also grants the ability to cram many more users into the same "pipe". Users may note their "connection speed" as defined by the systray icon has suddenly changed from 576K to 2.3M and the BT test login is no longer available.

Another massive advertising campaign is about to be unleashed in order to bolster their flagging coffers and trap more unsuspecting victims. No further investment in infrastructure is planned to cope with this. In fact, a reduction in costs of 15% is currently in operation with the probability of more cuts to come. This can only have have the effect of piling on even more misery for existing and prospective customers.

There is some advice I can offer with regards to this company:

If you are a victim, get out now. There are ways and there are laws in place to protect you.
if you aren't a victim, avoid it at all costs whether the service offered is telecoms, internet or anything else.
Tell friends and colleagues and anyone else you meet to do the same.
Submit reports to the likes of adslguide and ispreview etc.
Complain to the relevant authorities about misleading advertisements etc.
If you are affected, don't let them fob you off. Contact the relevant consumer organisations immediately and hit them in the only place where they hurt. Their pockets!
Above all, don't let them get away with it!

DA Young

++

Tiscali Broadband – Be very wary.

I will try not to rant and rave. I am very frustrated.

I have had a 512 kbps ‘unlimited’ Broadband account since March 2004.

At least, it was an ‘unlimited’ account that Tiscali offered and I agreed to.

Tiscali have now given me notice that they are terminating my account because of my recent increase of usage. Tiscali referred me to clause 5.9 (Fair Usage policy) of the Terms and Conditions agreement. I was stunned. How could I be so stupid as to think I had an unlimited account?

I checked my Terms and Conditions. There was no clause 5.9, I had agreed to an unlimited account but Tiscali had changed the T&C ‘agreement’ without my knowledge or even bothering to notify me.

By the way, the T&C still states that Tiscali can change it but must give me 14 days notice. Tiscali have never contacted me about my account.

Tiscali have now restricted my bandwidth during peak times, until my account is terminated. They do not respond to my e-mails. Their customer support centre is a joke. Tiscali do not want me because I actually use the system. Why are they now offering a 1Gig Broadband service when their system cannot cope with the customers they already have?

Be very wary before joining Tiscali. They will do as they please.

P Wainright

++

Very sorry to hear all the problems associated with Tiscali, but alas it’s not the first time they’ve been in the doghouse and it probably wont be the last time knowing them. They are however capable of good service! I had signed my grandmother up for their 150k service late last year and so far its been faultless. Granted she is a very light user, easily less than 1GB/month, so that’s probably her saving grace from the hit squads!!

Hopefully Tiscali will soon wise up and sort out their services before they get a reputation in the wider media as a tragic case. If that happens I can see them winding up their operations in the UK completely, no doubt with devastation in toe!!

I think I’ll stay put on my BT Broadband 1mbit. Fair enough it might cost a bit more, but 18 months rock solid service is hard to complain about.

Hope you all get sorted soon.

Alex

++

Christ there f**kin useless, did make me laugh though, im not alone…

I had no probs with bandwidth, just there huge cockup with the bills.

My bills were consistently wrong…… Id speak with there billing dept,(kept names dates etc) cleared my account 3 times with 3 different people (never could speak 2 the same person twice)…

Id b told my account was up 2 date then low & behold im receiving letters from the bailiffs ………..

There error surprise surprise . No apology or nothing ( feel even more f*cked off about how u can move 2 the cheaper deal only if u do it urself0 swindling bastards (been with them 3 yrs) aaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrrrrrgggggggghhhh…

Finally sorted it yesterday , told them 2 cancel my agreement with them so I can swith 2 ukonline, told have 2 give 30 days notice then there could b 10 day delay b 4 bt do something else???????????? (& no migration code)

I HATE THEM WITH A PASSION>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

But I will b 3 soon…

Scotty

++

Oh i really ,really love Tiscali !
http://www.the-scream.co.uk/forums/t17085.html

I refuse to believe there is a worse ISP in the UK.

M Jones

++

From another conned person of the Tiscali swindle. I signed up for the Broadband connection 17 February 2005.

Less than twenty four hours later whilst surfing for filters I came across your web site. After reading the stories I decided Tiscali was not for me. I rang the telephone number for cancellations, 18 February 2005. When the male person answered and I told him that I wanted to cancel I was cut off. I immediately rang back and held for at least three minutes, a male person answered my call, he took details asked me for my reasons for cancelling. I was up front and stated that I had read to many horror stories of the service. He gave me a cancellation number and said I would not be able to use my line for another Broadband connection for at least fifteen days. I asked why because the e-mail I had received on the 17 February accepting my application had stated that engineers were now carrying out further checks on my line to see if it was suitable. No connection had been made so it should not apply.

On the 18 February I received another e-mail telling me that I will receive my modem within ten days and they are processing the order.

On the 19 February I write a letter to Tiscali and send it recorded delivery. I explain to them that I have cancelled the order and they should not send the modem. I also inform them that I have instructed my Bank not to accept any Direct Debit order from them.

On the 25 February I receive another e-mail from Tiscali congratulating me and informing me that my line has now been enabled, in other words they have taken it over thus preventing me going to another company if I so wished and would you believe it this e-mail does not accept replies!!!

Today 28 February what arrives in the post? Yes you guessed it the modem.

I am to the say the least stressed out at the cavalier and uncaring attitude of this company. They have deliberately pursued the application despite being given explicit instructions not to pursue the order and well within statutory limits.

I ask the question do I have a case to go to Trading Standards with as I feel they did not learn anything from their previous encounter with the organisation?

John Puttock

++

Hi Wayne,

Just to say how glad I was to find your site. It was a very informative read and has made me feel better knowing I am not the only one.

I had a major bust up with Tiscali just before Christmas,

To cut a long story short, my connection would not connect so I phoned them up and they said “they had found the fault and it would be fixed within 24 hours”

after god knows how many phone calls and some of them after midnight (because they forgot to phone back and had just remembered), and 7 days wait, (every time they said 24hours). I had a call from BT to say they had fixed the problem and were sorry about the delay.

6 Hours later Tiscali phoned and asked if I could try and connect as they think they have sorted it.

Now this was just before Christmas and as a result from loosing my service I couldn’t track a couple of Christmas presents and had to do extra present shopping (which I hate).

I decided to leave Tiscali after the new year and asked for my MAC code but was fobbed off by some retard.

I am still with this Circus of a provider and have now had my downloads capped. I am furious with them especially after recommending them to others when I first joined.

All I wannadoo is leave.

Lee

++

I read your article with interest. I too got the Tiscali letter some time ago but they seem to limit my upload speed rather than my download.

I have asked and asked why I can't upgrade to 1Mb and they blame BT or the distance I am from the exchange.

I live within 3km of the exchange and BT say there is no reason why I can't have a 1Mb or 2Mb line.

Talking to them is like banging your head against an Indian wall.

I was going to leave but I read on other sites that they take ages to remove their marker!

Any advice?

Thanks

Howard

++

hi wayne,
just read your review on these robbing b@stards.
i have been with tiscali on 576kps since 2002 november.
2003 i had 4 months where i was getting 5kps upload and download speed,
i was never compensated.
since january this year every week for fourdays i get 3kps up and 4kps down,have been onm the phone many times to them,
(why dont any of them speak english??) but to no avail,they just lie and try to get me to run diagnostics etc.(to make more cash out of me on their
expensive tech help line.. lol @ tech help!
tried to cancell my account last week but they coaxed me into staying with them saying "please wait until we have implemented out 1meg connection)
hey your'e being upgraded for free!,ive been paying 24.99 a month for half meg line since they released the 19.99 a month half meg line,
no refund there for me!
i hate them.
everything you wrote in your post is true! and its worse!
if onlyi coud convey my 2 and a half year nightmare!
i such a fool!
anyway,thankyou for your post,as after reading it i now am riled enough to say NO MORE!
im phoning them now to tell tehm where togo once and for all!
best wishes
Tim.

++

Hi,

Just read your “great Tiscali swindle”, there absolutely inept!! Below is my post from The Scream.

I have sent this email to;

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'Broadbandsupport@uk.tiscali.com'; 'complaints@ispreview.co.uk'; 'SafMas@gwynedd.gov.uk'; 'jody.haskayne@uk.tiscali.com'; 'mary.turner@uk.tiscali.com'; 'enquiries@otelo.org.uk'; 'chris.larkin@uk.tiscali.com'; 'broadbandcancellations@uk.tiscali.com'; 'c.jones@solicitors.wales.com'; 'info@dogsbodyoutsourcing.com'; 'watchdog@bbc.co.uk'; 'X-Ray@bbc.co.uk'; 'ferret@htv-wales.co.uk'; 'ferret@itvwales.com'

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Some of you wont recognise all of the addresses there, some are senior Tiscali staff, local trading standards, Welsh versions of WatchDog, etc. Some of this email was copied from other people on this forum. I thank them for making what they sent public. I hope they dont mind me using some of what they have posted. I hope that posting this (if its successful) will help others with there problems with Tiscali.

The Email reads;

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Dear Sir/Madam and Jody Haskayne,

As you can see in the header of this email I have sent it to many people. These include Otelo, my local trading standards office, ispreview, my Solicitor, consumer issue television programs and various Tiscali employees. The reason I have done this is that I have so far been ignored by Tiscali and have now had enough. If you have received this email and you are not a Tiscali employee. I ask could you please save it so that I may then prove the date that this email was sent if that becomes necessary. If you are a Tiscali employee could you PLEASE try your best to resolve this?

I ordered a 512kps connection on 21/3/2005 since then I have experienced very little time online. I think the figure stands at approximately 2 days. I have spent hours and hours of my valuable time trying to solve this issue. I have phoned Tiscali’s “Broadband Technical Help” service countless times. I found these people to be only just capable of the English language and to just repeat all of the advice that accompanies the bundled modem. Nevertheless, I followed all of there instructions most of which I had already tried. I even tried using a different modem purchased by myself and two other micro filters. Eventually it was acknowledged (after much effort on my part) that the connection problems where not because of anything on my side. I was then told on the 28/3/2005 that a different technical support team would contact me regarding my connection problems. I have not heard anything from these people despite continued calls to Tiscali’s “Customer Service Line”. The problem that I am experiencing is very intermittent the connection works for half a day then nothing for 2 days. This is extremely STRESSFUL as I have been going through all of the reinstalling, trying different hardware, etc over and over again. This has also resulted in a loss of earnings for me as I have spent unnecessary time on this because of Tiscali's failure to provide satisfactory customer service and technical support.

I now no longer want any involvement with Tiscali every again! I wish to cancel my contract and transfer to another ISP as painlessly as possible. I would appreciate it if Tiscali could finally get there act together and at least show good faith in the rapid processing of my request. That way I can put this miserable experience behind me and never have to deal with a company as inept as Tiscali have shown them selves to be. I think due to this email being sent within 14 days of my initial order I am perfectly within my rites to cancel my contract without receiving any charges what so ever. I also think the quotes below back up my case for an immediate voiding of the contract between Tiscali and myself as I have clearly not received a service from them!

“An entertainment service cannot deny you a refund if they have not delivered to you what was agreed” OFT'S website,

“Under the Consumer Credit Act 1974, Section 75, I am entitled to look to you for compensation, as this law makes you equally liable with the trader for any breaches of contract. My statutory rights under the Sale of Goods Act 1979 (as amended) mean that goods should be of a satisfactory quality.” Trading standards website

I am completely dismayed by your appalling service and hereby give you 28 days, from the date of this letter, in which to resolve this issue.

If this is not resolved within 28 days I consider that the contract with yourselves is nulled due to “breach of contract” as you have not provided me with the service promised.

I also reclaim the total cost of the telephone calls to your “help service” and all charges that you have made to me to date.

I estimate that I have spent a total of 15 hours of unnecessary time trying to resolve these issues due to the incompetence of your “help service” for which I also seek reimbursement.

Please respond to this letter within 3 days.

If I do not receive any reply I will take this issue up with Tiscali’s ADR provider Otelo, Trading Standards, my Solicitor and finally I will report Tiscali to the police for theft if they take any money from my account for a service which I have blatantly not received. I will also endeavour to be accompanied by the news media to the police station when I make my complaint.

Yours sincerely

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I HOPE that this will get a result! I will keep this thread informed with the results and responses that I receive.

Cai

++

Hi Wayne.

Just read your report on tiscali, and seems that i'm not the only one with
this problem with them. I am still trying to get back money for the last two
weeks of 1kb/s downloads, and the broadbandservices e-mail address that
doesn't exist. Here is a copy of my letter.

Dear Sirs,
I am writing with regard to an outstanding amount from my above internet
account. I have received a letter from you this morning stating that the
amount due from previous reminders has not been paid. To correct you, the
amount was paid on the 22nd February at 11.45am by MasterCard. The reason I
left this payment late is because of the poor Broadband service I had been
receiving. When I spoke to one of your representatives they told me that
this amount was for December, not January, which was the Month I had the
bandwidth problems. I then paid the December bill, but left the January bill
as this is the Month that I received 2kb/s for browsing in the last 2 weeks
of the Month. I received a letter from you, which is dated the 20th December
2004. This letter quite clearly stated "at peak times we will restrict the
bandwidth available to you for high volume downloading. Your regular
internet use, browsing, email, streaming etc. will be unaffected". I was
quite happy with this arrangement, and decided to continue using your
service. Imagine my surprise when on 20th January my bandwidth for browsing,
emails etc. was cut. My broadband was unbelievably slow, taking 2-3 minutes
to load a single page that normally takes 2-3 seconds. I called your
National Rate number on the 21st at 12.30pm after noticing no improvement. I
spoke to somebody who insisted on spelling everything, making the call last
17 minutes! He told me to download a tweak tool, and gave me a web address
to do a speed check. The speed check stated that my bandwidth available was
2kb/s. I then called back again. I was told to email broadband services with
the results of the speed check. I did this straight away. There was no
improvement by the 23rd, so I emailed again. Still, I received no
improvement on the 24th. I then decided to email and cancel. I stated
clearly on the email my intention to cancel, and that I was cancelling the
Direct Debit. I still had no response on the 25th, so emailed again. This
continued on the 27th, 29th and the 31st. I also called more times on the
22nd, 27th and on the 31st somebody eventually told me that my service would
be cancelled immediately. Eventually on the 3rd February 2005, my service
was cancelled. I didn't receive a reply to any of my emails to broadband
services. Do they exist, or are they just a delay tactic? I sent a total of
6 emails and spent £2.50 on phone calls. I am enclosing a cheque for the
amount that I believe is indicative of the service received. 20 days @
£0.806 per day = £16.12 + 14 days at .003p per day (pro-rata for bandwidth
received) = £0.04. Total for service £16.16. Minus £2.50 for phone calls =
£13.66 total to clear all debt. I trust you will find this satisfactory.

Yours Faithfully
Adam

They responded that no refund is due again, and that they can't guarantee a
fault free service. It seems that we have proof with your same experience
that this confirms that there is definately no fault with the service. They
cut our bandwidth to piss us off. I have now paid the amount owing, and I
have noticed the complaints procedure shows an independant ombudsman can be
used, and his decision will be final. That's my next port of call to get my
money back.

Adam

++

black_adder

++

Sue Grech

++

Rizkat

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