My original post got suspended, I think (? - moderator?), so I'll post one that I think abides by the rules, and with more update on my Tiscali situation.
In September 2007 I tried to upgrade my Tiscali dialup account to 2MB Broadband. This offer was for £14.99 and included line rental. I was told this would take two weeks. After waiting in vain for my broadband start up kit I called again only to learn that the order had actually never been put in.
My broadband service was activated at the start of October. I received a letter advising me there was a problem transferring my line over, but when I called Tiscali the customer service officer said my line was fine and "sometimes the system sends messages out in error." Yeah, right. Eventually I would end up with an invoice for line rental from BT. When I called the Tiscali line rental department again, it turns out that Tiscali was not handling my line rental. So I'd paid them for line rental, and not got it.
In addition, for four months I was billed for both dialup AND broadband When I first queried, I was given the excuse that my dialup was still being kept because of the email address linked to it. After five further emails to Tiscali Billing I was assured that my dialup had been cancelled and a refund was being arranged.
In the first four months since I signed up for Broadband, Tiscali overbilled me £60 (four months of anytime Dialup). Isn't it basic common sense that when someone “upgrades” to another product, he wants the newer product instead of the old, and not both?
To make the long story shorter, ever since I signed up for Tiscali Broadband, I had continued to be billed for four months of Tiscali dialup, and I was not been given the free line rental I was led to believe. I was overcharged £60.00 and lost out on £33.00 of line rental.
I made numerous calls to the 0871 numbers for the same repeated requests to take off the dialup, and on some occasions the operators - I suspect, sensing a task beyond their capabilities - even hung up on me.
Tiscali sent me a letter dated 28 January 2008 and said they would refund me 38.18 - what the breakdown is, I don't know, because it was all lumped in a sum classed as "customer service adjustment". The letter mentioned that the money owed would be debited into my account within 28 days.
I waited 42 days and didn't receive it. In frustration, I sent a complaint which was then forwarded to a high level complaints executive. They are people with email addresses ending "(at)uk.tiscali.com" and you can google for them.
One of them said he would credit my account with fifty pounds. I wrote back to say that with Tiscali's track record, I wouldn't expect much.
Tiscali's customer service does have a familiar pattern of work, namely:
1) Placate the customer with empty promises, or bluff your way through
2) Stall for time (say "7-10 days")
3) Wait for customer to get back to complain
4) Repeat from step 1
This past week my broadband got knocked off. I had a message on screen saying my bank had apparently cancelled my direct debits. That wasn't true - the direct debit was still on my bank account, and on the Tiscali billing area (I checked using a freeuk dialup) they had two direct debits for me - one for dialup and one for broadband - that were still in existence. I called the technical department and the guy tried to blame it on my modem, my computer, everything but Tiscali. I knew what it was - they needed to lift whatever restrictions they were imposing. If anyone has a problem like that, call the billing department, not technical support. The billing department, though, took 20 minutes on the third attempt to the 0871 number to get through (so that's how they generate revenue), but didn't know why my broadband had been restricted. I asked for it to be lifted, and to their credit, it was done within an hour.
I queried about the fifty pounds that was supposed to have been sent to me. The customer service officer said there was an unintelligible note on the account saying "Cheque send fifty pounds 3/11/08". I don't know if it's a deliberate mistake, whether the person who made the entry meant "11th of March" rather than "3rd of November", but it struck me as a mistake that Tiscali would conveniently make to avoid coughing up.
The broadband service has been fine (generally) for a low volume user like me. Hey, for 14.99 - inclusive of line rental - that's broadband for under a fiver. I don't use it apart from checking emails and browsing, so I'm happy with it. But the billing and customer service is terrible - then again, if you pay peanuts for broadband, you get monkey service, I suppose.