Hi,

I signed up for Tiscali Max Unlimited at the beginning of Dec 06 and the modem arrived on 13th Dec. I installed the software and acheived a connection which then dropped and I was unable to reconnect. I reinstalled everything and the same thing happened again. After 3 nights of this I phoned technical support (16th dec) and after a lengthy diagnostic session I was told my modem was faulty, and another one would be with me in 3-4 days.

After 14 days modem #2 had not arrived. I rang them and was told that the diagnostic session on the 16th ended with a successful connection and this was why no modem was actually dispatched. Modem #3 was then dispatched, due to arrive 3-4 days later.

Modem #3 arrived as promised, I set it up and it was faulty - completely dead in fact. I rang Tiscali on the 4th Jan 07, and they confirmed this. Modem #4 was then ordered and expected 3-4 days.

By this time I was concerned that my first direct debit was due and I had yet to receive any service. I spoke to the billing department and discovered that the usage part of my contract had been cancelled "by an unknown member of staff in error" on 20th Dec 2006 and I was just on record as a Tiscali Max customer. This suited me fine as by now I was regretting ever signing up in the first place.

Modem #4 had not arrived after 9 days so I rang again on the 13th Jan to enquire of its whereabouts. It had apparently been dispatched on the 5th yet it failed to arrive. So modem #5 was ordered and the usual 3-4 days applied.

I then received an invoice for nearly 2 months worth of the Max Unlimited service even though the Unlimited part was cancelled. I was told this would automatically credited on the next invoice.

I waited 4 days for modem #5 to arrive. When it didn't I called again. This time I was told there was no record of my previous call to them and even though I quoted the reference number given to me for the delivery of modem #5 they could find no trace of it. Modem #6 was ordered under "urgent dispatch" to arrive in 2 days. I pointed out this would mean a sunday delivery so it was therefore 3 days (as opposed to 3-4 days!). When I asked for a reference number for modem #6 I was told there wasn't one. As I was close to losing my temper I said "It won't do me any good anyway will it?" to which the operator replied "Thats right"!

At the time of writing I have had no service from Tiscali since it was "activated" 31 days ago and I would rather not endure another 11 months of this gross incompetence.

Do I have grounds to argue that they have reneged on the contract agreement to provide me with the service they said they would provide me with, under the Sale of Goods Act.?

Also, my first Direct Debit payment is due at the beginning of February and I am considering cancelling it until such a time that I receive the service I am promised, if I cannot escape the contract completely. Is this a wise move?

Thanks

Hi Ste

Unfortunately you have joined one of the biggest showers of **** that ever tried to do business as an ISP.

I suffered over 2 years of Tiscali, until I finally got my MAC code and left for pastures new...........but whilst I was there I suffered constant rubbish from Tiscali, it does not matter what you do or say to them, you will never get anywhere..........I have been left for more than a year now and am still waiting for them to refund a months BB payment which they AGREED they owed me.

Send the billing department an email and also call them (they are in UK and not India) but make sure it's the BILLING Dept and tell them exactly what your plans are, tell them that, as they have not supplied you with a satisfactory service, that you will be cancelling the DD and that you are officially requesting your MAC number (you will need this to migrate to another BB provider) and see what they say, you may be lucky.

Please let me know how you get on with it.......................oh, just for your information Ste, I am with Nildram ISP and have had no problems with them at all......but I suggest you look around.....try http://www.thinkbroadband.com/ or http://www.ispreview.co.uk/ these sites are a mine of info and let you see who are the winners and who are the sinners.

Good Luck

Stu

Hi Ste 1973

I think given the fact that you have not had a service since sign up gives you good grounds to argue under the Sale of Goods Act but before going forward with this, I advise you check the service agreement section of your contract from Tiscali first.

Tiscali work based on the service agreement part of your contract, not the Sale of Goods Act - they could argue that since they have been sending you replacement modems that they have been trying to deliver service to you. In most service agreements if they are being seen to deliver service to you this is good enough. Obviously this is not good enough for you but this is likely what they will argue.

In other words it's not quite a cut and dried as you think, you need to be careful before proceeding or you could be hit with an 11mth cancellation fee which is about £200.

I think it may be advisable to seek legal advice before asking for your MAC code - also be aware that Tiscali have a reputation for withholding MAC codes (although as of Feb 14th this will be illegal under mandatory MAC code regulation).

My advice is to speak to Which Legal Service - for £14.95 a quarter you can get good impartial legal advice from their lawyers. See what they say first about your case before going back to Tiscali.

Following this if you still want to leave I would wait until Feb 14th - as from that day, Tiscali are bound by regulation and have to issue you with a MAC code within 5 working days.

Send a letter to Tiscali's billing dept by recorded delivery stating your case and grounds for why you are cancelling your contract - you can quote the Sale of Goods Act but primarily it should be about breaching their service agreement.

It's also a good idea to check other forums such as Thinkbroadband.com as well to see if there are other Tiscali users who have experienced the same as you, as this might prove useful advice how to do deal with your case.

Good luck

Jason

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Jason Lloyd
moneysupermarket.com
0800 298 5770

" We're here to help you find the best deal and avoid the pitfalls through sharing knowledge and experiences."

I have successfully cancelled my contract without penalty as my loss of service exceeded 28 days (52 in fact). My first Direct debit is due next week so I have also cancelled that as a precaution.

I have also haggled with NTL (which I never cancelled) and Im now paying £12.50 a month for a guaranteed 4 meg. I was told if I phone up every 3 months I will be able to get this or a similar deal.

Ahh the dreaded modem not working problem.
For some time I had been satisfied with a normal dial up service.
Before going broadband I read sites to see what others experience was with the suppliers.
The most common was the inadequacy or poor quality of the modems that ISPs provide and
the constant need to get replacements. This is due to their buying the cheapest product on the market that they can find.
Pay peanuts you get monkeys!
I therefore decided that I would get my own modem. A look on sites such as ebuyer soon showed items which
had given others satisfaction and an examination of test reports enabled to choice to be made.
So, as I have two computers,only one in use at any one time, I bought three modems, two internal PCI based
and one external USB type. Total cost from ebuyer and from ebay came to about £20.50!!!!
No problems, all work fine and if one of the internal ones does appear a little off colour I can try the USB modem.
However, this has never been the case.The only time when I have used tyhe USB modem is when My ISP has
dropped out and I can check the fault is not at my end

Well there you go Ste1973 - proof positive that you can beat the system and get an amazing deal.

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Jason Lloyd
moneysupermarket.com
0800 298 5770

" We're here to help you find the best deal and avoid the pitfalls through sharing knowledge and experiences."

the only problem i have with tiscali is-------they advertise at 12.99 a month------i pay 14.99 never had my questioned answerd by them//

they also advertise at £9.99 a mth as well

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Jason Lloyd
moneysupermarket.com
0800 298 5770

" We're here to help you find the best deal and avoid the pitfalls through sharing knowledge and experiences."

I have had so many bad problems with Tiscali.

I am a network manager, I know my stuff, I can run rings around the phone droids.

I get 6megs before 8am, which goes down to 12KBS in the evening, thats ISDN speed, the most basic dsl is 50kbs.

Still I made a film, put it on you tube, you might find it funny.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=3cBVAu927mw

tiscali phoned me to ask me if i wanted 8 mg broadband of coarse i said yes,and it the same price--that was 3 wks ago,and they said i would have it in 10 days..and still no word from them..and its still 2mg

My ISP got converted to Tiscali's wonderful network earlier this year, since then it's been terrible and support is pretty much useless. Luckily I'm moving soon so I'll just outright cancel the whole shebang and grab me a Sky Broadband instead. In the meantime I've show off complaints to http://www.ispreview.co.uk , http://www.ispa.org.uk and their complaints handler (forget the name). Hopefully they'll improve if and when one of the other UK operators buys them out over the coming months.