http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/tiscali-82.aspxenCommunityServer 2.1 (Debug Build: 0.2)http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/tiscali-service-39547.aspxMon, 09 Nov 2009 13:01:23 GMTd60303e3-0d44-49ad-b329-9875dfa2f932:168159JK1001http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/tiscali-service-39547.aspxhttp://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=82&PostID=168159 Tiscali are the worst when it comes to providing customer service. I think they are a call centre abroad and don't know what is going on and I as the customer had to tell them. They took payment from my credit card when I had requested Tiscali not to do this and they had this on their system but did it anyway. They took two payments for one bill from two members of my family despite the fact that in this day and age, we have computer systems and all the information is on that. It is only upon calling them and enquiring that they realised this. Am I so glad that I have cancelled my tiscali account. They have the worst customer service I have come across. http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/tiscali-took-money-out-of-my-bank-account-36794.aspxWed, 15 Jul 2009 12:11:34 GMTd60303e3-0d44-49ad-b329-9875dfa2f932:156890awareness17http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/tiscali-took-money-out-of-my-bank-account-36794.aspxhttp://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=82&PostID=156890 Yeah, I probably deserve it. I have bene a Tiscali customer for over 6 years now. Most of the times I had little roblems withthem. Until this month. I normally pay my bilby direct debit, which usually comes out on 1stof the month. His month, because I lose my job de t depression, know that the money won't be in the account at that date, but one day later, so I called Tiscali and requesed they take the payment out on the 2nd. hey refused. They tried to take the payment out on the 1st of uly, theres no money in the accoutn so the charge gets reversed. On the 2nd, as soon as I have money, I call them and make the payment over the phone. On 7th of July, Tiscali took a payment of 68 pounds from my account. This payment was not authorized. I called them and requested an immediate refund. They said that their system automatically billed me twice and that the request for the refund would be processed in 5 working days. On the 9th of July I called again, they tol me the request was being processed. On the 12th of July I called again, and I get told that because the next billign cicle has been processed by them, the money they took from me will be put towards the next bill- which is to be paid on 1st August. At hearing that, I insisted and bickered with them until I got a manager on the line. This manager, who unlike the rest of them seemed to know what the hell he was doing, put a request through to their finance department to have my money refunded in full. Today 14th July I called again, and got told that my request was denied because they had already processed the payment of the next bill. On short: they took money out of my accoutn without authorization, refused to refund it and pretty much forced me to pay the next bill 3 weeks in advance. This is fraud and a violation of the Direct Debit Code. Be warned. http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/problems-with-tiscali-broadbandread-on-2758.aspxSat, 10 Feb 2007 11:47:17 GMTd60303e3-0d44-49ad-b329-9875dfa2f932:9397Lee2379016http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/problems-with-tiscali-broadbandread-on-2758.aspxhttp://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=82&PostID=9397Took out my Tiscali Broadband in February 2006, and was running exceptionally well for around 9-10 months. The whole thing started to go wrong in December. When connecting, there was nothing resembling an homepage. Emailed customer support using my old dial-up connection, and what can only be described as an insult to an idiot's intelligence reply came back. This reply was blaming everything but themselves and involved doing many mind-numbing things which basically didn't work at all - even had the cheek to blame heat from the computer! Oh, and be warned.....If you don't reply to the email thread within 72 hours of Tiscali's reply, they deem the case resolved - I've kept my one ongoing since 22nd January just to nark them!!!! I phoned their expensive 0870 number to be kept on hold for about 15 minutes and then couldn't understand a word they were saying and had to repeat myself numerous times......all at the end to no avail. During this time, I have had to connect to my old "pay-as-you-go" Dial-up plan to get any internet whatsoever. Endless calls to Tiscali blaming BT and BT blaming Tiscali. I even changed my cabling. It got to the only thing to replace at my end was my modem - was using the THOMSON SPEEDTOUCH 330 that Tiscali provided on connection. Borrowed an old ADSL modem off of a friend, downloaded a driver from the modem's website, and HEYPRESTO!!! It worked perfect. After contacting Tiscali to report my findings, they said they would send another modem out. I said that I did not want the same modem again and they said they would send the SAGEM model out. I am now sat here with TWO SPEEDTOUCH MODEMS, and neither of them do anything! So what I suggest, if you are using Tiscali on the Thomson Speedtouch 330 modem, CHANGE IT NOW. Am currently using the Zoom 5510 and it works brilliantly. ANOTHER TIP: If you need help from Tiscali, don't phone their expensive 0870 number but phone their 0845 cancellations number. Your internet just doesn't pack up overnight for nothing (unless their is a genuine fault at their end). The 0845 number tells you of any faults anyway, and not only that, you get to speak to someone from the UK.http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/having-problems-with-tiscali-contact-ispa-via-enc-35445.aspxWed, 27 May 2009 18:52:32 GMTd60303e3-0d44-49ad-b329-9875dfa2f932:151919fifibones0http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/having-problems-with-tiscali-contact-ispa-via-enc-35445.aspxhttp://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=82&PostID=151919 After waiting 8 months, I have finally got my refund from Tiscali. Thanks to contacting ISPA. Once you contact ISPA Tiscali are duty bound to resolve the issue within 5 days. Click the link below if you are experiencing problems with Tiscali. http://www.ispa.org.uk/cgi-bin/complaints.cgi?answer... I suspended my internet with Tiscali but they continued to take money out of my account. I finally realised, cancelled it and demanded my money back. That was in December 2008! When I called them to find out when I would get my refund the representative told me he would have to 'open' my account to view my details. He must not have 'closed' it afterwards as I started to receive letters demanding payment. I even received a court summons! It was not until I informed ISPA 2 weeks ago, that I was refunded and the threatening letters stopped. TISCALI ARE A NIGHTMARE! Join them at your peril http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/tiscali-up-for-sale-would-i-still-be-in-contract-34536.aspxThu, 30 Apr 2009 22:23:32 GMTd60303e3-0d44-49ad-b329-9875dfa2f932:148113scrash1http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/tiscali-up-for-sale-would-i-still-be-in-contract-34536.aspxhttp://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=82&PostID=148113 HI, Just been reading up on the (possible) impending sale of Tiscali to carphonewarehouse. I'm not too bothered about the current financial state of Tiscali, because if they go belly up, I know that I am free to change provider without consequence. What I am worried about is if Tiscali DO sell to CPW. I refuse to use any service that is owned by CPW (I have had past bad experiences with that farce of a company). Would I still be tied into a contract? I've looked through the contract and I cant find anything about it. Would I be free to leave straight away? and without financial loss to myself? looking forward to your replies kris http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/never-use-tiscali-1092.aspxThu, 28 Sep 2006 14:30:41 GMTd60303e3-0d44-49ad-b329-9875dfa2f932:2710star2956http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/never-use-tiscali-1092.aspxhttp://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=82&PostID=2710I signed to Tiscali but then read lots of bad reviews about their service so decided to cancel my account with them within two days. It took hours of phone calls for them to finally release my phone line so that I could actually get a broadband service from another company due to Tiscali's complete incompetence. Even my email of complaint was never replied to, let alone acknowleged. To top it all off three months after I canceled my account with them, some bright spark decided to take some money out of my bank account without my authorisation. In my world this amounts to stealing. My advice would be to steer well clear of Tiscali due to their complete and utter lack of customer service. Also do your homework before signing up with any company - if I had done this in the first place I probably would have saved myself a lot of hassle.http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/transferring-to-tiscali-talk-was-a-bad-mistake-33601.aspxThu, 02 Apr 2009 11:45:25 GMTd60303e3-0d44-49ad-b329-9875dfa2f932:144681econandy4http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/transferring-to-tiscali-talk-was-a-bad-mistake-33601.aspxhttp://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=82&PostID=144681 I could not possibly recommend Tiscali Talk to anyone. I have been waiting for over 3 months now for Tiscali to get 1571 voicemail working on my line. It has not worked since I transferred my phone and line rental to Tiscali Talk last December. I have been assured on numerous occasions that the problem will be fixed shortly but it never is. I have had to raise several complaints on the same issue as the update feature on previous complaints is removed even though the issue has not been resolved. I have received several calls from Tiscali Customer Relations full of apologies and assurances that everything is being done to resolve the issue but the problem remains unresolved to this day. Promises are made that the Provisioning Department will phone to update me with their progress. I have never received a single call from them. In frustration and despair that the problem will not get fixed, I have ask Tiscal to release me from my 12 month contact so that I can transfer to another service provider without any penalty. Tiscali will not agree to do so saying that I will most likely be billed to term if I cancel even though they have failed to fulfil their contact to provide voicemail. It seems that I am trapped by my 12 month contract however poorly Tiscali perform. I then contacted the Alternative Dispute Resolution scheme only to be told that they will not even look at a complaint until a minimum of 3 months has passed since a formal complaint was first lodged with the telephone company. Beware the dangers of signing long term contracts. http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/moving-from-tiscali-broadbandtalktv-help-33234.aspxTue, 24 Mar 2009 13:24:09 GMTd60303e3-0d44-49ad-b329-9875dfa2f932:143534orangepeel1http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/moving-from-tiscali-broadbandtalktv-help-33234.aspxhttp://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=82&PostID=143534We currently have the above bundle but now we are out of contract want to move services after over a year of the worst customer care and service I have ever experienced! But that's another story! So, what we want to do is move our broadband to O2 and our telephone service to BT (only because we have to have BT line, grrr) and get the hell away from Tiscali. Can anyone give me any tips for the best way of going about this? We don't want to end up playing 2 line rentals etc... Thanks on advance! O.P.http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/talk-talk-line-rental-tiscali-broadband-866.aspxWed, 06 Sep 2006 11:22:06 GMTd60303e3-0d44-49ad-b329-9875dfa2f932:2045seh5674http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/talk-talk-line-rental-tiscali-broadband-866.aspxhttp://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=82&PostID=2045Hi, I am currently in the process of changing my line rental from BT to Talk Talk. Can someone advise if my Tiscali broadband will still work via Talk Talk line. Thankshttp://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/tiscali-bt-landline-and-sky-tv-29718.aspxMon, 05 Jan 2009 15:17:30 GMTd60303e3-0d44-49ad-b329-9875dfa2f932:131719GB1234http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/tiscali-bt-landline-and-sky-tv-29718.aspxhttp://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=82&PostID=131719 Hi, I am currently paying Tiscali to provide me with broadband (I think it's about £17/month) but on top of that I am also paying BT to provide me with a land line - I don't need a land line to make calls on (i.e I only have it so i can use the Internet) - does anyone know if I need a BT landline or if Tiscali can offer me a package which will allow me to carry on using Broadband (not fussed about having a land line)..... Basically I want to pay as little as possible to allow me to use Broadband I seem to remember Sky saying they would only install Sky + if I had a BT landline - now that Sky + has been installed would I have any problems getting rid of my BT land line (if that is at all possible?) Thanks in advance for any advice... http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/tiscali-disconnecting-186k-customers-amp-not-issu-30633.aspxSat, 24 Jan 2009 21:20:38 GMTd60303e3-0d44-49ad-b329-9875dfa2f932:135122AyeWright0http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/tiscali-disconnecting-186k-customers-amp-not-issu-30633.aspxhttp://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=82&PostID=135122 Thought I'd have seen this issue on this forum already, so let's open another tiscali can of worms. This post could equally go under the name and shame thread about MACs too, as tiscali is surpassing their already dire criminal record... Basically on Jan 16th or earlier, a dispute between tiscali and 186k came to a head, and tiscali effectively disconnected a number of 186k customers. Although these customers had a broadband connection, all that appeared in the browser was a holding page from tiscali with notification of the disconnection. tiscali gave three options to migrate to - all tiscali companies. A phone number and two email addresses were provided to request a MAC. I have been with EFH as part of 186k - ok, mea culpa, but now I've learned. I'm most definitely not staying with them, if service should be resumed, nor will I move to tiscali. On 17th Jan once I discovered the disconnection and tiscali's instructions, I contacted them for my MAC. I have yet to receive any reply, confirmation - or MAC, needless to say. And of course, the 5 days stipulated have passed. 186k are offering to move people to Firenet, another company under their dubious banner. Whether this actually happens as a short-term solution in my case, remains to be seen. Reading the posts on various blogs and threads about this is highly confusing, and anyone affected like myself is growing increasingly infuriated, and appear to be facing a period without broadband... A lucky few are reporting they have received a MAC. Others have been issued invalid MACs - no surprise: this is tiscali, after all. A lot like me have had no reply and have no idea of when a MAC will be received - or if one will even be issued. Apparently, no matter when - or if - tiscali issues a MAC to these customers, the current shut off of service is 12th Feb, and not 30 days from issuance. Other blogs/threads have given the tiscali ceo as Mary Turner (mary.turner @ uk.tiscali. com) and the ceo of tiscali customer complaints as Quinn Mackenzie (quinn.mackenzie @ uk.tiscali. com) [close the spaces], and the head office number in London as 0207 087 2000, and a high level complaints number as 01483 363490. Better than dealing with someone in India who cannot understand English, never mind reply with any comprehension. Worth a try if anyone like myself is in the same boat - up the creek without a paddle, that is. So, if you can stop guffawing at another poor sucker ripped a new one by tiscali, I'd be grateful for any suggestions. http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/tiscali-monthly-download-allowance-max-25541.aspxWed, 24 Sep 2008 17:49:41 GMTd60303e3-0d44-49ad-b329-9875dfa2f932:108128zyaioymx2http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/tiscali-monthly-download-allowance-max-25541.aspxhttp://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=82&PostID=108128The use of P2P and BT. Tiscali MAX monthly download allowance is?????\Thank Uhttp://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/tiscali-speed-issues-24928.aspxWed, 10 Sep 2008 21:17:31 GMTd60303e3-0d44-49ad-b329-9875dfa2f932:106230Benjamin865http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/tiscali-speed-issues-24928.aspxhttp://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=82&PostID=106230 Hey I am writing on this forum as i would like some advice on my situation. The situation is thus, we are with Tiscali upto 8mbps Broadband package, but we find the speeds to be far, far below the advertised 8mbps. I have taken numerous speeds tests through out the day and night on many occasions and find that during the hours 9-12 our internet speed seems to average out at around 400kbps and sometimes even dipping to around 200kbps not even 5% of the advertised speed! Then after 12 the speed slowly ramps up usually hitting a peak of 4mbps at around 4am, which of course isn't a time that i am often needing to use the internet. I have tried to contact the customer service line but i was just told this was normal, although the operator did not seem to be particularly knowledgeable. I have also tried to contact Tiscali via email but have received no reply. So now i am at a loss to the next step i should take. If Tiscali can sort out the speed issues and give us internet during the day (9-12) averaging at around 2mbps then i would be fine with staying with them, but if they cannot i would like to know if we would be able to cancel the service without having to pay off the rest of the contract as i feel i have be grossly misled. Thank you for your help. Ben http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/tiscali-problems-23844.aspxWed, 13 Aug 2008 06:04:59 GMTd60303e3-0d44-49ad-b329-9875dfa2f932:102800garethj5http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/tiscali-problems-23844.aspxhttp://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=82&PostID=102800 Hi all Thought I would post a letter I have sent to Tiscali about major problems - I moved house (literally over the road) and Tiscali seem to think I have moved to the moon. Just incase you were thinking of joining Tiscali let this be a lesson to you DON'T!!! Ms Mary Turner CEO Tiscali UK 20-24 Broadwick Street London W1F 8HT Cc Joanne Davis August 6th, 2008 Dear Ms Turner I am writing to bring some appalling customer service experiences to your attention. I have been a customer of Tiscali’s since October 2006. On July 15th, I called your company to alert you that I was moving address on July 19th, but, my telephone number would remain the same. I work at the BBC in London and called during my break, the customer services assistant I spoke to took over 15 minutes to take some simple details off me. I feel that this is excessive at best. As I was at work I told her that I would have to call back as I had run out of time. I called back some 40 minutes later to restart the process. This call was quicker and I was advised that because I keeping the telephone number the same (I have literally moved across the street) it would take up to 20 days to reconnect the service. Although I accepted this time scale I felt it was little excessive for a move over the road. I called back on 23rd July to see what the latest update was. I was told that it was already completed. It wasn’t. I called again to be told by another agent that I shouldn’t have been told that information and it would take about another 7 days. On July 28th, I called and spoke to an agent called David who informed me there was a problem with the order – he wouldn’t tell what the problem was. I suggested that maybe it would be a proactive response to call customers when these issues arise as opposed to leaving customers to believe everything was fine with the order. He told me that he would sort it out for me. On July 29th, I called several times and spoke to no less than 8 different agents all giving me completely different information and passing me to various different departments. The first agent was based in India and couldn’t understand a word I was saying – not very professional. The second agent (Laura) told me that the order had been duplicated and that it would delay it by up to another 20 days. I told Laura this was totally unacceptable and that I would like to speak to a manager – she refused to put me through to a manager (I was at work again and couldn’t receive inbound calls as I was in live studios for the entire day). Laura told me she would escalate the order but couldn’t give me a timescale for resolution. I asked to be put through to your complaints department. Laura told me that you didn’t have one!! I called your head office in London and was put through to Muriel Hill in your Complaints Department (although according to Laura you don’t have such a department!). Muriel told me that she would try to sort it out by putting my case on the priority list. I explained to Muriel that I would have to call her back as I was at work – when I did I got through to Stuart Mollon. Stuart insisted that he couldn’t give me timescale and was totally un-empathetic to my case. He advised that I call the main technical number to ask about timescales. I did this and the first agent I spoke to cut me off – yet another example of excellent customer service. I called back and asked to be put through to a manager. I spoke to “Chris Anderson” in India who after having me on hold for 5 minutes told me that it would be another 3-4 working days before the line would be active. When I asked Chris how I could get hold him again if this proved incorrect he then told me that his name isn’t Chris Anderson but Naresh. Naresh told me it was company policy to change Indian names to English names so customers didn’t find out the call centre was in India!!! This is yet another example of poor customer service. Naresh told me to call Tiscali in 24 hours for an update – I did this and spoke to about 5 different people none of which could/would give me an update – I was advised by “Brian Martin” in India to give you another 48 hours before I could have an update – how long do I have to wait to get a response from your company? Yet again, I called on July 31st and spoke to my 25th person – how people does it take to connect an internet service? I was guaranteed a call-back by two different managers in the Cancellation department – two deadlines missed. I was promised that the matter was now being sorted by Tendai Sakupwanya. I am nearing the end of my temper with your company. I am beginning to wonder if connecting someone to an internet service is as difficult as rocket science as your company seems to think it is – I have moved about 250 yards not 250 miles yet you seem to have difficulty whatever the distance. By August 4th nothing had still happened, so I called the home moves team again. Both times I was put through to your call centre in Ireland and both times spoke to Ken, who, after us going over the same ground of me requesting to speak to a manager there and then, and explaining that I was in a live studio and couldn’t receive inbound calls, Ken cut me off. I would expect a better level of customer service from your company. I finally spoke to Steve at the Chiswick cancellation centre who agreed that the time being taken was excessive and that the levels of customer service I had received were totally unacceptable. He also agreed that I should be able to speak with a manager when I call and not have to wait for call-backs. On August 5th Shankar from your Provisioning Department called me to inform me they had just started work on the order and that it would be another 15-20 days before I could expect a connection. This would mean you have taken 32 days to connect me. The situation has been escalated by four different people in different departments – it has taken twelve days to get to this position and you want me to wait another 20? This is totally unacceptable since it was that department that wasted the first 12 days anyway. I requested to speak to his manager – he told me he was on a break I asked that he go and get his manager as this was very important. He refused and in the end cut off the call after playing the sound of a siren down the phone to me. How many more examples of poor customer service from your company am I going to be exposed to? Steve called back to update me with the same information as Shankar – he agreed it was an unacceptable timescale but said there was nothing he or anyone else could do to speed the process up. He even suggested that for the short term I incur extra costs and use a dial-up internet service!!! Whilst trying to get an address to contact yourself on, I called your London head office (on 0207 087 2000) at 5.20pm – the recorded message informed me the office closes at 5.30, yet the service cut me saying there wasn’t any agents logged in – it seems they had all gone home 10 minutes early!!! As I write on August 6th, I still have no date as to when my broadband is going to be connected. I have spoken to 36 people in your company to try and resolve the issue – I think this must be some form of record. I was also informed that during the entire period I will be without an internet connection I will be charged for a service I cannot access. I think the way I have been treated by your company deserves some form of investigation. I have been left with a tarnished impression of Tiscali and am seriously considering moving my business elsewhere if this is the standard of customer service I am now to expect. I would like some form of compensation for a) the way I have been treated by your company, and, b) the amount of my own time I have wasted on the telephone calling your so-called customer services departments. I would also like my internet connection sorted quicker than 20 days. Words fail me about the atrocious levels of service I have received from your company. I would appreciate a response to my problems. Yours sincerely http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/are-tiscali-that-bad-10802.aspxWed, 05 Sep 2007 21:55:20 GMTd60303e3-0d44-49ad-b329-9875dfa2f932:47037Moribus18http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/are-tiscali-that-bad-10802.aspxhttp://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=82&PostID=47037 I would like to start off by saying that I am proud to be a computer illiterate. Any comments I make are as "man in the street". Are Tiscali that bad? I've been with them for 2+ years and I've had my fair share of problems with speaking to the carefully scripted Rangoon High Street support staff. I've dabbled with Sky (No!). Looking at all the site blogs all ISPs seem to be rubbish/have problems. Therefore I will judge on price (this assumes that customer service is equally bad throughout the major ISPs). Tiscali offer free line rental and free telephone calls and free 2Mb broadband for £20. I'm gonna go for that as no other ISP can compete - or have I missed something? http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/penalty-charges-with-tiscali-23085.aspxFri, 18 Jul 2008 22:23:52 GMTd60303e3-0d44-49ad-b329-9875dfa2f932:100363dollylass1http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/penalty-charges-with-tiscali-23085.aspxhttp://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=82&PostID=100363I signed up with Tiscali in January this year, they rang me up with promises that they will save me quite a bit of money with their talk and speed up broadband package. Sucked in by the sales talk I signed up, at the last minute he said I was contracted for 12 months. Well I have had the service 6 months now, and have worked out its around £60 more than what I was paying before, and I am making less calls than when I was with BT. Having a part time wage, the charges have been crippling me, and have taken the decision to cancel my direct debit with them this week, as I can't cope anymore with the increasing costs of fuel, food etc. The thing is now I have cancelled what penalty charge amount am I looking at now for cancelling early? Can I possibly have these waved if I can prove its cost more to switch to their service? http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/tiscali-possibly-the-worlds-worst-isp-7798.aspxWed, 04 Jul 2007 19:51:05 GMTd60303e3-0d44-49ad-b329-9875dfa2f932:33604jog on1http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/tiscali-possibly-the-worlds-worst-isp-7798.aspxhttp://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=82&PostID=33604 I have had numerous connection problems with Tiscali. Sometimes I am unable to use the service for days on end , this usually happens at least once a fortnight. On several occasions I have been off line for over a week. When I do manage to accessthe internet it is often so slow that its unusable. The number of times I have contacted their technical support I have lost track of. To say they are useless is putting it mildly. First I was told that a test had been performed on my BT line and it was shown to be at fault. So BT replaced the line to my house free of charge (top marks to BT). The fault persisted Tiscali then said it was the telephone sockets in my house or the internal phone lines. I replaced all these. Then I was told I was using a socket to far away from the first socket in line. So I connected the modem to the first socket. I still had problems.( If anyone suggests E mailing this company with your problems dont bother because they dont reply). When I contacted customer service again they apparently ran tests and discovered it was the modem. I promptly received a new modem. All was well for a couple of weeks and then the same problems started again . I contacted Customer services and received the same old excuses ie telephone line,internal wiring, sockets , and then faulty modem. I then received replacement modem #2. A couple of weeks later I was back onto Tiscali, this time I was told it was because I was using a Sagem modem that I had problems,apparently they are very sensitive?. I was sent a replacement speed touch modem, needless to say the problems persisted. I then decided to buy a wireless router to see if this would solve connection problems . Needless to say it didnt , although the router constantly shows an excellent signal. My daughter recently purchased her own PC and so to save her money she uses my ISP . After several attempts and numerous failures I managed to register her an E Mail address with Tiscali. She can access this via Outlook express but if we try to access it through Tiscali's homepage her password isnt recognised . So I E mailed Tiscali asking for help with this problem and also help with my connection problems. They refused to help regarding my daughters access code as apparently I had given the wrong post code on the security check , the connection problems were ignored. I E mailed my post code to them again, and again they rejected it and told me to contact their billing department. Again no mention of my other problems. I Emailed them again with my post code plus my two previous post codes and also requisted a MAC code. Again they told me to contact the billing dept, and yet again my other problems were ignored ( needless to say there was no mac code provided). Finally I gave in and phone the billing dept. I was asked all the relevant security questions including my post code which was immediately accepted. I told the operator about the problems I had with accesssing my daughters E mails and asked what the pass word was. The password was the one I had been using all the time, I told the operator this, she then told me my daughters E mail address didnt exist apparently the E mail address listed with them was one which had been rejected when I had tried to register her with Tiscali ?. I then asked if there was anyone who could help regarding connection problems I was told to contact their help desk , I didnt do this as I have enough modems. I am now off on my holidays when I come back I will cancel my Tiscali account as I am out of my contract. My advice to anyone thinking of joining Tiscali is dont bother ,they are possibly the worse ISP in the world..... Ps anyone want a modem http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/tiscali-very-poor-customer-service-22916.aspxWed, 09 Jul 2008 22:35:15 GMTd60303e3-0d44-49ad-b329-9875dfa2f932:99836echospeaks2http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/tiscali-very-poor-customer-service-22916.aspxhttp://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=82&PostID=99836 I just wanted to send you a warning not to use Tiscali for your broadband package. In my opinion they provide extremely poor customer service. I have made several complaints via telephone and letter and have been given a lot of misleading information and false promises. I’ve added all the correspondence I have sent to Tiscali below. It has not ended favourably as you will see from the response I got from their Customer Relations rep. It has wasted a lot of my time and money. To top it off the broadband service is also running slow several times a week now and I often have to restart my PC or the router to resolve it. I’ve been advised tonight that my contract runs out on the 17th February 2009 and I can’t wait to be free of them and go with a professional provider – even if that means I have to pay more money. and yes... I now know that the FOI Act only applies to Public organisations and that Ofcom actually don’t deal with complaints and are pretty much there just for show ;o) Letter 1 – from me to Tiscali 30th March 2008 Customer Code UI9******78 FOR THE ATTENTION OF Complaints Department Tiscali PO Box 5973 Alness IV17 0WW Dear Sir/Madam COMPLAINT I am writing this letter of complaint as a result of the delays I have experienced with my order for broadband. This issue is yet to be resolved to a satisfactory conclusion i.e. I still have no broadband connection or wireless router. In explanation I provide you with a summary of the events that have taken place since I placed my order in an effort to highlight to you the bad service I have received from Tiscali so far. 17/02/2008 With excitement and anticipation I placed an order online for the Tiscali broadband package which included a “free wireless router” at a cost of £6.49 a month for the first three months and £12.99 thereafter. 19/02/2008 I receive a welcome letter from Tiscali advising me that I could expect to receive my broadband installation kit within 10 working days. 29/02/2008 I rang 0871 222 3311 to chase my order and advise that I did not want to transfer my calls from BT to Tiscali as the phone bill is not paid by myself but may parents with whom I now live. I advised I only wanted to have broadband from Tiscali. Saieed advised me that the letter had been sent by mistake and there would be no free calls included in my package because I had not taken the option to have line rental through Tiscali. I was advised that my broadband would be activated within 5 days. A week later I still had not having received my installation kit and I rang 0871 222 3311 to chase my order. I spoke to Monta who told me that there was a “technical issue” which had been escalated to the highest level of support and that my broadband would be up and running in 5-6 days. Nobody told me what the technical issue was and I was not permitted to speak to the technical department. A week later after still not having received my installation kit I again rang 0871 222 3311 to chase my order. I spoke to Sujatha. She advised that there was still a technical issue and that it would be another 5-6 days. Having been told the same thing for the third time I became annoyed and asked her for the number of the cancellation department. I rang 0845 0774488 and spoke to Phil. I explained everything to him. He advised me that Tiscali had stopped the instruction to transfer phone calls from BT to Tiscali and that the technical issue had already been escalated to the highest level. He advised me that it would only be a few more days and to compensate me for my troubles he would take £5 off my first bill. At no time did I authorise him to cancel the account. 14/03/2008 Still no broadband, I rang 0871 222 331. I explained that I had yet to receive my installation kit and that the situation for broadband was getting desperate as I run a small business developing websites for small businesses and I was loosing money by not having the broadband to do my work. I was told that my order had been cancelled. I became angry. I declared I had not requested cancellation of the order and that I had grown tired of being without broadband and speaking to people who did not understand what I was saying. I requested that someone with an English accent called me back on my mobile. Several hours later I had not received a call. I rang 0845 0774488 and spoke to Adam. He told me that the order had not been cancelled that whoever had told me that must have been looking at the wrong account (the one I held with you years before). He apologised for the delay and that nobody had called me. He advised that he would arrange for a modem to be sent in the post. He spoke to his supervisor and promised that someone would call me to confirm progress of the order. He also promised that my first months bill would be free of charge. I told him that was all very well but I just wanted broadband. 19/03/2008 Still no broadband. I rang 0845 0774488 at 4.25pm and spoke to Nita. She informed me that my order had been cancelled. She confirmed it was the order I had placed on 17/02/08 that had been cancelled. I asked to speak to a supervisor. She explained one wasn’t available. Nita explained I needed to call the technical help on 0871 222 3311 to resolve the issue. I told her I did not like to ring that number because the call takers did not understand me when I asked questions and I had to repeat myself. I asked her if there was anyone in England I could speak to, she said there was not. I asked her to give me the address for your complaints department (the one on this letter) and the address for the organisation which is responsible for regulating Tisacli. She did not know who your regulator was. She asked her supervisor who also didn’t know. I rang 0871 222 3311 at 4.50pm and spoke to Rakesh. He apologised for the cancellation of the order but he could not tell me who had authorised it. He advised the order could be processed and it had been escalated to second line support. He advised that a modem would be shipped to me the next day and once I received it I should give the technical team a call. He told me not to worry because the request to cancel the order had been stopped. I did receive the modem a few days later but no wireless router. On 22/03/2008 I rang 0871 222 3311 to ask if the account had been activated. I had been told it had not and that I could not use broadband yet. 26/03/2008 I rang 0871 222 3311 at 9.45pm and was advised by Arun that the line had been activated on 19/03/2008. I also told him that I had not received a wireless router yet. 27/03/2008 I installed the software and hardware and waited with excitement as I clicked to connect to Tiscali. The internet connection failed. I followed the advice on the help files that had been installed – restarting the machine, checking the filters, checked the phone line, removed all other devices, uninstalled the software and hardware and re-installed it. I rang 0871 222 3311. I explained the actions I’d taken in following the troubleshooting advice, twice because the person on the phone could not understand me. I was told that an engineer would have to investigate the problem and that I would get a call back on 31/03/2008 between the hours of 3pm and 6pm. 28/03/2008 Earlier than expected I received a call from an engineer who told me that the problem should have been resolved. I was not in a position to test the connection while he was on the phone and he told me that I should check later on and call the technical help line if it did not work. 29/03/2008 I tested the connection and it did not work. I rang 0871 222 3311 at approximately 2.30pm to tell them. I was advised that an engineer was still looking at the problem and somebody would call me later on today. I told him that the engineer rang me yesterday and that I should report it to technical if it did not work. I did not understand why someone was still looking at it if the issue had been resolved yesterday. I was assured someone was looking at the problem and that I would be called back later in the day. I asked where my wireless router was. I was also told that I needed contact billing. I asked if I could be put through they told me they could not do that. I did not receive a phone call from the engineer later in the day. 30/03/2008 10:45am I rang 0871 222 3311 and spoke to Terry. She advised me that a failed attempt to deliver the wireless router was made on 26/03/2008. She said she would raise an order for delivery with another department and get me a reference number. I was put on hold and then cut off. I rang the number again and this time spoke to Yomi. He advised me that Terry had just put through the ticket and the reference number was 8257153. I asked him when the router would be delivered to ensure someone was at home to receive it. He advised me that I had come through to the wrong department to place the order and I needed to ring 0845 0774488. I became annoyed. I explained to him that the technical department had advised me yesterday that I needed to contact “Billing”. Yomi then told me that he had not given me that information and had not told me to contact “Technical”. I told him he had not listened to what I had said – that Technical had told me to contact his department. He apologised and explained that Billing did used to deal with router orders but not any longer. Since moving back home at the end of February I have had no broadband. I have been forced to use dial up with Tiscali which only connects at 28.8Kbps when it chooses to actually connect. This has been extremely inadequate for my needs and is very slow to use. In addition my customers have been very dissatisfied with the service I provide them as a result of not having broadband to update their websites in good time. I have had to offer them discounts in compensation. I have made more phone calls than those listed above but did not keep all the dates and times. I have spent several hours speaking to people who were not able to answer my questions either because they did not understand what I was saying or did not have the information I required. I have been transferred from department to department at my own cost having to redial each time because of your disjointed customer service infrastructure. I found it very annoying that I had to repeat myself several times to make myself understood and extremely frustrating to be given misleading information on a number of occasions. I do not like to get angry or upset when talking to people on the telephone but my patience has been tested several times with the Tiscali customer service centre. I do not feel that Tiscali has provided good customer service in fulfilling my order. I am very disappointed and feel that the service has noticeably deteriorated from when I previously had Tiscali providing my broadband. Once my parents receive their phone bill from BT I will be sending you a copy. It will hopefully be able to highlight how much time and money I have spent in phone calls to Tiscali to resolve this issue. How much time and money I have spent using your dial up broadband in order to get any work done at all. I expect to be compensated for the money I have spent in addition to the £11.39 I’ve so far been promised off my broadband bills. I just want to have my broadband up and running. Can you confirm how much longer I will have to wait? Am I wasting my time? Under the Freedom of Information Act can you please confirm: What is the average time that your customers have to wait from receipt of order at Tiscali to activation of broadband services? How many customers receive their Broadband Installation Kit outside of the target 10 days (which I now see has been upped to 15)? How many complaints you get from customers based in the UK who are dissatisfied with your call centre in a foreign country (I assume India)? How many orders are processed without the promised “Free Wireless Router” and subsequently have to be requested by customers? Yours faithfully AR Letter 2 – from me to Tiscali 12th April 2008 Customer Code UI9******78 FOR THE ATTENTION OF Complaints Department Tiscali PO Box 5973 Alness IV17 0WW Dear Sir/Madam COMPLAINT PART 2 I have yet to receive a reply or acknowledgement of my complaint letter dated 30th March 2008. I am now able to give you a breakdown of some of the calls that I have made to Tiscali in trying to resolve completion of my broadband order and the cost of calls for dial up Internet connections during the period I was without broadband. I have enclosed a copy of my parent’s telephone bill with itemised listing of all calls over 40p. All the calls made to Tiscali and the Internet have been underlined. The total cost of call charges including VAT is £36.35 (£13.39 to Tiscali Technical/Customer Support and £22.96 for dialup Internet). The itemised bill shows the duration of calls to Tiscali Technical/Customer was 2 hours and 24 minutes. That is time I have wasted that I can never get back. I would also like to point out what this itemised bill does not show. It excludes: Numerous dial up Internet calls to Tiscali that connected for a few seconds and then failed. The cost and time taken to call Tiscali Technical/Customer Support when I was at work or at my friends house. Approximately 3 calls x 10-20 minutes. All calls under 40p that may have been made to your technical help desk. If this has been the cost to myself in terms of time and money, you may also like to consider how much the handling of my order and subsequent complaints and queries have cost you. The level of service I have received is not what I expected from Tiscali having been a content customer in the past. My broadband is now working and I have not had any problems with it since the wireless router was set up. Please acknowledge receipt of both of my letters relating to this complaint. I have enclosed a copy of the first letter I have sent in case it has gone astray. Please refund me the £36.35 which my parents have paid in unnecessary telephone charges. In addition I would like a response to the questions I raised under the Freedom of Information Act in my previous letter. Yours faithfully AR Letter 3 – from me to Tiscali 30th May 2008 Customer Code UI9******78 FOR THE ATTENTION OF Complaints Department Tiscali Customer Services PO Box 7206 Kiln Farm Milton Keynes MK14 6XG Your ref: UKHD000016***** Dear Sir/Madam COMPLAINT PART 3 This is the third letter I have written as a result of no response and poor Customer Service from Tiscali. Since your letter in confirmation of my complaint a number of weeks ago (no date provided) I have written a second letter of complaint, made three complaints online and three phone calls (one to each of your Customer Services, Sales and Cancellations Departments). These complaints are as a result of receiving bills which are not for the value of the package I signed up for and they did not include the refunds I was promised (as detailed in my previous complaints). I have enclosed copies of relevant correspondence. I have had no final response to my complaints or compensation claims from Tiscali. Incidentally, your online complaint process could be improved. I would have liked to receive a summary of my complaint and confirmation via email that you had received them and would be responding shortly. I rang Tiscali Customer Services on 23/05/08 at approximately 10:55. I spoke to Renell. I calmly explained to him that I had sent 2 letters and 2 emails and not received any responses. I explained to him what the issues had been and that I had signed up for the package for £6.49 a month for the first 3 months then £12.99 thereafter. I also explained I had been promised a £5 reduction on one bill and one month free. I explained my bills did not reflect this and that the package had been charged at a higher rate. I also advised that I had not received a reply to my complaints. Renell apologised and advised me he would put the reductions that I had been promised on to my next bill, arrange for the package to be corrected and promised that someone would call me back on my mobile with regards to my complaints. I was satisfied with this. Unfortunately I did not receive a call back. This was the fourth time I had been promised a call back and never received it. I then received an email from John Madrigal on 24/05/08 advising me to contact your Sales Department. This morning at 8.55pm I spoke to Emma in Sales. I again gave a brief overview of what had happened to date. She advised me that because I had advised Tiscali that I did not want to have phone calls I had been placed on the broadband only package for £17.99 a month and she could put me on to the £14.99 deal. I explained to her that I was not satisfied with this because nobody at Tiscali had explained to me that I would need to pay a higher fee to have a reduction in service. She suggested that I speak to the Cancellations Department. I spoke to Arendi in the Cancellations Department for half an hour from approximately 09:00. I started by explaining that I wanted to speak to his Supervisor. He advised me I could not (I assume your staff are penalised for the number of calls they put through to Supervisors – maybe they fail a KPO or loose a bonus). I then explained my complaints. Arendi advised me that because I had requested no phone calls as part of my package my original contract had ended and a new one had been created at a higher fee. I explained that nobody at Tiscali had advised me that my request not to have phone calls would lead to a new contract being made or that it would cost me more and I stated that I had not signed a new contract. I also explained that I thought it was disgraceful that a reduction in services i.e. from broadband with calls to just broadband would end up costing me more money. As such I stated my contract with you was null and void given I had not signed anything new and had not been made aware of the new terms and conditions. I explained that if I cancelled this contract I should not be expected to pay the rest of the term of the contract as a result. Arendi advised me that nobody at the Cancellations Department would agree to this. He advised me that it was my responsibility to ask the questions that would have provided me with information which would make it clear that I was entering into a new contract with a higher fee. If this is correct it sounds to me that Tiscali is in the business of swindling people. I told him that I would have to be a mind reader to know what all your policies and products were. In addition, I do not recall a broadband only package or a means of opting out of phone calls being advertised online at the time that I took up the offer – because I certainly would have selected it. I also note too that you have since advertised a broadband only package. Could this be because other customers were experiencing difficulties too? Arendi offered to give me an additional £10 reduction in my next bill and put me on the £14.99 package. I advised him I was not happy about this because I would still have to find £2 extra a month to pay for the difference. In addition the £25 in total I had been promised so far for poor Customer Service did not include the £36.35 I had spent in phone calls and dial up charges due to the delays in receiving broadband. It also did not cover for the compensation I have had to pay to my customers for delays in updating their web sites as a result of not having Internet access. I asked him who I needed to speak to escalate my complaints. I was advised to write to the Tiscali Head Office. I agreed that Arendi should put me on the broadband only package at £14.99 which he promptly arranged and I have received email confirmation of. The call reference number is 9*****4. I have been passed from pillar to post in trying to get responses to my queries and the information received has been extremely poor up until I get to the point where I’m so frustrated I have to “jump up and down” to get any action or speak to someone who actually knows what they’re talking about. It shouldn’t be that way, life is too short. I’m a fair person, I don’t like conflict but I will stand up for my rights. In all honesty this is the worst Customer Experience I’ve ever had in my life and Tiscali have fallen far short of the good Customer Service I received from them in the past. If it was just one representative of your company that I had had difficulties with or if there was only one thing that had gone wrong throughout the process I could live with that but there seems to be something very wrong with the Customer Experience at Tiscali. I feel very sorry for your staff. They must experience these complaints day after day. Nothing outside of starvation would tempt me to work for you. Please confirm receipt of this letter and advise when I can expect to receive a response to my request for compensation with regards to my telephone charges and contract. As I have said before I am prepared to complain via ADR and raise this issue with Ofcom as I do not feel that Tiscali have dealt with any of my complaints in a satisfactory manner and the change of terms of my contract has not been clearly communicated or fairly made. Yours faithfully AR RESPONSE Letter – from Tiscali TO ME 3rd July 2008 Dear Miss R RE: BILLING ISSUE Thank you for brining your complaint to our attention. I apologise for the delay in resolving this issue and any inconvenience this may have caused you. I have reviewed your account information and this issue appears to have been resolved. You are now being billed at the agreed rate of £14.99 per month. A total of £24.54 has been applied to your account as credit adjustments since April of this year. These adjustments may not have been obvious as they are offset against your monthly billed, however, they can be viewed by accessing the My Account area of the Tiscali website (tiscali). I hope that this outcome is to your satisfaction. If you have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact us. Thank you for your patience. Kind regards EM Tiscali Customer Relations Anyone see anything wrong with that response? 1. No apology for the poor customer service. 2. It has not been resolved to my satisfaction because I’m still out of pocket. 3. No phone number to contact and complain again except the one that’s for India and general technical/billing help. 4. The repayments weren’t “obvious” till my last bill because there weren’t any there as promised till the last bill. 5. Grammatical mistake – “as they are offset against your monthly bill…” Still I need to let it rest now that I’ve done my bit to forewarn as many people as possible… http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/tiscali-nightmare-over-22293.aspxWed, 04 Jun 2008 19:55:22 GMTd60303e3-0d44-49ad-b329-9875dfa2f932:97431terminalirony1http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/tiscali-nightmare-over-22293.aspxhttp://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=82&PostID=97431 After being with Tiscali Max Unlimited plus Anytime Talk for 3 years im trying to cancel my account with them, due to issues regarding a payment missed and what they were asking me to do which was pay through a different means now i know what your thinking, "thats fair enough" but the problem with this was i telephoned them on the monday afternoon and spoke to the billing department and was told that i would have the entire bill rectified on the due date the money was comming out meaning everything would be square with them, id got all the money ready in the account for my direct debit and so on. Tuesday came with another phone call from the billing department regarding the issue of my overdue payment to which i told him what i had done the day before and what i was told, to which he replyed were not going to do that you will have to pay us in another way also they had stopped the direct debit payments so nothing else would have been taken from it by them, to which i argued with him about the whole situation he wouldnt let me talk at all so i ended up saying ill see what i can do and slammed the phone down. Takes me today a disgruntled customer of tiscali, not anymore im not, im already with sky for my tv so i decide to try my luck with them, so i phoned them found an actually nice person to talk to and she gave me information to be proud off lol, i phoned tiscali, payed my outstanding payment and proceeded to the cancellation department, they offered me everything they could but i stuck to my guns and said cancel it, i received the MAC code within two hours and proceeded again to deal with sky i get everything i got with tiscali but cheaper an for me a better phone assistance for me at least, they took my MAC code and are sending me out a welcome pack for both the broadband and telephone packages also a free wireless router :-). Im glad to be shot of tiscali to be honest nothing but pains in the sides and arrogant about everything, hopefully somebody reads this and gets joy from it because if i can break free of the company of evil anybody can http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/tiscali-talk-1042.aspxMon, 25 Sep 2006 12:52:42 GMTd60303e3-0d44-49ad-b329-9875dfa2f932:2569davidtro8http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/tiscali-talk-1042.aspxhttp://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=82&PostID=2569Hello I'm a Tiscali dialup customer who recently signed up to Tiscali Talk broadband. When I received my welcome pack it told me that they were going to inform my current telephone provider -BT- that they were switching my phone service to them. I was never told at the time of sign up that they were doing this, I just wanted the broadband service not the phone calls with them. I informed BT that they were to block this transfer and they have done that. Despite numerous calls, emails to Tiscali I still await a reply as to what the position is regards my broadband set-up, has anyone else had any dealings with Tiscali regards TiscaliTalk and what was the outcome. Thanks David http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/broadband-bt-line-problem-20836.aspxThu, 17 Apr 2008 21:05:33 GMTd60303e3-0d44-49ad-b329-9875dfa2f932:90773Al1http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/broadband-bt-line-problem-20836.aspxhttp://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=82&PostID=90773 last year I had prolems for 3 months trying to set up a new broadband account. Tiscali would not remove their tag from my BT line and Sky could not activate my new connection until they did. In despair I contacted Money Supermarket and one your experts gave me a BT number to ring. When I phoned that number the problem was fixed in minutes and I was extremely grateful. Now my daughter is having the same problem in her new house and doesn't know whose tag is on the line. Unfortunately I have lost the number that your expert gave me and would be very grateful if you could supply it again. http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/can-i-terminate-contract-with-tiscali-20668.aspxMon, 14 Apr 2008 17:30:01 GMTd60303e3-0d44-49ad-b329-9875dfa2f932:90014vitaraman1http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/can-i-terminate-contract-with-tiscali-20668.aspxhttp://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=82&PostID=90014 I took out a package with Tiscali in February 2008 which included landline calls anytime. I received an email from them on 18th Feb confirming they had taken over the line from BT and all systems were go. In the meantime Tiscali have debited my account with the first months tariff of £30 which includes reduced rate line rental. Last week i received a bill from BT for £103 which included line rental and their Option 1 broadbvand package (my previous supplier). I rang BT to query this and they stated that Tiscali had cancelled the line request on 20th Feb, thus handing it back to BT. Can i terminate the contract with Tiscali for breach of contract and do i have some recourse to pay the BT bill of £103? Thanks John http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/enough-of-tiscali-20344.aspxMon, 07 Apr 2008 20:31:27 GMTd60303e3-0d44-49ad-b329-9875dfa2f932:88683Ezduzit2http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/enough-of-tiscali-20344.aspxhttp://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=82&PostID=88683 I was a reasonably satisfied customer with Tiscali for around 3 years, until one day, about a year ago, I accidentally cancelled the direct debit. I called Tiscali customer services to make them aware that I had accidentally cancelled the DD, which I was assured over the phone would be sorted out and reinstated. However it wasn't, and a few months passed, and I got outstanding balance owed letters, suspension of service letters and so on. It got to the stage that I was cut off and was getting charged £14.99 for a service I was no longer receiving. Which stupidly I paid. A month or so later I ended up moving house. And letters still came through saying I owed them money, I attempted to transfer my broadband to my new address/phone line, but Tiscali sent me a letter saying the area I now live in is not an area they cover. I was still being charged for a service I was not receiving. I contacted them in August last year, saying I would pay the outstanding balance under the premise I would never hear from them again. All went quiet for about three months, then I got a letter saying I owed them £4.32 in November. Then £19.31 in December. And so on until I received the first letter from their debt recovery agent C.A.R.S. saying I owe £64.32 and not to underestimate the seriousness of the letter. At this point alarms started ringing. So I contacted Tiscali customer services and said that I stated on 31/08/07 that I want to cancel my account and never hear from them again, when I paid the outstanding balance I allegedly owed them then. Which the girl who I spoke to confirmed to me, that this is what is shown on their system. It's not paying the money thats the problem, more the principles behind it, if they've done it to me - then the chances are I'm not the only one? After this phone call I was told that Tiscali would look into the matter and be in touch in 6-10 days, I asked for a supervisor to get in touch by close of play that day - no such luck. I asked the girl I spoke to for her full name, which she wouldn't give me. I then got in touch with C.A.R.S. and informed them that Tiscali were looking in to the matter and it would be resolved. Two weeks passed and I heard nothing from Tiscali. Other than a confirmation of cancellation letter dated March 2008. C.A.R.S sent me another threatening letter saying that their client has instructed them to undertake further action via courtlink. I contacted C.A.R.S. and they said there is nothing they can do, without instruction from their client to revoke this action. I contacted Tiscali, and spoke to what can only be described as a school leaver, who I asked to speak to his supervisor regarding the matter. Apparently she was on conference call. I asked if she would be able to contact me before close of play that day - which I was told wouldn't be a problem. I get numerous missed calls during the day, one of them appeared to be the Tiscali number. No voicemail, no return call - nothing. I'm getting sick of being on my phone and ringing premium rate phone numbers, being placed in a queue, being placed on hold etc. and getting absolutely no where. Has anybody had similar problems? If so how did you manage to resolve this? I'm fast approaching the end of my patience with them. I think it's about time the threat tables turned. Rant over!!! http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/more-on-tiscali-19636.aspxSun, 23 Mar 2008 18:54:23 GMTd60303e3-0d44-49ad-b329-9875dfa2f932:85906forumfan7http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/more-on-tiscali-19636.aspxhttp://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=82&PostID=85906 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. http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/pay-the-xtra-and-go-elsewhere-wish-id-investigate-20231.aspxFri, 04 Apr 2008 17:49:29 GMTd60303e3-0d44-49ad-b329-9875dfa2f932:88218patient one1http://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/t/pay-the-xtra-and-go-elsewhere-wish-id-investigate-20231.aspxhttp://www.moneysupermarket.com/community/forums/commentrss.aspx?SectionID=82&PostID=88218 I can't believe how BAD the service is at Tiscali (T). After joining this band of jokers in early January I have spent hours on the phone to both Tiscali and their 3rd party delivery company, Home Delivery Network (HDN) whose call centre is in Asia somewhere. In brief: 1. I signed up and T stated they would send a free router in 7-14 days (or something like that it's so long ago) via Royal Mail in a letterbox friendly package. No problem as the delivery centre is around the corner and any bulky packages can be redirected there for collection. 2. I checked the status after a week to notice they had entered the incorrect postal address. I then spent half an hour or so on hold to T changing the address getting a router sent to the amended address. 3. I then received the first 'card' in the mail box stating HDN had tried to deliver the package but that I wasn't home (!) Strange that I hadn't been at home during office hours to SIGN for the package. None of this information had been passed to me at signup, or when I amended the address. 4. Spent another hour or so on the phone between T and HDN asking to change the delivery address to my work address so someone could sign for it. This was arranged for a few days time. 5. Next day another card turns up stating they had tried to deliver the package a second time! I phoned HDN to check that my original message had got through. It had allegedly, and so I waited again for HDN to deliver to the work address (sometime between 0800-1700 which is pretty inconvenient if you're a teacher). 6.I then spent a week sitting solo in the school reception after hours waiting for the delivery after holding daily calls (each at least helf an hour long) with HDN's call centre going from rep to rep, then to supervisor, and finally on to their 'special team' who handle these cases, and finally back to a manager who placed hand on heart stating it would be there next day. This last time I called again and was told that sorry, the package had been returned to Tiscali!! 7. I then proceeded to cancel the service, obtaining the required migration code and took my business to BT who exceeded expectations and delivered the package 2 days early (via HDN!). Still a problem there as HDN had neglected to include a name on the package (?!) and so I had to hunt down the package at (it's a large) school. 8. I would have been happy to walk away and madly break into hysterics everytime I saw one of the Tiscali ads, but today I see the first payment has been debited from my bank account! Three months after I joined... 9. I then went through the chaos that is T's cancellation process. After cancelling the service I was placed back in the (by now familiar) phone queue to obtain a refund. Found my way to the billing section and was told that I had to call back after 24hrs to request a refund! NO MORE PHONE QUEUES PLEEEEEEASE! 10. I now look forward to phoning them for the last time in a day to obtain the refund CHEQUE (!) And I'll stop there as I need to visit every forum I know of to spread the message. This is the first and I feel so much better already. :)