Hi funkyfrin,
I was just wondering if you can come back on the people who put your student loan through to late, can you set up another direct debit on another account, maybe. Tiscali are being very unhelpful to you and its about time they started writting to you to sort this problem out. After all it has cost you a lot of money to ring them, because there is no free number to discuss problems or bills. Have you e-mailed them, no doubt you have probably tried this already, what poor service you have had. Experts what is funkyfrin suppose to do when you have to deal with stubborn companies like Tiscali, who are not willing to sort this out properly.

Regrettably, I have to say that I don't think you are in a strong position. It would appear that you breached your contract by missing the payment. It's not their fault that the bank cannot process the payment against the old reference number. Are you sure about this ?

Equally,neither do I understand why Tiscali can't adapt their approach to get things up and running again by giving you a new contract number but unfortunately common sense rarely applies with call centres. Can't you find a payphone or a friend to help you out with the phone calls?

How long remains on your original contract? Is it worth writing a letter explaining your position and asking for their suggestions or some sort of compromise?

I can understand your frustration,especially with the call centres and their location but it really doesn't help to get involved with the side issue of the ethnicity of the operatives,especially if you are communicating with them.

Hi funkyfrin, and Beaton,
I would pay these companies nothing for poor service, on two occassions I waived the monthly payments due to there incompetence. Put complaints into both of these companies either in an e-mail or writting about how they have let you down, and the bad service you have recieved. I am surprised Tiscali are not with Otelo, you could try Ofcom, but they will only step in if there are lots of complaints against this company. In February all companies were legally told to hand over the Mat Code, so tell them this they may hand it over. My Mat Code was held for a year, Otelo made them hand it over. As you have been cut off anyway I would tell them your not paying the 154.00, and if they reinstate you argue that it was them that cut you off, when you had tried to sort this problem out numerous times, at a cost to yourself, and basically getting lots of idiots on the phone, who never helped you at all. So its there mistake not yours, they broke your contract not you.

well i have to say i know exactly how you feel but my problem is with bt. they want a lot more from me for a service i have never had and all of what they want is serviec charges, what service?? but my advice would be to weigh up just how much you ahve spent on calls and fuel on teh round trip to your mas and maybe just pay it to get your line reinstated adn the hasle out the way.

if you can afford to just pay the very small amount they are asking for then save yourself the hassle as it is our credit rating that could be effected not theres so they wont care how many indians you have to hear talking off a cue card and how long it takes!

Please can someone help me? I'm having issues with Tiscali, no surprise there!

In November my direct debit was cancelled by my bank due to a missed payment caused by my student loan being late. the bank want a new reference number as they cannot reinstate the old one. Now the fun bit.

Tiscali cannot give me a new reference number so I have no direct debit. No direct debit meand they have cut my phone and internet off (since December when I moved house). I cannot ring Tiscali as I don't have a phone (it's cut off). They call themselves an internet based company yet I have to ring them, unless you want the complaints dept, there's no phone line there.

Tiscali now want £54 in back payments for December and January, i.e. for a service I have not had. Am I being unreasonable in telling them they've got more chance of being given the Presidency of the USA? I'm sick of travelling to my moms house (a full 50 mile round trip) to ring them. I don't have the time to be doing that nor the money to be shovelling cash into a phone box for the call to be cut off a minimum of twice.

I have no objection to paying up the remainder of my contract in advance, I object to the payment of services I never received. Their customer service is non existant, I'm fed up of speaking to "John" who is so clearly not called John due to his think Indian accent and is so obviously reading off a cue card it's painful to hear. If I called myself Kaljit in response would I be a racist? It's no surprise that Tiscali aren't covered by OTELO. Can't imagine why.

My question is should I keep battling them and try to obtain my MAC code and tell them to whistle for the rest of my contract or should I cave in and pay them the £154 for the reminder of my contract in the hope of being left in peace until June?

I'm sooooooo angry. Please can you all offer some shred of comfort and advice?

Thanking you so much

Cat (which is apparently a really hard name to spell in India)