I 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.

Thanks for your email Star29.

Has anyone else had similar problems with Tiscali in terms of problems switching away or worse still taking money out of your account without permission?

BTW - did you not cancel your direct debit Star29? How did they take the money out?

Jason

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Jason Lloyd

moneysupermarket.com

Just to advise that I completely agree with you! I Teach Computing and with my many clients the major problems are always with Tiscali - contact is difficult - Spam is a major problem and with one client after finally making contact they said "she would have to pay an annual fee of £5.95 to block spam - it does not come free in any of their packages" since found out this is not true - I could go on and on but won't!!! -

For a small sum, around £7.50 the last time I looked, the Companies House website will provide personal details of the board of directors etc. Tiscali play a very dirty game but their directorship don't like it when the tables are turned.
It's amazing how quickly you get results when Mary Turner discovers that she's not quite as unreachable as she thought.

http://wck2.companieshouse.gov.uk

All very interesting - thanks for the tip about finding out about company directors! Will be usefull in many areas, I'm sure. I am very glad that I perservered and did in fact cancel my contract with Tiscali. My direct debit has been cancelled - I am still waiting to see how quickly Tiscali sort out the error though. Mary Turner may hear from me soon! Thanks.

Hi
This debate is geting interesting, what about contacting them en masse' to get them to sort out this problems.
The tv ads must be costing them a fortune
David

TV advertising is very cheap these days and the instant revenue hit they gain from the helpless suckers conned into signing up by it helps stave off the creditors for another couple of months.

I am still with Tiscali for my sins, I have had 2 anoying problems,
1) When I upgraded to Broadband I did so on a special offer made to me by e-mail offering £14.99 per month instead of the usual £15.99 per month (at that time) but they took £15.99 by direct debit from my account, I complained and was informed that all would be put right the following month, next month they took £15.99, and it took me three months before it was sorted.
2) Prior to this I had arranged for my neice to go onto Tiscali Broadband and for myself to pay the bills, all went well until two years later, she went to university and I tried to cancel the contract, I was informed that she had to put it in writing, and after doing so they still took the money from my account, when I complained I was informed that they took no notice of any written contract cancellation and that she would have to phone and cancel, after she phoned to cancel they still took money from my account informing me that they had no record of the verbal cancellation and would not discuss it with me any further as I was not their customer. I resolved the problem by getting my neice to change the name of the account holder on the her computer and then they would talk to me and the matter was resolved to my satisfaction.

I have received a cheque AND a written apology for all of the hassle caused by Tiscali which is something I suppose! I would still recommend to steer clear - it's a shame their customer service really lets them down.

I signed up with Tiscali in March. I received the usual emails welcoming me, telling me it would be activated within the next 15 days etc and that I could check on the progress on their website. I checked and found that there was a problem with my line. I contacted BT to ask what was wrong and they assured me there was absolutely nothing wrong with the line.
I tried contacting Tiscali customer service and technical support, obviously with no luck, and decided that if this was the 'help' that I was letting myself in for I would cancel immediately. I emailed the cancellation as well as telephoning them, neddless to say both were ignored....you can see where I'm going with this can't you?
I complained and complained to them by phone and email, including using their specific 'Complaints' email address to which I had a reply stating' we don't accept complaints...' through email!!
To cut a long story short I was wasting so much time trying to rectify their problems and trying to retrieve money that they took from my bank account, I informed them that I would be adding an administration charge to each of my emails and letters to them (did you notice that I was told my account would be activated within 15 days but you only have a legal 14 day 'cooling off' period!!).

I eventually found out about CISAS, 12 Bloomsbury Square, London, WC1A 2LP and made an official complaint through them as they are an arbitration service of which Tiscali are a member of.

In short, CISAS found in my favour and ordered Tiscali to pay me around £500, of which I am still waiting for but I may end up taking them to court to get it.

The moral of this story...complain like mad, get everything in writing and make adminbistration charges, just as they would toward you, then complain to CISAS and OFCOM (although I was initially told that OFCOM may not be able to do anything except with actual telephone problems.)

God, I feel better now that I have warned other people :-)

Feels good to get it off your chest, eh? Good luck with getting the money back.....

I started with tiscali in june 2006 and everything was fine untill december when they said i was using the internet too much (downloading) which i admit i did this during the peak period but to my dissgust and many e mails and phone calls later i found they had restricted my service 24 hours a day and not just during the peak period. I told them that it says in their terms and conditions that if you abuse the fup in peak periods they will restrict your service during the peak period and at all other times it will not be affected. I said i had been in touch with citizens advice regarding this situation and that they was actually in breach of there t&c and therefore i was well within my right to end the contract with them. i had sent the email on 29 january and today 16 February 2007 i got this reply -
Dear Tiscali Customer



Thank you for your email regarding the unrestriction of your account.

Our records show that you have previously been warned about our Fair Usage Policy. It was requested that you limit your use during peak hours.

Our records show that your usage is still high. In view of this we are unable to remove the restriction placed on your account.

If you wish to leave Tiscali and move to another service provider you may do so regardless of whether you are in contract or not. Please reply to this email and request a MAC Code. This will allow you to seamlessly migrate to another service provider with out obligation.

Kind Regards

Tiscali Support

After reading this e mail, does it mean i can leave tiscali without penalties/ obligation as it would be within the 12 month period?

I have now sent another e mail asking this as saying no obligation means i would not or should not be penalised.

More details to follow when i get the reply as more people should be able to get out of this contract as they are not meeting their t&c and therefore more people are leaving/

This is very interesting - they have done exactly the same thing to me.
Yesterday I called their technical support line because of the slow speeds I encountered off-peak. The guy in their Indian call centre admitted there was a problem with my account settings and he would have it sorted in half an hour. Two hours later there was still no improvement so I called their cancellation line and got a Mac code. Amazingly, yesterday evening (peak time) the speeds were great !!

However, this morning speeds back down to 7 kb/s !
Called the help line again - no help whatsoever (especiaaly now that I have asked for a Mac code)

Is there any way to claim compensation for this poor service ?

Any suggestions for good alternative suppliers - I've been trying to get onto Eclipse's website without success. Have they gone out of business ??

I am looking at Eclipse evolution broadband for 24.99 with unlimited use off peak and 40gb limit per month during peak hours. I was with kingston communications in hull and their broadband service although a bit expensive at the time was reliable and no problems with download limits . I am going to ask tiscali to confirm i can end my contract with them with no penalties due to them restricting my service 24 hours and not just at peak times as there doesnt seem to be a point in paying them full whack for a reduced service.

If they come back saying i would have to pay up to the end of the 12 months i would then transfer onto their lowest speed/price available and ask citizens advice to take my case up.

Also people should send a message to watchdog which you can do on their site stating on how tiscali offer poor service on their broadband and on their call centre in India as they are unable to help you if you have a restriction on your account.

I was on eclipse website yesterday.

I've been with tiscali now for over 18months; previously line one for over 6 years (dial-up) and never had a problem service wise - the only problem I had was when I 'forgot' to secure the router and everyone was pinchin my connection and I was culpable for the 'Abnormal Usage Policy'...but after a brief exchange of emails, I was able to persuade them not to monitor my usage.

However...

That all changed when I came to move house.. As I had set up the wireless router and all the gubbins in my mum and dads house, I wanted to leave it all there - and change the account into my mum and dads name..... simple you'd think??? NO! After at least 3 hours of listening to cheesy music and some incoherent babble (how far is it to delhi btw?? - BAD connection) I was informed that I would have to write a letter cancelling my account... all I wanted to do was change the name on my account!?

So although the broadband experience is a good one.. the customer service leaves a lot to be desired....

sparks*