Hi Star

Can i ask who you are with now as i am hooping to get my mac code from tiscali in next few days, i am currently looking at adsl24.

Ever since I changed my broadband service away from Tiscai I have been using Be Broadband and have had absolutely no problems (so far!) with either the broadband itself or their customer service. I would highly recommend Be. I use the Be Lite service which gives you up to 24Mb (dependent on your distance from exchange) and 5Mb download limit for £14.99/month. I don't download that much so this is perfect for we. If you want unlimited downloads it costs £24.99/month (I think). It is only available in certain areas thoughs o you'll need to check the website for details.

Good Luck!

By the way - it has been really interesting to hear everyone's stories - it's a shame that Tiscali haven't even seemed to try to improve their customer service at all over the past 8 months or so.

On the 22nd of Feb at 17:00 i telephoned Tiscali Broadband customer services to request a Mac code, i was asked why i was leaving and i said that i felt that we had been let down with Tiscali, we have been with Tiscali since Nov 2002 256kbs @ £19.99 and never have we been offered an upgrade to our account even though faster connections are available. I was told that i should recieve a Mac code within 3 hours but it could take up to 5 days, if i had'nt recieved anything then to contact them again. A week later 1st March i rang again but was told very bluntly that the systems were down and call back the next day, i said that is was not convient as i had already left work early on the thursday to make the call, i was told that there was not anything that could be done. I telephone the next day and was told that the Mac code had requested from BT and that they had not sent it, a manual code would be requested and to wait a further 5 days, i have since found out that the Mac code is generated by my ISP not by BT, if this is correct why am i being lied to and according to Ofcom a Mac code should be sent within 5 days of requesting one.

Hi graham555

Email tiscali and tell them that, by law, they have 5 days to give you a MAC code, and that if you don't receive a MAC code by this time they will incur administration charges for each piece of communication that you are forced to make in your attempts to gain this code (give them the cost of your charges i.e £15.00 per item or what you think is necessary).
Give them a date by which time you expect to have received the code and if they don't give it to you by this time contact CISAS and claim all of your costs etc through them.

Companies such as this should be stoppped from trading with such disgusting customer relations.

Good luck

I have e-mailed customer services and complaints dept today recieved replies within the hour, both tell ing me the same thing, that they cannot deal with it and advise me to ring broadband cancellations, unfortunately they not work weekends!!!!!!!


yipppeeeeeeeeeeeee, finally got by mac code, telephoned again on Monday late afternoon to be told same old story wait a further 5 days etc which i did'nt want to hear so i let loose with both barrels, if i don't recieve it by Wednesday then i will charge Tiscali with all cost incurred and will phone every evening till i get it, also emailed twice to customer services and complaint dept with same and that all comms would be forwarded to CIAS, looks like it worked for me. Thanks everyone for all the help.

Thank goodness! I thought I was the only one out there with all my problems and tiscali! I'm a gamer and as others will know, having fast internet will give you the edge and you won't "lag" in-game. We've been with Tiscali for years, however it's only come to my attention that we've been receiving terrible speeds (8% of the advertised 2Mb speed). The customer sevices and technical support is the worst I've ever seen. After many, many phone calls, they've done nothing to help us, constantly tell us it's a problem with OUR computer or OUR cabling even after they've said the problem IS at their end. After holding on for ages whilst someone who could barely speak intellegible English supposedly liased with his supervisor, I was told proudly "I am pleased to tell you your case has been escalated to Milton Keynes" I asked "What exactly does that mean"? To which he replied "Well....it means that it has now been escalated to Milton Keynes" I asked again "But what does that mean, I mean what's in Milton Keynes, you make it sound like the Holy Grail is waiting there to solve all my problems" He ignored this and said "Milton Keynes will sort out your problems" I asked to be updated and he promised me faithfully, that I would receive a phone call within the next 24 hours. Of course no no one did, and in fact they never ever do. The concept of customer service is clearly something Tiscali have given a wide berth to. I am not sure how many words there are in the dictionary that describe unbelievably lousy but perhaps the word 'tiscali' should be used for this purpose!!
Basically, if you know what's good for you and you want to stay sane: avoid Tiscali at all costs!

OK guys, let me join the ranks, what a load of rubbish Tisacli is. They have restricted my "Unlimited" service stating that my useage is excessive. In reality, I have had no problems until recently, however, my son left home and I now use a connection elsewhere with another ISP during the day, So suddenly, my usegae is excessive ????????? Wrong, my useage is virually nil !!!!!!

The help lines in my opinion are only there to rip you off with their 0870 numbers ( BTW see www.saynoto0870.com ) for alternative numbers

Depsite Tiscali writing to me to confirm that I am not in their " Fair useage policy" they have still restricted my service. Infact , it is so restricted I am unable to log onto the internet via them in the evenoing when I return home from work.

I have requested a MAC code, but I have a better chance of getting the Pope pregnant. than receiving this it would seem

I am undecided whether to take out a court summons, or place an advert in a national newspaper. any ideas people ???

david

Having had several run-ins with Tiscali over several years, my patience finally snapped when I moved house and , following the on-screen instructions, completed the pro-forma for the move well in advance. I received an email acknowledgement and duly moved house.

When after a reasonable wait absolutely nothing happened I telephoned the Khumars at No 42 to be told in a very aggressive manner that it was my fault and should have telephoned them telling them about the impending move. I quoted the email of acknowledgement and was told that it was still my fault. The lady in question had obviously never heard of the on-screen notification process and became increasingly irate as I tried to explain the situation to her - she hung-up on me !!

When my connection was eventually made it was so poor that I requested my MAC - what sounded to be a pimply youth on the other end of the line told me that I did not have one ! When I pointed out that we all had one if we were on broadband he was on the point on giving it me over the phone when I heard someone in the background telling him not to give it me. Eventually it came by email (at the local library as by this time my connection had collapsed) and I migrated away.

I was given a date of migration by my new provider and cancelled my Tiscali Direct Debit. I have since had threatening demands and a letter telling me that they had no record that I had migrated away (work that one out). To add insult to injury, a couple of days after this last letter, I got one saying 'thank-you' for my custom and regrets that I was leaving them.

Tiscali are absolutely hopeless. The true test of any organisation is how it copes with problems and Tiscali are incapable of coping.

ON NO ACCOUNT SHOULD YOU SIGN-UP FOR TISCALI.

Hi Sabreman,

I have to agree with you, Tiscali suck big time. I have had numerous run ins with them and I've come to the conclusion that there mantra is 'IT'S ALWAYS THE CUSTOMERS FAULT'!! I reckon I've worked out what TISCALI stands for, try this.

Tiscali
Is
Slow
Crappy
Appalling
Lousy
Inefficient

Hey, I think there's scope for us all to work out more 'what tiscali stands for sequences', sadly it won't make them any better and it won't give us a better service, but it may gives us all a bit of a laugh at their expense.....God I feel better already!!

Hello,

I can also add myself to the huge list of people who wish they had never signed up to tiscali broadband. After being told i would receive 6.5mb speed and unlimited downloads for £17.99 per month i signed up. Right from the day i connected, i have had a disappointing service. In the evening (6-12) my speed drops to about 0.5mb (as i type this i'm getting 0.25mb). Speeds do improve in the small hours and daytime, but this isn't always the case. It seems they must cap everybody in the evening as i have hardly downloaded anything so far. Upon ringing 'Customer Service' during a 30 minute phonecall (national rate of course) i was given a total of 2 things to try - turn my computer on and off (!) and disable my firewall. It would be laughable if this wasnt costing me money. I'm barely 2 months into a 12 month contract...it is so frustrating. Hopefully, i'll be able to get out as this is surely a breach of t+c, they are not providing the service that they agreed they would. I can only urge people to look elsewhere for a good broadband provider (i was with BT previously, and wish i had stuck with them, even if they were more expensive).

Mark.

Ah Good ol' Tiscali the telecommunications mafia, absolutely diabolical in every aspect, not to mention threatening, rude, bone idle, inefficient and downright shady.

I have had so many problems with these guys that it'd take me 3 days just to include them in this message. I signed up with them in early June 06 and so began the quagmire of trying to get shot of these cowboys and their stupid contract because I couldn't even connect at all for two months.

 And a word of warning, these guys cap your line without informing you, pretend they haven't and blame you. They tell you to format your HD, buy a new modem, call out BT, and invest in new filters just so they can deflect blame off of themselves. Only when you threaten to cancel your account and go to Watchdog do they kindly inform you that they have 'accidentally' placed a cap on your line. When I demand an explanation as to why, they tell me I’ve been FUP'ed and guess what guys I never received any emails about this and my usage isn't even that excessive, I mostly use it at night for my work.

Then two months later they upgraded me to tiscali max without my permission and informed BT that I would be transferring my phone line to tiscali, So when I received a letter from BT telling me as of 21st March tiscali will be my phone company,  I was seething. I contacted BT to tell them I do not want to be transferred, so BT filed an unlawful practice report against tiscali on my behalf.  The BT adviser said if tiscali unlawfully signed me up, they take these matters seriously. She also informed me that since I was a tiscali customer for 10 months and my contract is only for broadband they can't extend this to include my phone usage too. New customers that sign up with tiscali will have to sign up for tiscali broadband and talk, not existing.

 I am disgusted that these imbeciles have been allowed to engage in this conduct for so long. I have read endless rants on forums about this lot and any comments regarding tiscali are not good. And if there are good ones (which are few and far between), its probably one of the tiscali board directors or Mary Turner herself logging on with fake praise of the company.

As of late, tiscali wouldn't let me migrate to be broadband so I wrote a letter to ofcom and Mr. Mackenzie the head of complaints, and ten days later I received a phone call from one of the managers at tiscali and she gave me my MAC code (as well as an email), so funny how it coincided with my letters. These crooks only do something when you threaten them with action

I cannot stress enough to anyone thinking of joining these cowboys to not do it under any circumstances, even if they are offering you the broadband free. Hell, even if they offer to pay YOU to use their broadband...DON'T DO IT. They will destroy your life like they have mine. All I wanted to do was go online, I didn't deserve this

I was with tiscali around about 2 years ago. nearly 1 year ago i decided to cancel my account. although it was i had 12 month contract, i cancelled it in around about 8 months with an MAC code that they have given me. i also moved house when i cancelled it. i spoke to them on the phone and they allowed me to cancel the account. 1 month later a letter was given by tiscali to my old house saying that i owe them around about £40, i gave it to avoid any further hassle and also asked if any other bills would come in the future; they said that this was their final bill. last week i recieved a letter from tiscali from my old house, i was surprised to recieve it as i thought that i was not involved with them any more. i opened the letter and to my shock they said that i owed them £120!!! it wasn't their standard bill, it was from their solicitor. they've also stated that if i don't pay, they will take legal actions!! i don't understand how this has happened, they didnt give me a statement before this letter and also i moved house and was not using their service!!! i dont know what happened and i would ceratinly not pay them this amount of money.

I have not yet had problems with Tiscali's customer service, but have only been a customer since February and from what I've read here, problems will almost certainly arise shortly.  Certainly, I have had problems with the connection itself; slow service even though I'm on an unlimited usage, broadband package, server problems preventing sending or receiving email and a horribly annoying pop up 'dial up box' about every 10 minutes for the past two weeks.

I am about to move house and will have a new name when I leave my current address, so I will be cancelling Tiscali completely.  I was going to use Tiscali at my new address, but feel it may not be advisable, judging by other peoples' experiences.

Does anyone have any advice for me on getting free of Tiscali, so I can be fore-armed against any stunts they may pull.  I'd also appreciate suggestions for an alternative server, being new to the internet in general and on extremely limited funds.

Star29

It always seems difficult to cancel with companies when not happy with thier service. On the flip side I have been with Tiscali for over 2 years and have not 'yet' had any problems with the service.

Even when we moved house and had a new phone line put in they said it would take months but my partner spoke to a senior manger and it was done in 2 weeks.

I would also reccommend to contact your bank to cancel a direct debit when you have cancelled a service otherwise if the direct debit is still active the bank will payout if a claim by the company is made. However you are protected by the direct Debit Indemnity and the bank can refund you the money straight away if it should not have been claimed.

 Good luck with your new provider. I hope its not talk talk ive heard their awful.

Hi Decheron

From your email it sounds like you were on dial up before. I think this is why the 'pop up dial up box' keeps appearing. To stop this you need to go into control panel click on internet go to the connections tab and click on 'never dial a connection' this should stop this box coming up.

 Hope that works.

Good luck