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. :)