MaoTou:

I am writing to complain about the AWFUL service a big communication company like Tiscali had responded when I requested to terminate my broadband service due to a change of address.

Unfortunately this is not news for readers of this Forum.

What you can do now is to obtain a copy of the Tiscali code of practice on complaints. Follow it scrupulously. Since the issue has "gone away" by paying the CCA you need to make the issue the Tiscali handling of the issue. Your good records will make a strong case. You need to ask for your Distress and Inconvenience (D&I) to be recognised with an ex-gratia payment. Yes you need to spell that out, but not how much. If you are not satisfied, including the amount of any D&I offered (if any, ha ha) after 8 weeks, whether or not you have had any response at all, you are entitled to ask the alternate dispute resolution provider named in the code of practice to consider you complaint. In that case Tiscali will be hit with a hefty case fee regardless of the outcome. It will cost you nothing.

Considering your post you should have little difficulty with the procedure. Just follow it scrupulously, ensuring you use "Signed For" delivery for any letters.

Maotou,The fundamental problem is that many (if not all) of these telecom companies are just not set up to take payments by either debit card or cheque. They seem to have rigid policies of payment only by recurring authority on a credit card ( God help you) or Direct debit. They are set up to take your money first then they will refund excess charges after the event (perhaps!!)

This is certainly the case with my former B/Band supplier,Horrange, and my current ISP (cos I've asked them!!)

Since Customer services in many of these companies either lie outright or are untrained and seem incapable of talking to their Billing colleagues they often assure you that it will be OK to pay on receipt of a bill by whatever means - unfortunately "computer says no!!"

I am writing to complain about the AWFUL service a big communication company like Tiscali had responded when I requested to terminate my broadband service due to a change of address. I am happy to pay off any outstanding payments as a result from the cancellation but Tiscali had taken its time to send the final bill to my new address; a very difficult task as I had to make four long frustrating phone calls to the customer support centre (08712223311) to make that happen. In addition, I have still not received the cancellation letter that Tiscali had promised to send me, but was instead sent a letter from the credit collection company.

Here are the details of the calls that I have made:

1. I first called on 20th July 2009 to request the cancellation of service and the phone call took approximately 40 minutes (including waiting time). The phone operator identified himself as Sam and I was allocated a reference number ******* for the cancellation. I informed the operator that I will cancel the direct debit payment to Tiscali and would like to pay Tiscali by cheque or credit card for the last payment if he can arrange to have the final bill sent to my new address. He told me that Tiscali will send me the cancellation notice and final bill (£35.07) to my new address which will arrive in 4~5 working days so that I can pay it off. However, I did not receive anything in 4 weeks from Tiscali.
2. I then called on 14th August 2009 that took 38 minutes (I have been told to wait for most of the time). The operator told me again that I will be receiving the cancellation and final bill in 4~5 working days. But I did not receive anything from Tiscali in 3 weeks.
3. I called again in 2nd September 2009 that last for 28 minutes. I was informed again that a letter bearing the cancellation and final bill will be sent to me in 4-5 working days to my new address.
4. My final call made on 16th September 2009 lasted for 32 minutes; this time I was told by the operator, whose name Divine, that the cancellation letter and final bill will arrive in 14 working days.

The four calls I made accumulated to a total of approximately 138 minutes of wasted time and effort as I have yet to receive the items that I have requested – the cancellation letter and final bill. In addition, the calls to the Tiscali's customer service centres have cost me more than £13 of unnecessary phone bills.

While I am now still waiting for Tiscali to send me the above letters, Tiscali had taken action against me by sending my details to a credit collection agency, Creditlink Account Recovery Solutions (C.A.R.S), who threaten to submit a default notice on my credit file and take legal action against me.

I have paid what was termed an “overdue account” of £35.07 to C.A.R.S on behalf to Tiscali, but I am frustrated that this had happened as I have still not received the cancellation letter and final bill from Tiscali.

In a way it was a relief to read this because I have just spent hours on the phone to the idiots at Tiscali who man a call centre (that may well be in India) with an almost identical problem - except we have a new Thomson TG585v7 wireless router. They ask inane questions - don't seem to be able to deviate from a script and then blame BT - but after 3 days have still not reported a fault to them! I'm going round in circles and am no nearer to getting our home broadband restored. I'm going to take the advice above and call the 0845 cancellations number and get another supplier pronto. This is the worst service I've come across and Tisacali don't deserve to be in business. I'm making sure my next provider offers a freephone help service.

Hi, Quite reassured to read of so many problems with Tiscali. My (elderly) parents have had a nightmare with them. They received their free router and the CD, but had so many problems actually getting the service to run. All sorts of weird messages on their computer screen. My brother - who is very computer literate - tried two or three times to set up the broadband service, hanging on the 0870 number for the best part of an hour. I emailed Tiscali and received back a 24 page "here's how to do it" email which, again, both my father and my brother read and followed step by step - to no avail.

They then tried to cancel the service, but were told they were "outside the free probationary period", and that if they cancelled the direct debit, Tiscali would send the bailiffs round. Is this any way to treat elderly people. My parents complained that they would be charged for a service that they were unable to use. They were then promised that a Technical Support person would ring them yesterday (no call received), so I spoke to someone in the Cancellation office who confirmed that they could cancel, and not be liable for any costs. I repeated this back to him, got his name, noted the date and time of call. My parents spoke to someone else this morning who, once again, confirmed that they would NOT be liable for any costs, so went to their bank to cancel the direct debit. Then, on their return from the bank, they received another call from Tiscali to say the previous two agents were WRONG, my parents would be liable for a whole year's payment. When my father mentioned these other two agents, Tiscali made out it was none of their responsibility what their agents told customers!!!!!!!!!!! THey have PROMISED again that a technical person will ring tomorrow (so another day of sitting by the phone) and that if they can't get it working within 28 days, they will get a complete refund. So if any of you out there are thinking of using Tiscali, one word of advice. DON'T. Any advice would be welcome.

furthe to my last post,it came to my attention that TISCALI have passwed my details to a data handling company,including my telephone number wich is ex-directory and im also registered with the T.P.S.wich they should not of done,these telesales people are the infamous RESPONSE HANDLING LTD,based somewhere in scotland i belive,they have been ringing my number each day almost at the rate of 1 call per day,for the last 2weeks or so,the other day i decided to answer it,guess what no one answered so i rang them straight back,the person who answered it knew my name,then told me that it was tiscali,i told them that this was a lie and that they were infact response handling,to wich they still denied and insisted they were tiscali,and if i rang the number: 08001830143 that would prove it,i then informed the idiot at the other end that i was registered with the TPS to which,the voice replied so what does that mean?,so told them it means companies such as you should not be ringing numbers on the TPS register,and that what ever they where trying to sell ect i was not interested and did not wish to be contacted again,guess what the calls have continued,i called tiscali,not c.s but sales freefone number told them about these calls i was told thewy would look in to it,have heard from them since tuesday?NO and no suprise either,so i contacted B.T today the nuisance calls dept,and whilst i was on the phone the operative rang response handling and told them to take my number off their callin register,i have also complained to the TPS havent had a reply from them as yet,and am going to send details of this matter to the ICO,who can do somthing about those companies who ring people in this way,so i suggest that any one else who has suffered nuisance calls from RESONSE HANDLING LTD, to complain to tps and also to the ico,and maybe they will then stop or be barred by b.t

I had experienced exactly the same problem with Tiscali and had to resort to making an offical complaint to the CIAS to which I am waiting for the outcome.

Tiscali is the worst internet provider for dealing with Broadband problems.

i had connection probs last month i was getting less than half my d/load speed of 2mb,so i rang the rip off 0870 number,spoke to some asian man who i had difficulty understanding and he understanding me i think,got the usual 10 usless questions line test told that line ok problem between exchange and my home??? and may take up to 4 days to be fixed, as it was bt,s problem,2 days later my speed did improve and so far has been ok,2weeks after i got a reply to the e-mail i had also sent them some days prior to ringing them,saying that they had totally re-built my connection,i think that all these companies that are registered in the uk ,should by law have to have the call centers for customer services in the uk,and if they will not provide a free 0800 number to contact them they should have to use a standard 01 02 or 03 landline number,and not make money from the customer who needs to contact them,and if they did this then they would not need to use the 0870 0871 prefix

Alex AT 38:

Hi there.

Been away for the annual summer break. Here are the 2 email addresses I used: mary.turner AT uk.tiacali.com and jody.haskayne AT uk.tiscali.com I've just received a demand for money from Tiscali, although the complaint was resolved and the complaint handler said that I should cancel my direct debit immediately. Needless to say I certainly won't be paying them a single penny of their demand. The person I dealt with has since left Tiscali, which is a shame because he tried his best to sort things out for me.

Good luck with sorting out your problem with the dreaded Tiscali.

Surprise, surprise!!! Whatever the issues with Tiscali they end up doing the same thing in the end! I, too, was offered £20 credit as a "sincere apology". The catch? "credited towards future bills". Considering that I moved and they couldn't move the service to my new address due to their incompetence clearly this was stupid! I pointed this out in a letter and asked for a cheque. The letter was, in true Tiscali style, ignored. They then sent a final demand for just under £30 to my old address (they didn't take the £20 off the bill and they knew I'd moved yet sent it to the old address!) I paid because I knew it would take months to resolve (still is!) and didn't want the debt collection agencies involved and the possible effects on my credit rating. Good luck!

Hi there.

Been away for the annual summer break. Here are the 2 email addresses I used: mary.turner AT uk.tiacali.com and jody.haskayne AT uk.tiscali.com I've just received a demand for money from Tiscali, although the complaint was resolved and the complaint handler said that I should cancel my direct debit immediately. Needless to say I certainly won't be paying them a single penny of their demand. The person I dealt with has since left Tiscali, which is a shame because he tried his best to sort things out for me.

Good luck with sorting out your problem with the dreaded Tiscali.

Can you give me Mary Turner's address and/or email address, so that I can be sure that my complaint is read, if not by her then by someone who will take action on my complaint. At the moment I am paying 2 companies for the same service! I used the general complaints email address 7 days ago and have had no response.

After my email to Mary Turner I did get a response from Tiscali. He was thankfully based in London and at least understood and appreciated the problem with my connectivity. After many failed attempts by Tiscali’s UK based technical team they concluded that it could not be fixed and gave me my MAC number. I also got a refund and some extra compensation for the hassle I experienced over a period of 6 months. It wasn't a huge amount though.

Tiscali's LLU is clearly suspect yet they won’t admit that is the problem, yet I am certain it was in my case. I now have three modems courtesy of Tiscali, which is nice! If Tiscali monitor these forums they should listen to the voice of the customer - the LLU technology, whilst cheaper for them is at the expense of customers. My experience was horrendous and I would recommend that anyone experiencing connectivity problems with Tiscali email mary.turner AT uk.tiscali.com or jody.haskayne AT uk.tiscali.com. It worked for me.

I can't say that Tiscali are the worst ISP but I can say they are close to being one of the worst from what I have read and experienced.

I am now with PlusNet after my brother recommended them. They seem to be good. No problems - fingers crossed. PlusNet stopped migrating to LLU quite some time ago. I wonder why?!?

I'll swap you two sagems for your speed touch, I have quite a collection courtesy of Tiscali.

Did the letter from Tiscali state their full company name (Tiscali UK Ltd) , company number, registered business address and place of registration? They must put that information in ALL letters and emails, but often don't. Failure to do so is a breach of the Companies Act 2006 punishable by a fine. If so, complain to Trading Standards.

I’ve experienced a similar problem with Tiscali but I had a Sagem F AT st 800 modem. In Dec 06 things started to go wrong with connectivity with broadband disconnecting randomly. At first I thought it was something wrong with my PC but after restoring the PC and trying all sorts of various things I concluded it must be Tiscali. They suggested all sorts of things to try and solve the problem, which I had already done. Every time I called the technical support line they would go through the dozen security questions and then ask me what the problem was and asked me the same old questions. In one conversation the person asked me four times what modem I had, so I don’t think he was listening or taking done any details. They supposedly did a line test and then they said it was the Sagem Modem at fault. So they sent me a Thomson Speedtouch 330, and …………….….same old problem!! They then asked me to connect the modem to the main BT socket into the house and disconnect all other appliances connected to the phone line and ………….…...…. same old problem!! I borrowed a laptop and installed the Sagem and then Speedtouch Modems (uninstalling in between) and connected them to the main BT socket and ………...….…………same old problem!! Tiscali have insisted that it is my equipment at fault yet I have changed everything including the PC! I don’t think the overseas call centre technical people know what they are doing or talking about or even understand the problem. They certainly don’t listen to their frustrated customers; they actually hung up on me while I was explaining what had been done and why I was not happy with their service. It’s been 3 months now, dozens of emails and phone calls, so I’ve now written to Mary Turner, the CEO of Tiscali UK but don’t hold much hope. But you never know ……............sorry just joking!