Why you should avoid Tiscali

[Puncr0c]

I had a REALLY BAD experience with Tiscali and I thought I'd share it with u all...

I first got Tiscali broadband back in summer 2004. Everything ran fine for a year.

Then in July 2005 I moved house.

Problem 1 was that it took Tiscali 8 weeks to shift my connection over to my new house. Of course they blamed most of it on BT. Curiously they still charged me for the service over those 8 weeks even though I wasn't receiving any service. Apparently they're within their rights to do this up to 1 month, which I think is ridiculous but still, this is a mere blemish on what was to come...

So its September 2005 and I'm connected to Tiscali at my new house - hurray!.... Sadly the joy was short lived as I now had a whole new problem. Whilst playing online FPS (such as COD UO) I would totally lag out for about 5 seconds. Usually I would come back to find I was dead. This occured every 2 minutes or so. In an online game, its pretty unacceptable. So I tried fiddling around with my equipment and configuration, but no joy.

After speaking to my network savvy friend, he advised I run some pingplotter traces to see what the problem is. Hey presto! Problem found - it turned out to be that all the traffic was going down a single route that often bottlenecked somewhere in Milton Keynes. Sure enough every 2 minutes or so, the Milton Keynes hop experienced massive packet loss. After glancing at the Tiscali forums, I realised stacks of other folks where experiencing exactly the same problem, and Tiscali reckoned that by the end of the month they would have upgraded their kit.

October 2005: The problem is still occurring, and I'd had enough by then. I pay a monthly subscription to be a member of the cr0x online gaming clan, so having a dodgy ISP was not a laughing matter. So after much thought I decided to hell with it, and I'm going with BT. Even though BT was the most expensive package, I figured that they own the freakin network, so surely their service must be better than this.

November 2005: I received my MAC code from Tiscali, to which the e-mail said that all I need to do is register the MAC code with my new ISP - and thats it. My Tiscali account will be automatically cancelled when that happens. So I did just that.

I came home from work on the day that I was switched to BT, fired up COD UO (with the lagometer on), and sure enough - a perfect steady connection with no lagging out. Hurray! My problems were over...

December 2005: Sadly this wasn't the end of my problems with Tiscali, it was merely a new chapter. I received a statement from Tiscali detailing my charge for December. What? I cancelled Tiscali on the 16th November, so why had I been charged for December? I phoned them and they said they were unaware that I'd cancelled - WHAT THE HELL?! How do they not know that they are not providing me with broadband?! So I told them it was definitely cancelled and they owe me a refund. As a precaution I cancelled my Direct Debit at this point to ensure they couldnt take any more money off me (as u can imagine, I was quite annoyed by this point).

January 2006: I get a bill for January from Tiscali! And of course, this one they clain is unpaid since I'd cancelled the DD. So I now owed them money!! ARRRGGGHH!! So I phoned to ask them "What do I have to do to make u understand that u aren't providing me with my internet service anymore?" Then, they didnt beleive me and said the only way I could get a refund and prove that I dont owe them anything is to send them a copy of my BT bill which states when I started broadband with them. That's crazy! Why should I have to bend over backwards to sort out their mistake?! BT said that all Tiscali needed to do was phone their wholesale department and they would clarify. Apparently that was against Tiscali's procedures. So I sent them the copy of my BT bill. I received a letter 2 weeks later confirming they had received this BT bill and were looking into the problem.

February 2006: Another bill from Tiscali, adding to the debt that apparently I owed them. Another phone call, and another "yes sir, I will definitely get that sorted for you" response.

...Then peace for a few months. Maybe they've sorted it hurray! I'm still out of pocket, but at least I'm not being chased for debts I dont owe...

May 2006: I receive a letter from a company called Frederickson International Ltd. - A DEBT COLLECTION AGENCY! Followed by a phone call chasing up the outstanding debt with Tiscali. I explained the problem to them and they were quite helpful, but said I had to take this up with Tiscali. I was FURIOUS! So numerous telephone calls to Tiscali again. Their finance department rejected my claim, only to find out they had no proof of my claim - I SENT THAT IN JANUARY!! ARRGGGHH! Apparently, "thats a different department". Then more letters from the debt collection agency who were now adding court fees.

Eventually (June/July 2006) after many more phone calls, Tiscali finally sorted this out and cancelled the outstanding debt. I've still yet to receive any refund for the money they owe me, but TBH, I'm just happy to see the back of them. Notice the dates, it took almost an entire year to sort out this fiasco!

The most ironic thing is that they're a "communication" company - yet that seems to be what they are incapable of doing within the company.

I think the moral to the story is: Anyone thinking of going to a cheap ISP - you get what you pay for.

[charleski]

If you want to make some trouble for Tiscali over this (which they deserve) write to Ofcom with what you said here.

[ash_rm]

Wow, feel sorry for you dude. I thought I had it bad when I tried leaving them but they wouldn't give me a MAC code so I had to wait for about a month and a half for them to finally release the line.

[johnny02004976]

im still with them, been about 18 months, they keep trying to tempt me with decent offers, but the second i say yes im tied for another 12 months. Id rather be free to cancel at any time and look for someone else to go with

[Puncr0c]

If you want to make some trouble for Tiscali over this (which they deserve) write to Ofcom with what you said here.

Have been very tempted to write to BBC Watchdog about it. Just never got round to it, plus I don't know how much effort u have to put in to be recognised on that programme (I'm sure they've got mountains of complaints to deal with each week already).

I have looked at the Ofcom complaints procedure already, but apparently u have to go through all the official channels first (e.g. write an official letter of complaint to the Tiscali etc). Only then can Ofcom do anything about it.

Wow, feel sorry for you dude. I thought I had it bad when I tried leaving them but they wouldn't give me a MAC code so I had to wait for about a month and a half for them to finally release the line.

Funnily enough we've had a similar experience at work (yes, believe it or not my work use Tiscali lol). We needed to switch to BT (for other reasons), but Tiscali refused to give out the MAC code. Now we can't even contact them - the cancellation line never gets answered. My boss phoned the normal support line today in fury and insisted that they provide him with an email address that he can use to request a cancellation. Lol, they couldnt do that, but instead said that he can post a letter to their head office. Yes, u guessed it, its the same address where all the mail goes and u cant specify a department or FAO - so from my experience, its just a black hole.

Is this company for real or what? You simply couldnt make this stuff up!

im still with them, been about 18 months, they keep trying to tempt me with decent offers, but the second i say yes im tied for another 12 months. Id rather be free to cancel at any time and look for someone else to go with

Wise move my friend, u stick by that. I'm pretty sure they work for the devil himself and signing up for anymore binding contracts is like signing ur soul over to the dark lord himself.

You see that's the funny thing, as long as ur connection is fine and ur happy - just dont touch it and u'll be fine. It's as soon u need to upgrade or move house, cancel or something like that, where the problems will start to come.

Oh I also forgot to mention in the catalogue of problems that when I moved house, they where still sending me my bills for my new address to my old address -lol. How on earth can they get that wrong?! It like says on the statement the correct new address, yet they post it to the old one? Luckily we had our mail redirected.

[x64united]

Wow, feel sorry for you dude. I thought I had it bad when I tried leaving them but they wouldn't give me a MAC code so I had to wait for about a month and a half for them to finally release the line.

I know with Orange if you ring up and ask for your MAc code because you want to leave they will offer you a better package for a cheaper price just to keep you!

[Helen Leeds]

While I'm sorry for the trouble you have experienced with Tiscali, I was so relieved to read it. I'm not alone! I have been going through the same problems with them since moving house last Nov.

Like you they charged me for the internet while they failed to supply a connection. I rang their customer service countless times and was given various deadlines to wait for before calling again. By mid Dec they were blaming a fault on my line, which they claimed BT was responsible for fixing. I'd been promised a refund as soon as the problem was fixed (that way they said I'd receive repayment for the full time I was without broadband) I decided I'd had enough and called customer services again to cancel my order. No, you must call a cancellation line.... I rang that number, paid to listen to awful music and spoke to nobody. They never answer. On 10th Dec I wrote a cancellation letter outlining my complaints and requesting a full refund. A week later, to my amazement, I was phoned by someone' high up' at Tiscali. Unfortunately I didn't get his name. He apologised and promised me a full refund.

By now I had phoned BT to request their broadband and they had delivered the hub and had the connection up and running within 3 days! I didn't mention the 'fault' on my line and neither did they... another lie from Tiscali.
January and Tiscali help themselves to another monthly payment and fail to send me my refund. I cancel my direct debit before they try to take more money in Feb, which they do. Fredrickson are now hounding me for money as I cannot prove that Tiscali didn't supply my internet in Nov & Dec. I paid for that period anyway!
Apparently they lost all record of my account when I wrote to them again, other than the fact that I owe them!
I rang customer services today in order to point out all those calls I'd made requesting a connection, only to find that they still have me down as a customer for my land-line. Tiscali's financial department is now investigating my account, God help me!

[ExHus]

To balance this out a litlle (and I mean just a little), I had Tiscali BB for over 18months, then moved house and fortunately had no issues moving Tiscali BB.
Conversely, a colleague had Tiscali BB and some time after the Tiscali minimum contract period, decided to move to Sky BB. Tiscali issued MAC after third request, then promptly continued to (try to) bill my colleague for the Tiscali BB service he longer had. With the subsequent Tiscali direct debits failing, it was eventually passed to a debt collection agency. How was this resolved? Quite simply:
Dear Tiscali, please confirm when you issued my MAC and when it was implemented...
Problem solved, without any apology from Tiscali.

[Zadock]

this sounds all to familiar, I had a problem almost identical to yours but it didn't get as far as a debt collector. managed to sort it out. Tiscali are pretty awful, I'm now with O2 and couldn't be happier. Its cheaper (I was paying £14.99 for a connection that was giving me bytes per second at peak times) and many times faster, and when I do have a problem the phone call is free and the service is 24/7... oh and the person you speak is from the UK. Spoke to a scottish chap last time.

[Puncr0c]

I think it's outrageous that this same problem is happening over and over again - it's obviously a blatent SCAM by Tiscali to squeeze an extra bit of cash from you before you leave. I wrote to BBC's Watchdog about my problems but never heard back from them - maybe you guys could try it too? They definitely deserve some bad publicity over this. I also wonder what Ofcom would have to say, since this is definitely not a "one-off" and is probably one of there in-house procedures!

@Helen Leeds - After numerous phone calls the way I resolved it was that I sent a copy of my first BT bill to Tiscali with the switchover date highlighted. They (conveniently) managed to lose this, but my next call seemed to work as I demanded to speak to a manager. I was fobbed off by the "we've sent it to our finance department to investigate" many times with no resolution. Also, give Frederickson a call and explain that this is an issue with Tiscali and that you don't owe any money, they kindly extended the deadlines for a week or so for me.

Good luck!

[peterb]

Helen Leeds - if Tiscali took incorrect payments for a service they hadn't provided, you may be able to get that back under the banks direct debit guarantee. They should refund the money immediately. (Although 6 months on might be stretching it a bit, AFIK - there is no time limit)

[Helen Leeds]

Update. I emailed Cisas with my problem and made further calls to Tiscali requesting my itemised calls during Nov & Dec, so that I could point out my endless calls to them. Out of the blue I received a letter thanking me for my patience and a cheque for £12. They owe me more than that, but if the debt collector has been called-off, I suppose I'm happy. Mind you my calls to their customer service just this month cost me £7!

[peterb]

Push them for the rest! They were happy to hound you for what they thought you owed.