tiscali

[casper03]

this isp is " in my veiw the worst isp on the planet their tech support is a joke subscribers are constantly let with no access"
just a little word of warning for the uk users leave this mob well alone

 

[lilyputt]

casper.
If you think yours was bad you should have tried "thefreeinternet" it was terrible trying to get connected at night. I paid a full years sub's up front and have only been with them 6months and I've cancelled already. trying freeserve now seems good.

 

[eddie5659]

Hiya

tiscali used to be Lineone.net I used to use them, but after trying to figure out their newsgroups, I thought, nope. Blueyonder broadband now.

A mate has tiscali, and he gets outbounds daily. Its a strange one. Login and password when you go to the outbound address. According to the support, its for 'monitoring purposes'. Hmmmm???

eddie

 

[COBALT_Blue]

Britain’s Worst ISP?

Around about May of 2004 I took up a Broadband account with Tiscali. Since that time I am of the opinion that this could quite possibly be the worst ISP on the planet let alone in the UK.

This company have provided me with a Broadband service that at times is slower than a 56 kb modem. The ticket supported help is unhelpful to the point that the whole thing is a hit and miss exercise in just getting a reply.

I queried with them why the services was so unreliable. I emailed them on many occasions to inform them that I was paying for a service that I was not getting. Each time they come back with excuse after excuse.

This company will blame everything on your PC and come up with ingenious and at times downright comical reasons as to why their service is not performing. The first reply you are likely to get is along the lines of this:

Thank you for contacting Tiscali Customer Support.

Due to the nature of a contended service, which is the same for all ADSL ISP’s, at certain times you may find that your connection does not always reach the level of service you have come to expect. This should only be a temporary situation occurring during times of peak usage.

We apologise for any inconvenience this may caused.

If you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact us using the following link: http://www.tiscali.co.uk/aboutus/contact/

This is supposed to instil confidence in us it’s customers and try and lead us into thinking that all ISP’s are the same. Trust me they are not. Throughout this unhappy saga with Tiscali, and due to the fact that I could not rely on their service, I retained my Blue Yonder Telewest ISP. Unfortunately this now means I am having to fork out for two ISP providers - One bad one that seldom works and is unreliable and something to compare it by – sheer bliss on Blue Yonder – Oh why did I ever even consider switching to such a lame and poor provider. It’s not as if they are any cheaper!

Anyway, next, you put up with it for a few more days and then you angrily contact them again. This time they respond at the third attempt and now they are aware of a problem and expect it to be resolved within the next few weeks. Now where have we heard that before?

Weeks pass by and during the evening and peak times Tiscali Broadband struggles and groans in trying to keep a respectable connection of any merit. Pages return a 404 area or just hang for ages. The connection drops completely, pages are not cached and images often don’t show on the pages. Is it me? Am I imagining this? The laptop on Blue Yonder confirms that Broadband really does function quite well – with another provider!


Time passes by and it doesn’t get any better. I email support again and this time I get a reply the second time. Could things be looking up? Here is their reply;

Thank you for contacting Tiscali Customer Support.

Please perform a speed test on your ADSL line.

To check the speed of your internet connection click on the following link:
http://speedcheck.ispconnect.co.uk/andyb/initialmeter.php?isp=Tiscali

Whenever performing these tests please make a note of the results and the time of day the test was carried out. These may be useful for diagnosis of the problem later. Kindly perform the tests at 8:00 A.M, 12:00 noon, 4 P.M and 7 PM.

Please mail us the results. On receiving the above information, we will investigate this issue and suggest you a suitable resolution.

Apologies for the inconvenience caused.

If you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact us using the following link:
http://www.tiscali.co.uk/aboutus/contact/

When you try and get to the bottom of Tiscali you will get a lot of this type of response. Anything to stall you or get you working on the case when all you actually want to do is use a service that you are paying for without feeble excuses and nonsense to waste your time. They know they have a problem – they just don’t want you to know.

The next few emails produce no reply. In the end I write threatening at last to take them to court. Anywhere else and you could sue someone for providing little or no service but with Tiscali, and the fact it is an internet connection, allows them to act like this. Proving speeds and gathering evidence is all very well but Tiscali have you well and truly stuffed with their 12 month contract. Without this contract they know full well their customers would have legged it long ago.

I finally get a letter back from Tiscali which now gives me a dedicated UK number to ring. Well, talk about arrogant and unprofessional. This is where Tiscali really comes in to its own. The person on the end of the phone is insistent and almost gleeful in explaining how I am tied into a 12 month contract. It doesn’t matter how much I explain that I am not getting the service I am paying for, we keep coming back to the 12 month contract. I finally realise these people are professionals after all. I mean who else could operate such a lousy service and get away with it? That’s an achievement in its own right.

I am now really so annoyed and I phone Trading Standards who surprise surprise have heard of similar complaints about Tiscali. The rub is that they now want everything in writing and they may or may not be able to do anything about it. Obviously I don’t take it any further – Tiscali know you will do that anyway.

I take a look on the internet and see the stories of others who have incredulous tales of woe and problems with getting their line back off Tiscali ( Tiscali refuses to release your phone line for another Broadband operator until you have paid up fully ) due to wishing to cancel for non delivery of service. You see, Tiscali wants it all ways, they want paying but they do not wish to deliver.

So, where are we after almost 6 months? Still stuck with a lame lemon I am afraid. I write this article to try and save some other unfortunate person from experiencing the same hassle and lousy service. Perhaps someone who is registering for Broadband for the first time might think that what Tiscali offer is the way Broadband functions. Well, it is not. There are some very good providers out there, sadly, this company is not one of them.

To make matters worse I go shopping and find Dixons stocking CD roms with Tiscali installation and adverts. That’s another high street retailer off my list for sure. I’ve never been in Dixon’s again since.

Perhaps this is written by someone with a grudge against Tiscali? Well, please don’t take my word for it. Whatever you do, before you choose an ISP and most definitely before you opt for Tiscali – see what others have to say ~~




http://www.blagger.com/scripts/db4.php?company_id=529&companyname=Tiscali

http://www.the-scream.co.uk/forums/f8.html?

http://www.uglybritain.co.uk/forum

http://www.ispreview.co.uk/new/complain/complain.shtml#1

http://bbs.adslguide.org.uk/postlist.php?Cat=&Board=tiscali

http://www.romulus2.com/feedback/company.php?102

http://www.net4nowtforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=16520

http://forums.techguy.org/showthread.php?t=62676

There are lots more but this is about all we have time for. You probably know of many others. Just add this article to others.


What can you do?

It would appear that there is very little that you can actually do. I for one am resigned to the fact that I will have to pay these *******s off until early in 2005 when I can kiss their *** goodbye. Am I angry? Of course I am angry – I piss on you Tiscali.

Well, what can you do? I tell you what you can do. You can copy this article chapter and verse and pass it round all your friends. You can add to it the links of other comments about Tiscali and indeed your own comments and email it to 10 people you know well. Pass the word around – do someone a big favour and stop them opening a Tiscali Broadband account. That way, at least you did something and saved someone from a Broadband nightmare…

If only ten per cent of you did something it would be enough. Unfortunately it is more likely that you will concede and end up waiting out the final day when you can kick Tiscali into touch. That is what I have done. I admit defeat. If I had the time and inclination and enough support from others I would do something.

I would phone Trading standards, I would get in touch with Watchdog and I would, indeed have, discouraged anyone I know to stay clear of Tiscali. I know I have cost them customers. Quite a few in fact. I just hate the thought of anyone else having to go through this grief. Spend half an hour posting this and your own comments to at least 5 forums.

Happy Christmas everyone – I hope 2005 brings news of Tiscali going belly up due to an email campaign and their appearance on Watchdog. Oh well, There is always hope.

 

[ymfoster]

this isp is " in my veiw the worst isp on the planet their tech support is a joke subscribers are constantly let with no access"
just a little word of warning for the uk users leave this mob well alone

I get quite a bit of Spam from Tiscali ISP users also,

Yvonne

 

[nickyboy29]

I have posted a few help requests on this website, concerning my broadband account, and after 3 phone calls to Tiscali, testing 6 different ADSL filters, arranging a BT engineer to test my wiring, buying a new router, and changing lots of registry and firewall settings, and most recently, reading similair problems from other Tiscali users, I want out of my contract ASAP

I think I have to wait until April for my annual contract to end, but I have read if you download as much as possible at peak times, you will get warning letters about fair usage policy, and eventually be asked to leave

However, because my download speeds are of ISDN performance (I pay for maximum speed in an 8MB area), I don`t see how Tiscali would see this as a problem

Either I do that or find out how much it would cost to pay myself out

Anyone any ideas?

PS I just contacted watchdog about it, and I mentioned this page. Please contact them if you are a disgruntled Tiscali contractee

http://www.bbc.co.uk/consumer/tv_and_radio/watchdog/contact_computers.shtml

 

[CYMREIG]

but I have read if you download as much as possible at peak times, you will get warning letters about fair usage policy, and eventually be asked to leave

u have read correct
how do i know?
cos they want to get rid of me cos i got pissed off with there completely useless service and knowing that i had over 9 months left in my contract i decided to go and dl all the random crap i could just to piss them off
i have been very politely told
"if you want to swap isp we would be more than happy to let you"
in other words piss off or stop dl so much crap

 

[Jhendy]

I've been with this trashy ISP for about three painful years now, It seems that their service just gets worse and worse, and as much as i'd love to just migrate to BT or alike i cannot, due to the importance of my tiscali email address, just out of curiosity, has anyone been able to keep their tiscali email address after cancelling the service? i've heard of this.

And yes, undoubtedly, tiscali is the worst ISP in England, stay well well away.

 

[dr911]

Typing about "the worst ISP's" here in the "States", I would say the worst 2 ISP's are "NetZero" and AOL !!! Net0 I think is strictly dial up. Both "tech supports" suck big time !!

Just my 3 cents worth. (Use to be 2 cents, but with inflation !!! )

 

[Jhendy]

If a service says that it's dialup compatible only they hey, just don't go for them.
But tiscali boasts over their low prices and their lightning-fast connection speeds, my reason for saying that Tiscali is the worst ISP in exsitance is due to the fact that they say they can offer you far more than they will.

 

[aljujo]

I had a simular bad experience with this outfit! The call centre in India would not let my family use the service even though we had paid up front. The guy said that we had been sending out abusive emails!! When I requested to talk to someone about this problem this guy said that the department dealing with this did not speak to customers. I asked how many emails had been sent from my computer and he said it ran into the thousands!!! I said it would seem that my email address had been hijacked? He said that there was nothing that can be done, and that Tiscali is now expecting the next 6 month payment! I told him to take us to court for the money and guess what? I never heard another word from them.

 

[jsni]

I cancelled my account with Tiscali on the 1 February 2007 due to move of address.

...It is now the 3rd of September 2007 and they are STILL billing me, AND, the account is still active.. 7 months and 2 days onwards.

How on earth does a broadband service take this long to cancel a customer's account? I've called Tiscali 9 times already repeatedly instructing them to cancel my account. They have not yet done so. Why??

Also, their customer service telephone waiting times are horrendous! The last call I made to them: they kept me waiting for a representative for over over 38 mins - just to actually speak to somebody. I've also had the experience of their systems being down. It's simply not acceptable.

I've been promised refunds, phonecalls from departments, and account cancellations over and over and over again, not to mention the empty apologies. Clearly nobody in Tiscali knows what they are doing and they don't seem to care either, otherwise it would never have come to this. They are downright not worthy of business.

Ironically, I have so far recieved two threats from their collections department with outstanding pending debit charge reminders. I contacted them upon receipt of the 1st letter.............still no use................They've only gone and sent me another - this time a red reminder. This is criminal.

In the very last conversation I had with the manager from the cancellation department: a rather rude Mr Alan James had asked me why I had asked to speak to a manager (meaning him) when I had already been assured by a representative that my account will be dealt with...................... When I heard this, judging from their '''manager''' I wasn't at all surprised that the entire Tiscali team didn't have enough intelligence to cancel a single account : )

The future of Tiscali seems very bleak and I wouldn't wish them upon anyone. STAY AWAY, YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.

PS One other thing you should know is that Tiscali continued billing me for mooonths £16.99 for a 1mg broadband when other customer's were paying £12.99 for exactly the same service to which I was denied a refund because ''I hadn't'' change my accounts charge rate on my own initiative... deh??!!

"Tiscali" - one day justice will prevail..

 

[twinpot]

reading all these complaints from tiscali customers makes me want to cry.
this is the extent to which people are ripped off and have no say in the matter because we are hemmed in by the 12 month contract.
you would think our government would step in wouldn't you?
but no.
i'm a unhappy tiscali customer currently banned for having the nerve to speak my mind.
you see this is how it works.
we pay tiscali and we get a lousy internet service in return.
quite naturally we wish to complain, so we do and then we get banned.
because we are not not complaining in the way tiscali says we should.
never mind the fact that they are failing to provide a reliable internet service we are paying them for.
needless to say come the new year i will be ending my contract.
last week tiscali had the nerve to ring me up telling me they are upgrading my package so that i get free calls and line rental.
as if i give a monkeys about free calls and line rental.
all i want is what i am paying them for.
i will not be surprised to find they have upgraded my package without my consent.
you cannot trust them i'm telling you.
can anyone reccomend a good isp?