I Hate Tiscali - you should too
March 14th, 2007
Don’t use tiscali. Seriously. Don’t. I do and I wish I didn’t. I got an email back on 29 July 2006 saying that my internet usage was excessive and that was my first warning. I got my second and final on 9 November 2006. On 8 December I got capped. My internet usage between 6pm and 11pm (when I’m at home. Useful)
So it got to 8 February 2007 and I was getting frustrated with my slow speeds. I did some speedtests and was getting 1.31Mbps, 1.55,1.59Mbps download, when I am paying for an 8Mb connection.
I called Tiscali support, and after first being cut off as I was about to speak to a human, I explained the problem and was told to keep my usage down for a week, and it would return to normal. Regardless, I emailed my problem to the address they told me to. I got my email bounced back. I went looking on the website for some help and found a form to complete, so I did and waited for a reply. On 15 Feb I emailed back as I had got no reply. Their auto-response said 3 days to reply. It had been 5. I emailed again on 16 Feb, 18 Feb, 19 Feb. On 22 Feb I got a reply from the online form. They said email broadbandservices@uk.tiscali.com and put “FUP Warning 1/2″ in the subject. So I did. And I waited. On 26 Feb I emailed back and waited. I resent it again on 1 March. On 2 March I emailed again, made a fuss about having to wait so long to get a reply. On 11 March I got this reply:
Thank you for contacting Tiscali Customer Support.
I understand from your email that you are experiencing slow speed connectivity.
I am forwarding your concern to the concerned department who will analyse the case and assist you regarding this. For further concern regarding this issue, I would request you to write directly to broadbandservices@uk.tiscali.com , stating ‘FUP Warning’ in the subject line. They will be able to check your line and do the needful.
If you have any other concerns, please feel free to write to us.
Regards,
Tiscali Customer Support
I’ve ALREADY done this!
So I replied to say I had done so and got no response. (wafs!)
So today I’ve emailed again. For the 13th time now. I still have had no formal response, and am still getting shit download speeds.
So for the love of god, don’t use Tiscali. Their customer service is appauling. You will find it difficult to get a decent answer on the phone, or by email.
I’m now moving and am gonna switch to cable and let’s hope our internet speeds will get back to normal.
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Posted in internet, life, tech |
March 22nd, 2007 at 12:41 pm
Thats nothing, my tiscali connection wont even allow me to access the internet do you have any suggestions apart from switch?
March 22nd, 2007 at 1:16 pm
Not really got any suggestions. Repeat emails don’t seem to work. I think the only way of getting some help is their online support form. Or call them up and demand keep asking to speak to a manager and complain to them, although be prepared to have the same shit repeated to you over and over.
You could try putting something in writing and threatening to take them to Ofcom for denial of service, and not providing any customer support, although you will need some proof probably.
I’m actually moving to a new place with no BT line at the moment, and going to Virgin Media, so they won’t be able to provide me broadband there. I don’t plan on telling them until much much later (after I’ve cancelled the Direct Debit).
Good luck tho. Let me know how you get on.
March 24th, 2007 at 12:18 pm
Well you were lucky!
I recieved my 1st and FUP warning on the 19/3/07 . I immediately stopped using the internet between 6 and 11pm peak hours, wrote an e-mail asking what the limits were.
On the 21/3/07 (yes 48 hours later), recieved my 3rd and final FUP telling me I was now having my bandwidth managed with other heavy users during peak times.
The fact that I had only ever had 1 previous FUP, not 2 and stopped using the internet entirely during peak times seemed to make no difference as 2 days later I get the letter telling me I was being managed. It sort of seems like the letter had already been written and posted t about the time they e-mailed me the first and only FUP.
I think they are trying to get rid of any customer who is using more than a certain amount of bandwidth, if you think about it the old 80/20% rule. 20% of the customers cost them 80% of the money…..get rid if those, keep stating their usage is unlimited, have a vague FUP and the road to increased profits is clear. Especially as they can cut down the size of the pipes for more customers.
March 24th, 2007 at 12:25 pm
Thats such an awful business model.
I really wish there was a company that catered for the high usage customers. I would be happy to pay a bit more for actual unlimited broadband, especially if it was at a reasonable speed, say 10Mbps rather than the low speed rubbish they are marketing now. Bethere offer as fast a connection as you can handle, up to 24Mbps (which is the limit on at BT line). Now thats pretty good, and its a decent price.
Sorry about your troubles. Maybe we need to do some sort of boycot on tiscali. I defiantely think I will be making a formal complaint, and probably write to OfCom too
March 25th, 2007 at 5:56 am
Been there and done that too, to be honest I’m now with Pipex and actually downloading alot more than I was at the time on Tiscali. During most of the peak hours I was actually out at work,heh but when I was at home I had the pleasure of not even being able to browse the web because of my “Managed Connection with other high usuage users” so between around 5pm-1am the internet for me was pratically unusable. I moved house cancelled the direct debit, oh wells total waste of space almost as bad as BT Home Elastic-Band
May 5th, 2007 at 4:37 pm
Sorry to hear about the problems your having with Tiscali. Dont go over to BT Internet you will find they are just as bad. If you have a problem you have to talk to an Indian call centre then spend the next hour getting the call handler to talk sense. When my connection when awol on me the call handler asked me to dismantle the main telephone socket and hook in a test wire so they could check the line. He didnt seem to understand that if I was talking to him on the telephone the bt line was okay and the fault was with the isp. I really dont who to trust for broadband these days. Try this one when call customer services ask for a mac number and someone usually comes running to help.
May 7th, 2007 at 10:31 am
ok so i thought yeah i could deal with the 6-11pm outage, until they decided to take it further and reduce it from 5am to 12am so am quite mad at that so i think oh it doesn’t matter ill play around on weekends BUT WAIT theres a problem now they are cutting me off from 11AM till 12AM now i think that it disgraceful how can they justify there actions for doing that that means for the full day (13 hours) i can basically do nothing on the internet i cant download, cant watch anything, play games nothing as its reduced to basically nothing so you email them and there comment is that it is peek times, what a load of rubbish, stupid scammers. So if anyone thinks “oh ill ring the call center up”, think again fool! because u aint going to get nothing from them cause there reading of a freaking scrip that tell them jack all about anyones problems. I must say alot of people who just received tiscali “unlimited” broadband will read this and laugh in everyone of our faces and say what a load of s—, but you wait a few months my friend because you will be the sad person typing here saying basically what i just said in a different context and think to yourself mabey i should of listened to these guys. So just to finish off i would like to say DO NOT GO WITH TISCALI if anyone ever ever asked me if they should go with these retards i would push them in the opposite direction and say run like hell bitch.
Thanks for reading
I would like to add to any smart ass’s out there that say something like “why don’t you just go with a different internet provider” the answer is simple i cant because of my location and the only other provider is BT and in a post above me and many other forum websites say there as poor as tiscali aswell, so i haven’t got much choice.
Sorry for any spelling mistakes or grammar misuse’s
May 7th, 2007 at 10:53 am
Right on Josh. I think cable is the only way to go. They don’t seem to care, after all, you’re not tying up any phone exchanges. As I said I’m on Virgin now.
I cancelled my Tiscali DD, moved house and signed up to Virgin, got a letter to ask for payment, so wrote back and complained my ass off and made the following comment at the end:
“If you have any questions, I will respond within 3 working days, and by that I mean 3 months”
It makes more sense if you read the whole letter.
Anyway, I got a letter to say my account had been closed and paid the outstanding amounts (just two months) and now I’m home free.
I think any BT provided internet is always going to be subject to awful FUP’s and cable is the best way to go if possible.
October 15th, 2007 at 6:28 pm
I work for Tiscali in the billing department, and dont get me wrong, I love the service, but it has to be pointed out the one major flaw in Tiscali’s service, is their Technical Support department. I am abosuletely fed up of this department, they are lazy, arrogant and continually mis-informing our customers. I am no genius but I have had so many customers who I have managed to get online, when the problem is something so completely stupid, down to router configuration, or configuring network connections in windows. Everytime I check on technical notes, or a case status, it is constantly passed from person to person, and never resolved. Point made yet?
October 15th, 2007 at 6:41 pm
Thanks Scott. Its really reassuring to know that people inside Tiscali are aware of the troubles too. I think the problem is the tech department are obviously not trained, and are just going by the book, following the steps in the support manual and then handing it off to the one person who knows what they’re doing.
I’d consider myself quite technically minded and often find that when I’m describing problems to tech support, they don’t follow so I have to dumb down whats wrong. This isn’t how it should be and it really has to change. Employ the people who know whats what.
Scott, I’d be interested to know whether internally your observations are noted at all?
October 17th, 2007 at 1:28 am
The technical department, are most likely reading from a troubleshooting guide, I called the other day, as my Broadband has only just got active, to see if I needed to configure any of the PPPOA settings on my router, as my Broadband is active after only 4 days of signing up, after some fiddling at work, the agent told me that my broadband is not active, and I am using somebody elses wireless, at which I replied, my wireless is currently disabled, and I was told that it is not active and I am using somebody elses wireless again, and perhaps I should get a new computer, to which I replied to the agent, the he was an arrogant idiot, who clearly did not know what he was talking about. I have made a point several times to a TM, and have been told even though they are useless, I have to act professional at all times. Everyone in my department is entirely aware that technical are useless, and costing customers, but there is nothing we can do about it, unless we want to lose the contract.
March 21st, 2008 at 1:26 pm
If you read the terms and conditions the 8mbps is only a theory and it is not possible to get the full connection they offer you.
March 25th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
Oh man !! You are so freakin right about Tiscali, like Scott says their technical support is non-existant …. ” Answer the god damn phone, you w****** ” !!! I too am getting nowhere near 8Mbps, the best i’ve seen is 1.2Mbps.
How the hell Tiscali managed ‘Best ISP provider’ i don’t know, if they’re the best then God help us !! What freaks me out is South Korea manage to supply speeds and service that are beyond our wildest dreams, but i guess it’s a British trait because we stand for any old sh** this government and utilities want to dish out.
March 25th, 2008 at 6:45 pm
I’m so glad to be off Tiscali now. I have moved over to Virgin Media (via BT line so ADSL) and I have seen downloads of up to 750kBps! Thats such an improvement on Tiscali. And I’ve not seen any slowdowns in speed at anytime. Obviously its a bit slower during peak times but not so bad as Tiscali. I would recommend them if you get a chance!