Broadband provider Tiscali is rated number one for customer service by UK broadband customers, according to the 2007 UK Broadband Internet Service Provider Satisfaction Study.
The survey also revealed that the avaerage cost of broadband has dropped to £21.10 per month from £25.91 last year, and the avaerage connection speed has almost doubled- to reach 4.87 Mbps.
It seems that despite the drop in costs and increaseing speeds of broadband, customer satisfaction is still falling as providers fail to back up their services with quality technical support. However the best three providers around turned out to be Tiscali, Virgin Media and Sky.
Please can some kind hearted person help me I was of the understanding that I was supposed to be disconnected from Blue Yonder in November. I joined Tiscali but on my emails blueyonder still keeps butting in, so no mails going in or out. Should I have
done something before joining Tiscali
I have been having problems with Tiscali Broadband service for a couple of weeks. I certainly do not rate them very highly.
The problem, I believe, is the upload speed ie instead of around 250 kbs for a 2gb service my upload speed is between 0 and 20 !!!!!! Consequently I have little handshaking so performance is slow and I cannot send long emails or emails with any attachments because the email server times out !!!
Trying to get their support staff to understand the problem is nigh on impossible.
My line rental is also from Tiscali rather than BT so you would think they could handle the problem without any hassle.
Any comments would be appreciated.
Gerry
Dear Gerry
Your problems with slow uploading speeds may be directly linked to your pc rather than Tisc. I have used their service for three years now and found them to be fairly good. I did have a lot of problems however when I changed my pc for a laptop. These problems were largely related to only having 250 RAM on my m/c. I bought another gig which is easily installed and overcame my problems. Have a look at this and try visiting your local small pc shop to discuss your problem. They are usually very friendly and don’t charge for the info they impart. Hope this helps. Mike
Gill
When you changed your provider did you uninstall your blue yonder software. You must do this.
Presumably you have installed yourTiscali software on your m/c. Type Tiscali.co.uk into your web browser which will access the Tisc homepage. Providing you have entered your user name and password into your mail section on this home page you should be able tp send and receive e-mails.
Hope this helps. Mike
DON’T go with tiscali & PC World will tell you the same thing ! - very bad customer services,support staff that have’nt got a clue what their talking about,and if your trying to play online games - FORGET IT coz they’ll block you from connecting to the sever anywhere from 11:30am till 12:30am weekends and from 13:00 till 12:00am weekdays - keeping in mind that their so called ‘fair user policy ‘ is from 12:00 till 16:00 weekends and from 18:00 till 23:00 weekdays !!!!!
Pure GARBAGE,Do NOT waste your money.
Tiscali have the worst customer service I have encountered in a LONG time! I guess the change came when they moved all their advisers abroad in 2008 (apparently), because each time I have tried to contact them I have had to wait on hold for 20mins before speaking to anyone. When I do get to talk to someone they fob you off with the same line and ask you to call them back!
I have tried to cancel the account but have had no reply to emails or phone calls. Amazing how quick the emails came when I signed up, but nothing on cancelling.
THEY STINK!
One word - DON’T!
Don’t be fooled by Tiscali’s glossy TV ads - they are the worst ISP in history. The connection frequently throws you out; and their customer services are non existent. Four emails; and you get a completely irrelevant response in pidgin English from some bloke in Calcutta who doesn’t have a clue what your problem is; and doesn’t care.
If you need to phone them, you will be on hold for half an hour each time - and you’ll pay 10p/min for the pleasure. You stay on hold in silence; punctuated every three mins by a woman in terrible English in a thick India accent telling you to log onto Tiscali’s site for assistance. Neat trick, since i’m phoning about a broken modem; and CAN’T GET ONLINE WHICH IS WHY I’M RINGING IN THE FIRST PLACE !!!
They are also notoriosu for holding onto your MAC codes for longer than the OFCOM approved guidline of 5 days - this is simply because they don’t answer emails or the phone; so how can you give them notice that you want to terminate your contract?
Seriously. I’ve been with Virgin media and NTL. NTL are bad; but Tiscali are the worst broadband provider I’ve ever enountered. If they’re being voted best; then the voters must all be Tiscali employees.
Tiscali customer service is disgraceful. They never reply to emails and leave you on hold on their 0871 numbers for at least 1/2 an hour at the cost of 10p a minute
I use O2 now and at least their help numbers are all free-phone numbers and they have decent technical knowledge.
AVOID Tiscali at all costs
tiscali surport is usless,end of
IF YOU ARE THINKING OF JOINING TISCALI FOR ANYHING BROADBAND, PHONE, TV - DON’T - WHAT A MERRY DANCE THEY LED ME FOR A COUPLE OF MONTHS!! THE CUSTOMER SERVICE IS DIABOLICAL AND THEY NEVER GIVE A STRAIGHT ANSWER TO ANYTHING. THEIR EMAIL SERVICE - THEY DON’T ANSWER ANY YOU SEND AND POST, WELL EVEN WHEN YOU SEND ITEMS TO THEM AND PAY FOR RECORDED/SIGNED FOR DELIVERY THEY EITHER DO NOT RESPOND AT ALL OR IT TAKES THEM SEVERAL WEEKS.
If Tiscali is the best service provider than all the others must be really bad. Who regulates these cowboys? We have Tiscali 8meg superfast broadband which runs at best around 4.5meg down to 1.5meg at most times. My wife’s plays online bingo and Tiscali broadband can’t even manage that leaving my wife complaining to me about this rubbish service provider. After months (about eight) of complaining, I finally got an email saying, “Sorry for our timely delay, we presume this is resolved”. What as wasted of time. Please avoid Tiscali at all costs; they are really rubbish, both as a supplier and customer services. Rubbish Rubbish Rubbish!!!!
Drumm I have had little trouble with Tiscali UNTIL I changed address and supplier, since I moved to a cabled property. I have stopped the Direct Debit but they wont close the account ancd keep sending me letters telling me I still owe money. They definitely need a change in attitude to customer service and a change back to a B ritish call centre.
No problem with the connection, but the speed does depend on how close you are to the exchange. I am regularly getting download speeds of around 6 Meg. BUT, and it’s a big but! If anything goes wrong, calling the customer service department is a nightmare. I have spoken to about 4 different agents during the last 6 weeks and only had one who spoke a reasonably understandable level of English. In the end I called in a local expert and was glad to pay £40 for him to solve the problem in half an hour. I don’t know if other ISPs are the same, but calling the sales line is free and is answered by a UK call centre, but CS calls are to India.
I didnt have too many problems with Tiscali, when I was just using them for internet and my tel calls previously i rented my line from BT. Tiscali offered me a good deal on line rental and I cancelled BT, 3 days ago. My phone line is now not working and the internet was also not functioning. Not getting anywhere despite several tel calls to their customer services, I am going to ask for compensation for the disruption to my service, but I am not hopeful of getting satisfaction.
the worst ever isp on the www
keep away , i`m having all sorts of problems 1 meg connections . loss of connections and 1/4 in to my 12 month contract
touch wood i can get out of it early if not then i`m stuck with them
i wil be gone like a flash soon as the 12 months is up
oh yes i`m 1 mile from the exchange new pc etc etc
Have just upgraded to a new Tiscali package - absolutely appaling service. They were supposed to provide me with an upgrade in my broadband speed and take over my phone calls. I didn’t have a phone service for nearly two weeks. They were even trying to take over my phone line without my permission. My broadband speed has remained the same as the upgrade was up to 8mbps. Have been told I can cancel my contract with Tiscali if I pay for the rest of the year. I will definitely be cancelling them next year when my service comes to an end. I definitely won’t be recommending them to anyone
Tiscali are pathetic. I was with Pipex for 6 years, and thought the service was good. Then they were bought by Tiscali, and in February I was transferred to the Tiscali network. This is when the problems started, with a month without service. It took numerous calls to their customer support and many conversations with people who clearly just read from a script they don’t fully understand to get to the fact that I had been ‘transferred’. Even then they said it would take 21 days to fix. Then they screwed up my account and sent me threatening letters on a regular basis, threatening to disconnect me from a service they were failing to provide. Bear in mind this was all their fault. To add insult to injury they charge 10p per minute and on average put you in a queue for 15 minutes each time you ring. To date I’ve spent around £40 to be told different stories by people who seem to have had no training at all. I finally decided enough was enough and asked for a MAC code. The code they gave me turned out to be invalid. Guess what - another 15 minute call (£1.50) to get another one, which still hasn’t arrived. Tiscali are clearly making money from constantly screwing up and forcing me to ring their premium rate number, and from preventing me from taking my business elsewhere by failing to provide the required MAC code. Steer clear.
Like Max I am a Pipex customer (generally very pleased with them - problems usually resolved quickly - sometimes before you were aware of them).
Just discovered that I’ve been bought by Tiscali.
Have been disconnected for a month.
Agree totally about the support - terrible - support staff now appear to be in Manila and speak with American accents - no problems with their English but they are clearly either not trained or have not been empowered.
Have constantly been told that my service is working (no it’s not), have been promised calls at certain times that have just never arrived. Have been told that I have been called at a certain time and told that I agreed that it was now working - no I have not.
Have been put on hold while second line support (supposedly an escalation level) calls (sometrhing) then says they neeed to read my notes (shouldn’t second line already have done this?), then they drop the line. One can only conclude that their staff drop cases/pass them on when they realise what a can of worms they are opening.
They seem reluctant to check the exchange - and you pay premium rate calls for this - amountng to mega pounds.
In short - my advice - do not join Tiscali.
And if you are a Pipex customer, leave now while you can. Your line may be working now but when it goes down/has a glitch, you have all these horrors to come.
if you are having probs with tech or cust servs, this is because this is another part of the service that does not function correctly, just like the rest of it dont, if you want out or are not happy, or want to be compensated or all of these then forget calling india, waste of time and your money,
1 you could ring their head office ask for high level complaints,
2 make formal complaint to ofcom, but there is a 12 week gap before they can act for you, if you do this also write 2 letters 1 to head office Soho, and other to Milton Keynes adress,recorded delivery, this also applies to letters of cancellation 28 days before you end it,
3 if like me, you have exhausted every other avenue ,ie high level complaints ect, and still no joy then you have a deadlock situation, providing you have registered your complaint 12 prior then cisas will act on your behalve they will if you instruct them get you compensation and a response from tiscali,
4 if you have requested a MAC code from them they by ofcom have only 5 days to deliver this to you, if after say 8 -10 days still no MAC ring ofcom, as they are in breech of the rules and can be fined i thing 10% of their turnover for it, that even applies if you are still in contract with them,of com get things moving, well they resulted in steve horley ringing the same day asking if i had my mac, and i got it the next day 9:30 in the morning
I’ve never had too many problems with tiscali to be quite honest, and whenever i have i’ve found that if you call the cancellations line saying you want to cancel if they dont resolve the problem, they pass it on to an english technical department who’ve called me within 3 days every time!
Also, just for reference, the head office isnt in Soho anymore and they dont cancel your account by letter because they have to offer you a MAC, and they cancel calls in a different way; you learn a lot calling the cancellation line!
I’ve had nothing but problems with tiscali, I switched from Homechoice on November 2007. Since then I had to call every 2 days to see why I didn’t have the router and connection for broadband , every call was on average 2 hrs long. Then they say I had to cancel completely and start from scratch which I did, again I had to call for updates which nobody could give me (by the way, each call was like an hour long and it was paid by me). Finally I decided to cancel the account which can only be done 9 to 6 and handled by really rude people based in the UK in march 2008.
I saw my bank account a couple of months ago and found they were still taking money from it, so I cancelled my direct debit and couple of days later I received a letter from them saying that I owe them 68 pounds(!)
They have been pestering me for that money and have threatened me to put me in black list if I don’t pay. They say I owe them that money for Internet service that they never provided me and when I call them to the collections dept they treat me really bad and tell me that I have to call to another department (another premium call) when I say they never provided the service they are charging me for.
Another woman said that I have to send them the welcoming letter from my current internet provider to prove I have a new provider. But when I call tiscaly customer services number they say there is no problem and that I don’t owe the anything, but I still receive the threatening calls and letters.
I don’t really know how Tiscali gets away witth this. Also I’ve read on the internet that none of the regulators are there to help or are willing toc do anything, so when Tiscali commits fraud and things like that nobody helps you.
I don’t know how they got the Customer service prize, maybe they sent the questionnaire to “selected customers” beacause I never received it.
I too am stunned at the alleged award for customer service. I moved to tiscali a while ago and whilst things worked it was fine. Like a number of people above, I was offered an ‘upgrade’ in late 2007. I took this up and was told it would take a few days to process. The sands of time passed and nothing happened. I received another email, this time offering the ‘upgrade’ for free, so I called, explained that the previous request had not gone through and was offered a renewed upgrade. Again, nothing happened. Numerous calls and emails - emails never get a response, but premium rate phone you are given assurances that things will be sorted out BUT NOTHING EVER IS. Finally in late May 2008 after threatening to leave them, a got an email saying the upgrade would be carried out.
HOWEVER - THE MUPPETS HAVE SIMPLY TAKEN OVER THE LINE FROM BT, TAKING MORE MONEY OFF A DECENT SERVICE-PROVIDER, FAILED TO UPGRADE MY SPEED, AND ARE NOW CHARGING ME MORE MONEY FOR THE PRIVILEGE.
YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
I’m with the free phone line rental max 8mbps package…….a complete joke!!! For some reason they have deactivated the line, because there is no dial tone BT now want £124 for me to transfer back to them!!!!! Patheteic!!!
I have never given a stronger warning. DO NOT JOIN TISCALI.
I have been with them since 2006. On 5 June 2008 my account seemed to revert to a dial up number without my knowledge or consent. The computer still said connected to tiscali. My bt phone bill logged up an extra £30 whilst still paying the monthly fee to tiscali. Can’t get anywhere with tiscali, phone calls are useless and of course cost ! No satisfaction from customer services. Have sent emails but they c an’t seem to understand the word ‘cancel’. Have written to Kiln Farm but no reply.
Have cancelled the direct debit via the bank and this message seems to have got through but they want me to
make yet another phone call to cancel! If I were a millionaire would love to see them in court. Any millinaires out there !!! Tiscali certainly aren’t concerned with the little man. Have now joined BT broadband with excellent free service.
If all else fails try Tiscali High Level Complaints on 01438 76 5494
Get the name of the person at High Level Complaints that you’re talking to, then you can email them back to confirm things - they WILL reply, which is more than other Tiscali departments do (other than a form acknowledgement, if you’re lucky).
The persons email address will be firstname.lastname@uk.tiscali.com
I can’t praise Tiscali High Level Complaints in Stevenage enough - and it’s cheaper than waiting to speak to “Customer Support” (a misnomer) in Glasgow, who were driving me mad - Stevenage sorted things immediately.
Yes Yes and Yes . Tiscali are imposters providing a far less than standard service.
Customer Service are talking chimps I would swear it , Or at least failed hairdressers with no interest or knowledge in computers . I can now run through there procedure for disconnection quicker than they can ! they must make a fortune from that premium rate line 10p/minute including billing you for something they ain’t providing , Worst ISP ever and ave been with Orange , AOL , BT and Talk Talk in various locations.
Peace Out Edinburgh