My experience with Tiscali the worst UK ISP

On Wednesday 16 June a fault occurred with my Tiscali broadband connection
which prevented me from connecting to the Internet using Tiscali Broadband
for 7 days. I spent everyday on the telephone complaining to various people
at Tiscali's technical support department (in India) to get the fault fixed
and they kept saying it would be fixed in 48 hours but its has still not
been fixed after 7 days. Tiscali from their attitude had no idea how to
resolve the issue and keept passing the buck to BT.



I was told on Thursday 17 June by Tiscali that a BT engineer would call
round between 1pm and 3:30pm on Friday 18 June. NO ONE turned up at all that
day and my time was wasted. Tiscali have not offered me any compensation for
my time.



On Saturday 19 June a BT engineer turned up and tested my telephone line and
found there was nothing wrong with it. He then went to the exchange and said
there was nothing wrong with that either and that since the exchange was
connected directly to Tiscali then Tiscali's network was to blame for my
problem in not being able to connect. The BT engineer took my user name and
password and was still unable to connect to Tiscali even from the telephone
exchange he was working on using his own professional equipment. I
telephoned Tiscali on Saturday to tell them this and still they did
absolutely nothing at their end to get me reconnected. On Monday 21 June I
received a telephone call from Tiscali insinuating that BT was to blame for
the problem and saying that they wanted to send another BT engineer round.
They seem to have no record of the report made by the first engineer and are
going around in circles by not accepting blame.



On 22 June another BT engineer arrived to try to fix the problem and came to
the same conclusion as the other engineer saying that there was nothing
wrong with my line or BT's exchange or my equipment since he tried to
connect to Tiscali using his own professional equipment and got the same
error message (error 721) which I have been getting. He told me that since
the BT exchange was configured correctly and my line was working properly
and he knew his own modem was not faulty the fault was with Tiscali's
network. I reported this to Tiscali and they took no decisive action to fix
the problem.



After that I terminated my account with them which I had to do in writing.
The day the termination took place my e-mail was disabled and my web space
deactivated but surpriingly my berodband connection started working again,
but only for 6 days. Today its gone down again and I am still paying for it
even though I have one week left on my monthly payment remaining.



Tiscali have still not given me a rebate which I requested from them for the
time I was not able to connect nor have they compensated me for my time
which they have wasted. I have now written to my Debit card company
demanding they take action to recover my money.



If anyone is thinking of subscribing to Tiscali, DONT. Over the weekend I
learned that they are rated the worst ISP in the UK by their users. If only
I'd known this before. Now I am stuck without broadband for the next month.

In article <cbt4b8$p8g$(E-Mail Removed)>, Agamemnon wrote:
> On Wednesday 16 June a fault occurred with my Tiscali broadband connection
> which prevented me from connecting to the Internet using Tiscali Broadband
> for 7 days. I spent everyday on the telephone complaining to various people
> at Tiscali's technical support department (in India) to get the fault fixed
> and they kept saying it would be fixed in 48 hours but its has still not
> been fixed after 7 days. Tiscali from their attitude had no idea how to
> resolve the issue and keept passing the buck to BT.
>[details]
> If anyone is thinking of subscribing to Tiscali, DONT. Over the weekend I
> learned that they are rated the worst ISP in the UK by their users. If only
> I'd known this before. Now I am stuck without broadband for the next month.

This doesn't surprise me. My first contact with Tiscali was a letter from them
demanding payment of a supposed outstanding bill and threatening to put the
matter into the hands of a debt collection agency if I didn't pay up, and I
wasn't even aware that I had an account with them! It wasn't a huge amount
(about 27GBP), but I don't like being accused of dishonesty by someone I have
never dealt with.

It turned out to be one of those alternative telephone network accounts (with
a little divert box plugged between the wall and the phone) that I had set up
many years previously, and the company had changed hands several times. It
started with Mercury (I think), then Cable and Wireless, AT&T, NTL and
goodness knows who else, and all the companies seem to have managed to
transfer the automatic payments without any difficulty or intervention from
me, until Tiscali. I had received some paperwork from them, including a note
aboput the company changing hands yet again, but nothing to make it clear that
these papers were now actual bills requiring payment, instead of direct debit
advice notes as previously. They simply let the amount build up and then sent
the threatening letter. Of course I paid off the outstanding amount, cancelled
the account, and told them I wanted nothing further to do with them.

When you're free to connect again, you might like to look at Plusnet. I've
found the service to be cheap, fast, and generally reliable. When they have
problems (and let's face it, who doesn't), they acknowledge them and explain
what they are doing to put them right.

Rod.

On Wed, 30 Jun 2004 02:17:35 +0100, "Agamemnon" <(E-Mail Removed)_SPAM>
wrote:

>On Wednesday 16 June a fault occurred with my Tiscali broadband connection
<snip>

A turkish plot no doubt, Aggie.

"Agamemnon" <(E-Mail Removed)_SPAM> wrote in message
news:cbt4b8$p8g$(E-Mail Removed)...
> On Wednesday 16 June a fault occurred with my Tiscali broadband connection
> which prevented me from connecting to the Internet using Tiscali Broadband
> for 7 days. I spent everyday on the telephone complaining to various
people
> at Tiscali's technical support department (in India) to get the fault
fixed
> and they kept saying it would be fixed in 48 hours but its has still not
> been fixed after 7 days. Tiscali from their attitude had no idea how to
> resolve the issue and keept passing the buck to BT.
>
>
>
> I was told on Thursday 17 June by Tiscali that a BT engineer would call
> round between 1pm and 3:30pm on Friday 18 June. NO ONE turned up at all
that
> day and my time was wasted. Tiscali have not offered me any compensation
for
> my time.
>
>
>
> On Saturday 19 June a BT engineer turned up and tested my telephone line
and
> found there was nothing wrong with it. He then went to the exchange and
said
> there was nothing wrong with that either and that since the exchange was
> connected directly to Tiscali then Tiscali's network was to blame for my
> problem in not being able to connect. The BT engineer took my user name
and
> password and was still unable to connect to Tiscali even from the
telephone
> exchange he was working on using his own professional equipment. I
> telephoned Tiscali on Saturday to tell them this and still they did
> absolutely nothing at their end to get me reconnected. On Monday 21 June I
> received a telephone call from Tiscali insinuating that BT was to blame
for
> the problem and saying that they wanted to send another BT engineer round.
> They seem to have no record of the report made by the first engineer and
are
> going around in circles by not accepting blame.
>
>
>
> On 22 June another BT engineer arrived to try to fix the problem and came
to
> the same conclusion as the other engineer saying that there was nothing
> wrong with my line or BT's exchange or my equipment since he tried to
> connect to Tiscali using his own professional equipment and got the same
> error message (error 721) which I have been getting. He told me that since
> the BT exchange was configured correctly and my line was working properly
> and he knew his own modem was not faulty the fault was with Tiscali's
> network. I reported this to Tiscali and they took no decisive action to
fix
> the problem.
>
>
>
> After that I terminated my account with them which I had to do in writing.
> The day the termination took place my e-mail was disabled and my web space
> deactivated but surpriingly my berodband connection started working again,
> but only for 6 days. Today its gone down again and I am still paying for
it
> even though I have one week left on my monthly payment remaining.
>
>
>
> Tiscali have still not given me a rebate which I requested from them for
the
> time I was not able to connect nor have they compensated me for my time
> which they have wasted. I have now written to my Debit card company
> demanding they take action to recover my money.
>
>
>
> If anyone is thinking of subscribing to Tiscali, DONT. Over the weekend I
> learned that they are rated the worst ISP in the UK by their users. If
only
> I'd known this before. Now I am stuck without broadband for the next
month.
>

You won't get any sense out of Tiscali.

Suggest you look at the Tiscali forum at http://www.adslguide.org.uk/ .
There are numerous threads about writing to Tiscali's chief exec etc. It
took me weeks to get my line released. Fight for compensation.

Don't believe:

1) it is the local BT line - mine works fine with my new service provider.

2) the line will be fixed in 2 hours/days/minutes

3) any of the other rubbish they have on their scripts

3) they have given a cease order to BT and BT have failed it.

Best of luck.

Hugh

> After that I terminated my account with them which I had to do in writing.
> The day the termination took place my e-mail was disabled and my web space
> deactivated but surpriingly my berodband connection started working again,
> but only for 6 days. Today its gone down again and I am still paying for
it
> even though I have one week left on my monthly payment remaining.
>

Hi There,

When Tiscali "restricted" your service did you notice any of the following:-

1)
A different range of IP address ie. 212.139.11.130 with a group C subnet.
(Instead of the more usual ie. 80.43.128.23 with a group A mask). This range
is assigned to X-stream /Libertysurf Scandinavia - (both Tiscali
acquisitions if my memory is right) and if you type in your browser for
example http://google.com Google redirects you to http://www.google.se the
Swedish version.

2)
No access to their SMTP or NTTP servers (and no doubt no FTP to Webspace, I
didn't try it though)

When this happened to me it was the outgoing mail that was the real problem.
The 'help' desk was absolutely 100% useless, they wouldn't confirm that my
service was restricted in any way. I gave them all the above information.
One agent actually told me the reason Google was in Swedish was because I
must have selected Swedish instead on English when I installed the Sagam
modem! I ask you!
In the end I had to reluctantly run my own SMTP server to get mail out, I
protected it with a strong password but I suppose technically it was still
open relay and against their T&C's (like I cared)

> On Wednesday 16 June a fault occurred with my Tiscali broadband connection
> which prevented me from connecting to the Internet using Tiscali Broadband
> for 7 days. I spent everyday on the telephone complaining to various
people
> at Tiscali's technical support department (in India) to get the fault
fixed
> and they kept saying it would be fixed in 48 hours but its has still not
> been fixed after 7 days. Tiscali from their attitude had no idea how to
> resolve the issue and keept passing the buck to BT.
>
>
>
> I was told on Thursday 17 June by Tiscali that a BT engineer would call
> round between 1pm and 3:30pm on Friday 18 June. NO ONE turned up at all
that
> day and my time was wasted. Tiscali have not offered me any compensation
for
> my time.
>
>
>
> On Saturday 19 June a BT engineer turned up and tested my telephone line
and
> found there was nothing wrong with it. He then went to the exchange and
said
> there was nothing wrong with that either and that since the exchange was
> connected directly to Tiscali then Tiscali's network was to blame for my
> problem in not being able to connect. The BT engineer took my user name
and
> password and was still unable to connect to Tiscali even from the
telephone
> exchange he was working on using his own professional equipment. I
> telephoned Tiscali on Saturday to tell them this and still they did
> absolutely nothing at their end to get me reconnected. On Monday 21 June I
> received a telephone call from Tiscali insinuating that BT was to blame
for
> the problem and saying that they wanted to send another BT engineer round.
> They seem to have no record of the report made by the first engineer and
are
> going around in circles by not accepting blame.
>
>
>
> On 22 June another BT engineer arrived to try to fix the problem and came
to
> the same conclusion as the other engineer saying that there was nothing
> wrong with my line or BT's exchange or my equipment since he tried to
> connect to Tiscali using his own professional equipment and got the same
> error message (error 721) which I have been getting. He told me that since
> the BT exchange was configured correctly and my line was working properly
> and he knew his own modem was not faulty the fault was with Tiscali's
> network. I reported this to Tiscali and they took no decisive action to
fix
> the problem.
>
>
>
> After that I terminated my account with them which I had to do in writing.
> The day the termination took place my e-mail was disabled and my web space
> deactivated but surpriingly my berodband connection started working again,
> but only for 6 days. Today its gone down again and I am still paying for
it
> even though I have one week left on my monthly payment remaining.
>
>
>
> Tiscali have still not given me a rebate which I requested from them for
the
> time I was not able to connect nor have they compensated me for my time
> which they have wasted. I have now written to my Debit card company
> demanding they take action to recover my money.
>
>
>
> If anyone is thinking of subscribing to Tiscali, DONT. Over the weekend I
> learned that they are rated the worst ISP in the UK by their users. If
only
> I'd known this before. Now I am stuck without broadband for the next
month.


Quick post - I don't expect a rebate - I have given up a "rebate" from my
old address with Pi$$cali ...

I claimed £1K+ with all the crap, et all with World Online...

Got FA!

Never nind - I'm debt free from them - if not they have a challenge on their
hands...

--
Beastiality: 9 out of 10 cats said their owners prefered it.
He's cracked! You keep him talking - I'll get a net.
Chaos, panic, & disorder - my work here is done.

DS

Agamemnon wrote:
> On Wednesday 16 June a fault occurred with my Tiscali broadband connection
snip

I had dealings with this bunch of muppets when they were localtel /
World on line. I can't believe that they haven't gone bust yet! before
anyone signs up to them I reccomend having a look at The Scream and
reading the forums.

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

Marcus

"Lyndmar" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Agamemnon wrote:
> > On Wednesday 16 June a fault occurred with my Tiscali broadband
connection
> snip
>
> I had dealings with this bunch of muppets when they were localtel /
> World on line. I can't believe that they haven't gone bust yet!

AIUI Tiscali are closer than they would like to admit, they may have to sell
some of their operations Europe to help raise 250 million euros ($300m) the
firm needs to repay a bond that falls due next year.

See http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3542080.stm