Tiscali Broadband, its getting worse and worse

In recent months I've noticed my broadband speeds decreasing to unacceptable
levels. A few months again ping times were reasonably good on Tiscali, but
now hey, they are really bad. I have just been around to a friend who is
running tiscali 1mb and he is not even getting a reliable 512k at any time.
What is going on with this ISP and why are they getting away with providing
such crap speeds and pathetic ping times......

If you went into a butchers shop and asked for a half a pound of beef and he
gave you a quarter, you would soon be doing something about it???

Why can't this ISP deliver?

On Wed, 15 Mar 2006 10:51:36 -0000, "Jim" <nos-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>In recent months I've noticed my broadband speeds decreasing to unacceptable
>levels. A few months again ping times were reasonably good on Tiscali, but
>now hey, they are really bad. I have just been around to a friend who is
>running tiscali 1mb and he is not even getting a reliable 512k at any time.
>What is going on with this ISP and why are they getting away with providing
>such crap speeds and pathetic ping times......
>
>If you went into a butchers shop and asked for a half a pound of beef and he
>gave you a quarter, you would soon be doing something about it???

Is Tiscali selling beef then ?

"Jim" <nos-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> In recent months I've noticed my broadband speeds decreasing to
> unacceptable
> levels. A few months again ping times were reasonably good on Tiscali,
> but
> now hey, they are really bad. I have just been around to a friend who is
> running tiscali 1mb and he is not even getting a reliable 512k at any
> time.


I was experiencing similar problems until about 6 to 8 weeks ago, since that
time I have found web browsing to be generally quite reasonable. Various
test sites give speeds of 1 to 2 mbps during the evening - a big improvment
on previous performance.

Where I do have a significant problem is usenet performance - frequent
server time-outs. See yesterday's thread, headed "Tiscali blocking usenet
traffic?" I only use text newsgroups - no binary downloads - server timeouts
are a big problem for me and for others too, I suspect. Tiscali tell me that
I'm the only one to complain about this!

--
Chris

Jim wrote:
> In recent months I've noticed my broadband speeds decreasing to unacceptable
> levels. A few months again ping times were reasonably good on Tiscali, but
> now hey, they are really bad. I have just been around to a friend who is
> running tiscali 1mb and he is not even getting a reliable 512k at any time.
> What is going on with this ISP and why are they getting away with providing
> such crap speeds and pathetic ping times......
>
> If you went into a butchers shop and asked for a half a pound of beef and he
> gave you a quarter, you would soon be doing something about it???
>
> Why can't this ISP deliver?

I wrote to them about this (slow speeds), after spending ages over
several calls trying to diagnose the problem. Someone at `technical
services` informed me that I could only get 1meg, despite them happily
signing me up and charging me for 2. They offered me the choice of
cancelling (I was only 5 weeks into the contract then) or going onto 1
meg officially. I wanted the latter, but in writing, and a refund of
the money I'd spent on their 0870 numbers, and an apology for messing
me around so much, so I wrote to their customer services deparment in
Milton Keynes.

I followed it up with a phone call 2 weeks later, only to be told that
they take 3-4 weeks to reply. Apparantly they even take that long to
get back to their own technical department. The guy (in an Indian call
centre) assured me, though, that my letter definately reached them,
despite the fact that I didn't phone from home, not did I identify
myself in any way).

"The Invalid" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> On Wed, 15 Mar 2006 10:51:36 -0000, "Jim" <nos-(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:
>
> >In recent months I've noticed my broadband speeds decreasing to
unacceptable
> >levels. A few months again ping times were reasonably good on Tiscali,
but
> >now hey, they are really bad. I have just been around to a friend who is
> >running tiscali 1mb and he is not even getting a reliable 512k at any
time.
> >What is going on with this ISP and why are they getting away with
providing
> >such crap speeds and pathetic ping times......
> >
> >If you went into a butchers shop and asked for a half a pound of beef and
he
> >gave you a quarter, you would soon be doing something about it???
>
> Is Tiscali selling beef then ?


I bet you think your right clever eh?
WRONG !!

"Poldie" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) ups.com...

> I wrote to them about this (slow speeds), after spending ages over
> several calls trying to diagnose the problem. Someone at `technical
> services` informed me that I could only get 1meg, despite them happily
> signing me up and charging me for 2. They offered me the choice of
> cancelling (I was only 5 weeks into the contract then) or going onto 1
> meg officially. I wanted the latter, but in writing, and a refund of
> the money I'd spent on their 0870 numbers, and an apology for messing
> me around so much, so I wrote to their customer services deparment in
> Milton Keynes.
>
> I followed it up with a phone call 2 weeks later, only to be told that
> they take 3-4 weeks to reply. Apparantly they even take that long to
> get back to their own technical department. The guy (in an Indian call
> centre) assured me, though, that my letter definately reached them,
> despite the fact that I didn't phone from home, not did I identify
> myself in any way).

Your experience of Tiscali is how it is with ISP's who offer cheapo service
aimed at thick individuals who don't know the difference between broadband
and dial up speeds. Well lets face it, there is little difference between
dial-up and broadband speeds if you are with Tiscali broadband these days. A
couple of years ago, Tiscali was much much better than it is today, and they
were then charging 24.99 per month for 512k. I was happy to pay that much
and still would be if they offered a such a package which offered constant
reliable speeds etc. But alas they have chosen to be cheap and cheerful, to
offer broadband at prices too cheaply, encouraging loads of new customers
onto a service that was probably at its limit already. Now they can't
provide half decent speeds to anyone. The service is awful.

> Tiscali was much much better than it is today, and they
> were then charging 24.99 per month for 512k. I was happy to pay that much
> and still would be if they offered a such a package which offered constant
> reliable speeds etc. But alas they have chosen to be cheap and cheerful,
> to
> offer broadband at prices too cheaply, encouraging loads of new customers
> onto a service that was probably at its limit already. Now they can't
> provide half decent speeds to anyone. The service is awful.

Agreed, Tiscali used to be great when that service was that price.

They have gone rapidly downhill and it is difficult to get away from them
now... read on.

I disconnected on the 31st of January (more like my service was suspended
then) and it's now halfway through March and my line still isn't free for Be
to connect me. My last phone call to them was very informative, they said
that they "had forgotten to send an engineer to the exchange to disconnect
their equipment"! Trying the broadband checker on the Tiscali site tells me
that I "have a service on my line that is incompatible with broadband", how
fitting for Tiscali!

37.2 kbps dial-up is painfully slow after 6 weeks of using it. Don't know
how long I'll have to wait for 24Mb to be connected now.

Regards,
Tony.

Jim wrote:

> In recent months I've noticed my broadband speeds decreasing to
> unacceptable levels. A few months again ping times were reasonably good
> on Tiscali, but now hey, they are really bad. I have just been around to
> a friend who is running tiscali 1mb and he is not even getting a reliable
> 512k at any time. What is going on with this ISP and why are they getting
> away with providing such crap speeds and pathetic ping times......

What ping times did they agree to provide you with when you signed up with
them?

> If you went into a butchers shop and asked for a half a pound of beef and
> he gave you a quarter, you would soon be doing something about it???

The trouble is, when you buy broadband, you buy it at some arbitrary
contention ratio [eg 50:1, 20:1, 10:1], and if it's any better than that,
there's not really a lot you can do about it. To eliminate congestion at
your exchange as a reason for poor speed, you'd need to try a service from
a different ISP on the same exchange. If you check your phone number at
samknows.com, it'll tell you if your exchange is contended.

> Why can't this ISP deliver?

Because most people don't notice.

--
<http://ale.cx/> (AIM:troffasky) ((E-Mail Removed))
19:05:56 up 3 days, 9:52, 1 user, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00
This is my BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMSTICK

Now I can fully understand that people complain about Tiscali. I am with
them since the Lineone days.
I can't complain about the speed this has always been excellent. My problem
is the poor (read understaffed)
customer support.

Bert.
"alexd" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message news:(E-Mail Removed)...
> Jim wrote:
>
>> In recent months I've noticed my broadband speeds decreasing to
>> unacceptable levels. A few months again ping times were reasonably good
>> on Tiscali, but now hey, they are really bad. I have just been around to
>> a friend who is running tiscali 1mb and he is not even getting a reliable
>> 512k at any time. What is going on with this ISP and why are they getting
>> away with providing such crap speeds and pathetic ping times......
>
> What ping times did they agree to provide you with when you signed up with
> them?
>
>> If you went into a butchers shop and asked for a half a pound of beef and
>> he gave you a quarter, you would soon be doing something about it???
>
> The trouble is, when you buy broadband, you buy it at some arbitrary
> contention ratio [eg 50:1, 20:1, 10:1], and if it's any better than that,
> there's not really a lot you can do about it. To eliminate congestion at
> your exchange as a reason for poor speed, you'd need to try a service from
> a different ISP on the same exchange. If you check your phone number at
> samknows.com, it'll tell you if your exchange is contended.
>
>> Why can't this ISP deliver?
>
> Because most people don't notice.
>
> --
> <http://ale.cx/> (AIM:troffasky) ((E-Mail Removed))
> 19:05:56 up 3 days, 9:52, 1 user, load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00
> This is my BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMSTICK
>

On 15 Mar 2006 19:18, alexd <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>The trouble is, when you buy broadband, you buy it at some arbitrary
>contention ratio [eg 50:1, 20:1, 10:1], and if it's any better than
>that, there's not really a lot you can do about it.

I think you meant "worse" not "better".

But it is well known that the ratio of 50:1 is not *actually* used.
Many comments from ISPs would have clarified there being significant
problems if ever such a contention level was approached.


>To eliminate congestion at your exchange as a reason for poor speed,
>you'd need to try a service from a different ISP on the same exchange.
>If you check your phone number at samknows.com, it'll tell you if your
>exchange is contended.

Except for services using DataStream where there may be heavy local
contention because of customer numbers without the exchange being
indicated as having any problems. I was lucky when the ISP was
using bought-in service from Tiscali that I had few problems, but
there were a lot of hops and it could have been easily affected
anywhere between here and London (or hit a busy router on that
route - Manchester, Gloucester, Bristol, Reading then London) and
onward to other networks to reach a remote server.