Tiscali rowing with BT over advert

BT knocks Tiscali in ad. Tiscali gets cross
By Tim Richardson
Posted: 05/03/2004 at 11:44 GMT
The Register Mobile: Find out what the fuss is about. Take the two
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Tiscali UK is hopping mad after BT ran a newspaper ad under the banner
"The truth about Tiscali's notquitesobroadband".

Furious execs have already fired off a letter to BT demanding that it
doesn't repeat the ad, which they say includes "factual inaccuracies"
about the ISP and suggests that it is "not truthful with its
customers".

The ad, published in yesterday's Daily Mail read: "So you've seen you
can get broadband from Tiscali for under £20 a month. Sounds goods
doesn't it? Tiscali might have you believe that, but what you may not
know is that their broadband is only up to three or five times faster
than dial-up. Slowcoaches. But BT's £19.99 a month broadband is full
speed, wow look at it go, broadband that's up to 10 times faster than
dial-up."

Tiscali has already written to BT about the ad and its solicitor has
written to the Daily Mail and major newspaper groups to voice concerns
about the ad.

Said a Tiscali spokeswoman: "We're rather disappointed to see the BT
advertisement 'The truth about Tiscali's notquitesobroadband' which
appeared in the Daily Mail.

"The content of the advertisement contains factual inaccuracies about
the Tiscali products. It also implies that Tiscali is not truthful
with its customers about the speed of our range of broadband services,
which is not the case.

"We are happy for any of our competitors to use comparative
advertising, but this was not comparing like for like. We believe
there is room for us all in the market and that BT as a supplier to
Tiscali should be encouraging healthy competition and choice in the
market."

No one at BT was available for comment at the time of writing.

BT launched its new £19.99 a month broadband product on Monday swiftly
followed by a volley of fire as rival ISPs exposed the limitations of
the service. The BT Broadband Basic service has a 1Gb a month usage
limit, and the headline price is not what it seems, competitors say.

Although BT Broadband Basic costs £19.99 a month, the £80 up-front
set-up cost means that for the first year punters must cough up a few
pennies short of £320 for the service. Even subscribing to the telco's
full no-frills, access only service - BT Broadband - only costs
punters £324 for the first year.

Several ISPs, which offer full 512k broadband services with no usage
caps, say that - with installation and hardware costs thrown in as
part of their deals - they are even cheaper.

The kerfuffle that blighted the launch of BT's new product continued
after BT Openworld boss Duncan Ingram was blasted for misleading
punters over the cost of its new "no frills" basic service.

Interviewed on BBC radio, he said that the £19.99 product "makes us
the cheapest for a full broadband experience, which is ten times
faster. Quite a lot of all the other lower-priced services you talk
to, are offering perhaps at best double normal dial-up, or perhaps two
or three times."

But Sheffield-based ISP PlusNet, got the hump after it pointed out
that it has been offering a full, uncapped 512k service for the last
20 months. And at £18.99 a month with up-front costs of £59.99, it is
considerably cheaper than BT's basic service. ®

Related stories
PlusNet throws strop at BT cheapest broadband claim
Rival ISPs rubbish BT Broadband Basic
BT touts £20 capped broadband

scuffler wrote:
> BT knocks Tiscali in ad. Tiscali gets cross
> By Tim Richardson
> Posted: 05/03/2004 at 11:44 GMT
> The Register Mobile: Find out what the fuss is about. Take the two
> week trial today.
>
>
> Tiscali UK is hopping mad after BT ran a newspaper ad under the banner
> "The truth about Tiscali's notquitesobroadband".

Thats not nice. I thought there was some kind of unwritten rule that
companies do not diss other companies in advertising

>...
> BT touts £20 capped broadband

BT make me laugh. With a 1GB cap (admittedly with no over-usage charge
until September) this is a bit crap. At Metronet (for example) 1GB will
cost you £14.10 (inc. VAT). And you can share the connection.
--
Grumps

Beck wrote:
> scuffler wrote:
>> BT knocks Tiscali in ad. Tiscali gets cross
>> By Tim Richardson
>> Posted: 05/03/2004 at 11:44 GMT
>> The Register Mobile: Find out what the fuss is about. Take the two
>> week trial today.
>>
>>
>> Tiscali UK is hopping mad after BT ran a newspaper ad under the
>> banner "The truth about Tiscali's notquitesobroadband".
>
> Thats not nice. I thought there was some kind of unwritten rule
> that companies do not diss other companies in advertising

You haven't seen the recent Tele2 adverts have you.....

On Fri, 5 Mar 2004 20:02:54 +0000 (UTC), "Beck"
<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

>> Tiscali UK is hopping mad after BT ran a newspaper ad under the banner
>> "The truth about Tiscali's notquitesobroadband".
>
>Thats not nice. I thought there was some kind of unwritten rule that
>companies do not diss other companies in advertising

I think that rule was broken in the 70's with lawnmowers.

--
Hiram Hackenbacker

"scuffler" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) om...
-snip-

I wonder if Tiscali take as much focus in responding to the customer
criticisms in sites like adsl guide and similar ;-)

Wango

If my experience is any thing to go by NO. They don't reply to e-mails and
can't progress a fault uless I'm sat in front of my comp. Utter Cr*p.

Peter.

"·.¸¸.·´¯`Wango´¯`·.¸¸.·" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:4048ea88$0$232$(E-Mail Removed)...
> "scuffler" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
> news:(E-Mail Removed) om...
> -snip-
>
> I wonder if Tiscali take as much focus in responding to the customer
> criticisms in sites like adsl guide and similar ;-)
>
> Wango
>
>

Kráftéé wrote:
> Beck wrote:
>> scuffler wrote:
>>> BT knocks Tiscali in ad. Tiscali gets cross
>>> By Tim Richardson
>>> Posted: 05/03/2004 at 11:44 GMT
>>> The Register Mobile: Find out what the fuss is about. Take the two
>>> week trial today.
>>>
>>>
>>> Tiscali UK is hopping mad after BT ran a newspaper ad under the
>>> banner "The truth about Tiscali's notquitesobroadband".
>>
>> Thats not nice. I thought there was some kind of unwritten rule
>> that companies do not diss other companies in advertising
>
> You haven't seen the recent Tele2 adverts have you.....

Thats not really dissing BT though, only comparing prices.

scuffler wrote:

> BT knocks Tiscali in ad. Tiscali gets cross


Like Tiscai are not fibbers..

Broadband = 128k....

On 5 Mar 2004 11:26:06 -0800, (E-Mail Removed) (scuffler) wrote:

>Said a Tiscali spokeswoman: "We're rather disappointed to see the BT
>advertisement 'The truth about Tiscali's notquitesobroadband' which
>appeared in the Daily Mail.

It appeared in the Indy today. Looks like the lawyers are going to be
busy letter writing.

>"The content of the advertisement contains factual inaccuracies about
>the Tiscali products. It also implies that Tiscali is not truthful
>with its customers about the speed of our range of broadband services,
>which is not the case.

The BT and Tiscali adverts are both in the Indy today - both look fine
to me. The BT one has some small print which makes clear the basis
for its comparison etc. Seems very fair and I worry about
organisations like Tiscali when they respond like this.

--
Hiram Hackenbacker