Are Tiscali SO bad? Leaving Pipex, looking for new ISP

Hi,

Due to a shambolic year with Pipex, and a whole variety of problems
with them, I'm finally cancelling my contract after 4 years.

I'm interested in the Tiscali Broadband & Talk package.

I see a lot of people complaining about Tiscali, but If you look hard
enough, folk are complaining about a lot of ISPs.

My question is: on the whole, is their Broadband service that bad just
now?

eno

> Due to a shambolic year with Pipex, and a whole variety of problems
> with them, I'm finally cancelling my contract after 4 years.
>
> I'm interested in the Tiscali Broadband & Talk package.
>
> I see a lot of people complaining about Tiscali, but If you look hard
> enough, folk are complaining about a lot of ISPs.
>
> My question is: on the whole, is their Broadband service that bad just
> now?

Eggs and baskets comes to mind. Personally I think it is a big mistake to
take your line away from BT because they are still responsible for
correcting any faults and have a 24/7 reporting system for which the cost is
only a pound a month or so more than other compaies. Subject to making a
couple of calls a month you can free call display as well. Moving your line
to another company means that if you have a problem then there is another
layer of bureaucracy to get through to report a fault. As for a call package
there are a number out there. For my calling pattern it suits me to use
TalkTalk for this but others may suit other people. When it comes to ISP
there is obviously a wide choice and you need to do your research carefully
and don't be too influenced by those who praise or run down a particular
ISP. No one ISP's packages will suit all users and price is not the main
criteria you should use to choose.

Peter Crosland

<(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:(E-Mail Removed) ups.com...
> Hi,
>
> Due to a shambolic year with Pipex, and a whole variety of problems
> with them, I'm finally cancelling my contract after 4 years.
>
> I'm interested in the Tiscali Broadband & Talk package.
>
> I see a lot of people complaining about Tiscali, but If you look hard
> enough, folk are complaining about a lot of ISPs.

Most of the complaints are aimed at ISP products at the cheap end of the
market - Tiscali, Plusnet, Sky, TalkTalk etc

Buy cheap, get cheap.

> My question is: on the whole, is their Broadband service that bad just
> now?

No, not "just now".
Tiscali started with a bad reputation, and have managed to maintain that
status till present day.

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Due to a shambolic year with Pipex, and a whole variety of problems
> with them, I'm finally cancelling my contract after 4 years.
>
> I'm interested in the Tiscali Broadband & Talk package.
>
> I see a lot of people complaining about Tiscali, but If you look hard
> enough, folk are complaining about a lot of ISPs.
>
> My question is: on the whole, is their Broadband service that bad just
> now?
>
> eno

I have two lines -- one provided by my employer, second my own home
line. The first has BT Business Broadband (8Mb), the second Tiscali
8Mb. Both lines have BT still for voice, and both lines are not
unbundled (no LLU at my exchange).

On speed-tests I never get as high throughput during peak times
(evenings) on Tiscali as I do on BT BB. That said, I've never had
'bad' throughput on Tiscali -- sure, the speedtests show I get 4Mbps
vs. 6Mbps on BT, but 4Mbps is more than enough...

And when you compare £27 per month (BT BB), vs. £12.99 on Tiscali I
can't help thinking that Tiscali is the way to go.

I've had BT BB for 5 years, and only had two outages with them -- one
on only this week. On both occasions, got straight through to customer
services and problem resolved fairly quickly.

I've only had Tiscali for about 9 months -- no stability problems, so
no need to call their customer services so can't comment there.

In response to what <(E-Mail Removed)> posted in
news:(E-Mail Removed) oups.com:

> I've only had Tiscali for about 9 months -- no stability problems, so
> no need to call their customer services so can't comment there.

Keep hoping that you never do. They are *much* less use than a chocolate
teapot.

--
Joe Soap.

Death is nature's way of telling you to slow down.

Peter Crosland wrote:
> > Due to a shambolic year with Pipex, and a whole variety of problems
> > with them, I'm finally cancelling my contract after 4 years.
> >
> > I'm interested in the Tiscali Broadband & Talk package.
> >
> > I see a lot of people complaining about Tiscali, but If you look hard
> > enough, folk are complaining about a lot of ISPs.
> >
> > My question is: on the whole, is their Broadband service that bad just
> > now?
>
> Eggs and baskets comes to mind. Personally I think it is a big mistake to
> take your line away from BT because they are still responsible for
> correcting any faults and have a 24/7 reporting system for which the cost is
> only a pound a month or so more than other compaies. Subject to making a
> couple of calls a month you can free call display as well. Moving your line
> to another company means that if you have a problem then there is another
> layer of bureaucracy to get through to report a fault. As for a call package
> there are a number out there. For my calling pattern it suits me to use
> TalkTalk for this but others may suit other people. When it comes to ISP
> there is obviously a wide choice and you need to do your research carefully
> and don't be too influenced by those who praise or run down a particular
> ISP. No one ISP's packages will suit all users and price is not the main
> criteria you should use to choose.
>
> Peter Crosland


Peter hit it right on the nail. I am an user of pipex and I do share
the same sympathy with you. It's indeed a shambolic year for them, but
in terms of Broadband technical support, they are pretty good. I have
yet have a problem of any connection, except for voice package. So
price is not always the main attraction. I think all the companies are
undergoing on the price war to win customers over, and in the end, the
cheapest deal company, like Talk Talk, does not provide good customer
service, and you might have problem with broadband connection. So think
carefully what meets your needs. All the providers are the same.

This link might be useful to you.
http://www.adslguide.org.uk/isps/compare.asp

On 3 Nov 2006 04:50:59 -0800, (E-Mail Removed) wrote:
> I'm interested in the Tiscali Broadband & Talk package.
> I see a lot of people complaining about Tiscali, but If you look hard
> enough, folk are complaining about a lot of ISPs.
> My question is: on the whole, is their Broadband service that bad just
> now?

I only got my Tiscali broadband installed about 3 weeks ago, but it works
flawlessly until now - so I can't complain (I am only using it for IP
connectivity and not using any mail servers, Web hosting, ... there)


Christof

--
http://cmeerw.org sip:cmeerw at cmeerw.org
mailto:cmeerw at cmeerw.org xmpp:cmeerw at cmeerw.org

On 3 Nov 2006, (E-Mail Removed) wrote:

>in terms of Broadband technical support, they are pretty good. I have
>yet have a problem of any connection, except for voice package. So
>price is not always the main attraction. I think all the companies are
>undergoing on the price war to win customers over, and in the end, the
>cheapest deal company, like Talk Talk, does not provide good customer
>service, and you might have problem with broadband connection. So think
>carefully what meets your needs. All the providers are the same.

I'm not with Pipex, but a competitor. I have not been with them for even
a full year, but have no complaints about their service (and whilst there
might sometimes be a delay in getting response to support tickets when it
is a line fault that needs escalating to BTW, which was needed for the
connection of one of my friends, they responded promptly on the phone
the other morning when there was some network problem affecting a few
USA websites I wanted to reach, and it was sorted within an hour)...

I wouldn't suggest "all providers are the same" but clearly many use BTW
for the connection to the user's location, and we are therefore subject
to any problems in the BTW kit/network, quite separate of the ISP. I
am paying a 'rock bottom' fee, IMO, at 14.99, and getting very good
service, but it would not suit everyone, of course... I see various
praise for other ISPs which charge a lot more, and sometimes wonder if
part of the reason they get the praise is to do with someone paying the
higher fee (claiming that 'you get what you pay for') but that really is
something which I feel worth challenging, now and then!

On Sat, 4 Nov 2006 02:38:24 UTC, NoNeedToKnow <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote:

> I wouldn't suggest "all providers are the same" but clearly many use BTW
> for the connection to the user's location, and we are therefore subject
> to any problems in the BTW kit/network, quite separate of the ISP.

The difference often appears when BTW have to be chased to do something.
That's where some ISPs are very good, and some are useless. And that's
partly what a higher fee is for.

--
[ 7'ism - a condition by which the sufferer experiences an inability
to give concise answers, express reasoned argument or opinion.
Usually accompanied by silly noises and gestures - incurable, early
euthanasia recommended. ]

Thanks for all your responses and suggestions folks.

As I'd expected, there's a variety of opinions, but no-one saying
categorically NOT to go with Tiscali because there service is so
unbearable.

This year, with Pipex, I've been trying to get them to bill me for the
last 6 months - and no amount of emails, phone calls and faxes has
resolved it - something to do with a cock-up in their new computer
system. All I actually wanted was for them to start billing me again,
then I'd change to their 8M service. It's the hardest thing in the
world for them to do, apparently.

So, I decided to just take my business elsewhere, and saw that Tiscali
were offering some good deals. I'm not too concerned with fantastic
customer service, just a reasonably reliable broadband service.

Thanks again

(E-Mail Removed) wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Due to a shambolic year with Pipex, and a whole variety of problems
> with them, I'm finally cancelling my contract after 4 years.
>
> I'm interested in the Tiscali Broadband & Talk package.
>
> I see a lot of people complaining about Tiscali, but If you look hard
> enough, folk are complaining about a lot of ISPs.
>
> My question is: on the whole, is their Broadband service that bad just
> now?
>
> eno