DONT EVEN THINK ABOUT SIGNING UP WITH THEM.
Tiscali have let me down big time.
I am moving house and cannot go until my broadband & phone is connected at the new house . I trusted this job to Tiscali - who told me 6 - 10 days.
After 7 daya i had heard nothing about a connection date so i began to try to contact them. i was put through after dozens of calls to their Connection dept who told me I was to be patient and that it will be done in time. they gave me a TIS number.
3 days later I was ringing again - bear in mind Im being charged 10p a minute to listed to their music for 40 mins at a time.
I cant get through to anywhere as I cannot supply a telephone number.
When i do speak to someone (in sales as thats the only department i can reach) im told that the TIS number i was given doesnt exist - they dont have TIS numbers - and worse still - THAT MY ORDER WAS NEVER PLACED IN THE FIRST PLACE!
So here we are, packed up - with half our belongings in one house - half in another - cant move house as I need access to the internet 24/7 almost - and I have to start again
the nice guy in sales sais - never mind we'll start again and make sure it goes through this time....What? they think i would trust them again after what they have done to us?
I ran BT and was given a date in 2 days for the telphone and a telephone number!
I rang Virgin and will wait 5 more days to have my present account transferred to the new number.
I could have done this in the first place but someone mentioned the great packages and i got tempted.
I would never recommend Tiscali to anyone.
In fact - im considering suing them - if i can get enough evidence.

Posted by Jeanette Wilks on the 16th June 2008

Tiscali called me and told me to switch my line rental to them as it would be free.

THEY CALLED ME.

They promised to contact BT to switch my line rental.

They stopped sending me my bills by mail.

I checked my bill online and it turns out they have been charging me for line rental on top of my broadband for 10 months.

I phone up their premium rate tiscali customer services and they promise to send me a cheque refunding my line rental for 10 months.

I then find out they did not contact BT whom I have also paid over £100 line rental on top of the tiscali line rental in the last 10 months.

After no cheque arrives I recall premium rate customer services who tell me now that I need to send in proof of payment of my BT line rental.

They never mentioned this before.

They also tell me the case has been closed and I'm not getting refund.


This is theft.

They called me.

They promised me free line rental.

They promised to cancel my existing line rental from BT.

They promised to refund me.

They cost me over £200 with their false promises and still no refund.

FRAUD

FRAUD

FRAUD

Posted by Ade on the 11th June 2008

Dear Sir
It is with no regret that I write to ask you to inform me in writing of the earliest date that I can terminate my contract with you that will not incur me any form of “early closure penalties”.

This is due in the main to an appalling level of customer service, your seeming unwillingness or inability to communicate with your customers, and that in order to do anything I have no option to make frequent time consuming long distance calls to India.

When calling initially to set up the account I voiced concern’s to your staff that some consumer reports on your service levels were not complementary due to the difficulties people had in contacting you as your operations were run from India, but was assured that this was “not an issue any longer” as UK operations were now established in Manchester, thereby negating this issue.

Subsequently this turns out not to be the case, as far as I am able to establish only the sales call centre is in the UK, every thing else is done via the telephone to India, an expense not bourn my the company but by the customer, and is in my opinion totally unacceptable, insofar as when the system fails,(something it does frequently), I am left with option but to pay you, (I incur the cost of the call), to tell you that something I’m paying you for isn’t working!

Even such a simple thing as sending you an email is made impossible without again incurring costs. Your system demands a second email address, if you don’t have one you can’t send an email, and in order to get one once again you expect the customer to spend time money and effort calling you to obtain one.

I feel that your whole enterprise is not about providing a “fair” service for a “reasonable” cost, but one of intentionally providing a “poor” level of service, done in order to “maximise” company profits by making money from a constant stream of customer’s telephone calls, paid by them to you.

Yours Faithfully,

T.G.Barnes.

Account Number ***************.

Nuf Said!!!!!

Posted by Barney on the 4th June 2008

agree with all complaints i signed up for broadband and phone package
still on a d s l for nearly a year with the old modem i received 5 years ago
everytime i contact them i get an e mail reff upgrading my package
latest e mail says they cant find my name or package details
if this is so how can they send a bill every month
really getting brassed off
perhaps we should all send watchdog an e mail

Posted by jack mcgee on the 21st May 2008

There is not enough webspace to put into words how I feel about the service Tiscali does not give you. It is only the inconvenience of changing email addresses etc that stop me from cancelling the 2 accounts I have with them. All I will say is STAY AWAY FROM THEM they are USELESS. The technical helpdesk is run by pre-programmed robots who do not listen to what you are saying and the billing department will suspend your account at the drop of a hat and take days to reinstate your service. And they never say sorry when it is their mistake. The technical support team (2nd level) are extremely rude and arrogant and I really hate the way you have to go over the same ground when you phone them (at 10p a minute) to find out why they have not replied to your query. AVOID TISCALI LIKE THE PLAGUE. THEY ARE TOTAL C**P! My blood is boiling just thinking about the fact that such an incompetent outfit can call themselves an ISP.

Posted by CASSANDRA on the 22nd April 2008

I've worked in Tiscali Sales dept for eight months and have had a pristine service from the company for a full five months. No complaints at all; service has been perfect even through server crashes in the area. Tiscali may have had lots of bad reviews, but you really have to think - out of over a million customers, what's the ratio of happy customers to unhappy customers? Count me towards the happy ones.

Posted by Kayla on the 18th April 2008

Please do not go with Tiscali. I agree with everything that has been said, the cost of service calls etc. The worst thing is not being able to understand a word the service desk say, and the complete inability to get a mac code. You ask, they say they can't give it to you, it has to be the engineers dept. They will not let you ring that dept, but say they will get the engineers dept to ring you, then of course you never hear from them. We have been trying for a year to change provider but without the mac code you are scuppered.

Posted by VIVIEN PRINCE on the 17th April 2008

Avoid them like the plague! They lie. My moving home reprovision sat in some in-tray in Deli waiting for two months before someone in the cancellation team in the UK submitted the request. This was after I had threatened cancellation. It works for tiscali because they get to keep you on the phone for ages and they get paid from the 0845 lines anyway. They were charging me full price despite only providing 25% of performance.
They epitomise what is wrong with the bulk of half-baked orgnisations in the UK, where the words CUSTOMER and SATISFACTION can not be used in the same sentence. The sooner organisations like this fold up, the better. The public will not be bombarded with seemingly good providers that are only too eager to take your money and not deliver. I haven't experienced the direct debit after cancellation thing yet but I don't doubt that they pull such robberies.
P.S. Unfortunately, this site does not allow a negative rating! That's what Tiscali deserves.

Posted by Lawrence on the 15th April 2008

Had them for over two years now and I can honestly say they are rubbish. I am currently on the 8 Mb deal and I checked the speed and actually get under 2; can't wait until the contract runs out in a few months time. About 50, 1 star ratings can't be wrong: bad ratings, bad service, and they don't listen... Just do what the person below me said and AVOID AVOID AVOID...

Posted by Thomas on the 14th April 2008

AVOID like the black plague. I signed up with Tiscalli back when I was at uni in Sept '06 and the entire time I had problems. Problems with connection, line speed, it was nowhere near 1Mb let alone the supposed 8 they were offering. Then when you have to cancel with them... don't even get me started. First of all none of their staff can understand you because they live in India. I left uni in July, took me until November to properly cancel it because of the problems I was having. Ironically, the only time I ever received good support was the last guy I spoke to who finally put the account to rest... always ask for William!

Posted by Tom on the 11th April 2008

AVOID AVOID AVOID
I want to weep whenever I had to contact Tiscali. Customer service is disgraceful and one gets told blatant lies. No response to emails and it costs a ton to phone 10p a minute call centres. Thankfully with O2 at a mere 6,50 a month.
AVOID AVOID AVOID

Posted by Flake on the 26th March 2008

Tiscali are THIEVES. If you cancel an account with them and the direct debit - they just re-enable the Direct Debit and take your money again. The bank WILL let them do this - its in the DD small print. They man their cancellation phone line with a dead pigeon - it's never answered.

Posted by JOhn Thomas on the 24th March 2008

Tiscali are rubbish at customer satisfaction, they never answer your calls and emails, they are charging me 17-99 per month for broadband, and talk two and I don't even have or want talk two. I have told them this time and time again, they just don't listen and I've tried changing my package but it won't let me. I would not even give them one star, I would advice anyone not to join them, rating 00000.

Posted by richard wilson on the 20th March 2008

I joined Tiscali in May 2006. I signed up for their broadband and telephone package. In January 2007 I changed my telephone number. Between then and October 2007 I was unable to log on to broadband - a period of 10 months. After many infuriating conversations with their Technical Support Team in India (some calls lasting over an hour) and their Customer Services Team , I decided to cancel my subscription. Yes, Tiscali still took my money even though they were not providing me with a service. I thought that would be the end of it, but it certainly wasn't. After changing my broadband supplier I still received monthly bills from Tiscali. I don't know how many times I called them to say I was no longer with them, and that they in fact owed me 10 months subscription fees for the time I was without broadband. I cancelled my direct debit in December, so that they couldn't take any more money, and now I am being threatened by their Collections Team. They say that if I don't pay, I will be transferred to a debt collector which could mean additional costs and an affect on my credit rating. If you are thinking about using Tiscali as an ISP, please DON'T. I have never been treated in such a bad way by a company in my life. Unfortunately I have to enter one star but it really should be zero.

Posted by Helen on the 19th March 2008

Lol, exactly the same comments as Mrs Johnstone below. We migrated away in October 2007 and are enjoying our internet with Nildram. Since then we have been billed and had money taken by Tiscali each month. Cancelled the direct debit on their advice and now have debt collection threatened. Endless promises of refund, no cheque. Small Claims Courts via moneyclaim.gov.uk is our next port of call. DON'T EVER USE TISCALI.

Posted by D Williams on the 17th March 2008

I've had an appalling experience with Tiscali. I won't go into it but instead have contact BBC's Watchdog. If everyone could do the same maybe they will raise an issue. There's nothing like bad publicity to make a company mend its ways. Sometimes.

Posted by Rebecca on the 15th March 2008

To be totally honest Tiscali have been the best internet provider I've used to date in over 12 years of internet use, value coupled with the latest technical innovations delivered. There have been issues but you learn, having dealt with so many companies in the past to be patient, polite and persistent any issues I've had have been resolved and they have been few. What is the point of ranting and raving it will get you no where.

Posted by Tracy on the 14th March 2008

Complete rubbish, stay well away from these clowns. They fail at net provision. I just hope ppl check sites like these before believing all the hype and sad to say lies of the adverts.

Posted by johno on the 10th March 2008

Tiscali = rubbish
After 3 months of arguing with their Indian call centers about my 6mb connection (upgraded my account tor their 8mb packaged) that down-graded itself to less than 2mb was given this barely legible email:

"As I understand through your mail that after upgrading to 8 Meg still your receiving only 2.7 Meg. I apologise for the inconvenience and sorry for the delay response, as I checked your accounts I found that you wont be able to receive more than 2 Meg though you Line supports 8 Meg because as per Circuit build on your exchange as off now we wont be able to provide you more then 2 meg. Would like request you that you can call billing and asked them to downgrade your package to 2 Meg. Number for our billing is 0871 222 3311 with option 2 and then 2.
For further concern please revert us and we will assist you in better ways."

What a lot of rubbish. I had a 6mb connection to start with! Customer service = rubbish (and very rude). Technical support = clueless (read from a script ). If their was a zero rating I would give them that. Don't touch these idiots with a long pole.

Posted by Kevin Thomson on the 3rd March 2008

I joined tiscali about 2 years ago and I've been paying for 2mb broadband; all I get is 20-40kb. I think they are rubbish and that nobody should join. I also bought a wireless router tried to phone up and get help putting it on, I spent ages on the phone with them telling me to press buttons that were not on the router with accents that were so bad I had to ask them to say it again twice to understand it. Then it didn't work and I had to reset it again, I now have it running through my wireless and Ethernet and still hardly manages 40kbs download speed.

Posted by Jack Fairbrother on the 28th February 2008

Stay away from Tiscali, I don't know how they are still in business, never answer emails and impossible to get on the phone. All in all a bad service.

Posted by MOGGIES on the 27th February 2008

I have never known such a bad company, it would be faster walking to the moon than trying to contact the so called Customer Service (what a joke). I've been trying to contact them for days with a problem, stay away! They don't even deserve 1 star.

Posted by SUE on the 27th February 2008

Tiscali were OK when I first joined 4 years ago but now I think they should be closed down, they are not even worthy of the title internet and telephone provider, they are a complete joke. I am sick of trying to make contact with them with ongoing problems, when you do hear from them its just a pack of lies and what they tell you is standard script. If anyone knows of a way to speak to a human who actually knows what they are talking about, please do let me know. I can't even get through to someone to get my MAC number now, and I know by law they should provide that within 5 days.

Posted by Debbie G on the 21st February 2008

Do not sign up with Tiscali unless you want rubbish service, slow speeds and to be ripped off. I left them in December after 2 years. I range to let them know I was leaving and a few days before I left, I received a 2 'customer courtesy call' (I had never had one of these in all my time with them - what a coincidence). The first time they cut me off as my boyfriend passed the phone to me, they rang back a couple of days later to inform me of their 'special offers' for me and when I said 'you should've offered them to me sooner' they cut me off. They then sent a bill for the whole month, I wrote back asking for an amended bill twice but deny any knowledge of me informing them I was leaving even they rang me as well! They are now threatening me with debt collectors and to blacklist my name; all this because I paid what I owed. Tiscali is getting nasty cos I refuse to pay for extra two weeks as I'm already with a new supplier. It must be illegal of them to treat me this way. I was a good customer who never defaulted on payments - maybe that's why!

Posted by Karen on the 18th February 2008

My husbands contract with Tiscali ended, he requested and got mac code, this was July last year. Every month since then Tiscali have taken payments out of his bank account for a service they no longer provide. 3 long and outrageously expensive phone calls to their customer services dept resulted in 3 promises that the cheque is in the post regarding a refund. Still waiting for cheque to arrive. Will be taking Tiscali to County Courts if they do not refund money they have taken.

Posted by Mrs Johnstone on the 16th February 2008

I can vouch for most of the comments about tiscali, as being one of their customers I have been suffering the same, slow speeds of late 24/7, more recently between 5pm and 12/1 am before I get any where near my advertised speed of 2mb, plus not able to go to speedtest.net since telling tech support I use it to monitor my speeds, even e-mailed Mary Turner (head honcho) or used to be, just the same response you get from cust services. Zero, no response. They are useless all the way. The recent ads on t.v. make me laugh, superfast broadband - that has to be miss-selling and should be reported to trading standards as others have said don't use tiscali. Unless you want problems that seem never to get resolved... I certainly will not be renewing my contract with them or continuing it either. Dick Turpin had the decency to wear a mask when he robbed people on the highways, they are worse...

Posted by Tom Rimmer on the 13th February 2008

For the last week or two I have not been able to get a connection. Tiscali 'help' (misnomer if there ever was one) either through email or phone are clueless. I suspect it is to do with Tiscali putting everyone in my area up to 8mb and overloading things. Not that they will admit it. I have also been trying unsuccessfully to change my package details for 6 months and as a result have been overpaying - do they care! I'm desperate to change to another ISP but they all sound as bad as each other.

Posted by Paul B on the 13th February 2008

Warmning!!! To anybody contemplating signing up to tiscali - don't do it. I'm sick to death of being unable to log onto the web because their servers have gone down again. I had hoped they would sort this out. That was months ago and still the same unreliable service. Don't make the same mistake. Look elsewhere.

Posted by S Piper on the 11th February 2008

Tiscali don't deserve to be in business even the term Internet Service Provider when it comes to them is a breach of advertising standards. I have been a customer of theirs for 2 years no and at first they were pretty good. But after my 12 months contract was up was when the problems started. I am on the Max 8mb package and over the last 12 months my speed has become appalling. Until a couple of months ago it was averaging 2 mbps then it dropped to below 512mbps. In fact on 2 separate occasions it went down to 2kbps yes thats right 2 kilobytes per second. Over 2 weeks ago I lodged a complaint with them about the slow speeds after getting a snotty FUP letter. Tiscali kept telling me that it was a fault at the exchange. I spoke to one of the engineers at my local exchange who told me there was no fault that the problem was Tiscali had over extended them selves with customer uptake and they had placed a speed cap on lines to prevent their whole network from collapsing under the strain. I don't know how true this is but it makes more sense than I have had a faulty line for over a year and Open Reach are ignoring it. Eventually after getting fed up with the lack of service I requested a mac code and within minutes of Sky giving me an activation date my broadband died. I rang Tiscali and was told it was an exchange fault (after them trying to get me to do a load of pointless tests including speed tests duh I HAVE NO INTERNET). I am not one to believe in coincidences so I take Tiscali's assertions of exchange faults with a pinch of salt. I rang Sky and BT both did line tests and said there was nothing wrong. So today I rang Ofcom and was told that Tiscali had broken the rules (Article 22). Ofcom rang Tiscali at 16.57, my internet back on at 17.21 albeit at a constant 512kbps. I believe after reading all the horror stories on here and other forums that senior management at Tiscali have a covert policy to lie to and defraud their customers. I intend to contact the Serious Fraud Office with a view to having the management of Tiscali brought to justice and here is where I need your help. What I am after is all circumstances where Tiscali has obtained money by deception. This can be where you have been quoted that you can get a speed and you get substantially less. Where Tiscali cuts you off after you get a mac code but still expect you to pay citing dubious exchange faults. Where Tiscali have taken money even after migration is complete. I need you to give specific details incl your email addy should the police need to contact you.

Posted by Andrew Macleod on the 8th February 2008

Never choose Tiscali, I started with them 1.5 years ago, they were initially good, but now they are terrible, I have no internet for 1 week SO FAR and every time when I call them (0871 number!!!) they promise to solve the problem in 4 hours, but now it's a week and every time I stay for 30 minutes on the phone!!!

Posted by James on the 5th February 2008

What an absolute rubbish.

I have been without connection for 4 days now and told everyday it will be another 24 hours.

On hold for ages trying to get through.

Off shore call centre with polite but scripted staff who do nothing but irritate you with their standard phrases of consolation.

Before you sign up with tiscali wait, think again and then go somewhere else. They are truly awful.

I gave them the benefit of the doubt last year when my email was down for a week - this time I'm off even if it costs me more money. For the last year I have had nothing but down time and slow connections.

Why do they think a rebate for 4 days service (£1.93) will make me feel happy?

Tiscali!!!!! - it's not about the price you spanner - it's the sheer inconvenience and inept ability of your website or phone line to show an accurate service status and the robotic call centre staff who are completely clueless - and your ability to provide a reliable service.

Come on people - vote with your feet!!!!!

Posted by Don Aitken on the 4th February 2008

I have had no probs with tiscali for 2 yrs UNTIL NOW! I cannot connect to lobby on COD4 between 6-11pm. Rang them and told them about this and asked if it was because of their fair usage policy. They said it wasn't that because I didn't come under their policy. Said they were trying to fix the problem but its still the same after 2 weeks. How hard can it be! Don't want to change but Tiscali are going to force me and many others to do just that!

Posted by Stephen Drury on the 28th January 2008

What can I say that hasn't been said. I rang tech support cause all my torrents are being closed between what is meant to be 6pm to 11pm but for me seem to be around 4ish until well after 12. Spoke to some Indian being total that tiscali put no restrictions on the line at all, and I may just experience some slow down during peek times. I explain I ain't experiencing slow down, I am experiencing a complete stop.. "This is not possible Sir." What, am i lying? So eventually I located to FUP and I accept that torrents are a stain on the like and blocking them is no problem but then call of duty 4 came my was for ps3 and boom not only are they blocking my torrents they are blocking my gaming? How can this be? So I ring them speaking to 1 guy at 1 am explaining my torrents and ps3 are unconnectable... "You can not connect to the internet sir" are you not listening to what I am saying... so after line test etc. in the middle of conversation my torrents came back online.. so tried ps3 boom back online also. Did'nt wanna waste anymore time and said thanks I am back online blah blah knowing he did nottin just the peak hrs had finish at an absurd 1 am.. Then I have to call them cause for the 3rd Saturday in a row my Ps3 is unaccessible online... Talked to another guy, he ran test blah blah, then said he can't access the relevant information and put me back on the main line and press 2, 2 this will take me to right department.. BS that was billing department. Altho an English based department they appologise saying I shouldn't be transferred and was put back on the main line to tech department wait over 30mins to get thro to another operator "what is your problem sir", I explained I am gettin no connection on the playstation 3 network.. "sorry sir I don't understand your problem" repeated this several times trying to explain a little better each time.. "ok sir what router are you using?" I said it's not a router problem. "I know sir but I need to know so the router department may help." So I accepted this she then went on what type of windows are you using. I lost it, I am not using window on a playstation 3. Ok so then she says "ok sir can I give you the number of the department that will help you." Ok finally were are getting somewhere, I replied. "Can you not just transfer me?" "Sorry sir I do not have the facility to do so..." So I took the number, phoned the number and she had given me the number for BELKIN yes Belkin I was so annoyed. Anyways am now going to attempt to transfer / request the MAC code... Wish me luck!!!

P.S. I never received any FUP emails but yet it was clearly put on my account. Never in my life have I been messed around so much, it's a joke...

Posted by Gerball on the 26th January 2008

Tiscali broadband has been the worst connection I have ever come across. Line speed is VERY slow, regular drop outs, technical support is poor, billing / customer service departments a joke. Staff are rude and poorly trained etc.

And the real problems only start when you ask for a MAC code. Leaving Tiscali has taken me 4+ months. And even now they continue to chase payment for the 4 months since after I cancelled.

I've swapped to Sky. Granted the speed is less than the 8Mb advertised. But that's normal! But the service I get is 100% better and at least the connection is stable. Plus the wireless router seems ok. I'd rate Tiscali lower than one star but it isn't an option.

Posted by Neil P on the 23rd January 2008

Despite canceling my Tiscali order with hours of placing it, they still grabbed my ADSL and started to bill me. They have disrupted my service with my contracted supplier, delayed supplying a MAC, and for reasons that escape me, provided a 1Mbps service on a line that has handled 6.5Mbps via BT for years. Their customer support line is staffed by people who are mostly unintelligible and their hold music, with which you WILL become very familiar is very annoying. They don't even deserve one star. Completely useless.

Posted by Mark Bell on the 22nd January 2008

I left this shambles in desperation. However, today they send me a letter saying they see I cancelled my direct debit. On phoning them, they have not cancelled the account (despite giving me a migration code!). I was put through to cancellations and the phone was not answered in 35 minutes. I gave up. They can send their collection agents etc... What a poor operation is this? Stay away.

Posted by Eugene Thomson on the 21st January 2008

I signed up for the 8mb package with unlimited telephone calls. Tiscali feed back on requests for help non existent, Tech desk personnel no command of English, rude and intolerant. Date of set up changed, then reverted back, no communication. Installation disk and filters turned up 3 days later after line set up. Initially the download speeds were great! 1 month later have average of 512 kb per second downloads. It is a totally rubbish set up now. I have constant line drop outs and now having discovered this forum I realise all is not well with Tiscali. I should have researched better. I feel like driving down to Milton Keynes and letting them have a personal volley of my dismay at their totally rubbish set up. Customer care is something that Tiscali have no conscience about whatsoever.
My advice to anyone considering using Tiscali is don't do it! Your blood pressure will be sky high! The claimed Tiscali download speeds are total fantasy. My home is less than 500 metres from the exchange! I am seriously thinking of taking the matter to the Trading standards Office and the advertising standards authority 01487 for total misrepresentation. I have 10 months left with them and I will then move on after doing some extensive research.

Posted by Bob Lancaster on the 20th January 2008

Here it is then. Probably the first of a number of rants. I have been with this crowd of jokers for a few years now. The only reason I haven't moved so far is that I need my broadband service and I don't want to wait months for the line to be cleared. I complained a couple of years ago about how much I was paying for the slow lane on the internet and they upgraded me to a 2 Mbps service for the same price, probably just to shut me up! A speed check revealed that this had happened. Without any kind of warning they recently dropped me back to 512kb (same price). I only found out when I started speed checking my line again. The complaints people (after repeating the complaint 6 times in one session) emailed me to say that I was no longer eligible for that package and - get this - have no history of ever being on the faster speed!!! Liars?? Oh yes! Prove it? Probably not. Apparently I am to wait a max of 48 hours for technical support to contact me. I want the service I am paying for - what on earth will technical support do for me that the complaints and billing people couldn't. I honestly despair!!

Posted by Frank Gibson on the 18th January 2008

I took a business broadband package as the last provider (DEMON) were very good but only offered 50gig a month before the fup came into force, tiscali business has no fup.
But the first day after activation I found out they don't allow you to use peer2peer during peek times, whereas with demon I could use it at any time but not to go over my 50gig or they drop the bandwidth for a short period. I have phoned tiscali who said "nothing can be done." As soon as my 90 day contract expires I will go back to demon.

Posted by Jones8430 on the 14th January 2008

I am now stuck with tiscali for another 10months unless I pay upfront the rest of the contract which would end in Nov 08. Tiscali is the worst service provider I have ever, ever come across. My son has had problems trying to connect to x-box live for nearly 12months now, after calling microsoft for advice, then calling tiscali and been kept on the phone for nearly 1hr with somebody that couldn't even understand me and didn't have a clue what he was talking about, we are no further forward, tiscali are not interested in trying to sort this out, they are rubbish. Most of my sons friends are with BT and don't seem to have any problems with the connection.

Posted by Tracy Hargreaves on the 13th January 2008

NO STARS. The most appalling (lack of) service I have ever encountered, plus extremely dishonest business practices. Avoid Tiscali at all costs.

I received no connection whatsoever for 2 months while with Tiscali, however still paid them for the service they were not providing. I called them frequently, was lied to, fobbed off and had false appointments made which they did not stick to. Unsurprisingly I cancelled and changed to Plusnet a few months ago, no problems with them so far.

Anyway... now I keep getting letters demanding money which I don't owe. Firstly from Tiscali - so I phoned them, they apologised, said the account was cleared and the matter settled. Now getting more of the same letters, from their debt collection companies, threatening to take me to court, send the bailiffs round, etc. Unbelievable.
I've just spent my evening having to write letters of complaint threatening legal action, what fun. Tiscali will make trouble for you.

Posted by Mat Blackshaw on the 10th January 2008

I switched from Tiscali in March 07, however have been hounded by debt collectors looking for money up until November '07 when tiscali 'ended' my account. I have letters confirming switch over dates from both tiscali and my newer provider, mac codes and the welcome letters etc. all from March '07. Yet despite seeing this Tiscali are still wanting money up until end Nov '07. Rubbish service the whole time. I paid for up to 8meg and got less than 1 most times. AvoidD!! I give 1 star but even that is to much. Pathetic!!

Posted by Jas on the 7th January 2008

After having had to deal with Tiscali's utterly incapable helpdesk personnel and their wonderfully creative use of English coupled with bad static and interference on the line (much as you'd get with a call to say, India, for instance; actually, exactly like that), we finally gave up on Tiscali. Having been told we needed another modem (five times), our subports were faulty (on two computers with mouse, keyboard and hard-disks quite happily using them), my harddisk was broken (what?) and lastly my registry as well, they suggested we cancel. During the many months we'd been calling them to get it all fixed, we were more than happy to oblige, as we'd began shopping around, and decided there were better choices around, if not just downright no poorer ones. Of course, don't count on Tiscali releasing your line to BT again, it's not going to happen. We've racked up at least 50 hours talking to their helpdesk (including being on hold, obviously, but it adds up!), and now that we're being taken for fools once more, it's cost us considerately more than we were willing to pay. Don't go for Tiscali as the 'cheap choice', please. They're far from cheap if you run into the slightest snag, as should be clear enough from reading all of the comments on this page!

Posted by Michael Knubben on the 4th January 2008

I found Tiscali very poor. Speed variations were huge (I was running at less than 150kbps download speed for nearly a month) and had the runaround with customer service who insisted it was the line which was limited to 512kbps - even though I was running regularly at over 3 Mbps before the drop in speed. I changed to another ISP and wish I had never touched Tiscali. A VERY negative rating!

Posted by Richard Skaife on the 31st December 2007

Unreliable.

When I signed up for broadband I understood the service to be always available. There are periods when I cannot connect to the Tiscali network reliably for days on end. The line is not at fault because I am baulked at the "Verifying username and password" stage... It is the Tiscali internal network that is not adequate for the customer base. I am not a large user and try to connect during the day. In the evenings, if you can connect, the speeds are abysmal. At the end of May 2007 when Tiscali had a catastrophic mail system failure they told users that email is an add-on to their service and that users should not rely on it! I want to know why Trading Standards and Ofcom are not independently and automatically monitoring the standard of service provided by ISP's and taking them to task for failures. As for Tiscali, I cannot recommend it.

Posted by Paul Clark on the 30th December 2007

Wow, so many of you guys are having such a problem with Tiscali, trust me, I am having loads of problems. Since I have signed up to Tiscali UK, 4 years ago, I though I was going to get a fantastic service, but I got nothing in return, I requested my mac code loads of times! no, I haven't got it. I can't download torrents after 6PM everyday, even in the P2P times it's very slow! Without the peer 2 peer I get 800kb/s but that's not what I am supposed to be getting with 8meg line? Around 1024 + I am supposed to be getting! Any help on this?

Posted by Nick Cocchiarella on the 20th December 2007

Absolutely terrible, their fair usage policy is the biggest load of BS I've ever seen. It's slow, even when I upgraded to 8 meg, and a network. My dear sweet grandmother can make a better modem than what they give out. Avoid. P.S. Can we get negative stars please?

Posted by Borna on the 23rd November 2007

I joined Tiscali in May. Wished I'd never moved from Plusnet. Tiscali broadband service is rubbish. Drop outs, huge speed variation, and even authentication / ppp problems. Sometimes huge amounts of users can’t log on because their authentication server is down. You'd have thought they'd design a service that was highly available. Duh! They complained when I used 10GB one month! Why??!! It’s UNLIMITED!! Their customer service is even more shit than their broadband service, they don’t know what they're doing, asking the same questions again and again... making money off the 0870 numbers. They probably have a good laugh at us - there's another 10p/min! Great! Keep clear. Only today they have now had enough of me, and informed me that they are letting me go without any penalties. Good riddance Tiscali!

Posted by Stevieb on the 22nd November 2007

Do not go near Tiscali. We joined them several years ago, when they first started and were trying to gain customers. The service was originally excellent, although we were paying £24.99 a month for 5Mgbps. The service has deteriorated over the years. Last year I discovered that while we were paying £24.99pm for 5Mgbps, Tiscali were offering 8Mgbps for £17.99!! It took me over six months to get transferred to this cheaper service. It was always 'being actioned', but nothing ever happened. Then we started having difficulty logging on to Tiscali. The connection kept timing out. Even if we did manage to connect it only lasted for about five to ten minutes, then we were disconnected. Again we kept having to try and log back on again. With the same results. We contacted their Support team, who told us to re-instal everything. We did this FIVE times before they admitted that the servers were not able to cope with the volume, but they were upgrading them.
The same thing happened a few months later, and we went through the same process. It has now happened again and for the last two months we either cannot connect, or when we do we are cut off. Even when we are connected we are obtaining speeds varying from 58Kbps to 915Kbps. Do Tiscali care? Of course not! It is always promises, promises.
The situation is now so bad in our area that most of the Tiscale users are banding together to take action against Tiscali. Our legal advisers tell us to make arrangements to find another service provider and then give tell Tiscali that you are cancelling the service. At the same time CANCEL the direct debit with your bank or credit card holder. Tiscali have no legal grounds for trying to obtain any additional monies. It is Tiscali who has broken the contract, not the user.

Posted by Kenneth Hilton on the 19th November 2007

I have just joined tiscali and I don't know what to think, my speed is MEANT to be 8mb but only get up to 4mb and I can't use the internet on my ps3 because it is a usb modem! We went for tiscali because of homechoice was good for us but tiscali bought homechoice. Homechoice was the best, never had a problem. We had TV, broadband and phone really cheap and great service. I rate homechoice 5, tiscali not so sure right now. I'll rate it 1 as the others did...

Posted by Jibs on the 17th November 2007

I phone every day, every day they promise to sort out my problems in 24 hours, would recommend everyone stay as far away from this company as possible.

Posted by Luke Griffiss-williams on the 16th November 2007

Tiscali are pants. Loads of phone calls, we have gone from a BT 7meg connection to a Tiscali 512 - 1.5 meg connection. No amount of phoning helps, there's no problem at our end. I am going to take them to the small claims court just for fun to get my money back (£30 which will cost them a lot more to defend, not that they can if you do your home work, diary of speed problems and phone calls). Avoid this ISP all my friends have had problems too.

Posted by Chris Britton on the 8th November 2007

I have tiscali broadband and do not recommend it because we are finding it difficult to access certain sites like boots and sainsburys, it is definitely due to tiscali because friends have the same problem with their tiscali!

Posted by Chrissy on the 28th October 2007

Slow, Slower, crap are a few words to sum up tiscali broadband when playing online games. I've had xbox live for almost a year now and I can only name one game which was playable out of about the 20 I have owned. If you have heard of lag then avoid tiscali at all costs. 1mb is retarded, 20 times faster than dial up more like 2000000 times slower. Sometimes my connection is displayed, sometimes even as 0 packets sent and 0 packets received!!! When ringing up customer support, some guy goes on about "our service has become so popular that it is slow due to the high number of users after 6pm." That is just a joke.

Posted by Ross Curtis on the 28th October 2007

Avoid Tiscali like the plague.

I was previously a Plusnet customer, and for all of their quirks, I got greedy and I decided to ditch my BT line and Plusnet broadband for a cheaper provider.

Well trust me, you get what you pay for.

Since day 1, my broadband dropped from a nice 7.5Mbps to about 0.3Mbps, and this I now know, is purely because they have far too many people contending for the capacity that have on their centrals from BT.

So, not a big problem huh? You're gonna get slow speeds at peak periods, that's all - well no it's not....

Trying to get a problem resolved, that itself is the biggest problem with them. I never knew of the well published problems with their speeds, my own fault, I should have researched Tiscali better before joining them, but since logging my first fault with them on 13th August, it took until last night to get someone from Tiscali to actually tell me what the problem with my connection was.

The best of this is, the guy on 2nd Line support said "Cancel! There is nothing we can do for you about your slow speeds," and "We do not have enough capacity between your exchange and the Tiscali servers."

Prior to this I made calls every evening, trying to get someone to call me back. They have 5 call centres, and any actual fault can't be handled by the (non)receptionists that man 1st line support. They promise "we will call you back in 2 hours" - they can't, the smallest window they can provide is 4-6 hours!

I ended up ringing up billing, and complaining to them. They contacted tech support, and finally got something done - oh wait, no they didn't! Tech support rang back and asked "What is the problem you are experiencing" - HOLD ON A MINUTE I've told you every night for the last few weeks you moron!

In the end, I've cancelled my direct debit, and requested my MAC code. I've further got Tiscali to agree to re-reimburse me for my payments, and I have written the head office, and upon their reply, I will forward my letter to the ombudsman at Ofcom.

Don't go with Tiscali, they just aren't worth it....

Posted by James Vickers on the 11th October 2007

Customer service give you the run around. Escalations must be recorded as resolved as soon as they put the phone down on you. Emails are recorded as resolved if they bother to reply (saying that they can't at this time give you any information) Their stats will look great, meanwhile customer is left trapped angry and frustrated. Ring back you need to start all over again, costing a fortune.
No rating

Posted by Lesley Elsey on the 7th October 2007

TISCALI !!!
DON'T BOTHER...
I joined Tiscali 9 days ago after 4 years at AOL without a hiccup... until I moved.

They throttled my speed from 8Mb to 0.5Mb after 6pm from Day 1...and they DO throttle Bit-Torrent and some p2p's....

I find Limewire still works but ONLY use it outside of PEAK hours...Unfortunately, you can't manage torrent upload speeds therefore leading to unstable download speeds... Tiscali customer service is REALLY POOR and if you send the same email twice by accident like I did they answer each one by saying "You have contacted us in another email, we will reply to that one.."????

Very poor rating 1 star...
ALL you p2p + Torrent users, AOL is the way forward or Virgin cable...they are only ones that don't traffic shape, However, they do throttle to 0.5mb after 6pm if you download in peak times which is fair in my book. I download after 11pm and set it to shutdown when done, get up in morning and my PC is off and the downloads are complete.

Posted by Paul on the 27th September 2007

I cancelled my contract with tiscali in Nov 2006 as I was offered a better deal with sky, however since then they have continuously taken monthly payment from my Barclay card up top and including 05/09/2007. I have phoned the billing dept nine times know each month the payment has been taken. On each occasion I have been apologised to and told the cheque would be in the post. I am still waiting for the cheque nine months on and they have been taking £15.99 a month in total they now owe me £143.91. I have yet again contacted them this eve and I have asked for a manager to phone me to discuss this, I have been told by Alan Lyng one of their advisors I will get a call back in the next two hours so I should get my call by 7.30pm this eve, however after reading the comments left on this page I don't hold much hope. I cannot cancel it on my Barclay Card as they said they need confirmation from tiscali that I no longer have a contract with them. If I get no contact I will be taking legal action.

Posted by Craig Fennell on the 20th September 2007

Tiscali are absolutely appalling, I wouldn't recommend to anyone to use them.

As others have commented, I have wasted hours / days of my life on the phone to them, trying to resolve problems to no avail.

Moving house and solicitors and estate agents were far easier to handle then what should surely be a fairly uncomplicated procedure of moving my broadband.

They are continuing to try and take money from my account, months after I have given up and taken broadband with another service provider, and sending me threatening letters, although they have provided me with a mac code... that has been used!

I have now given up on the money they owe up, and calling them re the demands.

Stay away from Tiscali!

Posted by Janet on the 20th September 2007

Stay away from Tiscali. It has to be THE worst provider out there.

They changed my package AND set up Tiscali Talk without my authority. They listened to all my conversations and said they could not find one where I said that I never wanted the talk package.

The advisor conveniently "forgot" to note this down when I 1st called. I kept a record of all my calls. When I confronted them with a date of the call they told me that I never called that day and that I was a liar.

I cancelled my DD and got a MAC code and am now with a different provider.

My new provider gives me 10+Mbps for £10 a month.

Tiscali gave me 2Mbps for £14.99

Good riddance Tiscali.

Posted by Chris Flattley on the 20th September 2007

Tiscali is so amazing I could not leave them - their service is so great. My 8mb broadband has never gone down in the 2 years I have had it. The tech teams are just out of this world, I received a new modem within 3 days.

Posted by Pi Steaker on the 9th September 2007

It is now 3 September.

I've been trying to cancel my broadband service with Tiscali since the 1st of February and have called 8-9 times...again and again and again....they still haven't managed this simple instruction...?? How can this be??

They are still direct debiting me since Feb - all the way up till August and are still continuing to do so - can you believe it?!?

I did the smart thing by cancelling the direct debit and now they've sent me two reminders (one of them being red) ironically threatening me with their collections department.

Two days ago, it was confirmed by the manager in the billing department that the account was indeed still active. He told me I need to call back on Monday and speak to verify cancellations. Honestly, I am speechless, period.

A few conversations ago, a representative told me that this case will be put on 'red' prioritisation, as opposed to 'green' which it had been all this time......???? Unbelievably, this still hasn't helped).

This morning (Mon), yet again, I had to wait 38mins 41secs to speak to somebody in the cancellation department on a 'premium 0845 number' - (from a mobile during work hours).

Can you believe what a rather rude manager manager in cancellation department told me this morning? He asked me, "Why are you asking to speak to a manager when my colleagues have already spoken to you and told you that your account will be cancelled and dealt with?" After speaking to 8 of his colleagues, he wonders why I asked to speak to a manager. I clearly thought he'd be more intelligent than them - obviously not!

I wouldn't use Tiscali if they were the last broadband provider on Earth - and that is the honest truth!

Posted by Branislav Stefanovic on the 3rd September 2007

I'm with Tiscali and thank goodness I'm migrating next week. I haven't had internet access for weeks, and any call to the technical help centre is time-consuming and pointless, as they take me through the same questions and procedures without any progress whatsoever. I'll be so relieved to leave Tiscali!

Posted by Monika Bobinska on the 1st September 2007

Frequent outages and non-existent help.

Broadband speed dropped so drastically without warning this February that I decided to migrate to another ISP in March. Rang them many times before but to no avail, then out of the blue I was alleged to have infringed the fair usage policy despite the fact that I was working away from home most of the time in the first half of the year.

Cut off my direct debit straight away to avoid them charging me. They pursued me for the March internet charges (what for?) and I, in turn, complained to them and demanded a refund for the February charges.

They wrote to me on 3 May saying they would waive the March charges and I heard nothing from the again.

I received a letter from debt collectors mid August chasing me for the March charges! Wrote to Tiscali and the debt collector, was ignored, then wrote to the Tiscali managing director. Tiscali has just written back to re-confirm the charges are waived. Meanwhile, the debt collector is threatening court actions within the next 7 days.

Will I pay them a dime? Heck no! I am complaining to the Information Commission for breach of Data Protection Act 1998 as Tiscali has passed my personal data to a third party without any justification.

Posted by Hon on the 31st August 2007

I left tiscali because of security issues as someone managed to change my login password! I can't say I have any regrets.

Posted by Phil Smith on the 23rd August 2007

I'm assuming that the reason that the comments on here are so uniformly negative is that contented customers rarely feel motivated to say so, but unhappy customers can vent their spleen online and in doing so feel a bit better about their unfortunate experiences.

So, in the interest of balance, here's me, a satisfied customer of Tiscali.

I've been with Tiscali over 2 years now. Started out with a 1mbps broadband connection. That was solid, reliable, delivered the promised speeds and was cheap, too. I did once get threatened as a result of FUP violations, but that was my fault - allowing Torrents to download for 48 hours solid. I had no cause for complaint, I had agreed to their terms of business, after all.

Problems did arise when I upgraded to a 2mbps service. At the same time I had changed my telecomms supplier from BT to Tiscali. Problems revolved around the router failing to synch, dropped connections, etc. It did take a while to finally get sorted, but Tiscali were fine about it. Yes, it is frustrating having to deal with Banaglore, but Tiscali aren't unique in farming out desktop support to the sub-continent. And when Banaglore ran out of ideas and their network team got involved things moved a lot faster - right up to a 2-man team from BT arriving on-site and checking out my line. I had anticipated all sorts of turf-war action with BT and Tiscali arguing the toss, but it just didn't happen. BT diagnosed the fault, fixed it, and the reliability I had previously enjoyed returned. Oh, and typical speeds of 2.3mpbs, too.

So now I have just upgraded again, to Tiscali Business Max. I live in an old house, with poor quality wiring to the exchange, which is itself some 3 km away. There is considerable network congestion round here, too, even though we're out in the Derbyshire sticks. But Tiscali have been fine with me.

P2P works just fine, FTP is quick, price is right, it's reliable... what more can I say?

If you don't like Tiscali, just abuse the FUP and take their of a 'get out of contract free' offer.

Posted by Alan Hackford on the 19th August 2007

Tiscali is rubbish! We gave up on their broadband service because was so appalling in the evenings and cancelled our account over three months ago. The broadband was disabled immediately (I think they were glad to get rid of us because we want to do more than just access the occasional email) but no one thought to mention that we needed to cancel our Talk package separately. We finally got that cancelled. But they are still sending us bills! Every time I phone I get a different story and different promises. Rubbish company, rubbish products, rubbish customer service. If I could give it no stars I would have done. Go anywhere else!

Posted by Gillian Mccalden on the 16th August 2007

Stay away from Tiscali if you are considering moving house! They told me it would be 3 weeks if I moved my number and 2 weeks if I changed my number. I had enough and cancelled my account (or so I thought).

12 times I cancelled my account (yes, I did say 12 times).

7 weeks after I cancelled for the last time they were still trying to set up a connection on my line even though I had moved to another ISP. I got letters from them saying I owe Tiscali nothing then 2 months later I received a collection charge from a debt collection firm saying I owe a debt of £38.00.

I was using another prefix before each number I dialled so not to use Tiscali. Tiscali are without a doubt the worst broadband company I have used. Talk about one hand not knowing what the other is doing. I'm going to take them to court.

Keep all letters you get from Tiscali - they all conflict each other, especially when you cancel your account.

Ask to try to speak to a supervisor if you like waiting. Tiscali are definitely bad news.

Posted by Marcus Arsore on the 15th August 2007

Can anyone confirm that if you receive an FUP you can leave tiscali? Please God...

Posted by David Dawson on the 6th August 2007

Tiscali is terrible, mainly because of their "fair usage policy". This basically means you pay for something like 2mb broadband but you better not use it otherwise they'll get mad and slow your internet down. As far as I am aware I've not been told I've been put on the fair usage policy, but in the daytime my download speed from http (websites) is around 20kb/s at night its around 200kb/s. Stay away from Tiscali.

Posted by Dom on the 3rd August 2007

Tiscali are the most disgraceful ISP I've ever seen in my entire life, I urge anyone who's thinking about getting internet off them NOT TO, they are absolutely terrible, a list of my problems:

Constant Disconnecting
Non Existent Tech Support
Terrible Customer Service
Over Charging
Bills not arriving for 2 quarters
Horrific Download speed (on 2mb I was getting 12kb/sec) and I know it isn't where I live 'cos my next door neighbour gets a decent speed..
Doesn't like online games .. I could go on for a long time but I'm getting annoyed just thinking about it..

They've annoyed me lately because I've been downloading a lot of things and I've really started to feel the download speeds. Changing within the week, I'd like to see them try and keep me cos they'll get an absolute ear full off me..


I give it minus 5 stars!!!

Posted by Jay on the 25th July 2007

Tiscali are the most incompetent company it has been my misfortune to deal with. After telling Tiscali I was moving to a new address, with a new telephone number, which they confirmed by email, they are trying to still charge me for service at my old address and because I won't pay they have put me on a black list.
Do not touch Tiscali with a barge pole!
Geoff Fuller

Posted by Geoff Fuller on the 24th July 2007

If you want good service and an easy-to-get-out-of contract... then don't try Tiscali. I've received poor service for months, and have tried cancelling on numerous occasions via their 0870 number calls lasting 30+ minutes... and even after cancellation they have charged me for 2 months of "usage" after their disconnection date and have the gall to ask me to write in or call back after another 48 hours to ask for a refund whilst I was talking on the phone to them!

Posted by R L on the 20th July 2007

Just wanted to add my comments. I was also disappointed with Tiscali. Terrible customer and tech support. I cancelled this week. Avoid at all costs.

Posted by Tom Armstrong on the 30th June 2007

I started off with 1meg broadband. upgraded to Tiscali Max and they said they did a line test and it showed that I could recieve a 5.5 to 8 meg connection. So we ordered it and errrrm the speed stayed at 1meg and when I called customer service they said "I'm afraid that's all your line can handle." Tossers! I want to kill them... But if you do have a bad line check out www.extremetech.com, they have some tweaks and stuff so you may be able to speed it up. With their tweaks I got up to 2megs.

Posted by Dan Barnes on the 27th June 2007

Thanks to this site for pointing us in the direction of that 'magic number' 0207 087 2000 and the customer complaints line. In short, we cancelled our broadband service with Tiscali on 19/3 - 3 months on, and countless telephone calls to various departments, all assuring us the service was cancelled, they kept billing us via direct debit. When we cancelled the direct debit, we started to get red demands in the post. Today, having found this number, we were just in time to stop our unpaid bills for services we weren't receiving being passed to a debt collection agency, and all the frustration that would have caused in connection with our credit file. I have never experienced such an incompetent or rude company as Tiscali (one operator even disconnected my call). Thankfully the customer complaints department were quick and efficient to sort things out, and even apologised. They have sorted our a refund - although this will - we're told - take 10 days to come through! However, no compensation for the wasted hours on their premium call line all because incompetent operators in the amusingly named 'customer care team' couldn't sort out basic issues. I wouldn't touch Tiscali with a barge pole.

Posted by Geoff Webb on the 25th June 2007

I thought Tiscali had put me on a capped bandwidth and would therefore not bother me again, but sure enough, they have not seen sufficient decrease in my usage so they're managing my bandwidth during peak hours. They never said I had to decrease my usage and I've never had 2.2 mb/s anyway, so I'm not getting what I'm paying for at all anyway. The Fair Usage Policy I had not even heard of until the Emails and the peak usage times are impossible to find on their website.

Posted by Tarvu on the 14th June 2007

Words fail me when even thinking about Tiscali. It is the constant stream of lies that I am fed by the support staff that is utterly unacceptable. Problems are sure to occur but Tiscali never address them, they only find excuses for not doing so. Glib promises are made, refunds promised, improvements guaranteed. All are lies. Sadly I can't rate it 0.

Posted by R Steventon on the 13th June 2007

I've complained on this about the lack of gaming services provided, but I've accepted that now, so I've left my clan of M8's on Black Hawk Down, and I'm unhappy about that. Now I've done that I'm restricted to doing other stuff online, and say there is a movie I want to watch, or even watch my OWN videos on youtube, I have to wait about 5 mins for it to buffer. For the films it's not too bad, but I'm pretty much getting thrown off at peak times just becuase our 2MB wont support it.

My friend who got like A* in computing sciences at uni asked me to do a few tests in command prompt and it came back with sent:4 received:0 lost:4.

Now he thinks the problewm is that Tiscali are not willing to pay BT the extra cost of another line, so they have squashed all services into one, so there is nothing wrong at your end, it's all at their end, and no one is allowed to have any space because all customers again are crammed into one line.

Posted by Chris Williams on the 12th June 2007

Dont move house and take Tiscali broadband with you! (minimum timescale before your line becomes live is 15 days) Especially when you take your previous number with you (add 5 more days). This confuses our various helpline friends and they fall over themselves with excuses to increase the timescale before the service will be up and running . Firstly BT rejected the order (add 5 more days). Then BT checked the line and found it incompatable (add 5 more days). Then Tiscali reentered the order and additional time is wasted before the line becomes operational . Before you know it a month has gone by and you still are without your Tiscali broadband service. This is my experience so far. They have promised to be up and running by Wednesday 13th June....do I believe them? ...watch this space!!!

Posted by Andrew Lydon on the 8th June 2007

I have recently left tiscali after being a customer for nearly three years - although the word customer is a bit of a laugh. After cancelling my contract I received a credit note from them saying a cheque would follow. The cheque eventually came but for a lot less then the credit note stated. Guess what, their head office decided that the amount of my refund wasn't justified! That's great coming from a company who said there was not problem with my broadband and that it was my equipment to blame. So silly old me bought a new router which also didn't work, and was finally told my them that there was a problem with my line. I can only say that my experience of Tiscali is one I wish to forget.

Posted by Les Hayward on the 6th June 2007

Tiscali are awful. Lying little toads. The amount of troubles I've had with them, internet connection, email not working. Completely useless customer service. Just check the forums.

Posted by Matt Law on the 1st June 2007

I was told, that for my "up to 8 meg" line, I could "definitely recieve 5megs" on my current line.
Which I thought was strange seeing as BT confirmed i could recieve 7 megs...

after a few days and finding the connection was usually around 56k standard and now and again (at 4AM) it would rise to 1900kb/s I rang tiscali to ask why.
Their reply was that "it is the first 10 days of service, and the line needs to stable itself. After this you will get much faster speeds, around the 5meg area your line can handle"

ok that sounds reasonable i guess..

after about 2 months of my 56k line, I have written a complaint to them, with a list of my speedtest results, and i am now told that my line has been tested (AGAIN) and it seems that i can only receive 2meg..so i reccommend you downgrade your account.

WHAT THE HELL? I was told it would go upto 5..and by BT i was told up to 7!!

So i am guessing they tell you during the first 10 days that the line is stablising, to keep you happy. Then after your 10 days is up, and you find this is a lie, they tell you you had a 10 day period at the start of your contract to cancel if you weren't happy with the speeds..

I have been conned into a contract, they told me I could get a higher speed so I would sign with them, and when I ask why I'm not getting it, they say it cant even go that high..


Just dont even bother...

Posted by Sam Pascoe on the 1st June 2007

What aload of b@@@@ks you lot i had to wait to BTupgrade my line i get 7mb its Bt that lies they told me yes you can get this we have upgraded your line, and they didnt I would never leave been with them 2 years and now getting free line rental .

good luck to all you people that paying lots ha

Posted by D on the 31st May 2007

I'm planning my escape from tiscali. I figure after 4 years I've done my time. I kept thinking if I can just get over this (latest) problem, all will be well. But it's just one thing after another.

I nearly left in December after they stopped my internet connection without any warning at 9.30pm. I was working on an important project with a midnight submission deadline. Rang them and was told my DDR had been cancelled. As I was changing banks I thought that might be possible but unlikely as my old bank had said all 1st of month payments would be made before the account closed. Too late at night to check with bank - and no internet connection to check online. Made a debit card payment over the phone and an hour later (that's an hour on top of the half an hour it took to get through to a person to find out what the problem was in the first place) the service was restored. It was a few days later that my bank statement for the closed account arrived and lo and behold tiscali's DDR HAD been paid. So that month they raised my stress levels unnecessarily, put an important project at risk, cost me half an hour of phone holding, and hour and a half of my life I won't get back, AND got paid twice for doing so. Emails suggesting compensation of a month's rental might be fair were ignored completely.

Now I've found that for the last couple of weeks almost all the emails I've sent have not arrived. Their service status says no problem on email, but their reply to my email says :

"We are aware of a problem affecting users sending email to certain recipients and we are working closely with engineers from our suppliers to resolve the problem as soon as possible.

However, due to the nature of the problem, we do not expect it to be fully resolved for another few days. "

Call me cynical, but I don't believe a word of it. Suddenly I happen to be emailing all the people who are by chance "certain recipients".

Oh and that 8MG????? forget it.............the most I've ever had is 2.3MG, despite a line test by another provider showing 4.6MG.

I'm off to Waitrose. The 5GB limit won't bother me as I've just checked and I use less than 100MG a month.

If you have already escaped..........how did you get your MAC code and do you know if the modem supplied by tiscali originally would be "network locked"?

Isn't it time email addresses became like mobile phone numbers so that you can take them with you when you change service provider? I think I stayed mainly because of the hassle of having to ensure everyone I ever gave my email address to would be able to contact me........

Rant over
Cat

Posted by Cat Tighe on the 26th May 2007

I'm with tiscali broadband and desperate to get rid of them. So just one question. All the people saying "I used to be with tiscali they are the worst in the world" they should have some idea what the mac code is. So why don't they just give it to the rest of us to save us the hassle.

Posted by Steven Willis on the 25th May 2007

Stay away. My 8Meg unlimited connection was good until just after my cooloff period, then the fun began. 45 -50kbits/s downloads and frozen torrents - including perfectly legit linux isos. How annoying!

I too am counting the days until I part company with this band of robbers. I have been burnt and I should have read more before joining - do yourself a favour and overlook Tiscali.
Rating as a 1 because there is nothing lower to select.

Posted by Joe Murphy on the 21st May 2007

I think I'll just fill this box with expletives as its the way i currently feel about tiscali.

Ok I used to work for homechoice who were bought out by tiscali but this isn't a tale of sour grapes. I was quite happy with the homechoice connection , availability and speed were very good. As I'd left the company I only had homechoice for a further 3 months. As it seemed like everything was good I decided to keep with the package.

Since making that phone call my package has changed and I think I've been moved to another internet package
firstly, I couldn't access many websites. It transpired I now need a proxy added to my browser for it to work properly. At least they could have told me this , nice customer service. Then speed dropped from 8mps to 2mps, strange as i never downgraded my package and should still be on 8mb.

Now I can't ftp out of the tiscali network and cant update my own website, ok I could use their webspace but I've already bought some elsewhere.

Customer care is a joke, tech support?? dont make me laugh. It even prevented the wife from getting on itunes so now she's hacked off as well and quite rightly.
I'm not sure what had happened since I made that call but I wish I hadn't now. I'll be grabbing my MAC code asap next week.

AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE

Posted by Lee on the 20th May 2007

Basically-tiscali are rubbish.

If I was asked if someone should join tiscali, I'd say no! go to virgin, or somone else!.

My reasons for this are...that they cap our internet at peak hours...don't allow any type of online gameplay (involving a disk) and they are frankly abusing their rights.

It is their job as an ISP to flipping host this stuff, and if their service is too bad to host the things people do in their day to day lives.....they should not even be a ISP!

Posted by Chris Williams on the 20th May 2007

I've been with Tiscali since about 2003 and if I'm honest I've had a good connection from then up until about Christmas last year, since then i get booted at peak hours all the time, cannot connect to xfire or the various online games i play until about midnight, and the helpdesk like most others have said is worthless. Not only is it in India which IMO is reason enough to ignore it but they lie just to get you off the phone, only IPS I've ever had so nothing yet to compare it with but I would say that if you plan to use your internet in peak hours you would be better off on dial up than with Tiscali broadband.

Posted by Marc on the 16th May 2007

You have to conclude that Tiscali is deliberately infuriating all its customers who expect a true broadband service, hoping to dump all but the Sunday emailers / browsers. That would do wonders for their margins.

Posted by J Robin Betts on the 16th May 2007

Sometimes I just can't access the internet due to the remote computer not responding.Also before upgrading to broadband my access speed was 3.8Mbps but since upgrading it has dropped back to 2.2 to 2.4 Mbps. So far I cannot say that I'm entirely satisfied with Tiscali

Posted by Eamon Mc Anuff on the 14th May 2007

Tiscali is so crap. I am counting the days to leave. Their connection is very slow. Their help is non existent and don't even bother using p2p software. They do their best to stop its use!

Posted by John Stetton on the 11th May 2007

All I want to do is talk to a proper customer service person as letters don't work. All I want to do is call someone in the UK that I can make my point to all I wanted was hassle free moving house well that's a joke. Tiscali told me it would be quicker if I had a new telephone no. so I did . When I told them the new no. and when I wanted it on (that was 2 weeks before I was due to move) they told me that the line could not be checked till the no. became active.

14 days later I sent moving house email .... ha.... rang ten days later to find out what was happening and was told they never received email (lie). So I went through it all on phone and got told it would take 10-15 days to reconnect me (very angry) another 10 days called up to check and the told me it had been connected to the old telephone no. (very very angry ) told another 10-15 days told them not my fault I want it on before then I had bills to pay on net and could only do it on there.

More time passed and another 10 days checked again connected wrong no .. so I clear this up and finally get the right no. on after chasing BT myself rang Tiscali and told them BT had enabled the line all they had to do was to push the right buttons their end .. told it would be on next day but that was not good enough I had to paddy final 2 hours later it was on .... I wasted 10 hours of my life that I can't get back and all I want is for some one to call me to say sorry and make me an offer for my time sorting out there cock ups.

Posted by Christopher Rowe on the 10th May 2007

Tiscali is terrible.
Their Indian help service is useless.
We call you back in 48 h or we will call you back before 10 pm....
They don't give a damn about their customers, I am very unhappy, my internet keeps disconnecting... try to contact them and hear the same story over and over...
I TRIED EVERYTHING, NEW MODEM, NEW FILTERS, NEW CABLES, EVEN NEW PC , no difference... no connection!

Don t go for Tiscali - useless services - Hope their cancellation system works!

Posted by C. Maruniak on the 5th May 2007

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE listen to me, I'm 29 years old and in all my years I have never had or seen or heard of anyone having so many problems than I do when Tiscali are mentioned. I've had Tiscali for about 11 months and up until last week they were OK (speed drops, line drops, unexplained problems that customer services seem to know nothing about).

Then I was put on the Fair Usage Policy (FUP) and the trouble really started. Basically I truly believe that all their support agents are trained to lie through their teeth. I started recording all my calls to their helpline as my solicitor asked me to after I asked her advice and when she heard them she laughed out loud.

Let me explain. After 9 telephone calls, every single Indian support agent gave the a different reason on what the problem was and told me to wait 48 hours and it would be fixed. I played along knowing it was just more rope to hang themselves with and after 18 days I was told that it was my fault because I was on the Fair Usage Policy restriction and that was why I was getting ridiculous download speeds.

Oh did I mention that every time I called the customer services I was complaining because of the speeds I was getting OUTSIDE of the fair usage policy hours.

That's right, like every other person on here I was getting speeds outside of the FUP like this (bearing in mind FUP restrictions are between 6pm and 11pm)

30/4/07 17:44
Your current bandwidth reading is:
46.30kbps
which means you can download at 5.79 KB/sec. from our servers.
28.8 kbps dial-up
33.6 kbps dial-up
46.3 kbps YOU
53.3 kbps dial-up
56 kbps ISDN
128 kbps ISDN
150 kbps DSL
256 kbps DSL
512 kbps DSL
Please retain the following information if you wish to contact Customer Services
Your reference number is 46-8357228
Retest Close


30/4/07 23:23
Your current bandwidth reading is:
26.50kbps
which means you can download at 3.31 KB/sec. from our servers.
26.5 kbps YOU
28.8 kbps dial-up
33.6 kbps dial-up
53.3 kbps dial-up
56 kbps ISDN
128 kbps ISDN
150 kbps DSL
256 kbps DSL
512 kbps DSL
Please retain the following information if you wish to contact Customer Services
Your reference number is 26-8361744
Retest Close


1/5/07 00:30
Your current bandwidth reading is:
114.40kbps
which means you can download at 14.3 KB/sec. from our servers.
28.8 kbps dial-up
33.6 kbps dial-up
53.3 kbps dial-up
56 kbps ISDN
114.4 kbps YOU
128 kbps ISDN
150 kbps DSL
256 kbps DSL
512 kbps DSL
Please retain the following information if you wish to contact Customer Services
Your reference number is 114-8363410
Retest Close

And when I finally got an email back from the customer support (after sending 8 e-mails and not receiving one reply) they told me they had a hardware problem which was being looked into which made all the people on the FUP restricted OUTSIDE of the restriction times AS WELL AS inside them.

As you can imagine OFCOM and my solicitor have received instructions to look into the mater further, but please, please, please DO NOT EVEN CONSIDER Tiscali.

Posted by Jamie Quarterly on the 1st May 2007

Do not go with tiscali!!! peer to peer, torrents are at a crawl through peek times. The speed of my line regularly drops below 50Kbps during these peek times. They also have a contention ratio of 50-100:1 which is really appalling! Sharing your internet connection with up to another 99 people! That will make it go to a crawl!!!!!

Posted by Darren Fisher on the 27th April 2007

I moved from TalkTalk to Tiscali, and both are awful. Im suppose to have up to 8mb. I rang them before i bought the service and they said they could gaurentee me between 6 and 8mb and i dont think one i have been anywhere near that speed. any peer to peer programs dont even connect and web pages are slow. if i download a file off a webpage it wont go faster that 30kbps. i rang them up and told them and they said they would get back to me over the next 48 hours, which they havent or they havent replied to any of my emails. I dont see why they cant just give you what you ordered. If anyone knows how to sort out the p2p network problem please let me know!!!

Posted by James Clough on the 22nd April 2007

Tiscali are total rubbish, they cut your connection from 6pm till 11pm. I cannot even connect to my online games i want to play so I've requested the mac code from them and now I'm changing service providers I'm going with ADSL24 which have no bad comments on there forums what so ever so i suggest to you all that's having trouble with them to keep bugging them for your mac code and eventually they should give it you mind you when they give it you you will only have 30 days to use the mac code with another service provider so if you don't use it within them days your stuck with Tiscali.

Posted by Damien on the 22nd April 2007

All the people having problems with Tiscali broadband ring or email Dominick Negus he is the head of complaints. I got his number by hounding Tiscalis PR women Jody Haskayne on 020770872115. Dominicks email is Dominick.Negus@uk.tiscali.com. Keep pestering them both and you will get your problem solved. I
did, but it took 4 months.

Posted by Stephen Kavanagh on the 19th April 2007

Whats new ? certainly not problems with Tiscali. For the last three months I have been calling Tiscali 'tech help' and for two months all they ever did was pass the buck to B.T saying that my problems were due to a line fault. Between 16.00 & 23.00 Hrs my download speed drops from around 1050Kbps to anything between 65 & 300Kbps. There seems to be very few people in 'tech help' who have any real 'tech knowledge' . Unless you have a simple issue that can be resolved by them reading through their script, don't even waste the cost of a phone call on them. Go to the Tiscali forums, you stand far more chance of finding the answer there. For anyone who experiences slow downloads at peak hours, you could well be like me, stuck on IPStream and waiting for Tiscali to get around to sorting it, well. we can all live in hope cant we

Posted by Tigger on the 18th April 2007

PAH!

I cant even download the torrent files let alone connect with them! never had a problem on this computer before, then i plug in my parents tiscali connection and its turniped.

What a bunch of jokers.

Posted by John Wilkie on the 15th April 2007

Just thought I'd throw my two cents worth in about Tiscali. Ive been with them nearly a year now and I cant wait to leave them.
The download speeds are a joke and at worst, slower than a dial up in my experience, if you want to download at say, 6 o'clock pm dont bother as sometimes it gets that slow it is basicaly 0kb/s. Also they throttle the bandwidth to online gaming sites between 7-10pm so I cant access poker sites and join my friends until after 10pm, a complete joke youll probably agree.
Roll on May then I can finally switch to another ISP and not have to wait 10 minutes to download 1 song from Limewire, if im lucky enough to be able to connect to it that is!!!

Posted by Andy on the 11th April 2007

OMG How many of you are having problems too!!!!

I rang them the other day and they cut me off when it was time for them to go home, I rang straight back to a message that said thier offices are now closed... Can you believe this is the 'Retentions' department!

Tiscali has been a service i have used for over 2 years but until i needed to ring them the service itself was good. The customer service experience though takes the mick! They are useless, totally useless!! stay well clear!

This company has by far the worst customer service i have ever experienced! They dont know what to do, i have been cut off when being transferred and when they wanted to go home! And now i have to try and tell them i am moving... god help me....

Posted by Leighton Davies on the 10th April 2007

what can I say? This company is a disgrace. I signed up with tiscali and like others on this forum I got very good download s on my peer to peer program. then came the dreaded fup E-mails. I got 2 in all advising me that if I do not stop heavy downloading I would be put on a list and would be capped. After this I stopped downloading during peak hours. This, unfortunately wasn`t enough and I am lucky to download at 30 kps outside of peak hours and this was just after I had upgraded to is 8 MB! What a joke !

I wrote to them concerning this and they replied telling me they would write within three days and its been a week now and I haven`t heard from them yet

The thing that has annoyed me most is the fact that they said that they would cap me only during peak hours which I didn`t mind as in principle I do agree with this policy but they do not have the right to cap me 24 hours a day seven days a week- unlimited should mean unlimited!

It would be good to hear from anyone who has managed to overcome this capping during peer to peer downloading I have tried Peerguardian but it doesn`t seem to work.

Conversely I would prefer to go to another service provider who do not try to trick their customers and to be treat like a human being
anybody out there know of one?

Avoid this company like the plagu!

James Walker

Posted by James Walker on the 7th April 2007

I have never received such appaling service than my experience with Tiscali. I have been with them for 7 weeks now and my Internet connection has not worked for a single day. They are not able to fix it, but yet they say that if I cancel before 12months is up I will have to pay. Like others above, I have only received automated responses to my complaint letters and phone calls. I am currently investigating an option of legal proceedings - I have been told that others have done this successfully in the past.

Posted by Niina Kolehmainen on the 3rd April 2007

Absolute nightmare with Tiscali, there call centres are a joke the staff dont have a clue how to help you.

The FUP is a load of bollox, I am so pissed off right now because of this.

My advice if you are a tiscali customer, phone them and get your MAC code and get away as fast as you can I know thats what I m doing

Posted by Gareth Moore on the 1st April 2007

Never take a tiscali reward. I am out of pocket by over £15 with nothing to show for it. Tiscali rewards is run by a separate organisation. I paid over £70 inc delivery for DVD recorder which refused to work. We tested it on different televisions with different leads for about three hours in total. When I finaly managed to speak with someone about it (as they never answer the phone) they could only advise me to send it back at my own cost and they would test it. They also asked me did I check it was compatible with my television as they sell equipment for the usa market which is not suitable for european goods? Once I had returned the recorder and chased the company for three weeks to find out what was happening they then decided (surprise surprise ) it was not faulty, refused to refund the delivery charge and also deducted 10% off my refund