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Comments:
These guys are simply the most incompetent bunch of clowns I've ever come across. We switched from Tiscali Broadband to their [ ostensibly ] Talk Talk Anytime Broadband, Telephone and TV service on the basis that their discounted monthly fee [ which includes telephone line rental ] of £27.98 seemed very competitive for the services offered. Having been advised that Tiscali / Talk Talk would effect the the transfer of the BT landline we very foolishly went for it and when, six weeks down the line, pursuing the reason that we were still paying BT calls and line rental [ £80 in total ] we were advised by them that we had to cancel the BT line ourselves, which we did and as of today we now have no phone, no TV service and no broadband. The service we did have was fairly effective but clearly not at the total price when paying BT charges as well due to their incompetence. We have now lost our original land line number to boot as BT cannot reconnect us and guarantee the re-establishment of our original number - clearly again quite distressing when my wife and I run several small businesses from our landline number.
The problem appears to stem from the fact that Tiscali and Talk Talk haven't quite merged in an operational sense and, as Tiscali only can provide a TV service at the moment we'd been getting advice from Talk Talk Helpline Advisors who didn't appear to have a clue about what they were being asked about. Just a complete disaster from start to finish
Disgusted by the lack of concern from this co and will never give them a penny of my money ever again - I work from home and my internet connection is vital to me but when there was a problem they just showed disinterest- I have sent three complaints and they dont even respond.
without a doubt the most pathetic example of customer services I have ever experienced; who trains their staff? Do they get trained at all? They are rude, unhelpful, ignorant, unsympathetic and obtuse - and all this to the people who pay their wages - the customer!!! I am asian myself so I have no problem with the ethnicity of the people I deal with but I do expect a good command of the language in order to be understood! A truly awful company.
I was on Tiscali talk & broadband package for £14.99 at the above mentioned address. When I purchased the package, I asked if I move house, my package would be transferred and I was assured that it can be moved.
Few days before my move, I contacted the moving house team and informed them that I was moving and was advised that my package cannot be moved. I told them I was willing to pay an activation charge if need to activate the package in the new house. I was told to cancel my existing package and call the sales dept to activate the line at the new place.I was assured my broadband would be moved over and later my talk package. I was given reference no 16600957 by Puja for this call. I called the sales team and gave them the new house postcode to get a line activated at the new address and was told they cannot activate a new line even if I paid an activation charge as I need an active BT line or post office line in my name and only then can they take over the line. I double checked by writing in the tiscali product forum and was advised to do the same.
Following their advice, I activated a new line with post office and paid an activation charge for the new line. I called Tiscali cancellation dept on 14/11/09 to cancel my existing line and was assured that the line would be cancelled within 24-48 hours and was given ref no 16756941 by Nigel. I called tiscali moving house dept on 19/11/09 and was advised that my line hasnt been cancelled and it was still active in my old address. The cancellation reference no meant nothing and the line was still active and they couldnt help me as their systems were down.
I called the cancellation dept on 20/11/09 and asked them to cancel the existing line at the old address and was told it will be cancelled in the next 24 hours and was given ref no. 16821715. I was told that my existing package of £14.99 cannot be provided at the new house as it wasnt available in the area but a package of £17.00 was available which includes talk, landline rental and broadband.I asked if my contract would be affected in any way and was assured over all these telephone conversations that it wouldnt be affected. I agreed it was fine and was transferred to the sales team to activate the package. The sales person, a lady named Sarah, informed me that only a package of £32/month can be provided in that area. This is totally unacceptable because I had called upteen times giving my new postcode and was told that the package can be provided at the new address if I had an active line in my name. I have activated a line and spent on the activation charges only to be told that I need to pay £32 / month for the package. I have called repeatedly and I was not informed of this before. I checked if the package is available in my postcode on the tiscali new line online checker and it says that the package of £14.99 of talk and broadband can be provided at my address. I am frustrated, annoyed and fed up with tiscali and totally stressed out as this problem has not been solved for the past 15-20 days. I have called tiscali a number of times and have spent a lot on the telephone calls. I have the tiscali number listed in my bills.
I am now being told that my complaint is escalated to the Higher Level Complaints team and they would contact me in the next 72 hrs. More than 2 weeks has passed and I haven't heard from them. Help!
We have been with Tiscali for two years and until recently had no problem with broadband service or telephone.
Now we are having connection problems and phone line problems. It has taken a while for Tiscali to take us seriously and call for an engineer to check out the line. The engineer is BT employed and on 10th Sept he said there was an outside cable fault and it will be dealt with by Monday at the latest. No it hasn't been dealt with yet. We still have intermittent connection and line problems.
BT won't let us contact them through normal procedures as we are not contracted with them. But our line is theirs. Tiscali keep phoning to say they will rattle BT's cage and so it goes on and nothing ever gets done. I believe BT and Tiscali do not communicate ever and if Tiscali get through BT won't co.operate! Keep watching this space..
the mother of all isp's including pipex. unresponsive to requests for information, help and ultimately unsubscribing. big on acquisition but invisible on support - too stupid to see that the very medium is one that facilitates choice, comparison and expectations. back to bt but paying a bit more.
every aspect of this company is a failure. They are incapable or running a bath let alone providing a decent service. Still suffering from the same old problems with them and a complete lack of communication in their customer care dept.
If anyone is thinking of switching to Tiscali my advice is do not. My friend switched from BT to Tiscali. What a mistake that was. On the day they should have connected her they rang up and said that they could not come as they had booked in too many jobs, having given her a date a month prior. On the day it was installed no sooner had the person who installed it left the internet did not work. It took numerous telephone calls, one of which were cut off on. It is difficult to understand the staff as the call centre is in India. They were reluctant to send anyone out as they argued that issues were resolved over the phone and suggested she get a local technician in who she could guide over the phone. What sort of business are they running. When they finally sent someone out, and it took over a week in phone calls to arrange it, the technician advised that it had been wired incorrectly. Not only is the customer support centre incompetent but so are the installers.
Glad to see Im not the only one who has had a bad experience with tiscali! I have called to report a fault with my internet connection 5 times today and on each occasion was (after being on hold for ages) told that it was a certain problem and what to do about it. I was going mad by the fifth time I explained that I had done what thery said and it still didn't work!!! Am now going to have to call someone out of the yellow pages which will cost me dead but I have no choice as I run an online business.
Where do I start??!! These are the most infuriating company to deal with ever! There is a total communication breakdown between departments, they are next to useless when I contact them with an issue etc. The call centre staff are the most poorly trained ever - big organisations like this just don't care about their customers, maybe if enough wronged customers make a stand on Blagger then they will take notice and review their procedures??!
I've had almost all of the problems below inmy 3 years with Tiscali. I would have switched by now but when I spent the best part of 2 hours trying to upgrade my package over the phone (wouldn't accept my details on line)I eventually got through to a call centre that didn't sound like it was in this country. The deal was done, my package was upgraded to the MAX with TV. I now have super fast broadband and TV from Tiscali which I haven't paid a peeny for since I upgraded. I have no idea why but it suits me fine.
Quite possibly the worst example of customer services ever. We recently had a bereavement in the family and despite informaing Tiscali of this, they continued to upset our family by writing and calling for the deceased constantly.
Cutting you head off with a blunt saw is less painful than trying to deal with tiscali in my experience. If you are thinking of transferring to Tiscali my opinion is don;t do it!
I became a Tiscali customer when they took over HomeChoice in April 2008. After spending 2 hours on the phone trying to get a service I already paid for on their TV package, I spent another 2.5 hours canceling. As their customer service is so awful I sent a letter to Tiscali stating that I had canceled my account, canceled my direct debit and enclosing a cheque for all outstanding charges on my account. It took 2 months for them to reply to me. Tiscali's reply which I got on 23rd July stated my account had been closed and my balance had been cleared. They didn't cash my cheque instead they sent me a cheque for the same amount I sent them.
A week ago I discovered they had set up a new direct debit mandate and taken money out of my account. I got the direct debit refunded under the direct debit guarantee. I have now contacted them twice enclosing the letter they sent to me in July but they still insist I owe them the money. Strangely they make no reference to the letter they sent me in their replies. I am now trying to get a final reply out of them so I can take further action against the company.
I contracted in Dec 07 for Tiscali service covering free phone calls (including many other countries), tv, broadband and bt line rental. £25 pm. I still receive BT bills. I have written - and received meaningless replies - 15 times. The last time - 8 weeks ago - I suggested they passed my letter complaining of breach of contract to their lawyers. I've heard nothing since. I could go to Cisas by last time I did that in respect of Tiscali, Cisas said that Tiscali admitted their fault (not the current one) and would correct it. They didn't. Tiscali is by far the worst company I have ever dealt with. It is a pity that there is no way that they can be put out of business.
Having moved home I tried in vain for 7 weeks to get the existing phone in my new home connected and get a broadband service. The Tiscali prices were very tempting. Endless calls to their (non)customer support line (press 3, press 2, press 1 then put in a queue for ever) were fruitless as i was assured (assuming I got to speak to someone eventually) mine was a prioritised case, or engineers were assigned, or connection was scheduled etc etc. Finally someone from Tiscali actually rang me back. After getting back up off the floor I was told that the problems were unsurmountable so he couldnt help.
So it tried BT.
Within 2 days my phone was reconnected (remotely) and within another 5 days i was posted a hub and the internet service was up and running.
I have been unable to connect to the internet for over a month now from 15 September 2008. I have called Tiscali Customer Services now over 20 times to no avail. I have had the following experiences amongst many others:
People who were unable to speak English
Three times I spoke to supervisors who were unable to give me any advice/solutions
Twice I have had the line disconnected, i.e. the line put down on me
Three times a person who was reading a script and not even answering my questions
Twice I have been told that they would call back and they did not
BT engineers have come to my house and have said that there is nothing wrong with my telephone line nor the exchange.
They are a bunch of incompetent customer services individuals, with engineers who cannot do their role properly. After another call from them last night saying that the problem was not theirs but BT’s I have decided to give up. This puts in ridicule their statement that customers should get “prioritised traffic, 24/7 support, guaranteed uptime etc”. Tiscali are a joke of a business. Absolutely disgusting.
Our internet went wrong and kept disconnecting. Kept getting through to an indean gentleman who did not understand what my dad was saying to him and whom my dad could not understand.
eventually they managed to get someone to look at it but then it was ok for a day then went wrong again.
We were without broadband for a month before it got sorted proberly.
Did however give us a free month but does not really make up for it as I had to keep using a freind's who luckily said it was ok so I could study for an Open Uni degree!
the last couple of days our internet has started playing up again so anticipating another ordeal and planning to change to BT when our 12 month contract is up!!!
I too have had appalling treatment from Tiscali. I recently moved flats within sheltered accomodation. Tiscali have refused to arrange for my line to be transferred saying that I have to arrange it with BT. BT, quite rightly, say that my contract is with Tiscali, and they have to instruct BT to make the change, which can be simply effected by patching the line to my new flat. I know this for a fact as I moved once before when I was with BT - no problem. I have spent hours on the phone and all they do is read their script and do not listen.
I have now been without my phone and broadband for 2 weeks. I am cancelling my contract and have initiated stage 1 of the complaints procedure. They are absolutely the worst company I have ever had the misfortune to deal with. They do not deserve to be in business.
I joined tiscali broadband about 2 years ago, I moved house in November 2007 and moved my tiscali service with me. In May 2008 I called to cancel as I was changing to virgin. The guy on the phone was very helpful and, in short, brilliant. He told me that my contract didn’t run out until 2009 but regarded this as a computer error as I had been with tiscali for 2 years and went ahead with the cancellation. Nearly two months later and I am still being billed! I called tiscali and explained the situation, I was shunted from department to department, had to cancel again, and was told that I would receive a cheque in 28 days for the money which they wrongly taken by direct debit. The reason they gave was “there was a problem with the cancellation” when I asked why, I was told “I don’t know why”. This is not acceptable, why did they continue to bill me? Why didn’t they get in contact with me if there was a problem? I think it is because they simply don’t care, and why would they care? I am merely a drop in the ocean and if they fail to cancel everyone’s account then I’m sure they make a packet of interest at the bank. 2 months for me to notice and another month to send a cheque out to me that’s 3 months of interest Times (X) thousands of customers = lots of money
I am having a nightmare with Tiscali. I tried to cancel in March at the end of a 12 month contract, to no avail. They would not deal with this simple request until I really lost my temper with one of their operators. After numerous calls and emails they have finally cancelled this service. However although their customer service operators assured me that I would not be billed for the 3 months that they continued with internet I am now being pursued for an outstanding balance of 50 odd quid for the service I repeatedly tried to cancel. I am so sick of calling their customer service and emailing to get no results. I do not want a bad debt but they are charging me for something I tried to cancel and they admitted it was their mistake. They are rubbish. Do not use Tiscali; they do not respect their customers and they cause stress and upset.
What is it with the call centre at Tiscali? I thought BT were bad but I think Tiscali train their staff in how to frustrate, rather than how to listen to, their customers!
I have complained on this site before about Tiscali and really thought that I had at last escaped from them. Last November they sent me a cheque in settlement because I had closed my account with them as my year had been up in September. However, they are now sending me threatening letters wanting a month's payment which they say is for August. I find this difficult to understand when they sent me a cheque and didn't say anything about August! Now they are threatening to send my details to a Debt Collection Agency unless I pay up. It seems that if I am at fault by stopping the direct debit too soon Tiscali didn't find out until March of this year. I am now with a great ISP though I am paying more. Believe me, it is well worth the money for a decent service.
I changed to Virgin in November 2007, but am having trouble with Tiscali still charging me for my line rental. I cancelled my direct debits with the bank and keep getting final reminders from them. I have wrote twice and rang on numerous occasions to let them know that I no longer have line rental with them, but they keep saying I will email head office etc and nothing happens. The only good thing is is that they do not owe me any money, but apparently I owe them money for line rental. I keep getting final reminders, and I keep ringing and writing and now I have been threatened with court action for not paying my bill. They have even threatened to cut my phone line off, well I have my line rental through cable so they will have a hard job. Has anyone any ideas of what to do as I refuse to pay for a service I am not receiving, but do not want a bad debtors name.
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Visitors to the site are reminded that the details contained within user comments are uncorroborated and as such should not be read as fact but as the opinion of the person who left the comment.
Comments:
The problem appears to stem from the fact that Tiscali and Talk Talk haven't quite merged in an operational sense and, as Tiscali only can provide a TV service at the moment we'd been getting advice from Talk Talk Helpline Advisors who didn't appear to have a clue about what they were being asked about. Just a complete disaster from start to finish
Few days before my move, I contacted the moving house team and informed them that I was moving and was advised that my package cannot be moved. I told them I was willing to pay an activation charge if need to activate the package in the new house. I was told to cancel my existing package and call the sales dept to activate the line at the new place.I was assured my broadband would be moved over and later my talk package. I was given reference no 16600957 by Puja for this call. I called the sales team and gave them the new house postcode to get a line activated at the new address and was told they cannot activate a new line even if I paid an activation charge as I need an active BT line or post office line in my name and only then can they take over the line. I double checked by writing in the tiscali product forum and was advised to do the same.
Following their advice, I activated a new line with post office and paid an activation charge for the new line. I called Tiscali cancellation dept on 14/11/09 to cancel my existing line and was assured that the line would be cancelled within 24-48 hours and was given ref no 16756941 by Nigel. I called tiscali moving house dept on 19/11/09 and was advised that my line hasnt been cancelled and it was still active in my old address. The cancellation reference no meant nothing and the line was still active and they couldnt help me as their systems were down.
I called the cancellation dept on 20/11/09 and asked them to cancel the existing line at the old address and was told it will be cancelled in the next 24 hours and was given ref no. 16821715. I was told that my existing package of £14.99 cannot be provided at the new house as it wasnt available in the area but a package of £17.00 was available which includes talk, landline rental and broadband.I asked if my contract would be affected in any way and was assured over all these telephone conversations that it wouldnt be affected. I agreed it was fine and was transferred to the sales team to activate the package. The sales person, a lady named Sarah, informed me that only a package of £32/month can be provided in that area. This is totally unacceptable because I had called upteen times giving my new postcode and was told that the package can be provided at the new address if I had an active line in my name. I have activated a line and spent on the activation charges only to be told that I need to pay £32 / month for the package. I have called repeatedly and I was not informed of this before. I checked if the package is available in my postcode on the tiscali new line online checker and it says that the package of £14.99 of talk and broadband can be provided at my address. I am frustrated, annoyed and fed up with tiscali and totally stressed out as this problem has not been solved for the past 15-20 days. I have called tiscali a number of times and have spent a lot on the telephone calls. I have the tiscali number listed in my bills.
I am now being told that my complaint is escalated to the Higher Level Complaints team and they would contact me in the next 72 hrs. More than 2 weeks has passed and I haven't heard from them. Help!
Now we are having connection problems and phone line problems. It has taken a while for Tiscali to take us seriously and call for an engineer to check out the line. The engineer is BT employed and on 10th Sept he said there was an outside cable fault and it will be dealt with by Monday at the latest. No it hasn't been dealt with yet. We still have intermittent connection and line problems.
BT won't let us contact them through normal procedures as we are not contracted with them. But our line is theirs. Tiscali keep phoning to say they will rattle BT's cage and so it goes on and nothing ever gets done. I believe BT and Tiscali do not communicate ever and if Tiscali get through BT won't co.operate! Keep watching this space..
A week ago I discovered they had set up a new direct debit mandate and taken money out of my account. I got the direct debit refunded under the direct debit guarantee. I have now contacted them twice enclosing the letter they sent to me in July but they still insist I owe them the money. Strangely they make no reference to the letter they sent me in their replies. I am now trying to get a final reply out of them so I can take further action against the company.
Having moved home I tried in vain for 7 weeks to get the existing phone in my new home connected and get a broadband service. The Tiscali prices were very tempting. Endless calls to their (non)customer support line (press 3, press 2, press 1 then put in a queue for ever) were fruitless as i was assured (assuming I got to speak to someone eventually) mine was a prioritised case, or engineers were assigned, or connection was scheduled etc etc. Finally someone from Tiscali actually rang me back. After getting back up off the floor I was told that the problems were unsurmountable so he couldnt help.
So it tried BT.
Within 2 days my phone was reconnected (remotely) and within another 5 days i was posted a hub and the internet service was up and running.
Thanks for nothing Tiscali.
People who were unable to speak English
Three times I spoke to supervisors who were unable to give me any advice/solutions
Twice I have had the line disconnected, i.e. the line put down on me
Three times a person who was reading a script and not even answering my questions
Twice I have been told that they would call back and they did not
BT engineers have come to my house and have said that there is nothing wrong with my telephone line nor the exchange.
They are a bunch of incompetent customer services individuals, with engineers who cannot do their role properly. After another call from them last night saying that the problem was not theirs but BT’s I have decided to give up. This puts in ridicule their statement that customers should get “prioritised traffic, 24/7 support, guaranteed uptime etc”. Tiscali are a joke of a business. Absolutely disgusting.
eventually they managed to get someone to look at it but then it was ok for a day then went wrong again.
We were without broadband for a month before it got sorted proberly.
Did however give us a free month but does not really make up for it as I had to keep using a freind's who luckily said it was ok so I could study for an Open Uni degree!
the last couple of days our internet has started playing up again so anticipating another ordeal and planning to change to BT when our 12 month contract is up!!!
I have now been without my phone and broadband for 2 weeks. I am cancelling my contract and have initiated stage 1 of the complaints procedure. They are absolutely the worst company I have ever had the misfortune to deal with. They do not deserve to be in business.
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