Problems with Tiscali

cigar_2 · 12 March 2007 at 5:47PM

I have seen the Tiscali £17.99 offer for 8Mb and inclusive calls package and am quite tempted, except for all the negative comments I have seen on this forum, ThinkBroadband and ISPreview.

As with most things, people tend to shout loudest when things go wrong, so I wanted to see if anybody could tell me if they are on Tiscali, and you are happy enough with the reliability (i.e. general web browsing, email, iTunes downloads, etc. - I'm not bothered with Torrents, P2P etc.), whether you are on a BT line or a Tiscal LLU line and what speed you are on (1Mb, 2Mb, 8Mb etc.)?

Thanks in advance!

espresso · 12 March 2007 at 5:56PM

cigar wrote: »

Iwhether you are on a BT line or a Tiscal LLU line and what speed you are on (1Mb, 2Mb, 8Mb etc.)?

I think that could well be part of the problem. Their 1.4 million subscribers are split across various different platforms but they are still the most complained about ISP.

peter999 · 12 March 2007 at 8:50PM

cigar wrote: »

I wanted to see if anybody could tell me if they are on Tiscali, and you are happy enough with the reliability

I'm on 1Mb Broadband in London & it's good.
Also I have found the Tech Support in India are very good, understood few problems I have had & sorted them out.
I like the stability of the Tiscali website & service.

I also use NTL Cable Broadband & have had lot of problems with it & tech support (again now in India). So I have good understanding how things work & what to expect.

peter999

lilyann1 · 13 March 2007 at 8:46AM

We used to have Bt broadband and they were great no probs,then changed to tiscali boradband 2Mb and that was great too,no probs.
We then moved house half a mile down the road and to get tiscali to transfer our service there took them nearly 2 months after they made mistake after mistake.
When we complained all they said was very sorry but if you dont like it go elsewhere!!!
We didn't want to go elsewhere just wanted our problem sorted out.It turns out that the line here only supports 1mb and they only found that out 6 weeks into changing it to our new address,even tho' they do a line check in the 1st week of the process.
We find it very slow here and keep having the service fade out,so i think it is really where you live and how good the service is available in that area.
It's similar with sky broadband as we phoned them to transfer to them and were told it was fine then a week later that a 2mb service wasn't available in our area!!!!
its really just how you feel

eryn_kathleen · 13 March 2007 at 8:57AM

I've just left Tiscali because I found that their service was completely unusable in the evenings. I was consistently getting pages timing out, and I couldn't complete a call using Skype due to disconnections.

I was on datastream, but after looking through the Tiscali forums and finding that people were still having problems on LLU, I decided to switch supplier. I was on 1MB, and again I didn't get a higher allowance because I didn't want to be stuck with them for another year.

I found their service to be terrible - I was having problems with my modem because it was faulty. They kept asking me to check the microfilters (which were brand new) and go through the set-up process over and over again before they finally sent out a new modem. I think that cost me about £35 in phone calls, and on reflection I should have used that money to buy a router.

For what it's worth, I just switched to UKFSN (http://www.ukfsn.org) which have a crappy website but cost £19.99 for up to 8MB and are a one-month contract, so if I don't like them I can leave at any time.

Zweiblumen_2 · 13 March 2007 at 10:29AM

I've got 8Mb over BT line. In rural Cumbria. Service has (almost) always been very good. Their customer services dept is lousy. So long as it's going ok it's fine, their customer services dept has been appalling in dealing with a couple of issues I've had regarding terms and conditions. They've now given me the chance to take my MAC and leave.
Follow the Zweiblumen shaped blur.

cigar_2 · 13 March 2007 at 10:45AM

Zweiblumen wrote: »

a couple of issues I've had regarding terms and conditions. They've now given me the chance to take my MAC and leave..

Do you regard yourself as a "heavy" user? Do you download/P2P/Torrent a lot - or just browsing/email/music downloads etc.?

I've read a lot of tales of woe about the FUP and even how people have used it to their advantage in getting out of the 12 month contract!

Zweiblumen_2 · 13 March 2007 at 10:53AM

cigar wrote: »

Do you regard yourself as a "heavy" user? Do you download/P2P/Torrent a lot - or just browsing/email/music downloads etc.?

Yes, but I thought I was managing it well during the 18.00 - 23.00 times. However a few software updates seem to have taken me past the three strikes and you're out. This makes me happy because I wanted to leave anyway.

opportunity_cost · 13 March 2007 at 4:57PM

cigar, I'm surprised that after having seen all the negative comments about Tiscali here and on ThinkBroadband and ISPreview forums, you're still tempted by Tiscali. With all due respect, I think you're allowing the lure of the all inclusive calls to cloud your judgement.

The issue with Tiscali is not whether or not you're a heavy user. Tiscali is the most complained about ISP in the UK because they've provided thousands of people (heavy, medium and light users) with substandard broadband connections and terrible levels of customer service. If you want an extra set of opinions on Tiscali see:

ISP ratings

(Scroll down to 39 to see the 714 comments about Tiscali)

If inclusive calls are important to you, go down the CPS route to get free evening and weekend calls. Have a look at Martin's Home Phones article.

Alison556 · 13 March 2007 at 6:13PM

I've been with Tiscali for about 4 years and to be honest never had any problems with them - until recently!! Towards the end of last year, I got an e-mail from them telling me that they were upgrading my exchange to take 8meg connection (I'm on 2meg connection). Since that went live, I've had terrible problems with speed and constant disconnections.

Numerous phone calls and instructions on checking all my connections etc (how could they suddenly go wrong?) I was getting nowhere. They kept telling me there was nothing wrong with the line.

Got a phone call two nights ago from a lady from Tiscali asking me if I was still experiencing connections problems and slow speed. I told her yes and she informed me that they had had loads of complaints from people served by the same exchange - it's down to over subscription.

My mum (who lives just a few hundred yards away from me) took advantage of the 8meg broadband and inclusive phone calls and she has had nothing but bother from day one. The phone line keeps clicking and whirring when she's on the phone and she's never had an 8meg connection - she can't even get a 1 meg connection most of the time. She's just migrated to Sky...........but that's a whole new other story!!

To be honest, I would urge caution with Tiscali. It seems that they have over subscribed and are getting a lot of problems. When things are working fine, then they're working fine, but their Indian based customer support is absolutely cruel. Very polite but not helpful in the slightest and we had severe communication problems - nobody knew what anybody was saying!

ScoobieGirl · 13 March 2007 at 10:43PM

I've used them for nearly a year 1Mb unlimited, and apart from one phone call at the begining (to a UK Call Centre) they have been fine no problems at all.

The only other person I know who uses them and lives locally has had no end of problems. It seems like a bit of a lottery. Are you feeling lucky?

Problems with Tiscali

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