Plusnet and Tiscalli - are they SO bad??

NoNickname

WhenI signed up for Tiscali about 2 months ago I was told that for the 1Mb service I would be charged £12.99 a new rate that they had just introduced and advertised on their web site. I was also offered the chance to switch to them for my telephone line at £10.99 per month which I declined, as I wanted to find out what their service was like before getting in too deep. The person who I as talking to said I did not have to and confirmed with me that the Internet was still £12.99 per month.
The problem is that they are charging me £14.99 per month. I have had email exchanges with them including one reply on 9 November that states that I will be charged £12.99. But the latest bill still shows £14.99. I have even written to their Chief Executive but to no avail. Is anyone else having this sort of problem.

Paul_Varjak

I joined up with Tiscali in October. It has been nothing but problems!

In the evenings I could not access any secure website. That means I cannot process PayPal transactions, access any banking website, buy/sell shares etc.

Anyway I found a way out of the problem without having to pay the remainder of the contract (47 weeks). I swapped from Home Broadband to Business Broadband. I then cancelled the Business Broadband within the 7 day cooling-off period!

Today, Tiscali have confirmed that my contract is now ended. The only thing is, I will have to wait 10-15 days before I can change to another broadband provider. In the meantime, I am managing with AOL's free one-month dial-up trial; not ideal, but at least I can access those secure sites that I need to.

Paul_Varjak

NoNickname wrote:

WhenI signed up for Tiscali about 2 months ago I was told that for the 1Mb service I would be charged £12.99 a new rate that they had just introduced and advertised on their web site.

£14.99p was the old price just before they reduced it to £12.99p per month. They have since made a further reduction - £9.99p for the first 3 months and £12.99 per month thereafter.

Paul_Varjak

Froggitt wrote:

10 days? For months they didnt respond until OTELO told them to send me an apology/compensation/refund.

Impossible! The Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) procedure for Telecom companies is administered either by OTELO or the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIA); CIA adminster the CISAS scheme.

OTELO have certainly not told Tiscali to give you an apology/compensation/refund because Tiscali are members of CISAS (not OTELO)!

NoNickname

I know it was the old price just before I signed up. Problem is how do I get them to give me the correct price that was current when I signed up i.e. £12.99

Paul_Varjak

NoNickname wrote:

I know it was the old price just before I signed up. Problem is how do I get them to give me the correct price that was current when I signed up i.e. £12.99

Tell Tiscali that you want to follow their Complaints Procedure, with a view to taking your complaint to CISAS if the problem is not rectified within 3 months. Only communicate by e-mail to save money. http://www.tiscali.co.uk/aboutus/codeofpractice.html

Alternatively, try taking a copy of the e-mail confirming the £12.99p per month to your bank, and claiming under the Direct Debit Guarantee. http://www.financevictims.co.uk/direct-debits/index.htm

Or, you could try the 'heavy-handed' approach and cancel your direct debit and that you will only complete a new direct debit mandate once you have a schedule of payments for the remiander of your contract. If you to decide to follow this route, I would suggest doing it immediately after a direct debit has been collected - giving Tiscali time to send a payment schedule beofre the next payment is due.

Froggitt

Paul_Varjak wrote:

Impossible! The Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) procedure for Telecom companies is administered either by OTELO or the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIA); CIA adminster the CISAS scheme.

OTELO have certainly not told Tiscali to give you an apology/compensation/refund because Tiscali are members of CISAS (not OTELO)!

Oh yes they did. At the time they were part of the OTELO scheme.

Paul0123

I wish id never signed up with Tiscali!

BUT they were one of the few ISP's offering 8mb broadband where i live and its essential i have some kind of broadband line at home for work. Id been with NTL for 4 years (which everyone slates) and had absolutely no problems...

Since ive been with Tiscali ive suffered DNS problems, sloooooooooooooow service, tech support that consisted of we'll send you an email, tiscali passing me to BT to look at the line constantly... Just a joke from start to finish.

Then out of the blue last night had a phone call "Is that Mr X, we have upgraded the exchange your broadband problems will now be sorted". Well what could i do but laugh and say yeah ill believe it when i see it.

Suprise Suprise today its just as slooooooooooooow...

keefrto

Been with Plusnet for nearly 18mths and have to say that their response time from raising a "ticket" (question to me and you) can vary from same day to weeks. I had had enough of the time delay for my simple questions to be answered and the 20 min waits on the 0845 number that I pulled the band. Within 3 hrs of this request for MAC they offered a good deal and an apology for the poor CS and I have to say everything has eerily been ok.
check out out if you can the forum on their website for feedback on the CS. At present I am happy with PN

cornerclose

Hi there - I'm with Tiscali, and have been for about 13 months. Until very recently they seemed absolutely fine, and I moved my phone and line rental to them as recently as the beginning of November.

Before the transfer had even occurred I had my first problem, which sounds identical to that experienced by Paul Varjak. I cannot log into any secure website on some evenings. I also find that Mirc, Bersirc and Webchat often get timed out when I'm using IRC and I can't reconnect. I am using the internet for my matched betting and it is frankly costing me a lot of money if I can't connect.

I'm onthe internet for about 16 hours a day 7 days a week, so I need unlimited download. Has anyone any suggestions as to whether this might be a problem with the exchange or with Tiscali, and if I do change ISP, which would be best to change to? I was considering plusnet, and also a second phone line but if the problem is at the exchange then neither is likely to solve it.

Thanks.