Complaint with Tiscali

Stuey1980

Hello all. This is my first post. I have used the info in this website rather successfully many times, I dont know why I never joined in on the forum earlier.
Ok, I am fuming! The run down so far:
1) Set up broadband with Tiscali. Thought I was going to get calls included as this was quoted.
2) Didnt get calls included and still paying elswhere for calls.
3) Asked to include calls with Tiscali and cancelled with previous provider. Tiscali gave me zero information on what to do so I just cancelled the service with the post office since I didnt want to be paying twice.
4) Line is cut.
5) Spoke with Tiscali who said I needed to speak with BT since they cut the line.
6) BT said that since I wasnt a customer they could not help or do anything.
7) Tiscali did basically nothing. They closed the fault report within a week and never told me.
8) Spoke with Tiscali who said they wouldnt do anything about my lack of service.
9) After 4 weeks of no service and rubbish customer relations, i.e. no communications, I cancelled my service and told em where to go to get the remainder of my contract fees.
10) Get rubbish letters through the door claiming the cash for the remainder of the contract.
11) Was told that everything was on hold while they look into the problem. This was Aug.
12) In Dec I get a letter from a collection agency threatening burley blokes at the door.
13) Speak to collection agency and they put it on hold.
14) Get told by Tiscali that we are sorry, balance is cleared.
15) Get told by Tiscali that sorry, the balance is not cleared and I still owe.
16) Sent the email as per no. 14 to the collection agency hoping that they will wipe it off their records.

What the heck do I need to do? I pay all my bills if I get the service. Tiscali where extremely poor at communication. They didnt attempt to do anything to reconnect me. They want my money for something they have not supplied.

Help!

Regards,

Stu

Edit:
Hope this is the right section for this?

Mark_In_Hampshire

Oh dear....

3 components here:

1. Line rental
2. Calls package
3. Broadband package


You had your line rental (1) with the Post Office. You should have been receiving bills for that. Your calls package (2) was supplied by The Post Office (? you say "elsewhere")

You signed up for broadband (3) with Tiscali. They supplied that service on your line. However it appears they supplied only the broadband. Your line rental and calls remained with the Post Office.

You then cancelled the line rental and calls package with the PO thus terminating your phone line. Yes, BT Openreach would have unplugged the line at the exchange (on the PO's instruction, on your instruction) but this is nothing to do with BT nor have they done anything wrong.

You now can't have your broadband, because you need a working line to supply that, so your broadband won't work now. You have no phone line.

What's important are components (1) and (2).

Even if Tiscali took over the calls (2) you still need to pay line rental (1) to somebody. You're paying nobody, so no line.

In order for this to have worked out as you intended Tiscali would have had to take on (1), (2) and (3).

Your post suggests that at no time was (1) discussed. Without (1) you can't have (2) or (3).

Stuey1980

Hi Mark in Hampshire
Yes it was Post office.
And so it went. I had tansfered to Tiscali broadband, although I believed it was the whole shabang, line rental and calls. I then transfered to Tiscali line rental and calls at extra expense. After this I cancelled with the Post Office as I believed I was being charged twice. So, my service was running with Tiscali soley. After I can now see that Tiscali should have done this, although they did not tell me they would or that they needed to. Their communications have been aweful!

Mark_In_Hampshire

OK. So you transferred both the line rental and calls to Tiscali.

Now ordinarily you'd expect a letter saying "Welcome to Tiscali, we're taking over your line from XX.XX.XX and will be responsible for your line rental and calls, expect this to show on your bill from xx.xx.xx" or something along those lines.

On receipt of that, provided the line is still working the day after the date specified, you then tell The Post Office to cancel because you've migrated everything elsewhere.

This does raise an important point, which is - how does the customer know when the line *has* actually been migrated in order to cancel. Anyway:

What are Tiscali billing you for:

If they have never billed for line rental, there has been either 1. incompetence or 2. some misunderstanding over what services are to be supplied. This will be more tricky to sort.

If they have indeed been billing you for the line rental they were meant to be taking over, then you have a much stronger case for trying to force them to resurrect your line since they would have been billing you for something they had never supplied.

Stuey1980

Thanks again Mark,

I will look into the dates but I am sure that I recieved the letter and that it was indeed working after said date.
To clarify further, I have since moved from the frying pan to the fire. I am with BT. I cancelled my Tiscali service completely and they are after the remainder of the basic line rental etc for the contract term, (almost a full term of 12 or 18 months worth, about £125!).

Mark_In_Hampshire

What's important is

1. whether the letter says

"Your calls will be supplied by us"

or

"Your line rental will be supplied by us"

If it's the latter, and if the billing matches that e.g. it's for line rental, then frankly Tiscali should be paying you, not the other way around.

2. The date Tiscali were to take over the service, and that the date you cancelled with the PO was after that date.

Stuey1980

Ok, my mistake. It appears that I was never recieving line rental or calls before the line was ceased. This in some ways is good as it means that I only owe them for the original broadband service for the original contract term. I have asked for a summary break down of what I owe and also asked what the original contract term was for broadband only. Lets see how this goes. I feel much better about paying them something. Was livid cos I thought that my service had ended after Tiscali took over! Its not like me to cancel with the PO before time though, I am usually very good.

Stuey1980

Pants. Ok. Tiscali only now since June have broken down my cancellation fee to confirm that they are only billing me for the original broadband 12 month contract, which is something I owe by my reckoning. Shame they didnt confirm this in the first place. I would have paid there and then.

Mark_In_Hampshire

Oh well - at least you know *why* now. It doesn't help in that you ended up being without a line, but the final bill isn't as big as feared!