Tiscali broadband cancellation - doubtful practices?

petewake

I switched broadband provider from Tiscali to Bulldog in February this year. I emailed tiscali to cancel. Despite several emails and aborted premium rate phonecalls, they consistently refused to accept cancellation and put a debt collection agency on to me to recover £63 monthly fees. ( I paid this to preserve my credit rating ). I even sent an email to their cancellation address only to receive a reply saying this email address is no longer in use! How insane is that?! I wrote to their 'Customer Service' dept and sent the letter recorded delivery. They finally replied yesterday saying that cancellation was made 7th July. Not surprisingly, they are claiming £7.75 outstanding still and refusing to reimburse me for fees since February. I know others who have had similar problems with Tiscali. Could this be a well orchestrated scam? Has anyone else had this problem? I intend to take this to court, if only to stop other people from being fleeced this way.

Please let me know if you have suffered at the hands of any broadband provider using what appears to be this 'cancellation wheeze'.

auditbabe

I cancelled Tiscali last year and i can't remember all the ins and outs at the time as I was moving house and my mother was ill I do remember being charged a great deal of money as much as 2 months rental plus admin costs I told the girl that I would never recommend Tiscali. i felt conned as well and like you I paid because of my credit rating. I will never deal with themagain

petewake

Thanks for that info auditbabe. Already it's starting to look as if I'm not the only one! If I have a number of replies confirming my worst suspicions, I will almost certainly be applying to the courts for return of my money. I have already contacted Otelo but found that they were unable to offer any help in sorting this out. Basically they said take it to the wire with Tiscali until you get a 'deadlock letter.' Then we might be able to help you. Fair enough, but it just conjures up visions of lengthy correspondence with no end in sight!

Rex_Mundi

WOW......................Deja vu!!!

I was with Tiscali dialup years ago. I cancelled to switch companies and go to broadband. I cancelled with Tiscali, cancelled the bank payments, and thought that was it.

A few months later, I got a letter from a debt collection agency trying to collect payments for Tiscali. At the time, I'd seen on IT news sites that Tiscali had sent out around 2000 letters the same to cancelled customers (a major muckup at the time).

After explaining the situation with the debt agency, they agreed to hand back my case to Tiscali. It took me months to sort out with the bunch of cowboys that run Tiscali. They only 'realised their mistake' after I wrote to them, and gave them notice that if it wasn't sorted within the next week, my solicitor would be in touch with a view to putting in a counterclaim over the money owed, plus costs for all my time taken since then trying to deal with this matter.

I had so little faith in the company, that when the girl on the phone told me the case was closed. I told her I would only believe her/the company once I received this in writing.

I can't believe they still haven't properly sorted themselves out yet (my case was years ago). Keep records of every contact with Tiscali over this matter. Note down times of calls, take names, send any letter recorded or registered delivery so they have to sign for them, and keep copies of everything.

Good luck!

espresso

I have had no personal experience with Tiscali but these billing/cancellation problems have been widely publicised for years, so I think that we can assume that it is a deliberate tactic!

:mad:

petewake

Thanks for that Rex-Mundi - Looks as if we may have something of a pattern developing here - I'm beginniNg to wonder if Tiscali consider that they have indeed got it 'Properly sorted'! Let's see if more posts confirm this. Your advice about keeping records of contact is spot on, especially for anyone hoping to seek legal redress. Fortunately, I have done this, including sending my letter of complaint recorded delivery. I also have a record of my complaint to OTELO.

Rex_Mundi

Have a read of THIS article from 3 years ago.

Also, you will find LOTS of others moaning about the same thing on THIS SEARCH RESULT.

AMILLIONDOLLARS

I am just about to cancel my contract with Tiscali, to move over to the Sky Broadband Max, I am a bit confused, do I give them 30days or 14 days notice, suspect the latter.

Also do they cut you off straight away? The plan is not to do anything until I have Sky Broadband up and running, whats the best way to proceed?

Lastly any feedback on the Sky Packages!!

Thanks in advance for any advice


AMD

Lord_Gardener

AMILLIONDOLLARS wrote:

I am just about to cancel my contract with Tiscali, to move over to the Sky Broadband Max, I am a bit confused, do I give them 30days or 14 days notice, suspect the latter.

Also do they cut you off straight away? The plan is not to do anything until I have Sky Broadband up and running, whats the best way to proceed?

Lastly any feedback on the Sky Packages!!

Thanks in advance for any advice


AMD

Just what we are thinking of doing but have not got Sky BB in our area yet. I'll be interested in seeing how you get on!