TalkTalk or Tiscali Broadband?

going2die_rich

I was going to switch ISP from BT to either TalkTalk or Tiscali. But having read some of the posts about TalkTalk and all of it's problems have started to doubt whether it's worth it.

I do use P2P but only about 20 to 25gb a month.

TalkTalk's price (£20.99) and the fact that it offered free international calls to the US and Canada did appeal (as I have friends there)

Tiscali was more of a second choice due to it's higher costs (£21.99 + line rental to BT) and it's package doesn't include International Calls compared to TalkTalk

Anyone with either of these providers to let me know what they think of them to help me decide which I should go with

Ian_W

OMG Gee g2d_r - you must be a masocist with sadistic tendencies towards the rest of the internet users in your house!!
TalkTalk = major probs for many with the offer well over-subscribed and loads of complaints on here about cs being appalling. Even chairman C. Dunstone has accepted that.
Tiscali = most complained about ISP over a very long period, have a consistent record of being problematic for customers.

AOL are said to be the only truely unlimited ISP ATM as they don't advertise that then apply FUP or shaping etc. Why not do some comparisons before you decide at:
https://www.adslguide.org
and/or
https://www.ispreview.co.uk
The former gets a lot of feedback thro' its speedtests covering reliability and cs as well. The latter isn't perhaps quite as wide ranging but does give you a flavour of the issues with each ISP before you jump ship and are tied to a 12 [18 with TT!] month contract.

Jason_Lloyd

Yup IanW is pretty much on the money with his comments.

In actual fact EFH Broadband also offer a truly unlimited product called Freedom 512K - yes it's a measily 512Kbps but it is a truly unlimited connection for £17.99 per mth.

I've just heard that Biscit have dropped their 12-18mth contract which means you can now get a similar product to Talk Talk without any contract.

going2die_rich

I was only looking at both of them because of the talk packages they also offered therefore it would save me a lot more than just switching ISPs.

Although BT are over the odds for it's costs of £23 a month, it's speed is 2mb (my line can only take 4mb's anyway) and 40gb usage limit is more than enough for my needs.

I will look into Biscit, thanks for the replies

BexTech

You won't really be saving money with TalkTalk as their broadband is next to useless, forget it if you want to do anything other than browse a few websites here and there in between the times it's offline.

From day one their system has been flaky, can you live with continuous disconnections (when other broadband providers at the same speed have no problems) DNS errors so many "Page Not Found" errors when the page exists. No News group access as that fell over over a year ago and they can't get around to fixing it (though you can get free text news group access elsewhere, and decent paid for binary newsgroups are around). email system always falling over (though not a problem if you have been wise and have your own domain/instant mail with pop3/SMTP access).

I would look for a decent ISP, you could then use Primus 2 for free evening and weekend calls, 1899 for daytime calls, 18185 for international and calls to mobiles, and even use VoIP for free calls to landlines in the UK and several overseas countries using VoIP Stunt, SIP Discount etc.

chloe99_2

i have no idea why noone else seems to mention them - but we have been with homecall (now part of pipex group but still offering better packages than pipex) for 2 years now. They are offering £29.99 pcm for unltd broadband up to 8mb, unltd calls any time of day and including line rental. Plus no connection fee, very quick connection, I've had no problems with broadband etc over the 2 years I've been with them.

Also new customers get £6.25 off the price for the first 3 months. On top of that, if you sign up and you like them then you get a good referral bonus (about £10 credit for calls on your bill ie mobiles/0870/international etc) if any of your friends and family sign up.

have a look at their website in case they've got any other packages you prefer. hope this helps

Aspal

I know everyone slates them, but I signed up to Tiscali last month and have had absolutely no problems. Had a little trouble getting settings right (problem my end not theirs - I'm no computer expert), but helpline very helpful (although usual foreign accent) and sorted it pretty quickly (although from memory was 0870 number). I am signed up for 1mb package as apparently the 2mb package won't work on my line, which is a tad annoying as it's the same price! Otherwise, can't fault them yet.

I guess there are good and bad stories with everyone.

iwanttosave_2

I have been with tiscali for years and think they are great, never had a single problem with them, always great speeds and brilliant all round.

littlereddevil

One year with Tiscali was enough for me. Their Indian call centre is awful.Twice they tried to tell me m y computer was faulty. They are worse than useless.

dooperama

I have completely lost faith in Tiscali. They were supposed to connect me to bb three weeks ago and have not done so and are completely crap at keeping me up to date with why. I have had no contact from them and have had to badger them regularly not that it has done the blindest bit of good.

They sent me two modems etc because they believed one was faulty when it turned out to be a problem on the phone line at the exchange. ( Allegedly )

Their right hand does not know what its left hand does. They keep blaming BT but seem unable to say when the glitch will be sorted and I can have bb. I am a new customer to both tiscali and bb. Have no existing supplier.#

Am now v cynical re the whole thing. If it is BT then how can they be allowed to mess things up like this? If it is Tiscali then how do I get them to sort it out. Really want to forget the whole thing to be honest.

Any advice apart from go back in time through a black hole and dont subscribe to Tiscali in the first place?

tottielimejuice

At present we are with Tiscali, but want to migrate to Sky - Once up and running I have found Tiscali to be fine (we have the 14.99/month broadband package) BUT when things go wrong their customer service is a complete Nightmare - don't say you haven't been warned!!!! If you are already a Tiscali customer and are happy with your lot - it might be worth noting that when you call to cancel - they offer to provide the 14.99 package for 9.99 - so if you have time to kill and can stand to hanging on the cancellation line you could let them persuade you to 'stay' and be better off by 5.00 a month!!! Good luck - I'm off to Sky (Mac/llu/cancellation/tag removal/nobroadbandfor at least three weeks permitting)!!!!!!!!!!!