Tiscali phone ,broadband , tv packages

tabath

These seem a good deal at the moment, especially the tripple pack, it would save me at least £15 a month on what I pay now.

I just can't seem to find the info on how you receive the tv channels. Also how ggod are they on the broadband. Anyone know?

olly300

I'm using it right now and have been using it for the past 3+ years. I have a few friends and relations using it, the longest has been using it for 7 years. They were originally called Homechoice.

I would advise you NOT to use their phone packages and keep a BT phone line for 2 reasons:
1.If you have any problems with your phone line you can call BT directly and get it sorted out. (In the past I've had someone doing building work cut my and a few neighbours phone lines off.)
2. Their phone packages don't seem that good value in comparison to others including BT. I use to use Talk Talk on my phone line but had Tiscali Homechoice broadband and tv. I don't do this any longer because I've had problems with Talk Talk and the carphonewarehouse. The other people I know with it use BT packages.

The tv signal comes down your phone line so you don't need an aerial for that t.v. It is easiest for the engineers* if the tv and the telephone point are in the same room. However if you talk nicely to the person installing your system they will wire round your house neatly or can leave you with extra wire in your connection if you know you are going to be doing some DIY. The box can only be connected to one tv so if you have more tv's in your house it may be worth you getting a freeview box for them.

When Tiscali took them over they informed everyone that if you watch TV and use broadband at the same time, your broadband signal will be weaker. As I use a wireless connection I don't seem to be affected.

Their own staff (in your house) will advise you to go for the packages without a wireless router and will write down if asked a wireless router that go with their set top box. (You don't need to get that specific one but you should ask them for the type of router that goes with the set top box.) This is because the wireless router they provide can now be brought for under £40 in the shops. When I initially got set up the fee was equal to the cost of the router so I have their router.

When the system goes down which since I moved house has not happened but it did go down twice in my previous address at a rate of once a year, it seems to go down twice in 2 weeks as there is some major fault.

The major problem I and the other people I know have had with them is their customer service. Unfortunately this is the same with another broadband provider I had in the past. Tiscali taking them over doesn't seem to have made a difference.

The problems have been:
1.Not answering emails - they openly admit they don't answer emails if you ask them. They refuse to give any reason for this.
2. Waiting in a queue for hours to get through to the customer service people to do things like change package. The technical queue if there ever is one is always very short i.e. 5 minutes. It seems less fustrating to write them a letter via post.
3. Their customer service people, who are UK based, not being able to book appointments for installation and give you proper confirmation over the phone. In the end when I moved mine was done through the post without me doing very much. One of my friend's had to phone them 3 times and wait 3 times in hour queues to sort it out.
4. Billing - when I moved my package changed to a cheaper one. They were unable and unwilling to change my direct debit to the lower amount including when I wrote to them and warn I would cancel it if they didn't respond within a specific time. They didn't respond so I cancelled and wrote to them demanding another direct debit form. They responded by trying to bill me for administration charges so I wrote them another letter informing them if they refused to send me a direct debit form and didn't refund the administration charges taken out by direct debit I would be reporting them to OFCOM. They refunded the charges and sent me a direct debit form. I asked around and they had done this to other people, only the people who complained got their money back.

*Most of their technical staff in person and on the phone have technical degrees or qualifications, which I found out by talking to them.

So in summary:
1. Good technical staff
2. Good broadband tv service
3. Ok phone packages but you can do better as you will still have a BT line.
4. Very poor customer service but you can avoid talking to them after everything is installed and working, and if the problem involves billing write to them giving them a month to sort it out and then threaten them with OFCOM.

tabath

Thanks Olly300. I think I will avoid them until there customer service and broadband improves as I need a stable connection that will stay up due to my business. Thanks for the heads up .........I will keep my eye on their reviews but stay where I am at the moment.