Due to the Tiscali disaster, I am now on dial-up. A bit like being forced to quaff Cava and pretend I like it after years of Krug.
28 days and counting, and they still haven't been able to fix my line. How hard can it be? Not any harder than trying to get through to a real live human being on the Tiscali help line, I'll bet. The few times I have managed to speak to Tiscali employees I've been lied to and been given excuses for why my line is down, all along the lines of that it's 'a temporary fault'. Temporary? 28 days? Who are you trying to kid?
Finally, I came close to losing it (yeah I know, I suffer from Internet dependency) and concocted a plan. An hour later, having called every number I could find for Tiscali (their website isn't exactly encouraging person-to-person contact), had the automated line hang up on me (four times!!!), threw the phone across the room in a red-hazed rage (twice) and finally having figured out that if you call the main customer helpline and go through to billing (they might not want to help but they sure want your money), you will eventually get through to a person. At which point I announce that I am a very important freelance journalist who writes for very important British newspapers and if they couldn't sort out the problem asap then they could expect a very damning newspaper review highlighting their shoddy service within the next week.
Suddenly, rather than being treated like yet another annoying customer as per each previous phone call, I am listened to, kowtowed to, agreed with and soothed. I get a 'lead agent' dealing with the crisis (no clue what that means, but I gather it's more important and more competent than the robots I had been speaking to previously) who tells me she will investigate and call me back. So far, so good. She calls me back a couple of hours later, saying that she has spoken to the technical people, and then tells me that Tiscali decided it would be a good idea to upgrade our line on 18th August. Nice sentiment, except it failed, leaving us without a service, and they didn't think that merited them getting in touch with us to explain exactly why we had no service. Then they tried to put us back onto our usual line, which also failed. Again, that didn't merit even a quick email. I mean, did they think we wouldn't notice? And here we are, 28 days later...
OK, so they screwed up big time. But to add insult to injury, we had been told twice in the past two weeks that a request had been put through to reinstate our service - a procedure that takes 5-10 working days. My special lead agent then confesses that the button hadn't been pushed either time. EITHER time. Once is a mistake, twice is looking worrying.
Gross incompetence? Couldn't care less? Happy to rake in the cash but screw you lowly customer if anything goes wrong? Tea-break more important than sorting out a customer?
Probably all of the above.
The good news is that Tiscali's shoddy service is in breach of contract, and will be terminated first thing on Monday morning. However, that still means we'll be forced to endure dial-up for as long as it takes for a new service to hook us up.
My advice? Don't touch Tiscali with a bargepole. The real test of a company is how it handles itself when things go wrong and Tiscali has just scored itself a shameful minus grade. But as always in a tussle with the big boys, it's me who turns out to be the real loser - wasted time, wasted energy, wasted rage and even more white hairs.
Tiscali. You suck.
28 days and counting, and they still haven't been able to fix my line. How hard can it be? Not any harder than trying to get through to a real live human being on the Tiscali help line, I'll bet. The few times I have managed to speak to Tiscali employees I've been lied to and been given excuses for why my line is down, all along the lines of that it's 'a temporary fault'. Temporary? 28 days? Who are you trying to kid?
Finally, I came close to losing it (yeah I know, I suffer from Internet dependency) and concocted a plan. An hour later, having called every number I could find for Tiscali (their website isn't exactly encouraging person-to-person contact), had the automated line hang up on me (four times!!!), threw the phone across the room in a red-hazed rage (twice) and finally having figured out that if you call the main customer helpline and go through to billing (they might not want to help but they sure want your money), you will eventually get through to a person. At which point I announce that I am a very important freelance journalist who writes for very important British newspapers and if they couldn't sort out the problem asap then they could expect a very damning newspaper review highlighting their shoddy service within the next week.
Suddenly, rather than being treated like yet another annoying customer as per each previous phone call, I am listened to, kowtowed to, agreed with and soothed. I get a 'lead agent' dealing with the crisis (no clue what that means, but I gather it's more important and more competent than the robots I had been speaking to previously) who tells me she will investigate and call me back. So far, so good. She calls me back a couple of hours later, saying that she has spoken to the technical people, and then tells me that Tiscali decided it would be a good idea to upgrade our line on 18th August. Nice sentiment, except it failed, leaving us without a service, and they didn't think that merited them getting in touch with us to explain exactly why we had no service. Then they tried to put us back onto our usual line, which also failed. Again, that didn't merit even a quick email. I mean, did they think we wouldn't notice? And here we are, 28 days later...
OK, so they screwed up big time. But to add insult to injury, we had been told twice in the past two weeks that a request had been put through to reinstate our service - a procedure that takes 5-10 working days. My special lead agent then confesses that the button hadn't been pushed either time. EITHER time. Once is a mistake, twice is looking worrying.
Gross incompetence? Couldn't care less? Happy to rake in the cash but screw you lowly customer if anything goes wrong? Tea-break more important than sorting out a customer?
Probably all of the above.
The good news is that Tiscali's shoddy service is in breach of contract, and will be terminated first thing on Monday morning. However, that still means we'll be forced to endure dial-up for as long as it takes for a new service to hook us up.
My advice? Don't touch Tiscali with a bargepole. The real test of a company is how it handles itself when things go wrong and Tiscali has just scored itself a shameful minus grade. But as always in a tussle with the big boys, it's me who turns out to be the real loser - wasted time, wasted energy, wasted rage and even more white hairs.
Tiscali. You suck.
Comments
Signed up for a year contract, with 2 months free trial. For the 2 months it was perfect. A dream. After that, we got put on the fair users policy. We where never informed that 2mb unlimited download didnt exactly mean that. If we where told we never would have signed up. 6 months down the line I am still fighting with them and still paying the £14.95 per month for a "service" that is slower than dial up 124bit.
BASTARDS
Not only about the crap speed, the capping, the stupid 0871 2223311, it's everything, including the customer services and the billing department.
People have complained much about the speed and the capping, I don't think I need to add more on that, so let me tell you about the billing chaos.
This started around April 2007, after I upgrade to another package with Tiscali. The direct debit went wrong, I got letter from Tiscali telling me that the direct debit details are invalid, despite the fact that I didn't change or cancelled anything, and more importantly ; the fact that Tiscali did manage to take the money out of my bank account!
I called the 0871 number, and been told it was alright, we have got you details okay, just disregard the letter. So the next month it happened again I disregarded the letter as advised, and then the next month. And then suddenly they disconnected the broadband and the phone ! And this all the while they still took money from my account !.
So I had to call the 0871 number. And explained that I didn't change the bank details, and the money did went out of my bank account, why did I get disconnected ?.
[And of course, as usual, at least 15 - 20 minutes or sometimes 30 minutes before a human speaks to you, and you will be lucky if you talk to the one who has brain and good attitude towards her/his job!! And that's 5p per minute x 20 mins = £1 at least ! If you're not on Tiscali it will be 10p per minute. ]
Answer ; we don't know what happen, but let me update your bank details and reconnect the service, the service will be up and running within 48 hours.
I tried to email them and tell them my case, and asked them if they can investigate what happened and sort the problem.
I don't fancy calling them each month to tell them that I didn't change the bank details, and the money still taken, and yet got disconnected. Those lazy people who answer the email, don't even bother to read your email, they just copy and paste their standard template telling you rubbish. For example, a moron who signed her name as D*bb*e Br*wn. I wonder if the managers do check their staff's work, or are the managers got the same attitude?????
So I had to call billing again.
And this happens every month until now.
And the latest one on beginning of January 08, I managed to ask them to reinstate the service, yet they only did the broadband. The phone still can not be used to make outgoing calls. And I had called them twice for that matter.
Today the phone still doesn't work, and I called them for 18 minutes for a human to pick up and asked me survey (on my expense!!! how dare Tiscali) and transfer it to someone else and join the queue again total 30 minutes waiting on the phone no results. I just want to kill myself.
I think I'm contemplating a suicide attempt because of frustration with Tiscali.
Frustrated, almost gone crazy.
Ann
We were happy and well-cared for cutomers of a service called Homechoice, with some really great service addons - digital on demand channels, reliable broadband, good speeds (and I am a heavy user). They were bought by Tiscali. We were told they would need to chnge signals at some point.
Last month, our service went dead. It is still dead. They have changed the box, and fielded two calls a day from myself and my partner (who they often refuse to talk to, since they appear incapable of having two names on an account).
We have been told that it would be fixed on or by every single working day in the calendar between then and now. We have been told it is thee fault of the BT exchange, no the Tiscali software at the exchange, no the line itself, no our router/box/incompetence.
We have been told it's fixed today. I can't wait to get home. Because tonight, when I see again that I am still paying for something i am not receving, to a company I never signed up to, I am cancelling my direct debit, and confirming with Sky that yes, I would like to start with them.
It says an awful lot when someone who hates Rupert Murdoch as much as I do would rather give him money.
Tiscali are a disgrace. The scottish accents are nice though. Must be a new helpcentre.