Tiscali line rental - any good

[EH11]

Afternoon, looking for some feedback of anyone who's moved their line rental from BT to the competition. I have broadband and free anytime calls through Tiscali, service has been pretty good. For an extra couple of quid I can get line rental too. I'm considering it as it's cheaper than BT however my main concerns are 1) is Tiscali line rental any good 2) if something goes wrong with the line, will Tiscali fix it in the way BT currently would? Or, are BT still responsible for the line and will they fix if I don't rent from him?

 

Would welcome hearing others experience of moving from BT.

 

cheers

[Brian Whittaker's Tache]

Came back to BT for that very reason

 

If you have a line problem/fault with Tiscali they're total pi5h

 

Firstly you get a call centre with "Derek" in Mumbai, who do all the silly questions with you (is your phone plugged in? etc etc), then they sort it out with BT.

 

Took 4 days to sort a dead line out which is bugger all good when you work from home.

 

Similar problem with BT direct, sorted same day

[Koolkeith]

Dinnae go anywhere near Tiscali. Had them last year.

 

Phone line went down for a day, which caused the internet to stop working. Days went by, with me making phone calls to India asking why it wasn't working. Getting fed bullsh*t saying it would be fixed by next week, this turned into a month. So i cancelled both my phone and internet and moved to BT.

 

Phoned them up and told them i wanted refunded for any bills when the net wasn't working, plus the cost of phone calls i'd made asking for an update. Eventually got through to someone in uk, said it would take a month for the complaint to process. Month went by and got a letter with a cheque for ?2.20 with no reference to anything or any breakdown. *****'s never cancelled the phone, so it was coming out of my bro's account for a couple of months whilst paying the BT bill.

 

Fine when it's working, but the worst customer service I've ever had!

[gavsmith]

Dinnae go anywhere near Tiscali. Had them last year.

 

Phone line went down for a day, which caused the internet to stop working. Days went by, with me making phone calls to India asking why it wasn't working. Getting fed bullsh*t saying it would be fixed by next week, this turned into a month. So i cancelled both my phone and internet and moved to BT.

 

Phoned them up and told them i wanted refunded for any bills when the net wasn't working, plus the cost of phone calls i'd made asking for an update. Eventually got through to someone in uk, said it would take a month for the complaint to process. Month went by and got a letter with a cheque for ?2.20 with no reference to anything or any breakdown. *****'s never cancelled the phone, so it was coming out of my bro's account for a couple of months whilst paying the BT bill.

 

Fine when it's working, but the worst customer service I've ever had!

 

I have to agree with these comments - my broadband is with Pipex who have recently been bought by Tiscali - 2 months ago my connection went down and I only got it fixed yesterday, over 40 calls and 8 hours on the phone later. The call centre is in the Phillipines not India.

 

Complaint went in today - I am gonna take them to the cleaners.

[neobis]

I have to agree with these comments - my broadband is with Pipex who have recently been bought by Tiscali - 2 months ago my connection went down and I only got it fixed yesterday, over 40 calls and 8 hours on the phone later. The call centre is in the Phillipines not India.

 

Complaint went in today - I am gonna take them to the cleaners.

 

I had heard that Pipex were meant to be quite good?

 

What were your experiences gavsmith?

 

Why did it go down, did you forgot to pay your bill or did someone pull a plug at the exchange? Those two reasons are normally the cause?

 

Maybe they went downhill after employing The Hoff?

 

I am with TalkTalk and I cant complain.

 

If you have Telewest (Virgin), try them instead they have 'upto' 20mb broadband.

[Selkirk_Jambo]

I used to work for Tiscali Complaints.

 

One of the problems is that, although your line rental would show as Tiscali's, the practical upshot is that you would still be on the BT exchange and have BT engineers sort your problems(albeit through Openreach)

 

In this regard, BT are a shower of to$$ers. They delay upgrades, cease lines that they shouldnt, 'lose' requests for fault remedies etc. They'll try anything to get you back to them. Its the same for a lot of other telecom providers.

 

To the guy going with complaint, go to the complaints procedure on the Tiscali website. Go through it exactly and eventually you will get contacted by the High Level Complaints. You'll get a good offer from them. Threaten them with a Cisas referal. Every case that gets referred to arbitration automatically costs them ?500 so they try and avoid it whenever possible.

[Stuart Lyon]

So BT are the only ones who apply dubious practices? what about all those people who suddenly find themselves conned by doorstep/supermarket sales people into leaving BT and being on someone else's books.

[Selkirk_Jambo]

Didnt say that it was only BT, just that they are pretty bad that specific area.

 

And BT arent innocent of taking peoples service withour their consent (slamming). I had loads of instances of complaints from people who had received a letter out of the blue saying their service was being transferred back to BT, when they had never asked.

 

But again, its not just BT, it industry wide. Where there's commission to be made by sales teams, there will be slamming.

[gavsmith]

I used to work for Tiscali Complaints.

 

One of the problems is that, although your line rental would show as Tiscali's, the practical upshot is that you would still be on the BT exchange and have BT engineers sort your problems(albeit through Openreach)

 

In this regard, BT are a shower of to$$ers. They delay upgrades, cease lines that they shouldnt, 'lose' requests for fault remedies etc. They'll try anything to get you back to them. Its the same for a lot of other telecom providers.

 

To the guy going with complaint, go to the complaints procedure on the Tiscali website. Go through it exactly and eventually you will get contacted by the High Level Complaints. You'll get a good offer from them. Threaten them with a Cisas referal. Every case that gets referred to arbitration automatically costs them ?500 so they try and avoid it whenever possible.

 

Cheers Selkirk, I am following all correct procedures, I have contacted the ISPA who are mediators, however despite raising it through them on three separate occasions, Pipex never got in touch with me. In my complaint I have told Pipex that I hope to resolve it directly with them however I will take it to the CISAS when 12 weeks have elapsed from my complaint that was raised on Feb 19th or I get a letter of deadlock from them so I can take it to the CISAS, whichever is sooner.

 

There is no way I am letting them off lightly!

[70's Throwback]

I had heard that Pipex were meant to be quite good?

 

What were your experiences gavsmith?

 

Why did it go down, did you forgot to pay your bill or did someone pull a plug at the exchange? Those two reasons are normally the cause?

 

Maybe they went downhill after employing The Hoff?

 

I am with TalkTalk and I cant complain.

 

If you have Telewest (Virgin), try them instead they have 'upto' 20mb broadband.

 

What about the people you're emailing??

[Bindy Badgy]

I had heard that Pipex were meant to be quite good?

 

What were your experiences gavsmith?

 

Why did it go down, did you forgot to pay your bill or did someone pull a plug at the exchange? Those two reasons are normally the cause?

 

Maybe they went downhill after employing The Hoff?

 

I am with TalkTalk and I cant complain.

 

If you have Telewest (Virgin), try them instead they have 'upto' 20mb broadband.

 

When I was in my student flat I had Telewest and they were excellent. We had 3 PCs maxing the line 24/7 and the speeds were always good. It was expensive but we had their fastest service. One of my mates has told me that they've started throttling his speeds if he downloads too much but in his experience the limits only last for a few hours so it's not a big deal.

 

Since moving bake in with my folks I've been using Pipex. So far I haven't had any major complaints with the service.

 

I've found that the download speeds for torrents cab be pretty poor during the day (under 20kbs) but good at night (200kbs).

 

For some unknown reason my direct debit got cancelled, which might of been the bank's fault. One phone call fixed the problem. I spoke to someone down in England but I did spend 10 mins in a queue which is annoying when it's an 0870 number.

 

Before reading this thread I wasn't aware that Tiscali had bought over Pipex and I must admit I'm fairly worried. I've heard a lot of bad things about their service and their bull**** "fair usage" policy is not something I'm prepared to put up with. Unlimited download limits is why I went for Pipex in the first place.

[gavsmith]

When I was in my student flat I had Telewest and they were excellent. We had 3 PCs maxing the line 24/7 and the speeds were always good. It was expensive but we had their fastest service. One of my mates has told me that they've started throttling his speeds if he downloads too much but in his experience the limits only last for a few hours so it's not a big deal.

 

Since moving bake in with my folks I've been using Pipex. So far I haven't had any major complaints with the service.

 

I've found that the download speeds for torrents cab be pretty poor during the day (under 20kbs) but good at night (200kbs).

 

For some unknown reason my direct debit got cancelled, which might of been the bank's fault. One phone call fixed the problem. I spoke to someone down in England but I did spend 10 mins in a queue which is annoying when it's an 0870 number.

 

Before reading this thread I wasn't aware that Tiscali had bought over Pipex and I must admit I'm fairly worried. I've heard a lot of bad things about their service and their bull**** "fair usage" policy is not something I'm prepared to put up with. Unlimited download limits is why I went for Pipex in the first place.

 

Stokesy, I'd never had a problem with Pipex, until something went wrong. Honestly it's been the worst example of customer service I've ever experienced!

[Civil Jambo]

I work pt for Tesco home phone and we do line rental and calls for cheaper rates than Bt and Its still technically a BT line for broadband purposes as its the same cooper wire we us and exchange, also a Bt engineer (eg the BT open reach service) will fix your phone in the exact same time scales and its Cheaper!! sameless promo but we are loads better than BT

[Stuart Lyon]

Civil Jambo don't you mean you are cheaper than BT. You can't be loads better than them if they are providing the copper (note spelling) wires etc.

[Craig_]

BT are a shower of ^^^^s. Wouldn't p*** on them if they were on fire.

 

Just thought I'd add that to the mix!

[Stuart Lyon]

Maroonaldinho everyone to their own opinion. You have obviously had a bad experience with BT that has formed your bad opinion of them. I hope your current supplier doesn't let you down.