Tiscali Broadband www.tiscali.co.uk Review

Overall Rating

Everything

None

I left bt and joined tiscali broadband. Within one week I received my free modem. Plugged it in and that was that, no problems really fast connection. Good home page and their helpful if you have a problem. During my signing up process they kept me fully informed on my order status etc. Sent me important info to set my pc up ready. No paying up front, EXCELLENT.

Members' Comments onhel8itch.'s Review

• johno2090 on 23rd Oct 2003

  Well id have to say Tiscali are the worst ISP out there AVOID them at all costs!!
  
  First of all they failed to connect me to the NEtwork and the Upstream is aroun 2kb/s Downstram is about 250k/s. There customer Service Blames everything on the "USER" or "BT".
  
  And the connection drops almost every hour or so.
  
  if u havent go the picture there Cheap but Poor!

• str8jackit on 28th Apr 2004

  Let's see if you feel the same about this company in 3-4 months time ;-)

• johno2090 on 29th Apr 2004

  Yes i did, and i changed my ISP to Zen Internet and i can honestly say that they're a great ISP :)

• str8jackit on 30th Apr 2004

  I was actually commenting on Hel4itch's comments. Which sound so far-fetched that he/she must be an Tiscali employee or something... because Tiscali customer services don't know how to help anybody with anything! They don't know what a telephone keypad is, therefore they dont know how to call customers back & because english isn't any of the Tiscali operators first language, technical problems are hellish to explain to them. I'm actually compiling evidence of this shady company and forwarding it all to BBC Watchdog.

• hel4itch on 30th Apr 2004

  In reply to str8jackit: No, no, no, no, I'm not an employee and I have just realised how poor Tiscali are.... If I could take back my original review, trust me, I would!! They are a waste of space.
  I have been trying to sign up with another broadband isp and can't due to Tiscali being on my line. I have requested countless times for Tiscali to cancel the account so I can migrate, and I get no response. I ring them and listen to their ridiculous musack for god knows how long before being told the operators are all busy. I've now been told that to join another broadband isp I need my cbuk code from Tiscali. Do you think they'd give me pah fat chance.
  One warning..if you are with Tiscali broadband and like me think (thought) they are a good isp then you are sooooo very wrong. Don't waste anymore time with them, better still, don't even bother signing up with them. Choose an isp such as Pipex.

• johno2090 on 4th May 2004

  Took me 1 month before they actualy removed their services from the Phone line and we could get Zen Signed up. We chased them almost everynight and We Couldnt get BT to Move them Directly. But yes, I hate Tiscali and I just hope people read this before falling prey to their new Advertising Scheme!

• Kwalsh4 on 19th May 2004

  "First of all, they failed to connect me to the Network and the Upstream is aroun 2kb/s Downstream is about 250k/s. And the connection drops almost every hour or so. Their customer service blames everything on the "USER" or "BT"."
  
  I am having the exact same problem with the same response from Tiscali - after 5 weeks, and me losing my temper, they are liaising with BT at last! Who knows what will happen...
  But to those of you thinking of going with Tiscali - DON'T!

• bharatmistry on 1st Jul 2004

  Please, please, please do not use Tiscali. You will be sorry. All the negative reviews are correct, they are very polite, etc., etc., but are absolutely useless. Worse than a script from Eastenders. Don't use them unless you are a NASA astronaut and can figure out on your own what to do if things go wrong.

• moodles on 29th Jul 2004

  Tiscali - We're a colocation customer and we're so ingrained at Milton Keynes telehouse that it would be a real pain to move now.
  
  The customer service is unbelievably bad - they are too big a company to care - Do yourself a favour and avoid them like the plague.
  
  I hate Tiscali.

• boerseun on 5th Aug 2004

  Wow. Same here. I have been trying to move from Tiscali for more than a year now. First, I cancelled my account. It was cancelled within 2 hours. Then waited 2 months for them to remove themselves from my line. Never happened. Was forced to sign up again.
  
  Tried migration process. 4 Times rejected my Tiscali. Now they want to cap my bandwidth.

• boerseun on 5th Aug 2004

  Most useless bunch I've seen. Can't speak English. Worst customer service. Non-technical. Can go on all night. Don't get trapped like me. Avoid like a plague.
  
  Better having no broadband than Tiscali broadband.
  
  They should get the WORST ISP REWARD and be shut down.

• TURK on 16th Aug 2004

  I hate Tiscali. As simple as that. I have recently swapped to BT Broadband and am very pleased with their service but even though I have removed ALL traces of Tiscali from my PC when I go onto the Internet I have this in the VERY top bar: Review Centre - Comment on a review - Microsoft Internet explorer provided by *TISCALI*
  
  WHY!?!?!?!?!?! HELP!! This company is stalking me...someone please tell me how to banish that forever...

• str8jackit on 17th Aug 2004

  If you download SpywareBlaster, there is a feature on it that allows you to change what is written on the title bar.

• TURK on 18th Aug 2004

  Ahh - you are brilliant, it works!! But I already had Spybot search and Destry installed. Will it matter if I uninstall spywareblaster?

• str8jackit on 19th Aug 2004

  I don't recommend that you uninstall SpywareBlaster. It is fine to have both Spybot & SpywareBlaster together (infact it's better for you this way). SpywareBlaster doesn't take up any resources and it doesn't need to be executed everytime you boot-up. It'll give you good protection from keyloggers and hijackers. Just make sure you check for updates every week or so.

• TURK on 20th Aug 2004

  You have been of immense help straightjacket (?) so thanks. You seem very clever so you probably won't need my services, but if you do don't hesitate to ask - i will do my best.

• TURK on 20th Aug 2004

  Sorry, I have another question - I am trying to play a .GIF file on the internet but the little coloured shapes appear in the top-left of the blank box - help me please because I need these videos.

• str8jackit on 23rd Aug 2004

  Tiscali - The first thing that comes to mind is whether or not you have macromedia Flash installed. It sounds to me that you don't have it installed. If you don't, download it & install it and the problem should be gone. It is possible that the problem could be something else entirely. So if that doesn't work, email me at my personal addy.

• TURK on 24th Aug 2004

  I dont think I do, but they work now! They are playing in "quick time" I think I must have made "quick time" the default media player and it works now! Thanks very much.
  What is your personal email?

• str8jackit on 25th Aug 2004

  I did put my email addy on my last post, but they must've removed it for my protection. Just add an underscore between my name and the @ symbol at hotmail.

• northstander on 27th Oct 2004

  I agree with all of the negative comments above.
  
  Tiscali is without a doubt the most inefficient and shambolic company that I've ever dealt with (and I'm pushing 60).
  
  Apart from the connection speed their invoicing is in chaos. They fail to take payments for months on end and then demand large sums of money without warning.
  
  Their customer services staff lie through their teeth and generally take the mick.
  
  Their SurfXtra promotions are a scam (you pay upfront for postage but never receive the goods).
  
  Avoid - Avoid -Avoid

• Streetwisedude on 6th Dec 2004

  I'm confused .... is something sinister going on here?
  
  The original review was a positive review by hel8itch on 22 Mar 2003
  
  On 28th Apr 2004 A whole YEAR later str8jackit comments that the original reviewer might not 'feel the same about this company in 3-4 months time ;-)'
  
  On 30th April 2004 str8jackit says that he is replying to hel4itch's comments. Although close in name hel4itch is NOT the original reviewer, and no-one called hel4itch had yet posted any comments on this thread.
  
  str8jackit must have been psychic, because AFTER his comments a member called hel4itch arrives and replies as if he was the original reviewer retracting all the good points on the product.
  
  Let's exchange honest experiences, good and bad, but lets not revert to cheating.

• TURK on 7th Dec 2004

  I'm sure nothing sinister....muhaha
  who are you talking to anyway?
  
  Stick to the topic, Tiscali suck.

• Streetwisedude on 8th Dec 2004

  Turk, to answer your specific enquiries:
  
  I was talking to anyone who might read the thread and was addressing the topic of the Tiscali reviews being corrupted by people abusing the system. It IS on topic and will help people make their own minds up about Tiscali.
  
  I am sure that most people will find it ironic that you, of all people, are telling me to stay on topic - you were talking about quick time players further up this Tiscali thread !!! Your own review was simply your opinion "You hate Tiscali", you have now added to that with another opinion "Tiscali suck". My opinion differs from yours, the world's like that.

• str8jackit on 9th Dec 2004

  Hel4itch was a type error that I had made. Hel8itch responded by calling himself Hel4itch as a joke & also as a way to highlight the point that I had got his name wrong. But all of this is beside the point as it changes nothing from a Tiscali point of view. Tiscali still suck, they still don't know how to behave as a respectable ISP and they are still conning the public out of their hard earned cash hence nowadays they are keeping a low profile (they may have even changed their name to attract new customers. Different people have told me that Tiscali are now Wannado but I cannot say for sure whether this is correct or not. But if this IS the case, then it just goes to confirm what has been wrtten previously on this board. If a company has to change it's name to rid itself of a terrible reputation, it doesnt tell you anything positive about the company in question does it?

• Kwalsh4 on 9th Dec 2004

  I was wondering if anyone has successfully got out of their 12 month binded contract with Tiscali? I had asked them if I could upgrade to a higher bandwidth, but was told that I would have to re-enter a new 12 month contract even though I was staying with Tiscali - keeping their modem etc? Now, thanks to their shortsightedness I am looking to move elsewhere. Does anyone know of a good service provider who does not insist on a defined minimum length of contract?

• DaveB on 9th Dec 2004

  Wanadoo used to be Freeserve not Tiscali. Tiscali haven't changed their name.

• TURK on 9th Dec 2004

  streetwisedude...very true, i was entirely off topic...apolagies for my unusual bout of innacurate presumptions, assumptions and conclusions...

• str8jackit on 10th Dec 2004

  Dave B.... thanks for clearing that up for me. Streetwise dude... as you stated before, you are entitled to your opinion even if it does differ from others. I can't argue with that. I think people in general were amused by your original post because it insinuated some sort of conspiracy against Tiscali. I had to ask myself what I could possibly gain from creating a conspiracy against Tiscali. I couldn't think of anything. The truth is that Tiscali are a candidate for the worst UK ISP. This has been the case for at least the last 2 years. If you look on this message board then it is plain to see that Tiscali have rubbed many of their customers up the wrong way, and there are other boards on other sites that'll tell you the same story about Tiscali. Even Tiscali's very own forums are filled with complaints from existing customers complaining that their service is too slow, no money has been taken from their account or too much money has been taken from their account, customer services never calling them back, customer services lying to their customers, never being able to speak to a manager or supervisor (which is your legal right). The list goes on and on. After all this you surely cannot expect people to say good things about this farce of a company. In the 2 years I was with Tiscali I was never able to speak to a manager or supervisor one time! No-one called me back when they said they would... not even once. But you really don't have to take my word for it. It really is not hard to find similar sites to this one. Upon finding such sites you will see that hundreds if not thousands of people have been treated the same as me or worse by Tiscali. The latest episode I have had to endure from Tiscali really takes the Michael: The telecommunications ombusman agreed that Tiscali were guilty of wrong doing and ordered them to refund me the last 6 months of line rental. They did the refund, but they refunded the money into someone elses account! When I informed them of this they said "well we've done our bit and refunded the money... it's not our problem if the money has gone into the wrong account". Does this still sound like a respectable company? If so why were they ordered to refund me in the first place?
  Anyway, I am preparing to take them to court once again for failing to give me my refund in the time that they were given to do so. But like before I expect them to change the way that they have treated me recently and decide to give me my money in order to keep themselves out of court like they did last time.

• Jarod on 11th Dec 2004

  Interesting thread
  
  I have been with tiscali broadband from the start and haven't really found any problems, in fact they were pretty good. I knew that I would get charged for moving from x5 to x10 and figured I would shop around for a better deal if I was gonna pay anyway. When it comes to leaving them, they aren't so helpful, I have a total of 4 requests in to tiscali and BT to migrate my account. Tiscali won't migrate but they have actioned my request after THREE weeks!
  
  Although I am none too happy about this, i just must say that Tiscali have been slow but have called me back repeatedly and have been ok on technical issues. To say that they never call anyone back is just plain wrong.
  
  I also think its strange, very strange on the timing of the hel8ich/hel4ich posts, if hel4ich had a name change forced on him by Review Centre then how could str8jacket have known or guessed. i'm guessing that pretty soon the moderator will start checking if some abuse is going on.
  
  Overall Tiscali are pretty good technically but their customer service lets them down

• Chris N on 13th Dec 2004

  Hi,
  
  Just to let you all know I am looking into the hel4itch/hel8itch conspiracy theory. I will present my findings as soon as the investigation has been completed but so far any evidence I have found is inconclusive either way. Thanks,
  
  Chris N - Review Centre Moderator.

• PhilNet on 14th Dec 2004

  I think its time to reflect.
  
  Every large organisation can have its faults. The fact that there are some customers who are dissatisfied with any company doesn't necessarily make it a routinely bad company that should be avoided at all costs.
  
  I am sure that the whole concept of Review Centre is for people to share their experiences with a company. Readers can then take note of the good and bad points and see which of these, if any, apply to them. They can then make their own decision.
  
  Its true that, like all large companies, there are hundreds of negative comments throughout the net. The problem is that people who don't have a problem tend not to comment on support forums, to say that the support forums are full of people with problems is like saying that a doctors surgery is full of people who are ill.
  
  It is worth noting that many of the negative issues reported on Review Centre have actually been resolved by other reviewers as not being a fault of the ISP at all. There are actually few negative reviews, a lot of the comments and reasoning behind them can be seen to be mistaken.
  
  To simply have someone say 'the worst company in the world, it stinks, hate it' etc is not really of much use. It's true that it is your opinion, but people need to be able to tell if your opinion is valid in their circumstances. To simply say that people should avoid Tiscali and then attack anyone that dares to disagree with you is unhelpful.
  
  Similarly to say that 'they are the worst company in the world' actually means nothing unless you can explain why you have this opinion. It is unlikely that you have actually tried and compared all the world's ISP to make this statement. It is an indication about your depth of feeling, but people will need information to see if your feelings are (to them) justified.
  
  I commend Street Dude for bringing what is a very suspect situation to the attention of the thread and moderators. It is very strange how anyone could know of a forced name change before it is revealed to the world. I am confident that the site administrators will be able to reason from the timing of the various posts what has happened and if anyone has sought to support their strongly held opinion by somehow abusing the system. Whatever the rights and wrongs, it does look odd and it was the right thing to do to challenge it.
  
  Lets not get carried away attacking each other. Lets continue to report the actual failings or otherwise of Tiscali, in a factual manner, with less emotion.

• LegalBegal on 14th Dec 2004

  This has become very difficult to rate, are we meant to be rating the original review or the apparent change of mind?
  
  Although I agree the circumstances do look very odd, I don't want to get embroiled in any dispute regarding accounts.
  
  I am confused on just one area of the last post by straightjacket, which could lead to even more confusion by people trying to follow his lead:
  
  He says there is a legal right to speak to a manager or supervisor. I would suggest that the source of this information has been misunderstood. It has always been a basis of law that no-one can be compelled to speak to anyone else.

• Mozzie on 17th Dec 2004

  I don't want to get caught up in the fight but I am confused by str8jacket's comment about the ombudsman refunding line rental. I know that the ombudsman can control ISP's that are on Oftel's register but I didn't know they could order a refund of line rental (presumably telephone line rental) for internet service problems. Is this a general policy for the ombudsman to get compensation back to customers or were you having a problem with Tiscali's telephone packages which have been caught up in this review of their capabilities as an internet service provider? If the complaint is actually about their telephone service you could also try www.icstis.org.uk or www.ofcom.org.uk as a way forward.
  
  A lot of Tiscali's ISP teething problems with billing were caused when they took over many of the troubled networks and had to iron out the residual difficulties of Liberty Surf, World Online, LineOne, Tiny Online and Gateway ISP. I am sure that anyone who suffered the farce of Liberty Surf can appreciate that Tiscali (or anyone) would take a while to solve that can of worms.

• cactiphile1971 on 12th Aug 2008

  I love to say Tiscali are the greatest ISP, with excellent customer service,
  and great support.
  
  BUT I CAN'T !