I switched to Tiscali, recently, because I was having problems with BT (see previous posts), only to find I’ve signed up with the world’s most inept ISP.
They have a customer service centre staffed to two kinds of people (well, three kinds, but I’ll come to that). The first kind is smart, efficient and intelligent, and able to use their initiative, the second is as about as brisk as a snail on Mogadon, has zero initiative, and no measurable intelligence. Guess which kind I usually get? And – sods law – the first kind often have impenetrable Scots/Geordie accents – this, Tiscali please note, no matter how good they are, seriously impedes communication!
I signed up for their broadband, phone and TV package. The phone part is OK, the broadband I set up myself as I had a spare router, but the engineer attending to the TV part of the package (and, incidentally, bringing a router and connecting the broadband service for those not lucky enough to have spare hardware or who don’t know how to set it up themselves), has failed, repeatedly to turn up.
I emailed customer support – a serious misnomer – half a dozen times (I had no wish to phone them and spend half an hour on the phone talking to a numpty who can only recite to me what’s on his screen, regardless how divorced from reality that might be. That happened this morning – I got an email from Tiscali saying they’d suspended my service (I’ll come to the why of this later), yet the support guy insisted all was well and I was still connected, even though I quite clearly wasn’t. I even wrote them an angry – but polite – letter, asking what the hell was going on – that sank without trace.
Eventually, in frustration, I cancelled the Direct Debit, which was just sitting there unused as no bills had been issued, in an attempt to get their attention and force them to contact me. Did they? Well, no, they just cut off my internet service.
So I was finally forced into phoning them – and I got the fuckwit, above, who buggered me about for 20 minutes before leaving me on hold and then cutting me off. I then had to phone back, battle through their ludicrous menu system, and I finally got the guy with the terrible accent. Nevertheless, he had the problem sorted in ten minutes, and booked an engineer for July 19 (this is the third appointment, and it remains to be seen whether he actually turns up. He also set in motion an investigation to find out just what has been going on, and why my emails and letter were ignored. I have no confidence in this at all, because no matter how well-intentioned the guy was, there are too many pillocks clogging the Tiscali system, and if there’s one thing the pathologically incompetent are very good at, it’s covering their backs. If they put the effort into doing the job right, in the first place, that they put into covering up their fuckups, life would be a lot easier for everyone, not least the customers.
If the engineer turns up, I’ll probably stay with Tiscali, as their broadband service is much better than BT’s and their email is 100% reliable (so far, at least), whereas BT’s mail servers have always been their downfall, and they seem to have zero interest in putting the system right. Their 8Mb broadband was sluggish, too – Tiscali’s – same line, same notional speed, probably the same servers – is measurably faster.
You’ve had it easy my friend! They “upgraded” my system on 28 May. The result was persistent outages which peaked 3 weeks ago with my Internet and television services both vanishing without trace. I have rung customer support virtually every day (you are right about the 3 types), been passed from pillar to post and they have a different reason for the problem every time. However none of them can send an engineer – tech support can’t do it as it’s a sales function (!!!) and sales can’t do it because I am an existing customer. They don’t reply to emails or letter. They are utterly useless.
Sounds like a router fubar. And, of course, the customer (dis)service phone line isn’t free on their free phone calls service. There’s a surprise!
They’re clearly in breach of contract, though (you’re being charged for a service they’re not providing). Insist on a MAC code – contract or not, they can’t refuse you one, or so I was told by PlusNet, and complain to Otelo (previously Offcom), too. Then go to another ISP. Tiscali can bitch and whine all they like, it won’t change the fact that they’re in the wrong.
Best of luck!
[...] phone number, and the risk of getting a complete gobshite on the other end is huge (see this post). Anyway, in a situation like this I’d want something in [...]