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"Tiscali - A WARNING"

Having spent last Monday on a highly fun series of calls to Tiscali in an attempt to cancel my line with them, and having just made a large post on their own customer forums I though I'd reprpduce it here as a warning to all about this company.....

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After yet another billing mess up, the continued fantasy land that is the Tiscali Service Status, the most unreliable email I've ever had in 9 years of internet use, and glad that my contract with the devil, sorry, Tiscali, had ran more than the 12 months I decided to move to Pipex.

Under £24 gets the same service, more email, more freedom with webspace, and as I would soon realise, customer support from english people with a brain.

It began so simply. A new bank card had arrived and was identical to the one I use for my bill. I tried to change it online but it would not accept the card saying it was not a valid card type.

I ring billing first to find out why my card does not work. I experience Tiscali's unique telephone system which is sheer ingenuity gone mad. I ring, negotiate the touch tone system, get in a queue. Music plays. Music stops, recorded message which is along the lines of "all our operators are busy".

It's at this stage I think, "no problem, I'm just in a queue". Then the message ends. Then I am cut off.

Repeat 9 times, same message but on the last time I am put in the queue and do not get cut off. I suspect the system recognises repeat calls and only queues the absolute persistent. I also shudder to think what happens at a busy time in the day, unless 1PM in the afternoon is the busy period.

So I get through. Explain what I want to do. I'm told Tiscali no longer accept the card type and never did. Which is damn funny because Tiscali has been taking my money for over a year on it. I decide enough is enough and ask how I cancel. Person says I write to Tiscali. Can I have the address I ask. It's on the website I am told (it is not by the way). I ask again, by the third attempt I am reluctantly given the address.

So I go to Pipex's site and see they do line migration. But I need the CBUK code for my connection. I am clueless but once again ring tech support. After being cut off six times I get through - it is now nearly 2 hours since my first phone call.

An indian sounding bloke answers. I explain what I need. I am put on hold. He says I cannot have the CBUK number. I ask why. I am told I cannot. I ask to speak to a supervisor. I am put on hold for five minutes. He comes back, again I cannot have the number of the line I have paid for for over a year. Exapserated I make the point that if someone does not get on the phone and give me the number then Tiscali will not be happy with the result. I get put on hold.

Bloke comes back on, I can now have the number once I confirm details.

I confirm username, address etc One question is when did I sign up? I signed up in June 2003 didn't I asks the bloke? A clear attempt at trickery and trying to catch me out because I have already said I signed up November 2002, at this stage I am not a happy person. Then he wants my password. I state they are not supposed to ask for that and don't need it. He insists it's either the password or no code. Totally p***ed off I give it him and finally get the CBUK code.

If Tiscali obstruct the migration then that's the final straw....high ho hi ho it's off to trading standards we go....

WEll apparently Tiscali will close my account at the end of March, and they must be getting around to it because already my email accounts with them have disappeared.

Hurrah....now I'm going to be stuck with DIAL UP CRAP until they deprovision the line and I get a new ISP.

So far I'm going to try Pipex again.

I was impressed with Freeola as a basic dial-up, but I registered with them for Broadband and am very dissappointed. The odd error I can put up with if a company sorts it out quick but my activation date was over 3 weeks ago. The modem is failing to activate the line. I have e-mailed Freeola several times. Haven't had a reply for nearly a week. They make a big thing of their help line not being premium rate. That doesn't help if you spend time & money listening to their choice of music and then get cut off. I could have had other broadband with no connection charge and free modem, but was prepared to pay extra for something which I thought would be better quality. Has anyone else had problems with their broadband?

GWD wrote:
> Been using FREEOLA broadband for the last 3 months - not one single
> hiccup.
> Very Impressed!
> I asked for peoples opinion of FREEOLA broadband on this forum before
> signing up but didn't get a (proper) reply. So to anyone thinking
> about a broadband provider all I can say is I'm completely happy with
> the FREEOLA service - Just peeved they lowed the activation fee from
> £60 £20 just after I signed up :¬)
>
> Hope this isn't the kiss of death...

It's coax-style into both the modem and STB. Phones are split off to standard sockets, obviously.

So NTL are set then if they have fibre installed. So what sort of connection comes into your house then? Is it a coxial end or something more like a RJ45 lead?

One problem with cable is that its contended at a street level. ADSL is contended but between you and the exchange it is a 1 to 1, where as on a cable network your contended at the street so performance can vary especially if you get a few heavy downloaders in your street.

Hopefully NTL has enough fibre bandwidth to start giving users higher speed internet. Cable in the US can easily be 5Mb yet the highest cable is with Telewest at just 2Mb.

Think about the UK and its position in the global market and look at our broadband service. Countries like Korea have 12Mb for less than most pay for 56K anytime services. 100Mb is on the cards for less than what we pay for 512K/600K. Most of Europe has faster and cheaper speeds. If NTL does have a decent fibre backbone then they should start using it to give customers more speed.

BT are trying out a pay as you go system and even trialing a service where you can switch speeds when you want. What I want to see is BT to roll out 2Mb home and then start getting customers even faster up to the maximum 8Mb of ADSL.

WòókieeMøn§†€® wrote:
> adrian wrote:
> The copper wire theory is interesting but isnt Cable supplied on
> copper coxial cable?
>
> I wasn't 100% certain on this, but I've done a bit of digging.
>
> I found this:
> [URL]http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/article/ds1897.html[/URL]
>
> And then this:
> [URL]http://www.broadband-help.com/newsitem.asp?id=8[/URL]
>
> All of our area was upgraded a couple of years ago, and we now have
> one thin cable coming into the house, supplying digital TV, telephone
> and broadband services. So yes, fibre-optic. In my area, at least!
>
> I also stumbled across this, though it is 4 years old now:
> [URL]http://www.vnunet.com/News/1115272[/URL]

Fibre here too. Single cable to junction box which the feeds the TV, BB and phone. Discovered also, that you can move your installation anywhere around the house where there's an access point!

adrian wrote:
> The copper wire theory is interesting but isnt Cable supplied on
> copper coxial cable?

I wasn't 100% certain on this, but I've done a bit of digging.

I found this: [URL]http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/article/ds1897.html[/URL]

And then this: [URL]http://www.broadband-help.com/newsitem.asp?id=8[/URL]

All of our area was upgraded a couple of years ago, and we now have one thin cable coming into the house, supplying digital TV, telephone and broadband services. So yes, fibre-optic. In my area, at least!

I also stumbled across this, though it is 4 years old now: [URL]http://www.vnunet.com/News/1115272[/URL]

WòókieeMøn§†€® wrote:
> adrian wrote:
> Distance does effect what service you can get. Between 3.5Km - 6.5Km
> you can get 512K and under 3.5Km you can get 1Mb and 2Mb.
>
> That must be where I got my wires crossed (no pun intended). Still
> seems a little odd for a digital service, though. I presume it's a
> reliability issue, because - at the end user - you're still using
> copper wires, and not fibre-optics?

The problem with ADSL is that it needs a good quality line, if the line is too noisy then ADSL can not be supported. Why 512K can be had at a longer distance is that its actually RADSL, meaning its rate adaptive. So if the line is too noisy then the upload speed is dropped to make sure the download speed is still 512K. The distance was only 5.5Km but BT tried extended reach which allowed people up to about 6.5Km I think.

The copper wire theory is interesting but isnt Cable supplied on copper coxial cable? With ADSL due to the loss of signal and noise the margin for a readable signal is actually quite low. I know that for ethernet and coxial you need to strengthen the signal every 100m and 185m(not to sure) respectivily. For Cable the Cable compainies would have done this when laying the Cable down for Cable TV. But are the phone networks the same?

One thing to point out is that if you lived in London you could get 6Mb ADSL from Bulldog, using LLU(Local Loop unbundled) still ADSL but I dont think its within BTs network.

I think that the Broadband market of the UK is so far behind that of other countries. Sweden has 10Mb for under £30. I know they also get vDSL which works at 26Mb download and upload. Some services are only available to people close to the exchange, but its still better than what we have. 100Mb is even offered by at least one ISP in Sweden, and probably be quite cheap.

Just about to cancel my subscription to NTHell, 2 days last month, no TV or BB and now 36 hours no TV and BB and waiting for engineer to come tomorrow. About to tell them where to stick it, Pipex it is.

You even have to join a queue to get through to NTL's cancellation line, says it all doesn't it.

adrian wrote:
> Distance does effect what service you can get. Between 3.5Km - 6.5Km
> you can get 512K and under 3.5Km you can get 1Mb and 2Mb.

That must be where I got my wires crossed (no pun intended). Still seems a little odd for a digital service, though. I presume it's a reliability issue, because - at the end user - you're still using copper wires, and not fibre-optics?


> Tell your friends to visit ADSL Guide

Thanks for the links. I will point them in that direction, but I don't see it helping. Neither are particularly technically or PC-minded, and more than likely won't dare play around with the settings.

WòókieeMøn§†€® wrote:
> Both friends typically get 40-50k.
>
> As far as I know, ADSL speed can also depend on your distance from
> the exchange - the further away, the slower/less reliable the speed.
> Hence the reason I can't get ADSL - I'm more than 5 miles from the
> nearest digital exchange.

Speed does not drop with line distance. It either connects at 576K(512K) or it doesnt. The only change in speed is the upload speed which can go as low as 64K instead of the proper 288k(256K). Distance does effect what service you can get. Between 3.5Km - 6.5Km you can get 512K and under 3.5Km you can get 1Mb and 2Mb.

If your friends get 40-50K then theres a problem. When I was on 512K I use to get 60K/s easily, could download all day and all night at a constant 60K/s. With 1Mb I can download at 120K/s with no problems.

Tell your friends to visit ADSL Guide - [URL]http://www.adslguide.org.uk[/URL] and look their about tweaking. Also look at this guide - [URL]http://www.pengbo.dsl.pipex.com/ppages/tweaks.shtml[/URL]

With tweaking you should get a better result, as untweaked connections can be rubbish, especially if the PC was set up using figures for 56K modems.