Cancelling tiscali contracts

Tiscali have imposed blocks on ports, and as a result slowed p2p speeds down. I assume this is the case for everyone. I have been with tiscali for 2 months. For one month everything was fine. I only used half of my 30 gig limit. The next month they slow my p2p without warning!
This is not in accordance with their fair usage policy- i did not recieve emails warning me that they were about to impose such limits.

I have rang their useless call centres, and sent various emails. Usless. Waste of time.

I therefore wish to cancel and relieve myself of this nightmare, as i'm sure many of you do. However, i am not a wealthy person, and will not pay the £150 required to cancel my contract.

I would very much appreciate it if anyone who has a legitimate argument for me to put forward to tiscali to force them to nullify my contract and waiver all charge would put forward their arguments.

I will record all emails sent, and if i successfully am freed of this contract, i will make all my emails available to anyone in a similar position.

Thank you

Tiscali are not the only ISP to block ports, particularly where p2p is concerned (is yours legal?).

I doubt if they have broken any T&C's indeed your 30Gb cap has probably been removed (it has for most Tiscali users now - did you receive an email in the last 10 days or so from them telling you this?).

I suspect therefore you are bound by their 12 month contract - unless you buy your way out or make some arrangement with Tiscali (doubtful).

I asked the lady when i signed over if the 30gig limit was the only limit tiscali would impose, and she said yes. She also said that it tiscali were going to impose more limits on my account then i would be informed beforehand by email. This is clearly not the case. She was acting as a salesperson on the phone, and if a salesperson lies on a sales call it is called non compliance.
It doesn't say in the tiscali t&c's or FUP anything about blocking ports. If tiscali initially providied a service allowing p2p then they cannot after a month change the service surely?
In anycase i am desperate to cancel and appreciate any help.

Just phone there cancel line and tell them to F@%K 0Fs!

**LEGAL ADVICE**

You have the option of issueing a writ (in small claims) for breach of contract (claim the £150 for the cancellation fee). Tiscali won't turn up for such a small ammount. Once you have a judgement you can then pay them off and join another ISP! Then complain to ISPA! The more people do it, the greater the pressure on Tiscali to stop extroting there customers.

**LEGAL ADVICE OVER**

I'm lucky.... past the 12 months so was able to tell them where to 'stick it!'. I'm free in mid October when Freedom2Suft will gain a new customer!

The ******** woudn't give me a MAC so I complained to ISPA. Tiscali did phone me.... blah blah blah, only trialing mac's, blah blah, sometime soon ********.

I also complained to Advertising Standards as there advert says 'unlimited'! Which is a big fat fib! Perhaps other disgrunted users could do the same?

The sooner this company dies the happier i'll be. Bunch of tossers!

...... I also complained to Advertising Standards as there advert says 'unlimited'! Which is a big fat fib! .....

Originally Posted by Dave R

As from September they are unmetered.

....... The sooner this company dies the happier i'll be......

Originally Posted by Dave R

As much as some may wish it, VERY doubtful seeing as they are a very large, as ISP's go, both in the UK and globally.

Yes unmetered but not unlimited. They limit downloads on p2p software. This software is not illegal and has many legitimate uses. By restricting this service and not others it can be argued that their service is therefore not unlimited.

Back to the point anyone got any ways to invalidate their contracts?

Looking at there website:

http://www.tiscali.co.uk/products/br...unlimited.html

It says 'This package is perfect for frequent downloaders, giving you the very best online performance and unlimited usage every month'.

If thats not a big fat lie then i'm a fish!

'Unlimited' is an interesting word.... surely meaning Unconfined; not restrained; unrestricted. Which Tiscali isn't! Ego compaint to Advertising Authority!

Big Companies don't **** on there clients....... (not ones that want to stay in buisness!)

Perhaps you should read Tiscali's Fair Usage Policy Prakash Patel and Dave R. They clearly mention P2P. Part reproduced below:

Tiscali Fair Usage Policy

Tiscali's Fair Usage Policy is designed to make sure your broadband service is quick and reliable whenever you use it.

A very small number of customers use Peer to Peer or file sharing software, which constantly sends and receives video and other very large files, throughout the day. This type of activity uses a lot of bandwidth and can significantly reduce the speed at which other customers can access the internet during peak hours. Approximately 1% of customers use more than 30% of the available bandwidth during peak hours. We don't believe this is fair to the vast majority of our customers.

This fair usage policy automatically identifies the very small number of extremely heavy users and manages their bandwidth only during peak hours (being 6pm to 11pm Monday to Friday, and 12pm to 4pm on weekends and bank holidays), to protect the service for all our other customers. Outside peak hours, the use of the internet by these heavy users is unaffected.

We think this is the fairest approach. It protects the quality of service for the vast majority of our customers when they most use the service, while at the same time allowing the extremely heavy users to continue to send and receive without restriction outside of peak hours.

Full version here.

Fair use my arse!

Looking at my usage, I have NEVER exceeded 10 Gigs per month!

(Happy to post my usage for proof!)

and port throttling happens ALL THE TIME and not as 'suggested' between 6pm to 11pm.

THis may have been less of an issue if they had contacted their users and told them what they were doing. However, this was not done.

Not long to go before I can wave goodbye!

Absolutely, Gem u have no valid point there whatsoever. If the tiscali restriction applied ONLY during peak hours, which it doesnt, then it would be ok. If tiscali had sent me the warning emails, whcih they didn't, it would be ok. Their failr usage policy is a load of dogpooh.

Why do Tiscali have to send you an email?
Unless you were like me and signed up over three years ago (with Worldonline) then you would have been made aware of Tiscali's Terms of use. They have been updated and are there for all to see. If you choose not to read them (or even bother to look at them) that's your lookout.

I'm not on Tiscali's side (far from it) but the point I'm trying to make is that with their Terms/conditions (whether you've read them or not!) you will not get anywhere with Tiscali so I would advise that you bide your time and get out when your time is up.

...... I have NEVER exceeded 10 Gigs per month! .......

Originally Posted by Dave R

As I said in my post above, from September it's uncapped for exisiting members.

It says in the tiscali fair usage policy, if you bothered to read it, that they warn ya with emails before you get affected by the FUP. That way you have a chance to reduce your usage and avoid restrictions. This clearly hasnt happened

** LEGAL ADVICE**

As any fule knows, or even a fist year law student! a contract cannont be varied without the explicit consent of both parties.

**END OF LEGAL ADVICE**

The idea that it is for one party to keep check the 'fair use' policy is patently silly and frankly nonsense. If Tiscali want to vary the terms of the contract then the onus (obligation) is on them to communicate with the oter party to see that they are in agreement.

As they failed to do this, it's my intention to serve a writ (small claims) to claim the addition cost to transfer. Not sure how much this will be yet, need to check my law books!

To keep people updated, I have recieved a letter from Tiscali today in response to my complain to ISPA (strange they didn't bother to respond to my complain to them!).

It says 'At this present time we are unable to suport migration codes although we are working on providing this service in the near future. From the point of cancellation it will take 10 to 15 days for BT to release your line, at which point you will be free to join a new ISP'.

I will of cause continue my complaint with ISPA as Tiscali is the only provider who refused to provide MAC's. If more people complained, Tiscali would be brought into line. I will also write back to Tiscali (I won't mention the person by name but apparently works in the 'High Level Complaint Service') to point out that I am still unsatified with there response.

You never know, they might just realise that I'm an unhappy bunny.

Wont issuing a writ for small sums like £150 cost more in legal proceedings than its worth?What woud happen if tiscali contested it and asked us p2p users what we sant it for?It could be awkward if they get the wrong idea

Ah, so you have read the ToU now (well, sort of!).

They clearly say that P2P users will be restricted. That's not the same as capping.

At the end of the day (and as I said earlier) you'll not get far with Tiscali. As a P2P user I think you should consider your position VERY carefully

On the question of MAC codes - I understand that Tiscali are trialing it at the moment. I don't think they are the only ISP either, but I stand corrected on that point.

It clearly says only during peak hours, but you seem to have overlooked that fact.

Now I know that I am being picky but read on! It goes on to say It protects the quality of service for the vast majority of our customers when they most use the service and my bet is that is what their response will be.

Heads they win, tails you lose - I'm afraid.

That might be the suggestion from Tiscali, but as I only ever used 10 gigs per month this doesn't put me in the 'excessive' catergory!

In reality, the change is about saving money as reducting the bandwidth they need to have available is therefore costing THEM less.

Sorry, missed your earlier response (at work, very busy!)

If you a successful wit your small claims, your fees are refunded by the losing party. So a cliam for £150 woudn't cost much (£30 from memory but I could be out of date!). The simply question is 'Are you prepared to gamble £30 to 'potentially' save £150'? Most bookies would take on those odds.....

Might be worth a punt!

On checking I was right! The fees for small cliams are as follows;

up to £300 the fee is £30
£ 300.01 - £500 the fee is £50
£ 500.01 - £1,000 the fee is £80
£ 1,000.01 - £5,000 the fee is £120
£ 5,000.01 - £15,000 the fee is £250
£ 15,000.01 - £50,000 the fee is £400
£ 50,000.01 - £100,000 the fee is £700
£ 100,000.01 - £150,000 the fee is £900
£ 150,000.01 - £200,000 the fee is £1,100
£ 200,000.01 - £250,000 the fee is £1,300
£ 250,000.01 - £300,000 the fee is £1,500
£ 300,000.01 or for an unlimited amount the fee is £1,700

Gem i dont give a **** about the other tiscali users, and that is not a valid reason to fail to adhere to the terms and conditions of their own contract.

Thanks dave i might just do that

Not only 'might' I do it, I am doing it!

I have sent tiscali numerous questions about why my p2p has been restricted and they fob me off with the "this problem may take 3 days to fix".I am also not able to watch streamed video or streamed audio files.Their new T&C's actually do state that they will restrict p2p downloading at peak times,which i would be fairly happy with ,BUT my p2p programs are restricted at ALL TIMES.WHY can't they just be honest with they're customers.
Why cant they follow their own policy !!!!
In the beginning i was happy with tiscali's service until they started ****ing me about with dodgy billing,then they started restricting my p2p,which i cant accept .They are the biggest buch of assholes out there !
I finally got an email today admitting that "they're are concerns with my usage".Well i 've reached the end of my tether and since it doesn't look like the mac numbers are ever going to arrive i think i will cancel and live with the downtime inconvenience.

Have you checked your usage on their web site? Some users have been 'upgraded' to uncapped - it will say if it has when you check your usage.

excallibur

Eeexactly the same thing has happened to me. I got told after one month of emails, phone calls that they got issues with my usage (Strange they only said this after i rang up and played a tape of phone calls with them that gave me conflicting statments from their customer service) I told them either to remove this restriction or i will cancel my direct debit, take the matter to a small claims court, and send all my phone call recordings to watchdog and ofcom. Hopefully i got their attention now!

I want my MAC code!! Have been waiting since the 17th July!! As a result still do not have interent connection at home. Have phoned / written / emailed still don't have it. Any suggestions as to how I can get it?

I want my MAC code!! Have been waiting since the 17th July!! As a result still do not have interent connection at home. Have phoned / written / emailed still don't have it. Any suggestions as to how I can get it?

Originally Posted by Poppysusanc

Have you tried praying !!!,Contrary to tiscali supposedly starting mac codes,they still deny it.
I have bit the bullet and cancelled my account with these morons.I wouldnt mind so much if they were just honest with people and said they were blocking most p2p program access.Even their new t&c's state that they only do this during peak times,but thats Bullshit !!!
Not sure who i'm going with next but i'm picking one with a one month contract .
It seems impossible to find an ISP with unrestricted internet access and decent service for a decent price but im looking !!!
Go on ,cancel,to my surprise i got through to their cancellation line straight away.
Think i'll try the cancelling my phone line a week before my service ends trick to try and lessen the down time.
PS when finding a new service i recommend studying their T&C's to find any hidden restriction policies.Good luck !!!

As a Tiscali customer, I find it disgusting that they have the nerve to use the word "Unlimited" on their literature, then throttle your connection if you download (for example) large video files outside the time THEY say are ok.

There are plenty of legit uses for P2P,and Tiscali are wrong if they think that by wording their nasty clause a "fair use" policy we will be suckered into thinking that it's for OUR good.

It is NOT.

Tiscali are selling bandwidth that they don't have, and this awful contract is all that lets them get away with it.

The people putting well-worded but absurd arguments in favour of Tiscali here are clearly plants from their marketing department. Nobody else would take the side or such an obviously unfair and horrible company.

Just to add my pennyworth...

I joined Tiscali at the beginning of the year after moving and finding that my then provided NTL could not provide at my new location. Seeing I am 700 yards away from the Local Telephone Exchange, I signed up to Tiscali's 8MB service.
After reading the TAC, I felt reasonably confident that this would be ok. Yes I noted the peak usage times and accepted this without too many issues.

Now, I actually use P2P for legit purposes - World of Warcraft. Every time I've tried to update WoW, it comes down at 2kbs, which is rediculous. And this is outside of the so called peak period.

So I tried Newsgroup downloading for testing () and low and behold the same problem. I've left the PC on for 24hours to test the periods available for full use - 2am to 8am (weekends seems to be less and is part throttled) That is quite frankly unacceptable and quite appalling based on the "sell" and contact taken with Tiscali.

Fortunately I have a good friend that is a lawyer....... not that this may get me far based upon other users issues posting in this thread.

And I thought NTL were bad ....

Has anybody had any problems connecting to IRC chat servers? I'm getting my IRC traffic blocked, and also ICQ messenger won't work within the peak usage time frame.

I am with tiscali, but don't use p2p software however they have restricted use on ports 2000-3000 which are the ports used for my gaming and my VOIP software ventrillo so.... I called them up explained it was not p2p it is just gaming and VOIP and they are in the process of lifting the restrictions as of last night! should be done in the next 24hours will post you with an outcome maybe it might help you.

LsD|.TailChaser.

Just as a quick point, I cant get onto online gaming with tiscali in peak hours, but its not just peak hours its alot of the time, me playing call of duty online isn't illegal, so don't threaten P2P users. I have considered my position very goddamn carefully, and i think you need to consider yours! ports are being blocked, by tiscali, which means I cant play, im not impressed.