Trying to leave Tiscali - another one to add to the list

Hi all, glad I found this site...like everyone else on here trying to leave Tiscali, I'm so angry! I can't believe the incompetence of these people. I've tried emailing them to cancel, just automated responses and then nothing. I've stopped phoning their "customer service" department as its not good for my blood pressure.

In the end I've cancelled my direct debit with them, sent both a letter and email 5th October 2006 informing them I want to cancel my subscription.

Nothing so far...not even an acknowledgement! My service is still connected, what do I do now? How long will they keep me connected without payment? Will they still leave the tag on the line in the remote event they might actually read the letter and disconnect me?

Would it be sensible to email the letter again to the contact details mentioned on this site or should I leave it a while?

Regards,

cia35

Don't cancel the direct debit yet! Write to them at their head office via recorded delivery outlining your complaints fully and coherently.
Contact Trading Standards and The Office Of Fair Trading.

Tiscali head office:
Tiscali UK Limited
20 Broadwick Street
London
W1F 8HT
Company No. 03408171

Thanks ZerO2004 for the reply...I thought by cancelling the direct debit would force them to contact me...sort of hitting them where it hurts.

I'm well out of my contract period, so they could just get back at me for not paying for the months but I'm exasperated at trying to get any response from them.

I'll try the Head Office rather than the Milton Keynes address I had tried earlier.

Are there any up-to-date email contacts that could be worth persuing?

Thanks again!

cia35

You should be careful cancelling your direct debit - from what I've read, all Tiscali will do is send debt collectors after you and leave the tag on your line!

Try

A few people here have had success with him, including myself. Make it clear what you want and what you'll do (OFT, Trading Standards etc).

Good luck!

Anyone who has problems with line squatting can ring the BTw Tag Hotline on:
0800 169 0934

Thanks shaniannie for the email contact, I'll give him a try.

By the way I got a 'reminder' letter from the Billing & Collections department about the recent direct debit they didn't get. I tried phoning them to speak with someone but as expected was put on eternal hold whilst an operator became available. I was a bit surprised by this though as I thought of all the departments to have an actual person at a telephone, that would be the particular department...you know, just in case someone needs to pay them????

cia35

Hi all...just to let you know that I received a nice email from Quinn MacKenzie today

Dear Mr. Fulton,
Please accept my apologies for the problems you have encountered.
I have cancelled your broadband account..................

If there is anything else please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me.

He followed up a response to me almost immediately. I didn't even have to resort to emailing him directly as shaniaannie suggested.

So my faith in humankind has been restored by the nice Mr MacKenzie! If only the rest of Tiscali were like him!

Thanks for eveyones advice on the forum...you've been a great help!

cia35

that's great!

So if you didn't email him directly, how did he know to contact you? lol

Don't know Shaniannie...I presume he responded to one of the letters sent?

Not complaining anyhow!

cia35

great outcome anyway!! Glad at least one person at Tiscali actually care about their customers!

I've left Tiscali - and I'm pleased to hear someone else has too!

Six weeks ago I had many worries:

1. Would they keep charging me?
2. Would I have a tag on my line for several years??
3. Would I ever get a response to my letters and complaints?
4. Would I get a refund?

Here I am now enjoying broadband with Eclipse (who are doing good so far...)!

I think a recorded delivery letter to Tiscali is the way forward, someone on this site recommended it to me, and it does seem to work.

The tag on my line took about six weeks to be removed (they claimed they have to ask BT twice - LLU or something).

I have been promised a refund and possibly some compensation (although the cheque hasn't actually arrived yet......no holding my breath).

I did get an apology and I do appreciate that. However, although my loss of service was probably down to BT ultimately, it was Tiscali's fault for not being proactive with this customer (and many more, it seems) and not keeping me informed or appearing to care at all. This is POOR customer service, and this is why they don't deserve to prosper!

So, if you are trying to leave Tiscali, I recommend writing a letter. Be firm and polite and expect everything to take 10 times longer than they say.....but it will happen. Your line will be clear and you can get a better provider.

I think I spoke to soon about Tiscali...yes nice Mr Mackenzie sorted out the cancellation request but 15 days after the letter dated the 25 Oct, I still have the tag on the line and can't sign up to anyone else.

I'll try the BT tag removal line but wondered if anyone has a direct number rather than 0800 number....I need to call during office hours to get this sorted out.

Any ideas?

cia35

Mr Quinn not give you his telephone number??? Have you emailed him again to ask him to sort this out! Our broadband was down within hours, and our line free within 10 days when he said he'd sort it! We weren't on an LLU circuit though, which may be the difference!

Hi,

I am having exactly the same problems with Tiscali just joined here so i can get some useful advice.

I have tried to email but it was rejected. Is this email address correct or does anyone have a phone number that i can call at the head office as i dont want to write long winded letters or emails (when i can actually get on line)

I cant belive the incompetence of these people.

Ta

Im having trouble getting High Level support to answer the phones...
i want a MAC...been with em 4 weeks and its been the worst 4 weeks of my life... they are very incompetent... since day 1 my 8Mb was 0.3Mb and Bit-Torrent is throttled 24/7 to 25Kb/s

I too tried that email address that failed....

Thanks shaniannie for the email contact, I'll give him a try.

By the way I got a 'reminder' letter from the Billing & Collections department about the recent direct debit they didn't get. I tried phoning them to speak with someone but as expected was put on eternal hold whilst an operator became available. I was a bit surprised by this though as I thought of all the departments to have an actual person at a telephone, that would be the particular department...you know, just in case someone needs to pay them????

cia35

Originally Posted by cia35

The Billing & Collections department take call after call after call, rest assured. The past week has been murder in terms of calls because of the backlog of the post due to the postal strikes.

The Billing & Collections Department, have people working in the Customer Care and Billing also taking calls this week for the Collections department. So please don't have a go at the payments and collections team as they take the most **** that any other department.

Also with regards to cancellation it is in the terms and conditions that you need to cancel the account with the Cancellations department over the phone.

They sometimes do accept emails or letters, however they are within there right not to cancel the account as it has to be done over the phone with 30days notice or by using a mac code.

The new Head of Complaints is Joanne Davis Email [email] and her direct line is01438363839.

2 years of billing for a twice canceled account, 1 debt collection agency, 1 breach of data protection - this is the norm say their debt collection agency.

I signed up to a Tiscali broadband account in August 2005 and canceled it 6 months later and paid off the contract when I move house. Over a year later, Tiscali have been Direct Debiting my account for the canceled contract. After hours on the phone, they refund the £137 they took and they assure me it will be canceled this time. I tell them my new address so they can forward the cheque.

2 years after canceling the contract (twice), I receive a Debt Collection notice from Fredericksons for £17.99 + £15.00 collection fee for a new bill! They have used my new address to send more bills to! This is a breach of data protection - my address was not for them start billing to, what service do they even think they are providing this address!?

I've now spent over an hour being handed back and fourth between Tiscali and Fredericksons, with no assurance that they won't be taking me to court. I have to wait 2 weeks for a letter from "admin", while Fredericksons will be processing the (bogus) debt. I'm not holding my breath for the letter.

The best part: Fredericksons tell me that this kind of thing is NORMAL for Tiscali, they get it all the time!

Agh. I didn't want to leave! Tiscali, asked BT to stop the ADSL tag on my line last summer. (I think that they are in breach of contract for that). To cut a long long story short. I have recieved a debt collection letter for the sum of £33.64. This was for telephone calls, 98% of which were to Tiscali customer care!! I don't think I should be liable for them since they pulled the plug on me!
Just to show how incompetent they are, they were still trying to insist that I was getting broadband from Tiscali, despite the fact BT had managed to put their tag on the line and provide me with a service. And at the same time as this the Techies in Bangalore seemed to have given up any hope of connecting me back up, due to technical reasons. They blamed BT!!!!

I have phoned Joanne Davies and left a message, lets see if I get a phone call from her and see what she thinks of the situation.

The Mighty Nidge

I’ve had the same problems as you in 2005 I moved House, I took with me my Tiscali broadband and telephone services.

28th February 2007 I cancelled both my telephone and Internet service, I am living overseas and did not need the service. I was assured that the cancellation would take place on the 8th of March. Tiscali however continued to take direct debits from my account for a service it was not supplying to me.

I have telephoned Tiscali on many occasions to have this oversight corrected and each time I have complained I have been assured that it will be corrected and any monies owed to me reimbursed. However to date this has not occurred, they have however continued to harass me via debt collection agencies.

I have been advised that Tiscali is under breach of contract under the supply of goods act 1982 having failed to carry out reasonable care and skill in the management and closure of my account.

I have now requested all records relating to the account and all correspondence via telephone including all transcripts of recorded conversations, as per my legal entitlement via subject access request under the data protection act 1998.

if you paid via direct debit then it is very easy to get the money back, just contact your bank and they will reimburse you and take up the matter with tiscali,. direct debit guarentee is a very handy thing

Am I glad to have found this forum!! I'm not with Tiscalli (whew) but my parents - both in their 80's were impressed with the offer just after Christmas and decided to get 'on line'. They were promised to be connected within 14 days and that the call centers would be in the UK. Thats not racist, its common sense to want to be able to have a proper conversation which is clearly understood when your hearing isnt the best anyway.
The phone was connected in 16 days but they had no communication at all from Tiscalli regarding the broadband internet. They tried callng the helpline and had no success at all in getting through. We then tried on their behalf and after several days of being on hold for a minimum of 20 minutes we got through! not much good that did us.. my complaint about the total lack of communication was answered by a youth who insisted that all updates were sent by email and would not or could not understand that my parents couldn't recieve the updates as they didnt have internet access.. That conversation went around in never decreasing circles... I then asked when my parents would be connected to the net. According to this chap there is a fault with the cable which had to be re laid.. a minimum of another two weeks. I was assured that my parents would be contacted by Phone within three days to inform them of progress. Needless to say they heard nothing.
Today I managed to get through again!! to be told that there was nothing wrong with the cable but that the exchange had a problem which could take weeks. When I informed my parents they decided they'd had enough and wanted to cancel. There's a laugh.. No chance.. Every call met by either an automated reply asking us to call back later or the line goes dead after minutes..
I have now sent a cancellation letter to Quinn Mackenzie (thanks to this forum) on behalf of my now very upset parents..
Just how useless can one companies customer support be???

Tina

I should have know that it was too good to be true, the email bounced.. I think perhaps Mr Mackenzie dissapeared under the volume of mails from this forum.. Any one on here got any other contact details please??

The new Head of Complaints is Joanne Davis Email [email] and her direct line is01438363839.

Thank you for the reply... We have given up trying to get through to the cancelation line.. We've written a letter detailing the complaints and requesting immediate cancelation, it wasw signed by both my parents and sent by registered mail.. Needless to say to date there has been absolutely no contact made by Tiscali with regard to the instalation of the broadband or to the cancelation...
I will try the email address you gave.. Thanks again..

Same problems here: I've had some £144 taken out of my account that Tiscali aren't refunding, sending me from department to department etc etc. It's been going on for eight months now and they're stealing off me.

Does anyone have any other direct contact numbers for anyone remotely senior? I'm in desperate need here!

other than ringing their head office and asking for high level complaints , ? if you type in google mk14 6xg their post code you will find it on these forums, but they arent much better at resolving issues, the whole company seems to suck, reading some of the posts from 2004 tiscali are definately getting worse not better get out if you can,thats my advise and do plenty of research on isp's b4 you join another

well i posted 2 letters of cancelation (recorded delivery) to both london and mk adresses also a copy in a e mail to cisas, so only another 15days left to go and im out no more tiscali hopfully i also warned them that should they not provide the mac code within the time frame set out by ofcom, or squat on my line after my account cancelled or send demands for monnies not owing to them i will take the apropriate action against them and will also be seeking compensation from them as well should they make things dificult

well i can now say i got my MAC code,eventually and after some calls to ofcom,and cisas and even had their md contact me ofcom gets them rattled especialy when they breech the 5 day period to provide you with one,so hopefully if all goes as it should do i should be tiscali free soon,but there again i have my doubts if that will be the case as the dreaded TAG has to be removed and do isp's communicate with 1 another? it would appear not,ill give you an update soon