A rich man and his sons A very wealthy man had 3 sons. Upon his deathbed he called his 3 sons to his bedside. His final wish was to utilise his wealth and to bequeath unto them the ultimate happiness in helping them to realise their dreams. To the first son he turned, an ambitious youth with a business streak and a purpose in life, “What can I grant you my son, what would you like me to spend my untold millions on, in order to help you along with the best start in life?”, he asked. The 1st son thought about it for a short while and then requested that his father buy him a leading Financial Institution which he could nurture and build upon to create the worlds largest conglomerate of all time. His second son was lazy. He did not expect the same response. Indeed, his second son opted for a large sum in a bank account, and a small Caribbean island with a yacht and servants. The third son was more modest by comparison, he always had been. Not for him the business aspirations or the life of luxury his brothers longed for. To him life was more simple. When asked by his father what he wanted as a special gift, the son thought for a moment and asked for a cowboy outfit. His father went out and purchased Tiscali. If his son wanted a cowboy outfit – he should have one. Britain’s Worst ISP? Around about May of 2004 I took up a Broadband account with Tiscali. Since that time I am of the opinion that this could quite possibly be the worst ISP on the planet let alone in the UK. This company have provided me with a Broadband service that at times is slower than a 56 kb modem. The ticket supported help is unhelpful to the point that the whole thing is a hit and miss exercise in just getting a reply. I queried with them why the services was so unreliable. I emailed them on many occasions to inform them that I was paying for a service that I was not getting. Each time they come back with excuse after excuse. This company will blame everything on your PC and come up with ingenious and at times downright comical reasons as to why their service is not performing. The first reply you are likely to get is along the lines of this: Thank you for contacting Tiscali Customer Support. Due to the nature of a contended service, which is the same for all ADSL ISP’s, at certain times you may find that your connection does not always reach the level of service you have come to expect. This should only be a temporary situation occurring during times of peak usage. We apologise for any inconvenience this may caused. If you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact us using the following link: http://www.tiscali.co.uk/aboutus/contact/ This is supposed to instil confidence in us it’s customers and try and lead us into thinking that all ISP’s are the same. Trust me they are not. Throughout this unhappy saga with Tiscali, and due to the fact that I could not rely on their service, I retained my Blue Yonder Telewest ISP. Unfortunately this now means I am having to fork out for two ISP providers - One bad one that seldom works and is unreliable and something to compare it by – sheer bliss on Blue Yonder – Oh why did I ever even consider switching to such a lame and poor provider. It’s not as if they are any cheaper! Anyway, next, you put up with it for a few more days and then you angrily contact them again. This time they respond at the third attempt and now they are aware of a problem and expect it to be resolved within the next few weeks. Now where have we heard that before? Weeks pass by and during the evening and peak times Tiscali Broadband struggles and groans in trying to keep a respectable connection of any merit. Pages return a 404 area or just hang for ages. The connection drops completely, pages are not cached and images often don’t show on the pages. Is it me? Am I imagining this? The laptop on Blue Yonder confirms that Broadband really does function quite well – with another provider! Time passes by and it doesn’t get any better. I email support again and this time I get a reply the second time. Could things be looking up? Here is their reply; Thank you for contacting Tiscali Customer Support. Please perform a speed test on your ADSL line. To check the speed of your internet connection click on the following link: http://speedcheck.ispconnect.co.uk/andyb/initialmeter.php?isp=Tiscali Whenever performing these tests please make a note of the results and the time of day the test was carried out. These may be useful for diagnosis of the problem later. Kindly perform the tests at 8:00 A.M, 12:00 noon, 4 P.M and 7 PM. Please mail us the results. On receiving the above information, we will investigate this issue and suggest you a suitable resolution. Apologies for the inconvenience caused. If you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact us using the following link: http://www.tiscali.co.uk/aboutus/contact/ When you try and get to the bottom of Tiscali you will get a lot of this type of response. Anything to stall you or get you working on the case when all you actually want to do is use a service that you are paying for without feeble excuses and nonsense to waste your time. They know they have a problem – they just don’t want you to know. The next few emails produce no reply. In the end I write threatening at last to take them to court. Anywhere else and you could sue someone for providing little or no service but with Tiscali, and the fact it is an internet connection, allows them to act like this. Proving speeds and gathering evidence is all very well but Tiscali have you well and truly stuffed with their 12 month contract. Without this contract they know full well their customers would have legged it long ago. I finally get a letter back from Tiscali which now gives me a dedicated UK number to ring. Well, talk about arrogant and unprofessional. This is where Tiscali really comes in to its own. The person on the end of the phone is insistent and almost gleeful in explaining how I am tied into a 12 month contract. It doesn’t matter how much I explain that I am not getting the service I am paying for, we keep coming back to the 12 month contract. I finally realise these people are professionals after all. I mean who else could operate such a lousy service and get away with it? That’s an achievement in its own right. I am now really so annoyed and I phone Trading Standards who surprise surprise have heard of similar complaints about Tiscali. The rub is that they now want everything in writing and they may or may not be able to do anything about it. Obviously I don’t take it any further – Tiscali know you will do that anyway. I take a look on the internet and see the stories of others who have incredulous tales of woe and problems with getting their line back off Tiscali ( Tiscali refuses to release your phone line for another Broadband operator until you have paid up fully ) due to wishing to cancel for non delivery of service. You see, Tiscali wants it all ways, they want paying but they do not wish to deliver. So, where are we after almost 6 months? Still stuck with a lame lemon I am afraid. I write this article to try and save some other unfortunate person from experiencing the same hassle and lousy service. Perhaps someone who is registering for Broadband for the first time might think that what Tiscali offer is the way Broadband functions. Well, it is not. There are some very good providers out there, sadly, this company is not one of them. To make matters worse I go shopping and find Dixons stocking CD roms with Tiscali installation and adverts. That’s another high street retailer off my list for sure. I’ve never been in Dixon’s again since. Perhaps this is written by someone with a grudge against Tiscali? Well, please don’t take my word for it. Whatever you do, before you choose an ISP and most definitely before you opt for Tiscali – see what others have to say ~~ http://www.blagger.com/scripts/db4.php?company_id=529&companyname=Tiscali http://www.the-scream.co.uk/forums/f8.html? http://www.ispreview.co.uk/new/complain/complain.shtml#1 http://bbs.adslguide.org.uk/postlist.php?Cat=&Board=tiscali http://www.romulus2.com/feedback/company.php?102 http://www.net4nowtforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=16520 http://forums.techguy.org/showthread.php?t=62676 There are lots more but this is about all we have time for. You probably know of many others. Just add this article to others. What can you do? It would appear that there is very little that you can actually do. I for one am resigned to the fact that I will have to pay these bastards off until early in 2005 when I can kiss their ass goodbye. Am I angry? Of course I am angry – I piss on you Tiscali. Well, what can you do? I tell you what you can do. You can copy this article chapter and verse and pass it round all your friends. You can add to it the links of other comments about Tiscali and indeed your own comments and email it to 10 people you know well. Pass the word around – do someone a big favour and stop them opening a Tiscali Broadband account. That way, at least you did something and saved someone from a Broadband nightmare… If only ten per cent of you did something it would be enough. Unfortunately it is more likely that you will concede and end up waiting out the final day when you can kick Tiscali into touch. That is what I have done. I admit defeat. If I had the time and inclination and enough support from others I would do something. I would phone Trading standards, I would get in touch with Watchdog and I would, indeed have, discouraged anyone I know to stay clear of Tiscali. I know I have cost them customers. Quite a few in fact. I just hate the thought of anyone else having to go through this grief. Spend half an hour posting this and your own comments to at least 5 forums. Happy Christmas everyone – I hope 2005 brings news of Tiscali going belly up due to an email campaign and their appearance on Watchdog. Oh well, There is always hope. :mrgreen:
it sounds to me like a five year old got a computer one year and decided to run an isp from his shed. using a rake as a server. and his gonads as...some kind of rudimentary brain... i too hope tiscali goes belly up. i also hope that it's actually run by a five old called tiscali...and the neighbourhood kids put leaves up his shirt and slap him on the belly. and call him tiscali pinkbelly for the rest of life. and then his dad grounds him for not being able to download porn quick enough through his sons rake.
hahaa josie you crack me up. thats got to be one of the best descriptions of an ISP i've ever heard, in fact, it's probably the only one. Jaz
hahaha...take some more sugar...you make it sound like an illegal substance i did once snort a line of sherbet...that was pretty funny...my nose itched for hours afterwards.... i would try and be funny for you again...but i'm drunk...so it wouldn't be the same...there would be humour...but instead of madcap off the wall humour it would be more sort of self deprecating, pit of despair, my life is worthless, i wish i had gone to kfc before i got a taxi home kind of humour... so i don't think i'll bother...i wouldn't want to depress you all
i know...i know...but unfortauntely i only had enough money for the taxi...and i wasn't in the mood for being beaten up walking home...so i just got a taxi and dreamed of another day when the tasty kfc would be withing my reach...
get blueyonder mate.. i payed for 1mb.. which i was happy for.. then they upgraded me to 1.5mb for free which i was very happy about.. now they send me another email saying as a chritmas thing they are giving all customers double thier orignal speed for free so now its going up to 2mb..
From the original text - I am still with Blue Yonder and thankfully just stopped short of cancelling my account with them. I agree with you in that Blue Yonder is an excellent choice.
please dont hurt be but..... i have tiscali and i think its great....mines been no problem..... eep! Roly.xxx
Hey Roly Thats cool Roly I wish I could say the same. I presume you are meaning Broadband because some here have been referring to the Dialup. Anyway, glad someone is getting a decent service from them
