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i am a tiscali customer services agent..

hi there, i work for tiscali and to be honest im a bit fed up with the level of service we give customers, and im really concerned at how we dont change, dont learn, and generally just make life difficult for both the customer and for us.

but really i have one big question.

the mac code process.. is the following explanation true to why there are so many problems with it?

when a customer gets a mac code from there old provider (say tiscali), and give it to there new one, (say sky) Sky are supposed to tell tiscali which date that they used the mac code, and that is the date that tiscali use to cancel the account

if sky fail to contact tiscali with the date then tiscali wont cancel the account until the customer sends in 'proof of migration' i.e a go live letter from there new provider.

customers can be charged and chased for money they dont actually owe, and to be honest its a huge problem. i have so many customers with the same thing that i find it hard to believe that the whole process hinges on sky getting in touch with us. ive even had customers taken to debt collectors over this when it is pretty clear they dont owe anything.

although the official line is we MUST have a go live letter - i know for a fact i can check the usage meters and plainly see customers arent using the service.

so is this explanation factual?
 
personally l think its BS.. it would be a waste of paper... l thought BT dealt with it, after all they are the ones that change where your connection points..
 
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From what I have read, it seems to be a problem exclusive to Tiscali.

I admire your open admission that you work for Tiscali, I would never dare disclose the fact if I was in your shoes.. ;)
 
I had this exact problem from Tiscali.
See this thread: http://www.ispreview.co.uk/talk/showthread.php?t=26415

I phoned them up and after being passed around from department to department I managed to "cancel" my account. The guy on the phone even had a date of when I migrated, yet, they still attempted to charge me.(I cancelled my debit at the bank so they coudn't charge me anymore)

Apparantly this was because Virgin Media failed to contact Tiscali. I have since left Virgin Media.

That was also the 3rd time I had to call up tiscali to "Cancel" after apparantly migrating from them
 
UPDATE: Ive now gotten ANOTHER letter through the post saying i owe them money.

The only way I can stop it according to their customer services is by sending a Go Live Letter to them of when I went over to Virigin MEdia or pay the money.

I phoned the up virgin (Who I am not with anymore) and they said I can only get a letter of proof of when I joined by writing to head office and they can help.

So now I need to do that. :mad:

Tiscali are making me very angry.
 
hi there, i work for tiscali and to be honest im a bit fed up with the level of service we give customers, and im really concerned at how we dont change, dont learn, and generally just make life difficult for both the customer and for us.

but really i have one big question.

the mac code process.. is the following explanation true to why there are so many problems with it?

when a customer gets a mac code from there old provider (say tiscali), and give it to there new one, (say sky) Sky are supposed to tell tiscali which date that they used the mac code, and that is the date that tiscali use to cancel the account

if sky fail to contact tiscali with the date then tiscali wont cancel the account until the customer sends in 'proof of migration' i.e a go live letter from there new provider.

customers can be charged and chased for money they dont actually owe, and to be honest its a huge problem. i have so many customers with the same thing that i find it hard to believe that the whole process hinges on sky getting in touch with us. ive even had customers taken to debt collectors over this when it is pretty clear they dont owe anything.

although the official line is we MUST have a go live letter - i know for a fact i can check the usage meters and plainly see customers arent using the service.

so is this explanation factual?

Classic example of the problem with customer service in this country

The person works for the company and doesnt know there own procedures, rather than enquiring internally to clarify the procedure they post on a forum instead
 
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Classic example of the problem with customer service in this country

The person works for the company and doesn't know there own procedures, rather than enquiring internally to clarify the procedure they post on a forum instead

And of course he offered the genuine bona fides for your perusal?
Come on, wake up at the back there.
 
Classic example of the problem with customer service in this country

The person works for the company and doesnt know there own procedures, rather than enquiring internally to clarify the procedure they post on a forum instead



gee thanks for the insult metalmonkey, but you didnt really read what i wrote. i'l try to make it clearer..

i have asked, and to be honest i have gone to length to make a point about this and many other things internally.. and the explanation i wrote, is tiscali's official line.

and yes it looks like tiscali are telling the truth.. but there definetly not helping the situation

i thought i would get a heck of alot more responses than this to be honest..
 
As per your PM Bob I write this reply:

Firstly I’d like to start by apologising for insulting you, I had wrote that post without due care and attention and hadn't realised that I was directly insulting yourself. After re-reading the entire thread again I can see that I missed the problem which was in your first line:
i work for tiscali and to be honest im a bit fed up with the level of service we give customers, and im really concerned at how we dont change, dont learn
Like many companies it seems Tiscali are not supporting their own staff enough for them to help the customer. This of course is not your fault and apologise (again) for implying that it was.

Secondly I’d like to post a reply in regards to the actual problem you face. This usually happens where a customer has ADSL Broadband and uses the MAC to move to an LLU company. Technically speaking in this scenario the customer is not migrating as the broadband is not the same types so effectively the customer really is ceasing ADSL and then provided LLU. When the order is placed by the LLU company and they take the MAC their system probably doesn't check the MAC validity at the point of order (most don't). It then comes down to BT Wholesale/Openreach to make the change happen at this stage the MAC with be verified. If it was ADSL to ADSL and the MAC was wrong then the order would be cancelled and go no further. Under an ADSL to LLU transfer the system would allow the change to go through whether it was right or wrong as the MAC is not required as there is no migration truly happening. The request for LLU supersedes everything else as it automatically causes a cease on other broadband products such as ADSL. This is really a slam against the losing company as they then would not have been made aware of why there product was ceased as the MAC was not used in the normal procedure so it did not report back to the losing company and therefore their billing system do not know that the customer has left. I am not aware if it happens under other migration scenarios (ie LLU to LLU/SMPF to SMPF) but the above scenario is the most common type that causes this problem.

So who’s to blame? Everyone! The losing company, the gaining company and BT Wholesale

The losing company (in your example Tiscali) should be supporting you the customer service agent better to handle this so that when a MAC is given out you should be trained to advise the customer that the MAC cannot guarantee cancelling the bill with all providers and that they should call back after the transfer has been completed to make sure that they are not overbilled. Many companies don’t take this stance as they believe they are only liable to give you a MAC as requested and the rest is down to the gaining company (in your example Sky) to make sure that its used for the correct scenario and that the customer is advised of any action they must take. Whilst I think this is correct I don’t see why the customer should suffer as a consequence when all you have to do is say to the customer is “call back in just to double check the billing stops”.

As I said above it is accurate that the gaining company really should make sure that this is done right the first time and cover all areas. They are the ones gaining a customer so they should shoulder as much blame as anyone. Before they place the customer’s order they should do the checks to find out what type of service they are gaining and again advise the customer to call their losing provider after they transfer to double check it’s stopped properly. Really it’s not hard to say that is it?!? Again this will depend on what support and training their staff is given as well.

BT Wholesale is possibly the biggest culprit for this problem in my eyes. I mean why on earth does this type of migration work yet? Either make it work properly or don’t allow it to happen in the first place. If it was working then we wouldn’t have this problem and neither company would be in the wrong and we wouldn’t be playing the blame game.

Finally I don’t know the internal policy of every company so the policy of the losing company maintaining charges may be different from one company to the next. So you as an agent of that company may be forced to maintain the charges. However I believe each company should not charge the customer for the service as it’s not being provided to them. The losing company can prove that their service has stopped and on what date by looking in eco (there will be a cease order that has MPF/SMPF or PSTN cease reference) when the customer calls back and make arrangements to stop billing and backdate overbilled amounts.

OK rant over with. I'm not sure if or how this will help you but I hope that it has.
 
hey that was a really great answer to my question. thank you!

I really had no idea about the ADSL -> LLU migration problem. The way that the telecom technologies work is something im quite in the dark about. It interests me a great deal though as im working my way thru a computing degree.

Just incase you have time to read and reply to this, could you recommend any sites or other discussion boards that give good information about the technical side of broadband and the company politics that comes with it?

thanks again
 
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well heres a good story for a change i telephoned eclipse at 4.40pm today and tonight at 10.15pm i recieved my mac code

this must be some sort of record to get mac code within 5.5 hours

thats how it should be done
 
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