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Tiscali- are their actions illegal?

I have just escaped from a supposed 2meg broadband service with these charlatons. My point is this-
-My service was awful- low as 150kbps in the evening.
-I reported fault and rang so many times I've lost count.
-They ignored me when I told them BT said it is their issue

I have now switched to Zen and guess what - 1800kbps all the time!

My question is - they clearly knew all along what was causing my problem and it is that they do not buy enough bandwidth (or whatever!) from BT wholesale to support the numbers of customers. They knew full well when I joined that they could not provide the service I was signing up for but didn't tell me. They could have identified the real reason right at my first complaint but chose not to. It is clear to me that there is a deliberate policy by this company to conceal facts and to keep customers hanging on with lies about problems being looked into - I actually had 7 promises of a return call and didn't recieve a single one! Surely this company should not be allowed to operate like this! They should be forced to advertise that they are cheap because their service is very unreliable and the 2meg speed is a theoretical max that their limited infrastructure is highly unlikely to ever achieve!
 
Combine a lack of quality standards with shaky laws and strong "it's not our fault gov" style Terms & Conditions; this gives you a market where ISP’s are allowed to get away with far too much.

It's recognised that due to the nature of how service providers operate, they can be susceptible to problems and thus harder to regulate. Sadly this leaves a gaping hole for abuse and some providers can thus get away with having a very poor service.
 
fill_d said:
I have now switched to Zen and guess what - 1800kbps all the time!

And if you believe the guff the ISP's will try and force upon you - because you're getting that speed constantly it must mean that other people in your contention bracket are getting reduced speeds if you download constantly at that speed.

and so the loop continues
 
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sorry...don't really understand how it all works. what do you mean by a contention bracket? the guy at bt told me he could monitor the usage at my exchange of just the tiscali users and they peaked heavily b/w 5pm and 11pm. do you mean that the only reason i get good bandwidth now is that there are few zen customers on my exchange or could tiscali have paid more to bt and provided faster speeds for all their users?
 
In general terms this is what happens (might not be technically exact, but its simplified for ease of understanding) Your isp should tell you what "contention ratio" you have on your connection - usually 20 to 1 (20:1) or (more likely with cheaper ISP's) 50 to 1 (50:1) - this means there is up to 20 or 50 people sharing the connection you're connected to at the exchange end.

If several users are downloading heavily constantly (like grabbing music/films/software etc from newsgroups/bit torrents/P2P etc.) then this can severely cut down the remaining bandwidth available for the other people on the same connection and usually explains a lot of why some people experience periodic drops in connection speeds.

Tiscali (and 99.9% other ISP's) could indeed pay more and get more bandwidth capacity or better contention ratios BUT it comes at a price that would undoubtedly get passed to the customer and thats how ISP's save money on connections.

ISP's invariably i(in my experience) try and blame their customers for using excessive bandwidth, - bit like a guilt trip, make the customer feel guilty for using what they have paid for, by hinting that thay are inconveniencing other users........
 
Zen is one of the most expensive, if not all, of the ISP's, but you get what you pay for.
At least that is what I have experienced.
 
tiscali is a total waste of space

Yes they are charlatans and accomplished liars as their service is so bad. I did not have broadband for 58 days this year thanks to them and they never gave me any compensation and wont let me cancel my contract although i have been over 2 years plus with them. Now i have gone to ofcom.
The reps in the cancellation dept still say tiscali dont provide mac codes to fob people off cancellation. The technical reps in new delhi are just as bad, they dont tell you the underlying problem with tiscali is lack of bandwidth and that your speed will always be less than you paid for.
 
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I've left Tiscali and gone with Blueyonder cable

consistent 1900kbps plus

I called Tiscali the other day to find where my 2 months refund was -
They said they won't refund me, as during those 2 months I could use the service. At times the downstream speed was 10kbps (hardly working and I would say on average I was getting 200kbps...that in their opinion is a service!

I ca't be botered to chase a refund now, I just glad to be away from them.
 
They have a new trick to prevent you getting a MAC code that is to put you on LLU so that you cannot get a MAC code.
 
Speeds. contentions and Facts

Cheaper ISP's do not use 50:1. All isp's use both 20:1 and 50:1. The 20:1 costs ISPS a lot more than 50:1 and so the retail price point is beyond that willing to be paid by resdential customers. The contention ratios are set by BT wholesale. ISP's cannot just buy more bandwidth because the wholesale pipes have a fixed capacity (e.g. a 34 mb pip has a max download of 25mb). LLU is not a trick to avoid MAC codes. The MAC code process is set by BT wholesale and agreed by Ofcom.

That said, at the final stage some ISP's put too many users on the pipe and the fixed (remember it can;t go beyond the fixed limit!) is spread too thinly. A dubiuos practice. (I value quality. I own an ISP and ISP review listed us as 10th best ISP in 2003). But consumers seem to value price above all else. Many of my dial up customers moved to cheaper ISP's to dave 50p a week. many have suffered a year and are coming back. But the british consumer won't pay for a resonable service. They want illegal downloads, budget airlines (and then complain that it is not BA service) buy PC's from insolvent companies (and then complain that there they are left unsupported) and cheap Internet deals and want fast speeds at very low prices. Some ISP's are clearly offer a lot for little. Surprise! They are the ones with a reputation for poor quality. So why are they the largest ISP? Don't buy from them and then complain. You get what you pay for.
 
Add me to the list of people incredibly dissatisfied with Tiscali. I'm on a 'superfast' 2MB connection that PEAKS at 512kb about once a day. A fair usage policy also makes downloading times inconvenient, customer service is rubbish, and speeds absolutely refuse to improve. Worse still, I'm locked into the marvellous 12-month contract. Woe is me.
 
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If I were you, I'd do as many speedchecks as you can (using Tiscali's speedchecker as it gives a ref number) at different times of the day (morning, lunchtime and evenings.

Then send Tiscali the results

on a 2mb connection you should be getting 1400 - 1900kbps downstream speed if your results average to less (they will probably be much less) you should have a good case for leaving them

Take note of any mails, phonecalls to them and try to remain polite.

I had 8 weeks of sheite from them..they truly are an appaling ISP
 
Some ISP's are clearly offer a lot for little. Surprise! They are the ones with a reputation for poor quality. So why are they the largest ISP? Don't buy from them and then complain. You get what you pay for.

But Tiscali is one of the main ISPs to go with, its on TV. Its all very well you saying you get what you pay for, but most people dont even know much about it.

If you see an ISP advertised on tv, and being one of the biggest, you dont think of it having as bad customer service as it currently does.

I understand your annoyance. You feel you offer good support and packages, and this lot treat people like s**t and are laughing all the way to the bank. Yet theres very little education available for people wanting to go on the net.

There is very little in the way of helping the customers of ISPs if in trouble, due to the expandable leash they seem to be on with regards to the law.

How tiscali havent been investigated by an offical body for the state of their billing I dont know.
 
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