Sponsored Links

Will Tiscali send a debt collector to China ?

Below is a letter written to Tiscali by my father, which in itself clearly details the way Tiscali's customer service is way below par on so many levels. Now after 2 and a half years in China, I am about to be taken to court because they would not let my father swap internet provider, as the account somehow remained in my name. Read on.....

Dear Sir/Madam

I was concerned to receive 2 letters from you, dated 11Dec06 and 22Jan07, addressed to my son, Barry, at the above address, seeking payment of £35.98, claimed to be the outstanding balance on his Tiscali account. Apart from a brief period some years ago, when he and his family stayed briefly here, while he was waiting for his purchase of a house to be processed, he has never - REPEAT never - lived here. Barry has been living in China for 2 1/2 years and is now a permanent resident there. I have a copy of your Email (Customer Support 02Sep2006 0939 refers) to him; this shows clearly Tiscali was well aware that he was in China.
Following on from the above, before you consider proceeding down your threatened debt recovery process against Barry, you may care to reflect on the reasons why I cancelled abruptly my, REPEAT my, Tiscali Broadband account. The following points are relevant:-
(a) When I purchased my first PC approximately 3 years ago Barry helped me to install and set up the system. As Tiscali was the Internet provider for his PC, he organised with you to be the provider for my PC – or to put it another way he got you a new customer- with me being on a “pay as you use” basis initially. Some months later Barry was preparing to leave the UK to go to China. Coincidentally I was ready to move from a “pay as you use” arrangement to the same sort of basis as Barry had with you, i.e. continuous Broadband access for £17.99 per month. Barry consulted you on his own and my behalf re our respective changing situations. On the basis of your advice then, you arranged for me to take over Barry’s account and in turn switched me from “pay as you use “ to receiving Broadband on a “24/7” basis for my PC in my house, using my phone line and my Tiscali account, paid for by direct debit with my credit card.
(b) Prior to Aug06 I can identify from my phone records that I had Internet connection problems on 3 occasions with Tiscali, i.e. 19Jan05, 14Jul05 and 05Sep05. Each time, once the Tiscali adviser had quickly satisfied himself/herself as to my bona fides, the problem was discussed, advice was given and eventually the connection difficulty was solved. That said, because my computer literacy was then very limited indeed, on the second and third occasions I had to ask a female family friend, an IT specialist, after introducing her on the phone, to sort out on my behalf the connection problem with the Tiscali adviser.
(c) I have deliberately introduced my previous customer relations experiences with Tiscali, as portrayed at (b) above, in order to illustrate the marked difference between Tiscali’s helpful, cooperative attitude then and your subsequent treatment of me in Aug06, when I suffered Internet connection problems yet again. My phone records show that over the 3days, 14/15/16Aug06 I made no less than 16 telephone calls to Tiscali, to try and get what I was paying you for, namely satisfactory Broadband Internet connection, as highlighted/promised repeatedly and consistently by Tiscali in your various newspaper and TV commercials. The reality was that over this 3days “nightmare” period 2 or 3 Tiscali advisers genuinely tried to help me get my PC re-connected to the Internet, but failed each time. The rest refused point blank to help me, stating that they were only prepared to deal with my son, Barry. I pointed out to each person, who would not help, that Barry lived in China and we were talking about MY PC in MY house, MY phone line, MY Tiscali account and MY credit card paying for the Broadband Internet service which Tiscali was supposed to be (but was patently not) providing to me. When I raised the impracticality of involving Barry in China with this ludicrous situation, the attitude of the various unhelpful advisers was, from memory, “We can not help you. We can only deal with Barry. He must phone us to authorise Tiscali to help you get re-connected.” When I indicated that you left me no alternative but to cancel my account and seek an alternative Broadband provider, your staff did not seem particularly bothered, except to revert to their line that only Barry could cancel the Broadband account for my PC in my house on my phone line and paid for monthly by my credit card. I find it difficult to understand why I could not cancel the Broadband account with Tiscali, given that your Email, sent on 29Aug05 by Rachel Rogers, Tiscali Customer Support and headed “Your Support Ticket No.195262” informed me that “we have reset the password for your account george.?????@tiscali.co.uk “- NB “your account” and not “Barry’s account”.
(d) Over this period I had in fact phoned Barry in China and discussed with him Tiscali’s perverse, negative behaviour on this occasion, which was in complete contrast to the constructive reaction displayed hitherto by your Customer Services people. He immediately dispatched an Email from China to you, asking you to contact me at once to try and rectify my connection problem, otherwise you would lose me as a customer. However, despite his request, I heard nothing, REPEAT nothing, from you.
(e) I decided on 16Aug06 that Tiscali’s behaviour and intransigence on this matter could no longer be tolerated. Accordingly I sent letters simultaneously to my credit card company (NatWest MasterCard), instructing them to cancel forthwith my direct debit arrangement to pay you £17.99 monthly; and to you, informing you about this. NatWest MasterCard took the appropriate action, as instructed. I also arranged, using a MAC code, to transfer to a new Broadband provider.
(f) Following on from (d) above during Aug06 my son Barry was engaged in an exchange of Emails with Tiscali on the matter. Examination of this correspondence reveals Tiscali’s total inability to grasp and deal with the situation efficiently and effectively; and to provide me with what I had been paying you for, i.e. trouble free, ongoing Broadband connection. Bearing in mind Tiscali’s refusal to help me (see © above), in your Email to Barry of 02Sep06, referred to in my opening paragraph above, you informed Barry that he could not cancel by Email, that he would have to phone Tiscali to cancel; and that “You may find that the line is busy however. I would request you to stay on the line to contact our support group” - FROM CHINA!!!!!!! Your Email at the same time also advises in bold print “NOTE: I would request you to ask one of your friend to call our cancellation group to cancel the broadband account on your behalf.” Tiscali’s advice here is in complete contradiction to the line taken with me at sub paragraph © above. A detached observer would find it peculiar, I suspect, that Tiscali would be quite prepared to deal with a friend of Barry on his behalf on this matter, but you would not countenance dealing with me, his father, on his or my own behalf, even though – AND I DO NOT APOLOGIZE FOR REPEATING IT YET AGAIN HERE – what we are discussing, at the end of the day, is still MY COMPUTER IN MY HOUSE USING MY PHONE LINE FOR MY BROADBAND ACCOUNT AND PAID FOR MONTHLY BY MY CREDIT CARD.

On the basis of previous advice from the Citizens Advice Bureau, I am returning herewith the 2 letters referred to in the opening paragraph above, i.e. Tiscli’s “REMINDER” dated 11Dec06 and “NOTICE OF SUSPENSION” dated 22Jan07, on the factual basis that my wife and I are the only people residing at the above address. In the event of you disregarding my points made above and continuing with your threatened debt recovery action, you will note that this letter has been sent by Recorded Delivery. You should also be aware that I have retained copies of the paperwork, for production at, or presentation to, any forum in the future, legal or otherwise, if required.
Finally I would inform you that, in the light of your treatment of me last August. I also phoned Ofcom at that time and registered formally my frustration and concerns about Tiscali. The relevant reference number allocated by Ofcom for my complaint is 2767898. In view of your letters to Barry, threatening debt recovery action, I am now sending a copy of this letter to Ofcom for updating purposes and for their consideration and appropriate action.
I trust this is the end of the matter, as far as my wife and I are concerned and also the end of Tiscali’s threatened debt recovery action, as far my son, Barry, is concerned.


Yours faithfully
 
Last edited:
I wouldn't worry too much about debt collector. They c an't just get a debt colector round your house. They need to apply to court, then you can defend yourself in court.

Let the court decide for you.

Hope this helps.

I had simialr problems with Tiscali and Gio before.

TISCALI is also known as the uncancellable internet ISP.

I would not use or register with Titscali even its free!!
 
LOL, so your living in china? is it nice there? hong kong, or outside hong kong?
your father typed too much gave me a headache LOL
 
Sponsored Links
TISCALI and their DEBT COLLECTORS

I have had 2 lots of Debt Collectors put onto me. The 2nd lot have telephoned over 30 times - they have left messages - they have abused my mother-in-law - they have abused my wife - they have abused me. They have even left an abusive message on our telephone answer machine (which is still there, and which I have recorded into my PC).
I have today posted to Tiscali a claim for compensation for the problems they caused when I was with their Broadband service April to August 2004, and for the trouble and hassle they have put me through since, including dealing with their Debt Collectors. Yes, it was that long ago, and yes, I cancelled well within the 12 month agreed period - I simply was not getting what I was paying for: an acceptable Broadband service (exactly like Mr & Mrs Elder). If I had bought a toaster and it did not work I would be within my rights to return it and get my money back. That is what I want from Tiscali.
My story is a great deal more complex than I can explain in a couple of paragraphs here, but I thought it best to alert others to what they might expect if they are convinced by the Tiscali advertising, and low price offers - you WILL regret it - I did (and still do).
 
... debt collectors are a pain for sure... in fact off topic they are so bad they nearly took my sisters car regardless of the fact it was my uncles debt and she was just living there due to college, totally abominable what they do to get their money sadly
 
Top
Cheap BIG ISPs for 100Mbps+
Community Fibre UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Virgin Media UK ISP Logo
Virgin Media £22.99
132Mbps
Gift: None
Vodafone UK ISP Logo
Vodafone £24.00 - 26.00
150Mbps
Gift: None
NOW UK ISP Logo
NOW £24.00
100Mbps
Gift: None
Plusnet UK ISP Logo
Plusnet £25.99
145Mbps
Gift: £50 Reward Card
Large Availability | View All
Cheapest ISPs for 100Mbps+
Gigaclear UK ISP Logo
Gigaclear £17.00
200Mbps
Gift: None
Community Fibre UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Virgin Media UK ISP Logo
Virgin Media £22.99
132Mbps
Gift: None
Hey! Broadband UK ISP Logo
150Mbps
Gift: None
Youfibre UK ISP Logo
Youfibre £23.99
150Mbps
Gift: None
Large Availability | View All
Sponsored Links
The Top 15 Category Tags
  1. FTTP (6027)
  2. BT (3639)
  3. Politics (2721)
  4. Business (2440)
  5. Openreach (2405)
  6. Building Digital UK (2330)
  7. Mobile Broadband (2146)
  8. FTTC (2083)
  9. Statistics (1901)
  10. 4G (1816)
  11. Virgin Media (1764)
  12. Ofcom Regulation (1582)
  13. Fibre Optic (1467)
  14. Wireless Internet (1462)
  15. 5G (1407)
Sponsored

Copyright © 1999 to Present - ISPreview.co.uk - All Rights Reserved - Terms  ,  Privacy and Cookie Policy  ,  Links  ,  Website Rules