Customer Service gone bad…

January 22, 2008 · Posted in Rants

After reading my friend Sam’s latest post about Tiscali and the bad customer service that he received from them, I thought I’d write a little about my experience with them.

In May last year, after being with Tiscali Broadband for a few years, I switched to TalkTalk for their broadband and calls package, as it would be saving us some money each month.

Before I switched provider, I had been impressed with Tiscali. Whenever we had moved house they had re-routed our connection on time.

So, thinking that everything was hunky-dory in the world, I was surprised to receive a phone call from a debt collection agency. They informed me that Tiscali had passed on a debt for unpaid broadband fees from May to July, which was impossible as I had changed provider in May. This was the first that I had heard of it, and so I rang Tiscali Customer Service, and after spending some time on hold I finally spoke to someone regarding this.

Speaking to them I told them that I had never received any letters or correspondence regarding the owing of monies,and that I had changed provider in May. After some discussion they said that they would send out invoices etc relating to the debt so I could take a look at them.

I left it there to wait for the invoices to arrive. After a couple of days I rang them again to say that I’d not received anything from themselves. They assured me that they had sent them out. So, I gave them another couple of days to see if it was just a delay in the post.

After another couple of days I phoned them again. They have been sent, was the answer. I was not impressed, and after a few words it turned out that they had sent everything to an old address. This wasn’t just the previous address that they had on record, oh no, this was the address before that. It was no wonder that I hadn’t got any letters!

In the meantime I received another letter from the debt agency saying that if the account was not settled within 7 days then they would be taking me to court.

So I phoned Tiscali again, and eventually, after numerous phone calls, I got them to write off the debt, £29.98 in fact, as they realised that they shouldn’t have been trying to take the money.

That was so nice of them!

My experience with Tiscali is not one that I would like to go through again. They never do anything that they say they are going to do. I’m still waiting for the invoices even now, and a letter to say that everything is sorted out. Knowing them, it has gone to my old address.

My advice, avoid Tiscali at all costs!!!

Until next time... Signed by Gareth
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Comments

No Responses to “Customer Service gone bad…”

Wolfie on January 22nd, 2008 8:34 pm

Everyone that I’ve ever known who’s been with Tiscali has had problems, whether it be billing, service, ordering, etc. I was with them for a while (by default, as they bought the company I was with at the time) and personally never had any issues, except for the fact that they kept putting their prices up all the time. When I came to leave, I knew I owed them money but they didn’t send me a bill for six months - and even then it was wrong (in my favour, though, so I didnt argue).

I think you were too kind, giving them time to send you invoices; if that had been me, I would have said there was no point sending me invoices as the service was already cancelled so they must have made a mistake.

On the whole, I’d second your advice to stay well clear.
Gareth on January 23rd, 2008 9:06 am

Tiscali don’t know their arse from their elbow. I forgot to say in my post that initially they said the debt was actually from 2005 not 2007 after I cancelled. That was the reason for getting the invoices.
They really do seem to be one of the most useless companies for customer service in the country, if not the entire world!