16 posts tagged “tiscali”

Looks like Virgin Media viewers will soon be able to watch Lost and 24 again as Branston Branson and Face Murdoch have kissed and made up.

In other news, Sky are looking in to buying Tiscali.  Currently I'm in no man's land between Tiscali and Sky.  Migration ain't easy!  But, after more than a month without ADSL, I should be back up to speed tomorrow.  I'd keep my fingers crossed but I need them to type with.

I just had a welcome surprise when I checked my online bank account just now... I'm £200 up!  Surprise, surprise!  For what it's worth I have to check regularly now as I don't trust any company not to take more than they should (or taking what they shouldn't in the first place).

After my Spread Media/mBlox refund cheque bounced at the weekend it was nice to get what I'm owed from elsewhere and get it earlier than expected.  So here's a slight tip of the hat to Tiscali.  As bad as you were, you're not as bad as mBlox.  They get a wag of the finger!

It did take hours and hours of hard work just to get back what was due, but I got there in the end.  Now, should I buy myself a much needed replacement pair of glasses or should I pay back my folks?  Decisions, decisions.

Ordinarily I'd apologise for making such a mistake (blaming Tiscali when the fault lay with Sky).  But, as we're talking about Tiscali, I won't.  They don't deserve one after the 'service' I've received from them over the last year (and especially the last couple of months).  Maybe if they had given me back the money that they took (without authorisation) as swiftly as they took it, I'd consider a reluctant apology.  They didn't, so I won't.

Not off to the greatest of starts with Sky.  Hopefully this is a one-off blip and not indicative of their service.  Last thing I need is the hassle of changing supplier again.

I don't know what was wrong with their system that they believed the code was wrong to begin with.  At least now they've accepted it and things should be in motion.  Hopefully this hasn't delayed things too much as I've got this lovely Toshiba Tecra M9* laptop here and, as much as mobile broadband is useful, I need ADSL to make the most of it (I've only got the laptop on loan for another two weeks).

*thanks to talkToshiba

Got HD today.  Yay!  Just waiting on the broadband...

...a letter dropped through my letterbox about that a short while ago.  It was from Sky and it was about my broadband.  Excellent - the wheels are in motion... or, um, not.

Sky wanted my MAC (migration code).  They can't go ahead with the service until I give it to them.  Um, I gave it to them last week when I ordered online.  Oh well, I thought, I'll just ring them up and give it to them again...

The code is wrong, it's useless, it doesn't work!  Great, so that was 7 minutes and about 70p (IIRC, no time to fact check) wasted.  But the worst thing is yet to come...

How the hell am I going to get the correct MAC when I'm dealing with Tiscali?  That's going to be fun.  I'm going to get stonewalled all the way.  It'll probably take dozens of phone calls, hours of time and lots of patience.  And what's the guessing they'll keep giving me the wrong one or refuse to give me one (saying that the one I already have works)?

Fun, fun, fun.  

I typed this up yesterday on the train to Waterloo but didn't get to send it.

28 Days Later

Earlier today I backed down when I shouldn't have.  I'm annoyed with myself to say the least.

Received my phone call from Tiscali today.  Just as promised yesterday.  They stuck to their word, fair play!  The woman I spoke to was very polite and seemed eager to help.  It was also a crystal clear line and she spoke so well you could imagine her working for the World Service.  The line didn't drop, I wasn't put on hold or passed from department to department.  As I received the call, I didn't have to pay for it either.  Nice!

So where did it all go wrong?  Well I wanted my money back immediately.  If immediately wasn't possible I'd have been happy with a couple of days - even a week.  What did I get?  It had to be 28 days.  That's how long it takes and there's absolutely no way to speed these things up.  That's a crock right there.  I have a friend who works as a financial adviser for a major bank who filled me in on what is and isn't possible.

What did I get?  Well, the promise of all my money back and some compensation/'goodwill gesture'.  I didn't get offered that, I had to demand it.  They were only willing to refund me the cost of my calls.  That wasn't good enough - they kept taking small sums of money from my account that the weren't entitled to.  Then they took over £100 out the other day, again a sum they weren't entitled to.  Plus I've spent most of my waking hours from Friday until today trying to sort this out.  I spent 5 hours solid yesterday including what must've been a couple of hours playing the phone game.

She then asked how much I was seeking.  Now we're on the right track...  Well, I didn't want to be greedy - I just wanted what was fair.  £200 including all the money due to me seemed fairish (actually I was being quite generous) and would make things clear (nice round figure and all).

It was just after this point that she hit me with the 28 days.  Well I was less than pleased.  28 days was non-negotiable.  Okay, if there really wasn't any way around it, I mused, can I have more in the way of goodwill as I'm going to be out of pocket for a month through no fault of my own?  No.  Not a chance.  We agreed £200.  That was that, I was told.

Oh well, I'll just have to owe people another month! :-(

I had a feeling Hotwire PR were responsible for Tiscali's PR, just moments ago that was confirmed. Hotwire, do you have any decent clients?  I'll probably find out that you represent a tobacco company and a baby formula producing Chinese company next!

Well, what can I say?  Last time I dealt with you guys it seemed like I was getting somewhere.  That was, until you gave my details to a shady company that you don't actually represent.  Not a cool thing to do, especially when you breached the Data Protection Act and put my personal safety at risk for doing so.

Maybe this time things will be different...

I've lost track of how many times I've been put on hold and then mysteriously the call drops.  Strange that a phone and communications provider such as Tiscali can't manage their own customer service lines well!

• Some departments can't transfer calls at all
• Some departments can't transfer calls as they're in a different building (funny how they can transfer a call across to another continent, isn't it?)
• I keep getting hung up on
• I keep being put on hold
• I keep getting transferred to the wrong department

Good job I only had your broadband.  If I'd had your phone service I'd have rarely been able to speak to anyone.

So, Jody - is there anything you can do to put me through to the right person?  I just want my money back.  It's my money, not Tiscali's.  Tiscali had no right to take it.  Oh, and does your HQ's lobby have £140 worth of carry-able stuff?

Hopefully I'll see you guys tomorrow.

They've just cut me off again (on the phone that is, not my internet connection!)  Cheeky bar stewards!

I never believed it really would be this difficult, despite reading all the horror stories over the weekend.  I say 'all' but there's far too many horror stories from unfortunate individuals who foolishly were customers of Tiscali/Bulldog/Pipex/Homechoice!

Still another day without money.  Still another day without answers.  Still another day without an apology.  Still another day of getting the run around.  And still another day of wasted time, effort and money.

Rachel from Tiscali customer 'care' just called to tell me that I'm going to finally be refunded £32.  This is for those months where I was over billed for their 'service'.  It'll take 28 days though and it'll be a cheque.  That means it's doubtful I'll see it 'til the end of November.

As for the £108 cancellation fee that shouldn't have been charged, that wasn't up for discussion.  Rachel couldn't help me there.  It's nothing to do with her and she has no way of putting me through to whoever could help me.  She did talk of putting notes on my account (they all say that, I'm guessing they have a forest worth of paper by now!)  Although she was able to tell me that if it was decided I was due a refund, I'd have to wait an extra 28 days on that too.

When will I see my £108?  She has no idea.  I have no idea.  It is looking like I might be waiting an eternity.  If only there were a way for me to enforce my 'Oi, give me my money back, and until you do I'm charging you £10 a day interest!' charge.

Looks like I need to contact their finance department.  Is that even possible?  I want to do things over the phone as much as possible as I want a quick resolution, but email and letter seem to be the way to get their notice.  Although I do have the opportunity to pop into their HQ tomorrow afternoon.  That usually gets a company's arse in gear (and I imagine they have many!)

I'm expecting more Tosh this week.  But this kind of Tosh will be more productive, useful, fun and provide fewer headaches (hopefully!)

If my capitalisation didn't already give it away, I'm talking about Toshiba.  In particular a Toshiba Tecra M9 laptop from the most generous folk at talkToshiba.  It'll beat using an Eee and having to always worry about losing charge... :-(