B*@!*!! Tiscali

[Scrit]

I have just "finished" an 25 day period with no Internet, emails or phone (most opf the time) thanks to that wonderful company, Tiscali. We are now arguing about the £36 or so charged to me in calls to their un-help desk in largely futile attempts to rectify the problem(s). Anyone had similar problems who can advise me? Or will that just result in another 3 or 4 weeks running round in circles? Also could anyone recommend a Broadband ISP who have an English-speaking help desk? I've just about had as much as I can take of Indian help desk operators!

Scrit

 

[Noel]

Although they get (or used to get) poor reviews I've generally been happy with Virgin. Been with them on dial-up and broadband for nearly 10 years. And their help desk is UK based.

Noel

 

[Anonymous]

I switched from NTL because I didn't want the TV anymore, to tiscali, all was fine for 3 days then I had no service for 10 days. Shower of ****, the call centres told me everyday I would be on within 24hours.
I think I received a massive discount of £4.50!!!!, what a load of rubbish.

Don't even get me started on indian call centres, all I'll say on the matter is that my wife was sick and tired of my rantings about call centres to anybody who would listen, I think I became "a call centre bore".

 

[Evergreen]

Scrit

I've been using Freedom2Surf, which got a good rating in Which?, for about six months now. So far, so good.

Regards.

 

[pewe]

Have a look at TalkTalk from Carphone warehouse. (www.talktalk.co.uk)
8meg Broadband and all calls (inc line rental) for £21 per month.

 

[Nick W]

I switched from NTL because I didn't want the TV anymore

I use NTL, but dropped the TV bits when I got Freeview boxes, with no probs. Did you have another reason for changing ISP (apart from the ethnic call centre perhaps)?

 

[RogerS]

Zen...without any hesitation. English speaking and very, very helpful...they assume the customer is right and not a PCchallenged illiterate!

 

[Shady]

I can also recommend Pipex: not the cheapest, but consistently good service, and yes, English technical support staff - and good ones, too.

 

[ike]

I can't fault Plusnet (Broadband Plus). They are always sending me emails on how, when, what and why they do what they do, whether it's an improvement or an explanation when something is below par. I like companies that are proactive and keep their customers informed without the bull***t. Plusnet do that.

Ike

 

[Pecker]

Evergreen I was with F2S for 3 years. Until last Dec they were bril. Then Pipex took them over. Absolutly dreadful. Just go to adlsguide or freedom2support and see the comments. (That said I apprecaite some will always be happy there).

Zen are Excellent, but a bit pricey - there again you get what you pay for. They get excellent reviews all round.

Talktalk is suffering from too much too soon. As many predicted they have shot themselves in the foot and currently cannot cope with demand.

After MUCH searching I went to Firefly Internet ( www.fireflyuk.net ) a small scottish outfit where the MD and team will actually talk to you both on phone and by their forums. (mind you they speak scots not English :lol: )

WWW. ISPreview.com
www.adslguide.org.uk

are both good websites with user forums that will give you loads of insights.
Sorry, I've been on the 'net for about 14 years now and Like to think I know a fair bit about the various Isps etc.

Regards
mark

 

[Losos]

Senior - I'm with you 100% on overseas call centres. My view is that if you have a call centre in the HQ of the comapny (Where presumably all the decision makers are located) then, assuming you pester the 'junior' who always answers the call first you can either:-
a) Get him / her to go & speak (face to face) with someone intelligent or
b) Get him / her to transfer you to said person

The 'remote' call centres (wherever in the world they are) can never do (a) and hardly ever do (b) so you're just stuck with some illerate who can often hardly speak English & who can only tell you what's on his computer screen. They have no authority to get things done, they have no knowledge of the suppliers business, they have no real interest in your problems ........................Hmmmmm better stop now while my blood pressure is still below 'explode' on the dial

 

[Scrit]

The 'remote' call centres (wherever in the world they are) can never do (a) and hardly ever do (b) so you're just stuck with some illerate who can often hardly speak English & who can only tell you what's on his computer screen. They have no authority to get things done, they have no knowledge of the suppliers business, they have no real interest in your problems ........................Hmmmmm better stop now while my blood pressure is still below 'explode' on the dial

Precisely! I kept a log of all my calls to Tiscali and frankly they downright lied to me on sevarl occassions - that's not misreading of their log or misunderstanding me, but a downright pack of lies, as bourne out by the BT log of the incident! It took three weeks of calls, mostly daily, to get Tiscali to bring in BT, despite their protestations that BT was involved from the off. When the BT engineer visited me he informed me that I'd be charged £15 for the privilege of having the visit - a charge I'd not been made aware of by either BT or the ISP...... Had BT come earlier and the problem been resolved earlier I'd gladly have paid the charge, but 26 days? I am now fighting to recover the 0870 call charges.....

Scrit

 

[devonwoody]

Slightly off thread but I asked an indian type call centre 6 times to repeat a sentance and gave up, (banking call) I had to request someone with my local dialect to discuss a banking transaction.
I have noticed that the last two calls to the bank now result in a different nationality of customer service agent, someone with a glaswegian accent instead.

At least I can ask the lady what she is doing tonight :wink:

 

[andrewm]

I would agree that Zen seem to be universally aclaimed. But they are expensive compared to some others.

When I switched to Broadband I went with the ADSLMax offering from UKFSN who are a reseller for Entanet. I chose them because I wasn't sure how well ADSL would work in my location and I had the option of using NTL as an alternative. UKFSN do not require a one year contract so if it didn't work out I could just switch. As it is I am getting about 2.5Mbps so see no reason to change. They also offer split download limits so you can typically download 10 times as much off-peak than at peak times if you really want to BitTorrent a complete series of Norm

Jason is most certainly UK based, prompt to respond to questions, and all profits go to support free software development.

As far as I can make out Entanet mainly target business users so their backbone is fairly lightly loaded outside working hours - hence the generous off-peak download limits.

Most certainly worth a look.

Andrew

 

[gidon]

waitrose.com
All profits to charity. Not sure about their helpdesk though. Just saw them advertised this morning in the Waitrose magazine.
Cheers
Gidon

 

[andrewm]

waitrose.com

I used Waitrose for my dial up access before switching to broadband. My main email address is a redirection address so that I do not have to inform everyone when I change ISPs. There were some issues with some emails coming via this address getting bounced. Waitrose customer service claimed that their service didn't support redirection. Just something to be aware of. If I hadn't had those problems I would probably have stuck with them for broadband as well.

Andrew

 

[devonwoody]

Tesco are not bad, family have broadband and keep telling me to spend, my landline twice off line in 3 years for 5 hours, but they do value their reputation.

 

[syntec4]

I am not with them, but Plusnet are well regarded with a few people I know (3). I am with NTL and they are bad... When it rains, my connection (10meg)always goes off until it stops. Calling them is a total waste of time. They are based just down the road from me, but it still takes 2 weeks to get an engineer to fix anything phone/DSL/TV.

If call centres are an issue I can say for sure that Plusnet are based in City centre Sheffield. I supply all the fingerprint access control systems to the offices. The boss is a nice fella too. They appear to be very professional and have 300 staff, of which around 150 are on the end of the phones.

If I get some spare time and can face the hassle, I will get a BT line put back in and change to Plusnet. - I hate doing anything like that, you just know its going to be problem..

Lee.

 

[lugo35]

inlaws had tiscali, then they moved from up north down to sunny wales (well sometimes its sunny) when they came to transfer they were told they couldnt have BB due to no room inexchange so were left with dial up. after about 3 weeks of phone calls they eventually got BB and have since had no trouble. we are with them and find them ok.

 

[dedee]

Another satisfied Zen customer here. I've never heard or seen any bad word against them. English helpdesk who have always know what they are talking about. If you value good service and reliability I think you will have to pay for it.

Andy