Ofcom

[catgate]

I have just had a very illuminating quarter of an hour.

I went on to Ofcom's site to try to find if there was a way of getting them involved in my problem with Tiscali.

Tiscali top brass will not answer my letters, and anything on the end of the telephone line, either in the flesh or on email, is simply working to an approved script.

Ofcom's approach seems to be "do not bother us with your problems". Their on screen advice, for when you can not get through to your provider is "try to get through to your provider".

There appears to be more people involved with sitting on committees than there are sitting in the Palace of Westminster. The site navigation is appalling for a communications outfit and one can only assume this is a leaf they have taken out of the ISPs book entitled "How to Stuff it up the Customer".

I suspect Ofcom is just one big committee employing only one person, whose job is to keep the site up and running, and waken up the committee when it is "home time".

[rong]

Get in touch with GMTV and tell them that you can't get anything out of your provider and ofcom don't want to get involved and they might. I have learnt that govenment web sights do all the can to put you off using them, unless you are giving them money, the easiest being bill pay

[AlanHo]

See what you mean about the Ofcom site - thanks for the introduction to Fantasy land.

I guess you spotted this little pearl :-

All companies must belong to an Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) scheme. The ADR scheme acts as an independent middleman between the company and the customer. If the company’s in the wrong, the ADR scheme can order the company to fix the problem and, if needed, pay compensation.

You should find details of the company’s ADR scheme either on the back of your phone bill, or available from the company’s customer services staff.

Please note:

ADR schemes are meant to supplement, not replace, a formal complaints process, so you can only use your phone company’s ADR scheme if:

You have tried to make a formal complaint to the company and had no success AND 12 weeks or more has passed since you first complained to the company OR;

Your phone company has written to you to say they’re not going to do anything else about your complaint - a so-called “deadlock” letter.

For further details or for updates on your complaint to an ADR, you should contact the ADR directly.

[catgate]

And guess who is paying for all this bovine excrement.......

[CurlyWhirly]

catgate, is the problem that Tiscali won't issue you with a MAC code?

[Gandalph]

Get in touch with the Watchdog lot on BBC. No doubt they will have a few (If not a lot) of other complainees and they may be able to do something about it. If Tiscali get wind of them about to be asked to appear on the program for questioning they will do something about it themselves.

[catgate]

catgate, is the problem that Tiscali won't issue you with a MAC code?

No, Curly, the problem is that I MACced from Onetel to Tiscali in Oct/Nov (confusion over when precisely, because they both seem to run on a faulty auto pilot and were not helped by BT who could not get their act together with Tiscali about line rental transfer)

For the first month or so I was getting more or less what I expected 2Mps ish dropping down to 1.6 ish in the evening. From the middle of December the whole thing has gone silly. from mid to late afternoon I am lucky to get anything above 1Mps and frequently it can be down below 0.3Mps. I have had it lower than my upload speed. It stays down until ??? o'clock. right now it is 980 according to Namesco.

I have emailed them, Sanjeev said he had "escalated" the problem to the engineers (binned it?). I wrote to the head honcho in Sardinia without response, and to the head honcoess ind London with exactly the same result... but just slightly quicker.

[CurlyWhirly]

For the first month or so I was getting more or less what I expected 2Mps ish dropping down to 1.6 ish in the evening. From the middle of December the whole thing has gone silly. from mid to late afternoon I am lucky to get anything above 1Mps and frequently it can be down below 0.3Mps. I have had it lower than my upload speed. It stays down until ??? o'clock. right now it is 980 according to Namesco.

I have emailed them, Sanjeev said he had "escalated" the problem to the engineers (binned it?). I wrote to the head honcho in Sardinia without response, and to the head honcoess ind London with exactly the same result... but just slightly quicker.

Tiscali won't do anything about it because they throttle your connection - it's a well known fact :(

The only thing you can do is migrate!

If you were on a LLU connection it might be different but if it's using BT's Wholesale broadband then they throttle you to save on bandwidth i.e. costs

[catgate]

The only thing you can do is migrate!

I think this is where we got to in our last exchange about this. I am still pondering on where to go. In the mean time I am just hoping that something can be done.

[CurlyWhirly]

In the mean time I am just hoping that something can be done.

I wouldn't hold my breath!

am still pondering on where to go.

Personally I would choose an ISP with a monthly contract as you can leave at a moments notice if the service turns out to be dire.

This is in contrast to ISP's with 12 or 18 month contracts

[Gandalph]

I'm with BT and have been for the last eight years. Their service has been excellent and I have no complaints about them whatsoever. I took up there total Broadband deal late last year and can't fault line speeds or anything else for that matter, I do realise that this whole issue could be an area related problem though.

[AlanHo]

catgate - there is a full article in this week's issue of Micro Mart magazine titled "Trouble With Tiscali".

Too long to repeat verbatim here - but here are some extracts.

As has been reported over the years, Tiscali is one of the the first - and still one of the most active - bandwidth throttlers among UK ISP's.

The Tiscali forums are awash with complaints, moans and groans - whilst the mods insist that the problems are technical and are being resolved.

I'm being allowed no more than 2-3KB/s during peak time

Tiscali has been stealthily migrating their service to its own unbundled local loops. This means that all of the internet traffic on unbundled services is passing through Tiscali specific hardware installed at exchanges, giving the company much more control..........

Profits currently appear the key driver for a company which has never turned a black number.................................the moral is that if you expect a truly unlimited broadband provision, don't expect to get it for £14.99, because it ain't going to happen.

...its up to something alright - and so am I - shortly I'll be requesting my MAC code....................

[catgate]

I emailed them a couple of days ago and said that in view of the fact they were not adhering to their description of the operation of their "Fair Usage Policy" I wanted a MAC and details of the cost of ditching them. No response to that so far. I half expected a promise of an improvement if I would stay. Onetel tried that when I left them.

[CurlyWhirly]

I emailed them a couple of days ago and said that in view of the fact they were not adhering to their description of the operation of their "Fair Usage Policy" I wanted a MAC and details of the cost of ditching them. No response to that so far. I half expected a promise of an improvement if I would stay. Onetel tried that when I left them.

Unfortunately, Tiscali could argue that they were adhering to their FUP as no figure is mentioned and they can change the rules whenever they want :(

I would be very surprised if they let you go without having to reimburse them as you are still in your contract!

[catgate]

I emailed them a couple of days ago and said that in view of the fact they were not adhering to their description of the operation of their "Fair Usage Policy" I wanted a MAC and details of the cost of ditching them. No response to that so far. I half expected a promise of an improvement if I would stay. Onetel tried that when I left them.

Unfortunately, Tiscali could argue that they were adhering to their FUP as no figure is mentioned and they can change the rules whenever they want :(

I would be very surprised if they let you go without having to reimburse them as you are still in your contract!

I spoke to them today and said I wanted a MAC. The man I spoke to put on a good act. He sounded surprised and asked me why. Was it because we were moving house. Although his act was not good enough to sound surprised when I told him he should already know that it was because of the desperately low speeds. He then had the gall to offer me a cheaper contract. I explained that had he given me the service gratis it would still have been poor value for money.

When was I going to migrate. "A MAC only lasts for thirty days", So I said I did not know, but if it expired I would ask for another one. "Oh"

So I have to pay until October. He seemed to have a certain amount of disbelief in his voice when I quoted the actual speeds. May be those people are treated like mushrooms "Fed on bullshit and kept in the dark".

[CurlyWhirly]

So I have to pay until October. He seemed to have a certain amount of disbelief in his voice when I quoted the actual speeds.

This is why I don't go for cheap broadband packages and long contracts.

It's monthly contracts for me!

[catgate]

It appears, from reading the whole of the article that Alanho mentioned above, that I must have got into the Tiscali net just before their current onslaught on the "customer", sorry "victim", sorry "sucker".

From having spent a couple of hours trying to get a proper comparison of ISPs, their services, costs and conditions I have come to the conclusion that there is more openness and honesty in the Palace of Westminster, and leaves us all in a very sorry and vulnerable position.

I'm going to bed with a couple of aspirins.

[CurlyWhirly]

It appears, from reading the whole of the article that Alanho mentioned above, that I must have got into the Tiscali net just before their current onslaught on the "customer", sorry "victim", sorry "sucker".

From having spent a couple of hours trying to get a proper comparison of ISPs, their services, costs and conditions I have come to the conclusion that there is more openness and honesty in the Palace of Westminster, and leaves us all in a very sorry and vulnerable position.

I'm going to bed with a couple of aspirins.

You really should have checked this out before choosing Tiscali :(

Details - Customers have continued to complain about a raft of problems with this ISP, most commonly marking out poor support as being the biggest issue followed by connectivity and speed issues. Multiplayer gamers also appear to experience sporadic latency problems.

[AlanHo]

I'm going to bed with a couple of aspirins.

Are they the Albanian sisters I've read about - if so - that will improve your download speed.

[catgate]

I'm going to bed with a couple of aspirins.

Are they the Albanian sisters I've read about - if so - that will improve your download speed.

Let's face it, they can not make it any worse.

[rong]

I'm going to bed with a couple of aspirins.

Are they the Albanian sisters I've read about - if so - that will improve your download speed.

Where's Artist with her

[catgate]

I'm going to bed with a couple of aspirins.

Are they the Albanian sisters I've read about - if so - that will improve your download speed.

Surely you are thinking about the Romanian comedy duo, the Silly Salik Assid sisters.

[AlanHo]

I'm going to bed with a couple of aspirins.

Are they the Albanian sisters I've read about - if so - that will improve your download speed.

Surely you are thinking about the Romanian comedy duo, the Silly Salik Assid sisters.

:lol: :lol: :lol:

[catgate]

The promised MAC did not arrive from Tiscali, even after waiting patiently for a fortnight. So I emailed them.

I got an email back from them in record time (well record for the,...it only took a week} that said they could not do it, and I would have to ring up and do it over the 'phone.

After a couple of days I had calmed down enough to ring them, again. I got though to Sanjeev's ubiquitous sister once more and just told her firmly that I would like a MAC. The one I had asked for over a fortnight before and which they had not jet sent me. I must have taken the right attitude because she just gave me a number and the job was done.

After a few days of contemplation and deep meaningful discussions with management, we decided on BT. Everyone who has BT says they are good and everyone can not be wrong.

This afternoon, having decided which package we were going to have, I rang BT, at about ten minutes past three, After the now universal disembodied bimbo routine of press this and that for the other and which, I landed up with another of Sanjeev's sisters. This one was much better than all those I have come across before, because I could understand her (for the most part) and she could understand me (for the most part) and it did not take long for me to get the BB account MACed. Then came the surprise. Despite BT's online system apparently linking BB and Line Rental together I had to be transferred to some other part of the conglomerate to get my line rental transferred. For reasons which are still a complete mystery to me, after I had spent 30 minutes listening to Fingal Cave, I was passed through another sister, who apologised for the waiting, but could not do it because of something, then through a brother, who knew what I wanted to do, but after a little while needed to pass me on to another brother. This brother could not understand me, nor I him,and thus I ended up talking to a Geordie lass who was most helpful and very nearly understandable.

She kept saying "I'll just have to put you on hold a moment until....."what ever and then I would be back into the cave. It seemed as though it was something to do with our address, but, as I explained to her, from late 2000 until Dec. of last year our address had been no problem to us, or BT or for that matter to the GPO or Royal Mail or the Post Office. Still at about half past four she said she had put wheels in motion and if I would ring back in about two and a half hours the matter would be finalised. She apologised and gave me a direct line number so that I would not be held in a queue.

I gave them three hours and then rang the number. Another ubiquitous sister,... who knew nothing about the previous debacle... and so I had to start all over again with the explanations of how and why.. Fortunately she was nearly as well versed in our language as the first one I had spoken to several hours before and so after barely half an hour of messing about and recovering previously covered ground, like what size of shoes and when did I last see my father, and checking again on my credit rating, I was promised all would be in place ready for April first. She was totally nonplussed when I asked her if she thought that was a most suitable date.

So just what I have let myself in for is at this point unknown.

Does anyone know a supplier of high performance joss sticks?

[Watchful]

What a sorry saga :lol: :lol:

I was lucky with my BT online debacle and got a very well-spoken English-speaking girl. Hope you eventually get it sorted.

Thank gawd for a sense of humour eh? and thanks for making my day start with a laugh