[rhyzometumble]

Simple question really. I'm thinking of joining Tiscali TV and wondered if it's any good at the moment? I'm fed up with Sky, can't get Virgin so this seems a good alternative.

[Ginsoakedboy]

Nio idea about Tiscali TV but I shall say this about Tiscali as a whole.

AVOID THEM LIKE THE PLAGUE!

Have had to endure a twelve month contart with their ISP and experienced some of the worst customer service I have ever endured.

Have been using o2 broadband now for two (much) faster, cheaper, happier months.

GSB

[njp]

Originally Posted by Ginsoakedboy

Nio idea about Tiscali TV but I shall say this about Tiscali as a whole.

AVOID THEM LIKE THE PLAGUE!

Have had to endure a twelve month contart with their ISP and experienced some of the worst customer service I have ever endured.

Seconded. Pipex customer service is equally inept since Tiscali took over. My cat knows more about running an ISP than they do.

I won't be getting within several barge pole lengths of any additional "services" they care to offer me.

[rhyzometumble]

They've been advertising customer service awards on their site! How recent is your experience. I was a bit loathe to consider them because my sister had terrible experience with them - but I thought maybe they had improved!

[njp]

Originally Posted by rhyzometumble

They've been advertising customer service awards on their site! How recent is your experience. I was a bit loathe to consider them because my sister had terrible experience with them - but I thought maybe they had improved!

In my case, within the last couple of months. I've given up trying to get any sense out of them, and am simply looking forward to getting to the end of the contract without any more major cockups or billing errors! If I had the energy, I'd pursue a formal complaint with the regulatory authorities. I might still do that.

Perhaps they've bought the organisations that hand out the customer service awards. It seems highly unlikely that any actual customers were involved.

[Ginsoakedboy]

Pretty much just google Tiscali and watch the pages of complaints appear.

Seriously, avoid at all costs.

GSB

[MK_Brett]

Rather than adding my biased opinion, check out the Tiscali TV coments on the digitalspy forums. There is good and bad.

[JCBaby]

Yes the TV package is.
No the actual equipment isn't.
Been with them for 11 days
on the phone to them every day
TV box now broken
We're without TV until Monday
Wouldn't recommend to someone with heart condition, anxiety, depression or stress.

[ched]

I must say I have been with Tiscali as ISP for 2 years and Tiscali TV for 3 months, the service has been great with a couple of caveats.

1. I am only 400 meters from exchange so 8Mb service, but from about 5pm till midnight you can forget any p2p traffic.
2. Ping times arent great for games.
3. Sometimes it takes a bit of effort to actually communicate with a knowledgeable person. I tend to use the email support services, yes it does take a while but you can explain things better and it doesnt cost anything.

One good thing is that MK_Brett actually reads this forum (and others) and he is a Tiscali employee. He cant always work miracles but he does try.

[MK_Brett]

Originally Posted by ched

He cant always work miracles but he does try.

I do a good "walking on water"

[onkeh]

Total nightmare. TV service was down for over 6 weeks, had 2 engineer visits and countless promises to be called back which never happened and they still couldn't figure out what was wrong. Charged us full subscription throughout and when we eventually cancelled in disgust they continued taking payment, had to cancel the DD via my bank in the end. Wrote a lengthy letter of complaint (sent recorded delivery) which was totally ignored.

The service itself was average. Lots of packet shaping on the Internet and any games on Steam would always lag out instantly. TV menu system was very sluggish, no configuration options, no HD service, no PVR service (last I heard they released the box - which you have to pay for - but not the service ), no multi-room etc. etc...

Basically, I'd rather stick with 5 channel analogue than have anything to do with them again.

[scripan]

i have been with tiscali for years , always have good internet connection / consistent service , been on 8meg ( 5 meg really ! ) connection for quite a while, and with tiscali tv since december. 1 km ish from exchange BTW.

i have never had any problems, tv service is good, found customers services dept slightly difficult to deal with but on the phone , if you get through to the techie guys, its a different story - got through straight away to tech man ( ian ) when i called about engineer no show for pvr box, , got phoned back twice within an hour and the 'replacement' engineer came next day.

so, its been good for me, same for mates in same city/different exchanges.
- including one ex pipex now tiscali tv customer - he has just changed ti tiscali, & is happy with speed & tv.

[SmokingMagnum]

Originally Posted by rhyzometumble

Simple question really. I'm thinking of joining Tiscali TV and wondered if it's any good at the moment? I'm fed up with Sky, can't get Virgin so this seems a good alternative.

Why on earth would you be fed up with Sky?! I don't think anything else comes close to be honest! The only reason I changed to Tiscali (from Sky) was because I was forced to take down my dish (listed building rules).

If you can get Sky and keep Sky, stick with it!

[hellzbellz666]

I was with Tiscali for two years Broadband only and it all went wrong when I upgraded to their TV package.
When things go wrong do not expect any help from them in any way shape or form, none of the departments cooperate with the others.
When I canceled after having no TV for three weeks I had to ring three different departments to cancel TV,Broadband and Phone.Still got nowhere so just canceled my D/D

NIGHTMARE PEOPLE AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE

[CaptainHam]

Just to add my tuppence worth about Tiscali, I've been with them (broadband only) for about 3 1/2 years, and 99% of the time everything is good, but the other 1%, boy is that bad.

Just got broadband back after 2 weeks downtime (took me a week to convince it wasn't my kit at fault).

Every time I upgrade my account to the latest offer (about every 6 months or so, to save money when they bring prices down), my account seems to become stuck in limbo on their system and I can't view/amend any account details on the website, takes about a fortnight each time to get them to work their mojo and 'unfreeze' it.

Oh and when they c0ck up their mail servers, it takes them 10 days before they admit to the world (and their customers) that no mail is being sent or received, then about another week to actually fix it. That was a good one that was.

BUT when it's good, it's good (no probs with speed or drop-outs, etc).


And breathe.

I was with Tiscali TV (Homechoice) for over 2 years. I liked that they pioneered ADSL TV without need for a dish - they were kind of the underdog and I supported that.

Things I liked about Tiscali TV (Homechoice):
Many BBC programs on demand (even pre iPlayer)
Huge on demand music selection
Big, fairly recent range of on Demand movies
Cheap calls to OZ
Viewing bills on line
A nice rounded remote and box!

Things I didn't like about Tiscali:
Internet that didn't connect sporadically to major sites (oh, no eBay tonight!).
Customer service that took a century to get hold of if at all.
Patchy TV service that was down on average once every couple of months.

When Tiscali took over their customer service became even worse. They actually managed to lose a loyal customer who forgave them for some of their quirks. Our box began to break down. After a week of intermittent service we range customer service. They promised a technician on a date a week away. After a week - no technician and not even a phone call. A date set forward another week as their were no new boxes (presumably because they were too busy flogging them to new customers for £7). No new box after another week. The straw that broke the camels back was when we asked to be refunded for the week we had problems - they refused saying they could only refund to the date we called. Nice trust of a £90 a month long term customer!

We subsequently signed with Sky HD. All I can say is that the service is in a different league. Excellent customer service, beautiful picture, lovely hardware. I used to spend £20 a month with Tiscali on movies as there was nothing decent on. Not so with Sky. They are efficient, keep to their promises and like the old saying treat the customer like they are always right.

If you are after a quality full service TV, broadband and telephone service, there is no comparison - go with Sky. Tiscali don't value their customers and their customer service shows no pride in their product.

[margetti]

Have experienced pretty much the same thing as nickinlondon - very happy homechoice customer, then got moved over to Tiscali. Everything stopeed working from day 1 of the switchover (which, btw, we didn't know was happening when it did - except that everything stopped working).

After 7 weeks of phone calls, emails, and endless complaints we gave up and moved to Virgin Media. Couldn't be happier - everything works like a dream. Even when we rang up to cancel Tiscali, the person on the other end of the phone sounded resigned to the fact that they'd just lost another customer and there wasn't anything they could (or wanted) to do to stop it.

Shame - as nickinlondon said, it was good to be part of that homechoice pioneering spirit.

[andyproc]

I've had Tiscali TV now on a 4 meg line in Manchester and as yet have had no major problems. I've also found customer service to be quick, efficient and very helpful with anything I've needed.

It's great for catch up tv and on demand stuff as well - so much I've stopped watching normal tv...

that is all !