I find myself stuck facing a 12 month sentence with a company who don't seem to have a clue what they are doing, oh apart from making money at whatever cost. I am counting down the days from now!

After just a few days with Tiscali TV I decided that I was going to jump ship from what is nothing short of a joke. From what I can gather Tiscali call what they provide "A service". You could have fooled me. I have had 5 days of a noisy set top box, I have had 5 days of on/off TV working and on/off Broadband working. It's almost like it works when it feels like it, I think it depends which way the wind is blowing!!! As of last night and today I have NOTHING!! No TV or Broadband and they actually want me to pay for this service. I though I know what I'll do, I'll exercise my legal right to cancel, within the 7 day 'cooling off' period for provided services. I spoke to Tiscali today and they said that my 'cooling off' period had already passed!!?!?!?! I told them that I only signed my agreement on 30th May and today is the 5th June which is withing the seven days!!! Oh no said Tiscali. Apparently as I applied for Tiscali TV to installed on May 7th my 'cooling off' period ended on May 14th!!! Which is a full 17 days before I had the equipment installed, so how would I have known that their product at setup where so unreliable and sub-standard before it came. I signed NOTHING on May7th, I simply put in a request for a service. The ONLY time I have signed an agreement with Tiscali was on May 30th. I am raging about this, they are taking people for a ride. They tell me that I can pay them off to end the 12 month contract. The cost is £60 plus £30 for the setup for the TV and another £50 for the noisy box that is very soon likely to go out of my bedroom window!!!! So that's just £140 then!!!! I have a mind to visit their offiec and tell them what I really think of them. In the meantime, my solicitor friend is working on this for me.

- G

I managed to extract my Father-in-Law out of his wannadoo shambolic "service" after weeks of trouble and no service to speak of - they eventually agreed that they were not providing a decent enough service and cancelled the contract without a fuss.

Hi, I would recommend you find your local Trading Standards and speak to them, they will be able to give you free advice.

Hi secondalibi
Can you PM me your broadband enabled phone number so I can have a look at your service please.

Thanks

Brett

It doesn't sound fair at all. If you are receiving a very poor, or no service from them then you shouldn't be forced to pay for it. They are not holding their side of the contract so they should do the decent thing and let you leave!

Brett,

I have sent you a PM.

Thank you

Graham

My head hurts today. It must be the constant banging it against a brick wall.

Today is: DAY 5

With NO TV service. And all I can think of is that I have to pay for this and there is nothing I can do.

However, more than some at least I get responses to the emails that I send. They aresn't much use to be honest, but at least there is someone out there.....listening.

At the moment I keep receving emails that are quite frankly............SCARY! !!

If you have a degree in I.T. you'll be okay, but for someone like me who knows a little bit, some of it just goes way over my head. I also can't help thinking that some of the things they want you to try are a waste of time.

The next email I get that asks...

"Have you got all of the cables connected?".

"Have you turned the STB on?".

"Have you got cordless phones in the house?".

"Have you tried standing on your head and singing the national anthem?".

"Is the wind coming from the north?".

"Do you live in a caravan?".


To be honest though, I might respond next time with answers such as "No, I haven't done that. But I have pulled all of cables out and I have thrown my PC out of the window and the STB is covered in jam and I have replaced all of the cables with string and blu-tack".

I am sure that I will still get a technical response along the lines of...

"That could be what is causing the problems with your TV connection. Also covering your STB with jam and using string and blu-tack that has not been supplied by Tiscali will make your warranty invalid".

I am slowly going mad here, tonight when I get home I have got to do this......

1. The filter should connect directly to your main BT socket ensuring there are no splitters on the telephone socket. The phone should be connected to the filter using the RJ45 cable.
2. Connect the router and filter with an RJ11 cable. The RJ45 cable ( CAT5) cable should connect the computer to the router on the second RJ45 port or it can be a wireless connection.
3. Connect the Set Top Box and router with RJ45 cable ( CAT5). Use the SCART cable to connect set top box and the TV.

I request you to reboot the set top box. In case you need any assistance to reboot the Set top box, please visit the link given below:

http://uk-tiscali.custhelp.com/cgi-b...hp?p_faqid=569

If the issue still persists, in order to resolve the issue, I would request you perform the steps given below:

1. Try connecting the router to main BT socket and restart the router.
2. Unplug Scart cable from the set top box to the TV, and replug it after 60 seconds.
3. Swap the filters and make sure that TV out cable from Set top box is connected to the first RJ45 port in router.
4. To isolate the issue further, I request you to remove the front plate of the socket and then check whether the issue persists.

In case, the issue persists, please revert with the following information, so that we can escalate the case to our second level support:

- Have you rebooted the Set Top Box and Router? ( yes/no )
- Is internet access working? ( yes/no )
- You have no TV service at all? ( yes/no )
- Is the Telephone working? ( yes/no )
- Has the TV service ever worked? ( yes/no )
- Is there a working telephone on any unfiltered sockets? ( yes/no )
- Have you verified correct filter placement and cabling? ( yes/no )
- Exact error message on the TV/PC (TV wait 90s)
- Make & model of TV, PC & Router:

What would I do if I was a customer aged between 70 & 80??


Thanks

- Graham

NO TV SERVICE: DAY 6

As I found a couple of spare hours last night I did actually managed to do ALL of the above listed in my previous message.....

.........And to my total surprise........

Nothing has changed. The TV still doesn't work and I have decided that the problems is the 'Siemens Gigaset SE587 Router', which in my humble opinion is not a great piece of kit. The 'online' light still remains 'Orange'. This is causing me some concern because when I looked at the user manual it only lists an explanation for what 'Green' and 'Red' lights indicate?? I think my 'Orange' light could be a first!!! However, Tiscali must have a different user manual to look at, as they say that the 'Orange' light indicates that there is a 'Broadband connection' problem!!??!?!? Funny that!

Anyway, Tiscali are coming on Friday morning bewteen 7am and 9am to install my new QUIET(ish) STB and at the same time they will look at my connection problem. If all of my issues are gone by Friday I will gladly phone up Tiscali and thank them..........I guess I'll have to wait and see.

Now.....how will I get the jam off the STB??


Cheers!


- Graham

So did you get it working