The Terrible Tale of Tiscali Trauma

My girlfriend is at her wits end with Tiscali.  They over charged her when she first set up her account with her and have been completely useless in sorting it out.  Multiple people have said they would refund her, or she would be credited and she hasn’t been at all.  It is completely unacceptable behaviour.

How can such a big company get away with such blatent “not-giving-a-shitness”?  It’s a total joke.

They owe her a tiny amount of money compared to how much they must make yet they can’t even keep one customer happy. They also have the worst customer support system. No one seems to keep track at Tiscali’s end of what’s going on. Do they not have a centralised ticketing system?

The following is a copy of the back and forth between my girlfriend and Tiscali to highlight the uselessness of Tiscali:

Original message: Laura -> Tiscali

Hi, On receiving my last bill, in November, I realised there was £30 tv installation fee that I had never been told about charged to my account.
I called the billing advice line and they told me, that since I had paid phone/broadband installation of £30 previously, this was a mistake and would be creditted to my account this month.

I see it has not been as I have another bill, when I would expect there to be enough credit in the account to cover this…

I want this done immediately, not next month as I was told last time.

I have been nothing but messed about by your company, and everytime I have called, it seems like no one is doing what they say they will. My broadband installation was late due to the order aparently not being processed; I spent hours on hold to your customer services only to be passed from one person to another- none of which knew what was going on, only to be billed for the calls; then this £30 bill I had to pay when i was never informed about it- then never refunded when told it would be.
Overall very unhappy, and if you could do this one thing before the bill goes out, it would be appreciated.

Laura

Initial response from Tiscali -> Laura:

Dear deleted,

Thank you for your email, the contents of which have been noted.

Following our phone conversation regarding the additional TV setup fee of £30, I have escalated a request to our Billing Department to investigate this matter. If they approve, your account will be refunded by £30 which will go towards the direct debit at the start of January. The reference number for this request is deleted.

In the meantime, we would like to take this opportunity to apologise for any inconvenience this has caused. If you have a query on this or any other matter, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Kind regards,

Derek
Tiscali Customer Relations

Then Laura neither heard anything or received a refund so another email was sent:

Hi,

Was expecting further information by now re progress of this?

The bill is supposed to be going out of my account on the 7th January, and so far show no sign of being creditted.

Could you let me know what is happening asap.

Thanks

Laura

Tiscali then tried to claim they had already refunded her when in fact they hadn’t:

Dear Laura Sleightholme,

Thank you for contacting Tiscali Customer Support.

I apologise for any inconvenience this matter may have caused you.

Upon checking your query, I can confirm that we already credited your account £30.00 (inclusive of VAT) on 29 December 2008. Please check your bank to verify this.

If you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact our customer care team on 0871 222 3311 option 2. Lines are open 8am to midnight 7 days a week. Calls will be charged at 10p a minute from a BT landline. Charges from other telephone providers may vary. Calls from a Tiscali Talk landline will be charged at the lower rate of 5p a minute.

Alternatively, you can contact us through our website at www.tiscali.co.uk.

Yours sincerely,

Anna
General Correspondence Team

They hadn’t refunded so back Laura emailed again:

I can confirm that I definately HAVE NOT received this- neither in my bank account or as credit to my ticscali account (as expected) and have just paid another bill to yourselves.

Please sort this problem out asap.

Thank you

Laura

They then told her the credit would be applied:

Dear Miss Laura Sleightholme

Thank you for contacting Tiscali Customer Support.

Your concern regarding your refund request has already been forwarded to the Finance Department. A credit memo of £30 will be applied on your account. We are unable at this stage to advise you of the time frame involved. Please bear with us until then.

If you have any further queries, please contact us.

Alternatively you can visit our comprehensive online Broadband Knowledge Base at http://www.tiscali.co.uk/help

Yours Sincerely,

Sanje
General Correspondence Team

Surprise, surprise they didn’t refund her:

Thank you for getting this somewhere- but in terms of timescale, I was promised that this would be creditted to my account before the bill went out on the 7th January. This didn’t happen, and I have no idea when I may be getting the refund. This is not satisfactory, and I am very unhappy with this.

If you could let me know asap when the money will be creditted.

Thank You

Laura

They then changed tone slightly and decided they would refund her minus the VAT, which seemed rather odd:

Dear Laura Sleightholme,

Thank you for contacting Tiscali Customer Support.

As per our records, the refund of £26.09, inclusive of VAT, has been applied on your account today.

We trust this now clarifies the matter. If you have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact our customer care team on 0871 222 3311 option 2. Lines are open 8am to midnight 7 days a week. Calls will be charged at 10p a minute from a BT landline. Charges from other telephone providers may vary. Calls from a Tiscali Talk landline will be charged at the lower rate of 5p a minute.

Alternatively you can contact us through our website at www.tiscali.co.uk.

Yours Sincerely,

Joy
General Correspondence Team

They didn’t refund her, they still haven’t refunded her, and frankly she has no idea what to do to make them refund her. This was the last email sent:

This is ridiculous. I have replied to this email twice; the first time I never received a reply at all, and the second, got a generic response saying check the website. This is completely unacceptable.

I want to know why I am not receieving the full £30 refund- I understand it is a VAT charge, but as you are returning the money, this should be refunded too. I was told previously I would be creditted by £30, now I’m being told I will only receive £26.09. I don’t see why when I paid £30, I shouldn’t get that back.

Also, where is this money being creditted to?? I assumed my tiscali account, but I have just looked and I have another bill to pay in Feb- therefore it has definately not been creditted.

Please could this be forwarded to management. I am very unhappy with this service. I have been messed around, told I have been refunded when I haven’t, then told I will be by £30, now only by £26.09, yet I can’t see any money from you anywhere.

I could not be more angry about this, the service with you from start to finish has been terrible. Not one thing has been done right, and every person I speak to/email says something completely different to the one before. I want a contact name, and want this sorted. I have wasted a huge amount of time and money emailing and phoning you, and this is especially not appreciated over the christmas period. If I could cancel the contract, I would do. Immediately.

Please sort this out asap.

Laura

Even before this particular problem Tiscali took a couple of weeks longer than they had said they would to install everything which left her house internetless, which is pretty traumatic for facebook-addicted students!

Moral of the story: if you sign up with Tiscali, which admittedly is pretty cheap, and the TV package is quite cool, pray to god you don’t have any problems or have to get in touch with customer support because they are truly useless.

I doubt this post will help speed up any refund but it may just help other potential customers make a more informed decision before wasting their time and money with Tiscali.

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