To anyone considering switching to Tiscali – DON’T.

I think I mentioned that after three months of their total incompetence they agreed that they are shite and have released me from my contract free of charge.  I’m switching to Zen.  So what are the problems with Tiscali:

1. Customer service – they don’t have any

2. Technical support – India reading from a script in order to hold you on the 0871 line for as long as possible so they make a vast sum of money from your phone call.  Just hang up and ring cancellations.

3. Broadband connection – you rarely get one.  When it is available, in peak times Tiscali will just cut you off as they can’t handle the traffic

4. Don’t pay any attention to USwitch. I did and I chose Tiscali based on their advice.  Big mistake. Do your research before choosing a supplier.  The best starting point is a Google search using the terms “[insert any ISP provider] are crap“  Have a look at the feedback.  Also pay for a one month trial to Which? It only costs £1.00 and you get to see some interesting and impartial information about all suppliers.  Which? do not mince their words when saying who are rubbish and who are excellent.

5. Cheapest is never best.  You will always need more usegae than you realise.  Go for the highest useage available, unless use the internet to access your emails and surf the net once a week.

6. Visit: Reviewcentre and do a search for your preferred provider.

7. If you value your sanity choose a service that uses a UK based customer support centre and has very clear terms of service.  If something is unclear or ambiguous, or they can’t answer simple questions about their service provision adequately then don’t bother with them.

8. Be aware of the ISPs with the worst feedback (based on review sites and forums):

1. Tiscali (currently the worst)
2. Orange (their customer support is terrible if you get overseas and they can’t organise a house move/transfer to save their lives however their broadband & talk provision is was excellent when I had it.  I would recommend them if you’re certain not to move house whilst you’re still under contract with them)
3. Virgin (purely because their initial sales team were rubbish & feedback isn’t good, however I know people who are cable and landline customers who are very happy with them)
4. Talk Talk
5. AOL
6. BT
7. Sky

The ones with the best feedback:

1. Zen
2. O2 (I’m not sure about this one – when I rang them they were pretty poor)
3. Be

So there you go.  If you’re looking at price only and don’t care or want to know about anything else, you may as well go with one of the supermarkets or post office who all have average feedback scores and ratings.