I am so not happy with Tiscali, you know the company who say they can provide a very good broadband service. Ok working online going onto websites etc is totally fine, but when it comes to gaming online this is a whole different cattle of fish.
I have the Sony PS3 like many of you and many gamers have the PC & Xbox 360, trying to play games online with friends or family on my list is near enough impossible and this is down to Tiscali problems.
There seems to be a growing dissent among the subscribers or Tiscali, many have claimed that Tiscali is in breach of contract for exercising port and service blocking. Tiscali’s broadband ISP service in the UK are being blocked from accessing certain sites, as well as P2P (peer-to-peer) services, during certain times of the day. So many people that I know have cancelled their contracts
Right moving on, I thought it was about time to get to the bottom of this as it is unacceptable having a service that I am not getting full 100 percent, yes it is ok going on the PC using the internet but not being able to use my PS3 for gaming online is ridiculous, obviously I need this as I need to review games and what they are like playing online etc.
I phoned Tiscali (yes Tiscali is in the UK) and got through to a man, I said to him after giving my details:
I wish to cancel my broadband with you as I am not happy, broadband works fine but soon as I want to play online games on the Playstation 3 I have all sorts of problems connecting, like unable to connect to host, not able to join a game full stop with those on my contacts list etc. I feel that I am not getting the full service that I am paying for; I want a MAC Code (Migration Authorisation Code).
The man at Tiscali said:
Sorry to hear about that sir but if you wish to cancel your broadband you are still required to pay the full term of the contract.
I said:
Are you serious, under no circumstances am I paying you for the rest of the contract term which runs out January 2009, why should I pay you money for a service which is not running at 100 percent. The problem is your end sir not mine, I know this is not your fault sir as you just work there and take calls, but expecting me to pay for the rest of the contract term is not going to happen. Can I speak to your manager please?
The man at Tiscali said:
Ok sir, hold the line please and I will see if one is available.
I waited for about five minutes then he came back and said:
Sorry sir there is not a manager available to talk to you but he said that you will have to pay for the rest of the contract term.
Ok not happy now, to tell you truth pretty damn peed off right about now, I am still trying to keep my composure not to lose my mind whilst writing this article. Anyway he gave me a MAC code.
I am still not happy so I phoned again and this time spoke to a woman at Tiscali, she basically said the same as the man.
She said after all what I said above AGAIN:
Sorry Sir to hear that, but we have not heard of customers cancelling just because of this. If you read the terms & conditions it does state the problems you are addressing us with and time to time you will have peer-to-peer problems.
I said:
Time to time, are you serious; time to every-time more like.
Anyway it all led to me hanging up the phone after the longs chats with me still having to pay the rest of the money for the remainder of the contract term. No chance, it is not going to happen will I pay them their money when I receive the bill. I received an email from Tiscali saying:
Please remember, your invoices are in arrears and you are liable to pay for the remainder of your service with Tiscali. Once your final balance has been collected we will automatically stop collecting payment via direct debit/credit card - please do not cancel your payment method with your bank.
Before you switch providers we recommend you go to the Tiscali My Account area to check the new, great value packages available to you. You can change your price and speed at any time. If you change your mind and decide to remain with Tiscali, simply do not use your MAC code.
I am writing this because PS3 Daily would like to know if you are having the same problems, what you have done, what they have said to you, and most importantly what you think of Tiscali’s service as a broadband provider for gamers.
We want you below in the comments area to say your piece, treat this like a petition because we are going to forward this to Tiscali and of course Ofcom and several other places.
We will give proof of other people having this problem and we will say we can get backing and support from 1000’s of people, thanks to our business being in the gaming world and news world, we will submit our case to all main stream news channels etc.
We will be taking this matter to Tiscali and anyone that has this problem with Tiscali should back us. Please do back us on this because the more people we get backing us the stronger our case is towards them.
Thank you for reading the above and hope to see you all here with your thoughts.
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Tags: p2p, pc, ps3, tiscali, traffic shaping, Xbox 360
22 responses so far ↓
1 Paul // Jul 25, 2008 at 12:49 pm
I have heard of this before, not just with Tiscali . Its a real problem. I back you fully.
My ISP is Eclipse, and since changing to them I have had very few problems, however it’s my understanding that MOST ISP do this throtteling back because they just dont have the bandwith for all of thier customers. A real pain I know.
It even effects my busines as I work for a real time internet auction company, and our servce gets blocked every now and again for a few customers (yes Tiscali ones have reported this).
My best gues would be to check with your prospective ISP first, but I doubt you will get full, open and honest replies.
Best of luck
2 Jay // Jul 25, 2008 at 2:31 pm
Thats why us 360 jar heads pay a fee for live… If a little money 50 million or so need to be pressed in the right hand to ensure pleasant game play …so be it. Thats life and like Disney there is such a thing as Front of the line! Money talks and BS walks.
3 Jake // Jul 25, 2008 at 3:54 pm
@Jay
wow you moron
paying for xbox live does nothing but let you access online games and xbox live, doesn’t give you bandwith or anything lol, it just opens the gate to xbox live and nothing else
4 Paul // Jul 25, 2008 at 3:56 pm
I think he saying that MS pay off the ISP’s somehow?
5 Paul // Jul 25, 2008 at 3:56 pm
Whats he doing on here anyway?
6 d // Jul 25, 2008 at 4:10 pm
i used to be with Eclipse (who use the tiscali network btw) and they throttled the hell out of everything. all day long it would be about 4kb/s if i was lucky! then just after midnight it would go up to the 800kb/s it should be. i rang them up and the helpful man said “just use it after midnight then!” i requested my mac code 5mins later and moved to http://www.adsl24.co.uk when the migration completed i was instantly up to the full 800kb/s my line is capable of. its pretty much like that 24hrs a day for the 6months ive been with them. get the odd drop at peak times but still much better than eclipse used to be.
tiscali are one of the worst ISPs there are. sooner u get away from them the sooner u can enjoy what the internet is meant to be like!
7 emilio // Jul 25, 2008 at 4:39 pm
im having constant problems with the 3 isp’s i have, whenever the phone rings… The internet goes off. I have tried pipex, aol (absolutely rubbish) and im now with Sky broadband.
However, if anyone fancies a whooping on COD4, add me on the PS3: EmilioB.
Lol add me!
x
8 me // Jul 25, 2008 at 6:44 pm
I am sure if you gave specific details of what game you are trying to play at the time then a ticket can be logged and their technical team will prioritise
9 Patrick // Jul 25, 2008 at 8:49 pm
emilio, sound smore like you have a problem with your filters. Check they are all okay.
Guys, if you want unttrottled, unmetered, unlimited broadband, go for Pipex Business broadband. Business broadband isn’t as cheap as you might think. Check the link:
http://www.pipex.co.uk/business/?code=NN-HB-0282&srccode=&rscode=UK-197918
Patrick
10 Patrick // Jul 25, 2008 at 8:50 pm
Isn’t as cheap??!! I meant “Isn’t as EXPENSIVE!!!
P
11 PS3 Owner // Jul 25, 2008 at 11:42 pm
You could always try trading standards? They cannot enforce contract terms on you if they are not deliverying their end of the contract!
I’m on Virgin Media and my service is always really slow and no where near the speed they advertise (super fast fibre optic broadband my ass!), however that being said it’s fine for gaming and I’ve never had any problems going online with my PS3, so it’s not all bad.
I remember NTL (before they became VM) used to offer console owners a separate service for a bit extra that was taylored to console gaming.
It will get to the point though where something will have to change as the way Broadband is advertised in the UK would not be allowed for any other product! They should be made to advertise packages based on minimum speed, or independently judged average speed, and they should be clear on any and all limitations on the package.
12 Luke // Jul 26, 2008 at 11:09 am
Well i know i’m not with tiscaly but i have had the same problem with Talk talk provider,
Went back to B.T and am now enjoying being able to play on line for more than 10 mins at a time, i feal your pain.
And think these ISP take on to many customers to cope with.My advise to people wanting good ISP service stick with the biger companies
sky,B.T etc.
13 Adam // Jul 29, 2008 at 6:32 pm
It’s “kettle of fish”, so I can’t be arsed reading the rest of this post, sorry.
Just get your broadband from bethere — it’s good stuff.
14 Rich // Aug 1, 2008 at 12:59 pm
I have Virgin Broadband and whilst it is never the 10gb speed I am paying for, it at least gives me the required broadband speed for all my PS3 needs.
ISP’s say they provide you with 10gb speed but that is the maximum speed and not the average or current speed you may be getting. What they mean by this is that if no one else within 100 miles of my house is using virgin broadband then I stand a good chance of getting 10gb signal, lol what scam.
Re MS paying off ISP’s to get consistant signals, this is not true. I know a lot of Tiscali customers who have the same issues with their 360 as a PS3 owner would have. Face facts, whilst Tiscali are the cheapest, they are easily one of the worst ISP’s out there and their idea of customer service is a joke.
15 Cheap PS3 // Aug 1, 2008 at 2:13 pm
Major problems with tiscali like the author, between 4pm and 11pm you just could’nt get onto COD4, fortunately out of contract so swapping over to bt, hope they are better, spoke to them on the phone today and asked if they have any P2P gaming policies to which they replied “no” wether or not they are just saying that to get my money only time will tell. Tiscali are CRAP!!! don’t use them, they are fine for using broadband at those times stated above but online gaming is abismal, so they definately have traffic throttling policies!!!
16 Craig // Oct 8, 2008 at 1:22 pm
I have a problem with settings when I try online gaming with my PS3. I can access the Playstation Network but when i try to play any games online i get an error report which states numerous factors and mainly its to do with Tiscali (my ISP) when going online with the pc i have no problem but playing a game no chance!
I am currently considering cancelling with them due to them not providing me the service which I need and signed up for! They have sent me port forwarding instructions which do not work. I am seriously unhappy with tiscali and will definitely not be recommending them to anyone. Customer Service is a total joke 30 mins to an hour at a time talking to them only to have the same problem!!!
Which ISP is the most reliable?????
I would like to know if anything comes of this petition because this is unacceptable, I sure if you were to provide a company with a service and you were not doing the job they employed you to do they would cancel your work with them!
17 Chris // Oct 25, 2008 at 2:45 pm
It’s a real headache choosing a provider, would i be best with sky, virgin or bt? or one of the smaller provider’s?
18 Nick Scotney // Dec 6, 2008 at 8:58 pm
I went with Tiscali based on the price and the unlimited usage. I tried to do an update on my system the other day and it wouldn’t let me do it via the console or on my pc :@. In the end, i had to access my webserver to download it (luckily on another ISP) and then connect via FTP to download it from there. What a headache! I wasn’t aware of this problem until today and it has really annoyed me because i have spent around 4 hours today trying to download the latest patch for CoD5 which i bought today and wanted to play online but i couldn’t. Looks like i will wait till about nidnight to try and download it then.
19 Bryn // Dec 11, 2008 at 11:06 pm
I basically had to do what Nick did.
Download update 2.53 at work on a different ISP, then skype it to myself at home (using 2 accounts)- then onto USB- then it worked.
Now i’ve only got the smaller problems of getting Home v1.3 to download- so far a 26mb download has taken over an hour!! Rapidly hating Tiscali….which is weird though as it was all ok for me until now.
20 Tim // Dec 12, 2008 at 12:11 am
I am having the same problem, hoping to change isps tomorrow! it wont even let me download things on the ps3 at all in the evening, and if i try to download something off the internet its extremely slow. i believe im being completely restricted in what i can do with my internet!
not only that but the connection is very sporadic! its on and off all the time, and its not the line cos weve had that checked 2 times by 2 different bt engineers.
i really hope that tiscali dont get away with what they are doing to their customers, false advertising, poor service and very poor customer service for how much they charge!
21 BRYN // Dec 16, 2008 at 5:11 pm
That’s it- good bye Tiscali…MAC code requested. I’m off to O2.
O2 have knowledgeable 24hr uk customer services
Tiscali have whenever they can be bothered foreign customer services.
oh.. and also NO PORT THROTTLING!!!
PLUS by joining O2 I got £60 cashback via a cahback website.. RESULT
22 BRYN // Dec 16, 2008 at 5:53 pm
For reference:-
Top Cashback
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