Are tiscali in breach of Trade Descriptions and Distance Selling regulations?

[gpbrown81]

Hi, I'm wondering whether or not to sue tiscali or at least give them a threatening complaint letter regarding the service they have provided over the long 10 months of my contract with them (horay!, 2 months to go!).

 

I think that the use of the word "Unlimited" in a broadband product, such as 2 MB Unlimited Broadband is inacurate. As they have a fair usage policy that restricts heavy usage during peak hours (1800-2300 hrs). So, would this be a breach of the trade descriptions act if they advertise an "Unlimited" product and impose restrictions on heavy users during peak hours, which effectively makes it a limited product? The trade descriptions act is supposed to prevent companies making inacurate or misleading statements regarding their products, so this should not happen.

 

This issue also leads me to the distance selling regulations...

 

Now, there are a lot of people on the tiscali forums (including myself) that have complained about this fair usage policy. Because when I bought the product online the advertisement looked like this:

 

Tiscali Unlimited* 2 MB Broadband £17.99 per month.

 

And right down at the botton almost invisible and tucked out of the way you have: *fair usage policy applies

 

Now dosen't this breach the distance sellers regulations? Because before you purchase a product online, arn't you supposed to be told exactly what you are getting and any policies that apply in reasonable plain text so you can make your mind up BEFORE you commit to buy?

 

And when I found out about this policy it was a good 1 month down the line, that was after the 6 weeks it took them to actually get the service running. This means that I am currently paying for a 2MB service that has a maximum download speed of 250 kb/ps during off peak hours. But during peak hours it's around 25 to 50 kb/ps as my usage is being managed under this policy. And tiscali refuse to divulge exactly what they consider to be heavy usage, this becomes a problem, because I keep a copy of my data records (downloads per day totals) and if they did I could possible prove that my usage falls well below what is considered heavy usage. There are a lot of people that I have spoken to, that also claim that they never use the service during peak hours and yet they have been warned or "capped" for no reason whatsoever.

 

People are just not aware that these restrictions are in place until it's too late. And under the distance sellers regulations you have a right to cancel, but because they take so long to advise you of this, it's way past your 14 day cancellation date. Therefore you are locked into a 12 month contract for a service that you can only use when you are unemployed. As it's only off peak from the time you goto sleep to the time you come home from work.

 

I am also wondering if tiscali have a legal duty to refund some of the additional costs that where incurred by me at the beginning and later on in my contract with them. Because I registered for broadband on the 27/01/2006. It took them 6 weeks to provision the line, and during this time I used their dialup (pay as you go). Now they where only supposed to take 10 working days to install the broadband, am I legally entitled to claim the cost of these internet calls back from tiscali because of their delays in provisioning the service?

 

And... In april 2006, I had to temporarily move address whilst my landlord did repairs on my flat. The same thing happened then.. I asked tiscali to transfer the service to my new address and they didn't. So for 2 months I had to use dialup and had to pay for the internet calls... So for 2 months I was without broadband and had to pay over £100 to BT for using dialup. Does anyone think I would be able to recover some of them costs? Tiscali did refund me 2 months broadband, but did not accept liability for the phone calls to the internet. Even though I provided evidence that I had done so with their own internet usage data and my BT itemised phone bill.

 

Any suggestions from anyone would be greatly appreciated... as it's impossible to complain to tiscali as I have to speak to their offshore call centres or communicate via e-mail to the same country. They either ignore you or give an illegible response.

 

Thank you.

 

p.s: if you don't beleive me, just follow this link Broadband Provider - Tiscali Broadband and ask yourself, is this clear enough?

[gpbrown81]

Xxxxxx

[Zola]

Hi I have had this issue with Tiscali, we were 5 months into the 12 month contract with them when we found out 'unlimited' was not actually unlimited due to the fair use policy. After about 2 or 3 weeks of calling and complaining and then cancelling the direct debit to them they have got the message and they finally have let us out of the contract.

 

If you are that unhappy as we were its worth persevering to their cancellation line and in the end they will give up and give you a mac key to move.

[james141]

I looked around, and allthough it is bad a lot of other ISP's T+C's are a hell of a lot worse

[brian4439]

I've also had problems with tiscali, I did manage to find their number for head office in london where customer compaints are here it is 02070872000. these people allegedly know what their talking about and can make decisions

[brian4439]

sorry meant to tell people you have to wait for call to be transferred to switchboard then ask for customer complaints

[blitz]

Yes it is tucked away, however it is there, and its a lot clearer then most company's make it.

By Signing up to any online agreement, you confirm that you have read and understood the terms and conditions of the contract. Having ready these t&c myself, they are currently in there, which means that you have confirmed you have read, understood and accepted this fair usage policy. Meaning that they have not misinformed you or misold the service in that way.

 

Understandably you used a dial-up service whilst you did not have the internet, however it is generally your responsibility. There are fee services out there like bt anytime for dial-up connections which would have kept this amount during this period down. (See section 14 of there T&C)

 

Its not called the small print because its in 20 inch neon letters, you do need to read it, and you have said you have read it.

[james141]

After semi sticking up for them in my previous post, I am now having problems with them.

 

I am supposed to have an 8 meg connection, the most I can ever download at is about 1 meg on a good day!!

 

The service is awfull. Just take a look at their customer forums on their site!!

 

I work with computers and networking for a living so I know it is nothing my end.

 

Luckly I am moving house soon so I will get out of this contract and go with a decent ISP

 

 

Dont touch Tiscali with a barge pole!

[ladybird17]

I was very surprised to read this thread, as according to Tiscali (if I understood the gentleman correcly, of course) is that I am the ONLY customer who has made an issue with their service - and of course, it's all my fault.

[james141]

No I think it is most of the customers who know what a broadband connection should run like!

 

I think the only people not complaining are the ones who dont know any better or cant be arsed!

 

You just have to look at their forums, it is full of people complaining about speed issues:

 

Tiscali Forums - Broadband Service Support

 

Also have a look here:

 

ISPreview UK - Internet Service Provider Information Source

[james141]

These reviews sum it up:

 

174 Reviews for Tiscali Broadband www.tiscali.co.uk

 

Broadband Choices: Tiscali reviews by site users

 

Date Added Review Title

23-Jan-2007 » poor service

22-Jan-2007 » A real joke ive never had the speed i pay for in over 3 years

16-Jan-2007 » Lack of Speed

13-Jan-2007 » get your act together

13-Jan-2007 » Tiscali Not Delivering

5-Dec-2006 » TISCALI at one-tenth promised speed

5-Dec-2006 » Excellent connection and speed

30-Nov-2006 » Tiscali just gets worse and worse

22-Nov-2006 » Contention must be high

8-Nov-2006 » Get you fingure out Tiscali

2-Nov-2006 » poor speed

28-Oct-2006 » Not happy bunny

18-Oct-2006 » Total Pony Dont Bother

16-Oct-2006 » extremely poor speeds and worse customer servise

13-Oct-2006 » leave tiscali and ull be sorry

2-Oct-2006 » slow and restricted

27-Sep-2006 » USEFUL TISCALI TEL NO FOR PEOPLE HAVING PROBLEMS

18-Sep-2006 » 8m max figment of the imagination

14-Sep-2006 » unlimited between 11pm and 6pm only

12-Sep-2006 » do NOT go with tiscali aka ****cali

8-Sep-2006 » improving possibly

7-Sep-2006 » slow and getting slower

7-Sep-2006 » speed worse than dialup

28-Aug-2006 » Shockingly low speeds

9-Aug-2006 » extremely low speed

30-Jul-2006 » Rubbish Speeds

11-Jul-2006 » Lack of speed