the continuing saga....
i emailed tiscali tech support through their website and received the following reply:
my initial mail is included at the bottom of their reply
Dear Barry
Thank you for e-mailing us.
Regarding your query, I am afraid I will not be able to assist you in this matter at this helpdesk. However, please call our helpline at 0870 744 2922 for assistance.
Please do not hesitate to contact us should you have any further queries, by using the following URL:-
http://www.tiscali.co.uk/aboutus/contac ... index.html
Regards,
Nancy Gordon
A member of the
Customer Care Team @ Tiscali
Enjoy your time online and let us do the rest!
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pageurl:
http://www.tiscali.co.uk/aboutus/contac ... er_details: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.0; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)javascript_enabled: truejavascript_version: 1.2required_FirstName: barryrequired_LastName: briggsrequired_Email:
xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxx.co.ukAlternate_Email:
xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxx.co.ukrequired_Telephone_no: xxxxxxxxxxxxrequired_Nature Of Problem: 2. Connectivityrequired_Details: I cannot connect to the internet with my ADSL modem.There was a storm on sunday morning, with quite heavy thunder and lightening, and since then I have not been able connect.When I try to dialup I get a message that says "No Dial Tone".The telephone line is working fine for voice calls (and dialup using my 56k modem) so its not that.BT have also checked the line and say it's working fine.I have tried the filters at a friends house and they are fine, so it's not them.Which only leaves the modem, but I have no means of checking the modem on another system.I have been without broadband access since sunday the 22nd june.BT suggested I contact you and try to get an engineer out to test my modem.Is this possible? Or can you supply a new modem free? Is the damage covered by warranty and can I return it for a free replacement?Please advise.Thanks,Barry.day: 22month: 06year: 2003x: 21y: 9----------------This mail is from:
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i phoned tiscali technical support on the "national rate" number as instructed at approx 9.20am this morning and spoke to a man who took a few details and listened to my problem then suggested that the phone line was faulty.
i told him that i had borrowed a friends modem and it was working, and he admitted that it did sound like my modem was broken. he asked me for the 2 serial number on the bottom of the modem, but i was phoning from work so couldnt provide them.
he said that i should ring back with them before 8pm, because they would need to contact the modem's manufacturers (thomson) to see about a replacement.
he was pleasent, polite and seemed to know what he was talking about.
i phoned tiscali technical support back on the "national rate" number at approx 7.10pm and spoke to another man with a very strong non-english accent we asked for my name, my tiscali email address and my home phone number that i used to dial up from.
i gave them to him, and he kept halting me, asking me to repeat certain things. i told him my name 3 times, and spelled it out to him, i then gave him my email address (which was the same as my name) and had to spell that out twice, and then my phone number which he took and read back to me incorrectly.
he then asked what the problem was, so i explained and repeated exactly what i had said this morning.
he then asked me again what the problem was, so i told him again.
he then asked me if could connect to the internet and i told him no.
he put me on hold.
5 minutes later he came back and asked me if my phone line was working and i told him that i had contacted british telecom and they have checked the phone line and it is fine, and that i have checked the filters at a friends house and they work ok, and that i have in fact borrowed a modem exactly like my broken one from a friend and THAT one works fine, so it MUST be the modem that is faulty.
he put me on hold,
5 minutes later he came back and asked me what sort of computer i had: a desktop or a laptop. i told him desktop.
he asked me what make it was and i told him "dell".
he put me on hold.
by this time it was 7.30 and i was worried that i wouldnt get to speak to thomson as this person was messng around and really didnt know what he was talking about...
after being on hold for about 10 minutes, i started to speak into the phone. i said "hello. if you can hear me, can you please put me onto someone who knows what they are doing as thomson shut at 8 and i dont want to...."
at which point he came back and said he knew what to do: he would phone the manufacturers and try to get a new one.
he asked me what make the modem was. i told him: alcatel (they are made by thomson). he asked me what model it was and i told him: 330.
he said he didnt understand and could i repeat it. after 4 attempts he managed to understand "330" and said he would have to put me on hold while he rang thomson.
after about 5 or 10 minutes he came back and said hurridly that he had spoked to them and they would send me a new modem in the next week.
i asked him for a call reference number and he said he didnt understand. i tried to explain and said "a reference number? a ticket number? a fault number?"
he finally said they didn't have them and tried to hang up... i interrupted his goodbye speech and asked for his name. he replied "eric" and hung up.
i didnt think he was really called eric, and i certainly didnt think he knew what he was doing.
i really didnt think he had done what he said, so wanted confirmation.
i rang back 10 minutes later on the same "national rate" number and was connected to a woman who announced herself as "sadie" in a strong non-english accent. she was very pleasent and polite and seemed initially to know what she was doing.
i told her that i had an outstanding query and was ringing about a progress report... she said did i have a reference number for the previous call?
i told her that the previous man wouldnt give me one, so she asked me all the same stuff as "eric" about my name, email address etc etc, but didnt need it repeating quite as many times... i only had to spell my name once, and repeat my phone number twice.
she put me on hold.
5 minutes later she asked me about my pc and modem details, so i repeated what i had told "eric" and she seemed to understand.
i mentioned that i had rung in the morning and told her what the first man had said and she said that she would ring thomson and find out what the status was on the alleged replacement...
she put me on hold for 10 minutes.
she came back and said sorry, and that she was in a phone queue at thomson and would i hold? i said ok, even though it was already past 8pm and i didnt think she would be able to get hold of anyone there.
after another 10 minutes she came back and asked me for the 2 serial numbers for the modem (as the first man had said they would)...
i was impressed by this!! i gave her the numbers gladly, only having to repeat the second one twice. she also asked me for some details of my usb drivers... i gave them, despite wondering what possible use this information was to her.
she asked if she could put me on hold and i said could she ring me back? she said she didnt have the authority to ring me back...
i guess they cant make outgoing calls in these 3rd world call centres...
i was still optimistic due to her asking for all that technical information without me suggesting it, so i agreed to continue holding.
after about 5 or 10 minutes (i had long since stopped counting) she came back and told me that she had spoken to someone at thomson (this was about 8.25 and i was quite surprised she had managed to catch anyone there) and she promised me that a new modem would get to me within 7 to 10 working days.
i thanked her enthusiastically, really believing she had done it, and asked her for a call reference number. she hesitated and said that they don't have them... i didn't think to ask her why then had she asked me for one before!
sensing my doubt she assured me once again and said that i would definitely get the modem in 10 days time, and that i should call back at that time if i hadnt received it.
then she wished me a good day (at 8.30pm in the evening, uk time) and hung up.
my conclusion? that whilst i have never had any problem whatsoever with their internet access,
tiscali's customer support is absolutely shocking. its dreadful.
they appear to have farmed out their call centres to some indian company who employ people with a little grasp of english and even less grasp of anything even remotely computer-related. and "eric" was downright rude.
i am going to forward the above details to bbc's watchdog, and to various websites such "the register" (
www.theregister.co.uk) and am also
going to complain in writing to tiscali's customer support department. their level of servcie was ppaling, and "erics" manners where shocking, and his competency even worse.
so, looks like i will have to buy a new one from here:
http://adsl.looseconnection.com/hardwar ... h330.shtml
But sadly I dont have one. Sorry 
I don't work in customer care.....mmmm, maybe it's time for the big man 