Watch out - more migrations on the way!

[Rik]

El Reg is reporting that Tiscali are subjecting their newly-acquired Pipex customers to some dirty tricks.

Thousands of ex-Pipex customers have been suffering unexplained interruptions in their broadband service in recent weeks, as their new provider Tiscali stealthily works to cut costs.

People suffering a broadband outage as a result of the work are told by customer services, recently outsourced overseas, that their line is undergoing "essential engineering work". One Reg reader was initially told the downtime was BT's fault.

In fact, Tiscali itself is performing mass migrations to its unbundled network in order to save money, as it bids this year to turn a profit for the first time ever.

Tiscali paid £210m for 570,000 customers of Pipex and its subsidiary ISPs last year. A source at one of the acquired ISP brands said the new owners have ordered a focus on customer volume rather than the quality service it has been known for.

"The logic is that we'll save more money placing customers on the Tiscali backhaul per month than we will lose from customers migrating away," he said.

"So far we've had our SMTP Servers replaced with Tiscali's Iron Ports and now we've been forced to replace our DNS Servers with Tiscali's."

He also claimed that Tiscali has indicated it wants to place a full block on peer-to-peer applications at peak times in the evening.

[Arthix]

"The logic is that we'll save more money placing customers on the Tiscali backhaul per month than we will lose from customers migrating away," he said.

He also claimed that Tiscali has indicated it wants to place a full block on peer-to-peer applications at peak times in the evening.

Wow... I can't believe a company would say/do such things .

It's almost like they are saying, "We really don't care that we are going to inconvenience a lot of our customers causing them to leave, we still have tons more that we want to try and squeeze every penny from".

I'm very glad I moved over from Bulldog (Taken over by Pipex).

[Colin Burns]

That just makes me glad that i left the Evil "T" and came to IDnet. 

[Si]

This is exactly the problem I had. My previsouly rock-solid Pipex Max connection mysteriously went down at Midnight the other Sunday for 3 days. Initial contact at customer support said it was "essential maintenance at the exchange, should be finished within 24 hours". After sniffing around online at work I discovered the unbundling work was happening, and that I have a Tiscali LLU'd exchange. In a follow-up call I explicitly asked if I was being unbundled and received a reluctant "..erm, yes." I asked for my MAC and got it 3 working days later.

When the connection did return I can now only sync at a max of 1195 and speeds during peak times are slower than dial-up - if I can actually get anything to load up at all. One minute pings to bbc.co.uk are coming in in the mod-20s, the next they time out completely.

It's a shame - I never had anything bad to say about Pipex both with dial-up and broadband, and had previously had good, often excellent service, even recommending them to friends and family. Needless to say I'm broadcasting rather the opposite message now.

The annoying thing is that now that I've been unbundled it adds another couple of days to the time I'll have to wait for my IDNet connection to go live... roll on this Friday! Trying to use a VPN with a sub-1Meg connection is interesting to say the least.

[Malc]

Tiscalli are a evil company with Indian call centres.

[Rik]

The annoying thing is that now that I've been unbundled it adds another couple of days to the time I'll have to wait for my IDNet connection to go live... roll on this Friday! Trying to use a VPN with a sub-1Meg connection is interesting to say the least.

OTOH, Friday is the perfect day to migrate as your billing cycle will coincide with the charging cycle.

[cavillas]

I am still encouraging people to sign up with IDNET, sorry about that but it is my destiny.

[Rik]

It's a hard job, Alf, but someone has to do it.

[Si]

OTOH, Friday is the perfect day to migrate as your billing cycle will coincide with the charging cycle.

So for the first time ever I have to hope BT don't get their act together and do the work early! 

[Rik]

I suspect that IDNet would work with the due date, iac.

[shazzy]

I am moving from Nildram, another ISP swallowed up by Tiscali.  Although Nildram claim that service will remain the same, I had already noticed things going downhill and they were even prepared to let me have unlimited internet for 13.99 which I turned down because I know what I would be in for having been an ex Tiscali customer in the past.

  I requested my mac on Friday and was pleasantly surprised to receive it Monday, so signed up with Idnet immediately.  My migration is taking place by Thursday evening which is unbelieveably fast!  I've had a really good time with Nildram and I'm so sad to see them get swallowed up by such a greedy ISP.

I've heard only good things about Idnet so I'm looking forward to my migration immensely.

A big hello to you all!

[Malc]

Have a  , you won't be disappointed (from another pipex/tiscalli refugee.

[Rik]

I've heard only good things about Idnet so I'm looking forward to my migration immensely.

A big hello to you all!

Hi Shazzy, welcome to the forum, have a karma. 

I moved here from Nildram 15 months ago, after the throttling was introduced but they denied it. It didn't affect me, but I didn't trust them after that. I've never regretted the move, not only do IDNet give superb service, but they are very ethical.

We'll look forward to seeing you amongst us.

[cavillas]

One of the last bastions of ethics and good customer relationships left in the ISP world, I think.

[Simon]

This should hopefully get my mate off his arse to make the phone call to Tipex! 

[Rik]

Is that where he talks from, then, Simon. 

[Simon]

Careful, he might be a member here soon! 

[Malc]

He's not called Simon as well is he?

[Rik]

We'll start numbering them soon, Malc.

[Malc]

A good job Khel's not still around here ATM

[shazzy]

hehe thanks for the welcome.

[Malc]

hehe thanks for the welcome.

your er... welcome!

[Rik]

A good job Khel's not still around here ATM

Khel was a Steve, Malc.

[Simon]

As far as we know, he still is! 

[Malc]

Khel was a Steve, Malc.

I was thinking with 3 possible user name changes happening!