Cancellation of account by Tiscali

[janettibbitts]

A few weeks ago I asked Tiscali for an upgrade and tiscali talk. Unknown to me they then took over the telephone line of the house I used to live in over 2 years ago- phone no. I never had. (When I had moved I transferred my account and set up a new line, but apparently they failed to update all of their records - just some had my new address). This resulted in me being billed for someone else's phone line and still no broadband. After a huge amount of calling and e-mails (no replies) they decided to sort it out my cancelling my account ( I did NOT tell them to do this). This means they have deleted the entire contents of my in-box (5 years of contacts and contracts - I'm self-employed) and also my e-mail address. This now means that I have no details of my clients, and they cannot contact me. Its a compete disaster and although Tiscali say "yes its their fault, sorry for the 'inconvenience'", I can't believe that a) they can do this, and b) that there is no way these cannot be retrieved.
Does anybody know if there's anything I can do???

Thanks for anyone's consideration

[gem]

Welcome to The Scream! janettibbitts.

Leaving aside the issue on what Tiswas have done, if you use an email client ie outlook express etc then all your email, contacts etc should be on your pc.
However, if you rely on Tiswas web mail then only Tiswas can recover them. It's unlikely that they would have deleted anything for a month or so after they cut you off.
I left Screaming Net a few years ago and I could still pick up my email a few months back (have not tried recently). The same applied to Worldonline - both Screaming and Worldonline ended up in Tiswas.

Hopefully someone with more knowledge will come along and advise you on what you can and cannot do. Good luck.

[janettibbitts]

Hi Gem,
thanks for that but unfortunately I didn't use Outlook Express because a few years ago I had loads of virus problems and I made the decision not to bring them onto my PC.(God, isn't hindsight a wonderful thing...!).
Tiscali are saying that everything was automatically deleted as soon as they cancelled but that's the part I can't believe. Anyway I've sent off a letter asking for an explanation and I'll just have to wait and see.
Once again, thanks for the reply.

Janet

[gem]

Have you actually tried to access your web mail?

[janettibbitts]

Yes I have tried to access web mail and so have the technical dept. It won't let me in. As soon as I try to log in - user name and password- it says they're not valid.

[tommy t]

knowing tiscali, they probably have deleted them,or they just don't have a clue ,how to access them ect

[silver]

it's hard to believe that tiscali don't have any backups,. having said that they probably will not want to bother to restore from them even though it's their fault they are deleted

I would raise a complaint at the ISPA via http://www.ispa.org.uk/cgi-bin/complaints.cgi outline the issue in a paragraph and include contact details and your tiscali acc details

[gem]

Yes I have tried to access web mail and so have the technical dept. It won't let me in. As soon as I try to log in - user name and password- it says they're not valid.

Originally Posted by janettibbitts

Oh dear. Sounds final.

Takes Sil's advice and contact the ISPA - tell Tiscali what you are going to do too if you wish, it MIGHT just jerk them into some action!

[janettibbitts]

Thanks guys,

I will register the complaint with ISPA. I have also written to both Tiscali addresses I have and put the complaint in writing with the OFCOM reference no. Fingers crossed!
Thanks

When moving house you should reduce account down to Pay as You Go account and should not lose email

Then when you are established in new premises you upgrade your account again

For some reason, Operators want you to close account and start new one

Might be a good idea to forward mail and contacts etc to an alternative account - google or hotmail for example - to keep on safe side. Having a second ot even third account is always useful when signing onto forums, or other sites - some of which will use your email for spam

Then you can make sure spam goes to that account and not swamp your important account - although many ISP's have pretty well resolved spam issues

In business you should always have a back up plan, so keeping docs in two different email accounts is probably good practice