Tiscali Max & My Download Speeds

[lefthandbat]

Hello All, This is my first posting and am looking for help or advice on what to do next.
I have recently gone from NTL and converted to Tiscali Max 8mg + Anytime phone calls @ £21.99 per month.
I went with MAX after a check on my BT line said my exchange would support the ASDL MAX(but only up to 3mg for my line) service.
I am happy with the telephone call side of things but extremely unhappy at the download speeds online...I run regular speed tests and can only get a max of;
Downloads 126kbps (and can only get about 15kbps on Azureus Bit torrent port 443)
Uploads 367kps

I am using a netgear Modem/Router DG834G v3

In my opinion I am not getting the service I am paying for, where do I go from here to complain/cancel...can I cancel under trading standards law??? as I am only getting the equivalant of a 128Kb modem speed and should be receiving at least a 3meg of the 8meg service I am subscribing to.
I have been with tiscali 2 months now.big mistake methinks.....

Any help on what I can do will be gratefully received....

[TSMatt]

Humm,
Something is definatly wrong, I use the same router as you (and am on the tiscali max service) but my speeds have been fine.

As you seem to be getting under 400Kb BT should be able to investigate as this is below the acceptable speed level. With a predicted rate of 3mb you should be expecting at least 2mb+ during off-peak times.

One side note is what speed checker are you using ? If its the one as adslguide then that seems to be very inaccurate when it comes to the tiscali broadband connections for some reason.

Try speedtest.net

Otherwise get BT to investigate (unfortunatly you may need to go through tiscali support for that to happen)

-Matt

[lefthandbat]

Hi Matt,

Thanks for your reply, I have just run a speed test on the site you suggested and here are the results;

9/16/2006 10:26 AM GMT download127 kb/s upload366 kb/s 214 ms London ~ 50 mi

So as you can see its pretty slow, I also re-connected using the sagem modem that tiscali sent to me originally and speeds were almost identical so I guess its not a modem/router issue either, my house is also only just about a mile from the exchange as well.All phones & sky in the house have filters on them also.I will however,unplug all the phones & sky and just keep the broadband open and run another speed test to see if that makes any significant improvements in speed just to see.

If there are no speed improvements after that I think I'll ring Tiscali support first to see what they suggest,
thanks for your reply and I'll let you know the outcome in due course.

Steve.

[TSMatt]

Hi Matt,

Thanks for your reply, I have just run a speed test on the site you suggested and here are the results;

9/16/2006 10:26 AM GMT download127 kb/s upload366 kb/s 214 ms London ~ 50 mi

So as you can see its pretty slow, I also re-connected using the sagem modem that tiscali sent to me originally and speeds were almost identical so I guess its not a modem/router issue either, my house is also only just about a mile from the exchange as well.All phones & sky in the house have filters on them also.I will however,unplug all the phones & sky and just keep the broadband open and run another speed test to see if that makes any significant improvements in speed just to see.

If there are no speed improvements after that I think I'll ring Tiscali support first to see what they suggest,
thanks for your reply and I'll let you know the outcome in due course.

Steve.

Originally Posted by lefthandbat

Hi again,
Yeah they are unacceptable results at any time of the day, your first point of contact should be to phone the tiscali number and see if they find anything obvious wrong. Remember BT say anything above 400kb is acceptable, your speeds are below this so dont let them fob you off and say your speeds are fine.

If that doesnt get you anywhere there are plenty of useful contacts and phone number available on this site. Include Quinn who is the head of complains and MK Andy (theARC) on this forum.

Good luck!
-Matt

[lefthandbat]

Hello Matt, thanks for your reply again, I have just sent Tiscali the following e-mail (via thier website so I have a record & reference number) so we will see where this gets me.....

FAO Tiscali Customer Services
I am on a Tiscali Max 8meg Unlimited package
My download speed is chronically slow, I have run numerous speed tests at differing times of the day and the best I can achieve is:
Download 136.1 kbps Upload 370.1 kpbs, This, as you can see is only just about better than 2 x dial up modem speed and is unacceptable.
My BT line is capable of receiving up to 3meg asdl max according to BT
which is the reason I chose this package which is costing me £21.99 per Month.I have been withTiscali for 2 months and it has been this slow from day one.Please please please help!!!

Please can you see if there is a fault on the line your end as I have tried everything to obtain a quicker download speed and am very frustrated.
Please can you look at this and advise me accordingly as quickly as possible. If you can not resolve I shall have to consider going to trading standards and ofcom as I am not getting the service I am paying for.

Many thanks

Hi I'm only Tiscali Max as well and am having the same problems slightly better than you are getting but I get 980kbps download and have had the line checked by BT and spent a month dealing with Tech support to no avail they keep saying the line is fine and they will escalate it. However if you don't get any improvment you can go after a cancellation as Tiscali Max utilised ADSL Max which should run no slower than 2mbps so if you like me are getting less then you aren't even getting the first part of the service.

Hi have the same router and on tiscali max as well. i used to be on 2mb with which i got a fine speed, i got an email on the 15th of Jan sayin i have been upgraded to max (which i didnt do). so called them up and they said it was automatically done due to how much i was paying...thats fine

its been 12 days and at the moment i am only gettin 1856Kbps which is lower then i had when i had 2Mb.

i called them up and they said its the "stabilising" period!!!
what is this?.........and does anyone know how long this will last?

(btw my line can support up to 4mb)

Thanks
Wasim

I have just upgraded to Tiscali 8mg, and to be honest, I wish I hadnt bothered. I was on 2.2 mg and it seemed ok but i wanted a little more. Since that time, (it was apparently connected on the 14th of Jan) my pc completely freezes every night ususally between the hours of about 5pm and 11:30pm. They did also tell me there is a "settling in" period, of ten days. I have no idea what this is but I am now over this period so all should be fine...is it..... NO it is not!! I have spent many an hour on an evening listening to naff music and having a voice thank me for my patience, (believe me, i was not patient and resorted to shouting down an empty fhone just to release some frustration) as I wait for someone to bother to answer my call, When they do, I can barely understand them or have them understand me. The advice I get??...disable security and connect to internet and see if thats any better. Now, I did point out that my pc would be vulnerable without security but he assured me all the customers are advized to do this, well I pointed out that they may be daft enough to do it but im not. I have been waitng for over a week for a technician to call me but as yet no call, perhaps their phones are as good as their broadband connection......crap!!
I would have been better leaving tiscali and going to another provider because now i am tied to another 12 month contract with them despite the fact that I have been with them before the supposed upgrade for 18 months. Never again, I can tell you. This service is a contradiction in terms and I told the poor man that!. My advice to anyone would be to steer well clear of tiscali.

Hi they are tapping your internet. find a more honest provider.

[Memfis]

Hi they are tapping your internet. find a more honest provider.

Originally Posted by susan newcombe

I think you mean 'capping'...