I had some complaints with Tiscali, and I wrote to CISAS. They are the 'watchdog' for Tiscali since Tiscali opted out of OFCOM. After my CISAS complaint, which included copied of all correspondence I sent to Tiscali, I won, and received £200 IN COMPESATION FOR ALL THE STRESS THEY CAUSED ME. You can apply to CISAS if you have a deadlock letter, or if not, then if 3 months have passed from the initial date of your complaint. It is advisable to write hard copy letters, or send emails to companies, since phone calls rarely bring results and customers rarely have recordings to back up their arguments. Rule number 1 therefore: PUT IT IN WRITING!

I had some complaints with Tiscali, and I wrote to CISAS. They are the 'watchdog' for Tiscali since Tiscali opted out of OFCOM. After my CISAS complaint, which included copied of all correspondence I sent to Tiscali, I won, and received £200 IN COMPESATION FOR ALL THE STRESS THEY CAUSED ME. You can apply to CISAS if you have a deadlock letter, or if not, then if 3 months have passed from the initial date of your complaint. It is advisable to write hard copy letters, or send emails to companies, since phone calls rarely bring results and customers rarely have recordings to back up their arguments. Rule number 1 therefore: PUT IT IN WRITING!

Just received this: We do apologize for the inconvenience and frustration this has caused you. We have recently experienced a high volume of incoming emails. Consequently we may not have responded to your email as promptly as we should have. We have a new policy that we do not do direct bank transfer anymore. We do apologize for the wrong information given to you by one of our agents. We have two option for the payments that is through: 1. Sending a cheque on our postal address: Tiscali Customer Service, PO Box 7206, Milton Keynes, Bucks, MK14 6XG 2. Call our Broadband and Billing Customer Care Line at 0871 222 3311 option 1. 3. Call us and give us your bank details and Tiscali will automatically will take the payment every month for your subscription or go through My Account Tiscali My Account and change your bank details manually.

I have just received the following: Thank you for contacting Tiscali Customer Support. You may be able to make payments by the following methods: 1. Over the telephone by credit or debit card (please note that we do not accept American Express) 2. By direct bank transfer (BACS). Details of our bank available by request. 3. By cheque or postal order sent to our Head Office at the following address: Tiscali Customer Service, PO Box 7206, Milton Keynes, Bucks, MK14 6XG Please ensure in all cases that you include your customer code for identification. Needless to say, i replied requesting the bank details for option 2 to pay by BACS.

I have written a letter of complaint to Tiscali Customer Services on March 25, and received a response today by mail from one Stuart Anderson of Tiscali High Level Complaints. " For your account to remain active, we must have active payment details on our system at all times. This must be either Direct Debit or Credit Card details." Now, I am dealing with a company trading in England (French though it may be). I am writing in English. Do you mean to say, in a company with thousands of employees (high level or not) not one can understand English well enough to know what I am asking? Ludicrous, isn't it? I've also been told they opted out of being under the telecom ombudsman. How the hell can that happen? Who then regulates a company if they do not wish to be regulated?

In February I wrote to Tiscali requesting bank details to set up a standing order to pay my bills. Tiscali refused, stating that they only do bills via credit cards or direct debit. I do not have an account with these facilities, and will not for some months until my bank account gets upgraded. All other companies have provided me with the necessary information and I am paying those bills fine. Tiscali is the only one not doing so, as if their details are a state secret. In the meantime, Tiscali has started slowly squeezing my service back. By the way, Tiscali does not have contact details on its website. Only phone numbers which you have to pay to get service. Wish I knew if this was illegal. Taking no crap.

I have been getting both utilities (gas and electricity) from NPower. Last year I was unemployed and receiving benefits, so my bills were paid by Fuel Direct. The payments were low, and an accumulation of arrears have accrued to the tune of about £350. I have since been able to get a job, at a lower income than I would normally earn because I had started a degree while unemployed (part time). Recently I had some fraud on my bank account which is being investigated, hence my account is suspended until that is sorted. I have opened a cash account to receive my salary, but for obvious reasons, I am unable to have direct debits come out of it as even if I provide details to companies, they can't ask for DD to be set up on this type of account. I have asked NPower for their bank details so I can take to my bank and ask them to set up a standing order for payments. I was told that for data protection I cannot be given this information. The have adamantly refused to provide me with this on several occasions. I am willing to make payments, I just can do it by DD or over the phone, and they do not provide bank giro slips with their bills. I am now being threatened with action for non-payment. Is there any way I can get a work around to this? I am not avoiding payments - I just want to have it set up at my bank to work around the limitations of my bank account type. The bank says if I can get the account information, there will be no hassle to set up a standing order. Oh, the same goes for Tiscali. I can't pay them because they refuse to provide the information re: bank details.