Carphone Warehouse linked to Tiscali buy-up (again)

Tiscali shares were given a boost today on the Italian stock exchange by reports that it is once again close to a deal to offload its UK operation to Carphone Warehouse. Tiscali has been trying to sell its almost 1.8m subscribers for over a year, and Carphone Warehouse has been named as a suitor throughout. Italian papers said …

[Anonymous Coward]

why lash the cash?

Big question would be... why buy them in one go? Why not wait for the company to go under and then leap in!

[Anonymous Coward]

But why?

Why pay anything? Shoorly, given the current economic climate, all the rest of the UK's ISPs need to do is sit back and wait for Tiscali to go TU and get the lot for free?

Paris, 'cos she'd happily pay over the odds for something when she didn't need to.

[Anonymous Coward]

What exactly are Tiscali trying to sell off?

Can someone with a bit more knowledge than me explain exactly what Tiscali are trying to sell off?

Is it just the Broadband or is the Broadband with the Telephone Line & packages along with the PCTV service too?

Thanks,

A Confused Tiscali customer.

[Les Matthew]

Re: why lash the cash?

I'm not sure how it works but I assume if Tiscali went under there would be 1.8 million customers without broadband and therefore looking elsewhere for their connection.

Some may find this hard to believe but Tiscali broadband has got even worse over the last fortnight.

[Anonymous Coward]

erm....

Who gives a side-salad anyway ?

Tiscali and talktalk are quiet well known for being shite especially at night when the kids are in, downloading all their illegal warez from TPB and they virtually crawl to a stop in some locations.

If people want a half decent ISP - go elsewhere :)

[Matt]

Both are completely useless

Unfortunately I have dealings with both companies are they both the absolute epitome of incompetence. Glad to see like for like will be joining as it will make ignoring one easier than two.

Tiscali still have 1.8 mil customers? How is that even possible? Do we really have that many masochists living in the uk?

[Steve Evans]

@A/C 15:00 27th April 2009

Why are they willing to pay for these customers instead of jumping in when it goes under? Well the longer they leave it the smaller that group of customers will get. It is quite amusing as the Indian call centre have a new script to read when you ask for a MAC... They say "Is this because of the bankruptcy rumours? That won't affect you sir, Tiscali UK and Italy are completely separate..."

@Les Matthew... Well as I just said, there will be less than 1.8 million, but the thought of even half that number of people, all without MACs is kinda terrifying... Personally as a MAC is valid to 30 days (I think), I would ring Tiscali and ask for it... Then ask for a new one every couple of weeks, just so that when it does all go belly up you already have the code! It might make the chaos a little easier on you.

[John P]

Tiscali aren't all that bad.

I see a lot of people bitching about Tiscali having poor service, but I have been with them for about 18 months and have not had a single problem. My broadband is always up and working at a good speed, every bill is spot on to the penny.

Unfortunately for me, I upgraded to Tiscali TV and Phone just before they started looking a little dodgy. Even though both of these services have performed perfectly with 100% uptime, this means that if Tiscali do go TU, I will be left with no broadband, no phone, and no TV...bad times.

[Mindless Geek]

Had it

Just recently my Tiscali BB was switched of in the evenings (every evening as it happens), according to my usage I was miles away from breaching the Fair Use Policy. They kept telling me it was a techincal problems, I kept not believing them and now I've kept not being with them.

[David West]

More to an ISP than clients

I would assume that if they buy Tiscali they will be getting more than just the customers, an ISP is made up of allot more than just that. You have to have allot of servers and network equipment behind the scenes that connect the user to the wider internet, that doesn't come cheap.

[Anonymous Coward]

Out of the proverbial

Given that Carphone Warehouse is hardly a beacon of QoS I suspect that Tiscali Customers will be in for more of the same.

Paris, happy to be screwed either way

[Mark Aggleton]

And the problem is?

I've been with Pipex about 5 years and have never had cause to ring them for service issues and the one time I did call (to change the package from a 1Mbps one) it was no problem at all. However I really don't want to go near a company that uses a dumb Irishman and his 'mobi' as an advertising theme...

[Andy]

Still with Bulldog

I'm still with Bulldog, yep, Have a very good service from them, get my double speed all the time, no slowness or anything.

Just wondering how this would affect myself ?

[Ben Rose]

@Andy - Still with Bulldog?

Andy - You only THINK you're still with Bulldog, maybe you didn't get the post. I used to be with Bulldog too, then they bungled me over to Pipex Home and things got progressively worse. My "up to 8meg" line, which only ever connected at around 3meg, started getting very flakey.

In the end, I got a Virgin connection in and, on the day Virgin went live, called Pipex to cancel. Amazingly, as I didn't need a MAC moving from DSL to Cable, I was on the phone maybe 45secs at the most. They even refunded me for the part month I hadn't full used!

I'm now on Virgin 20meg - 5 times the speed for a tenner less each month.

[Anonymous Coward]

@steve evans

I think the key point is they think they've got 1.8mil customers left... Big question of course is how many SHOULD they have left? i.e. how many have tried to leave but have been over-charged by fundamentally flawed billing/support system?!

Asides which, given the make-up of the base, when the punters leave (because it's not an "if" anymore but a "when"), they'll go to the cheapest alternative, Talk-sh*te in this instance...

As for you Bulldog boys and girls, you're still on the same C&W network you were 'lucky' enough to get connected to in the first place. The cosmetic change to the name on your bill was as far as it got to moving you away from that service...

[Andy]

@Ben Rose

I know I'm with Pipex homecall or what ever they call themselves these days. However, I've always had a very good connection from when I started with Bulldog before they went LLU.

Just kinda of worried that I might end up in the same boat as yourself. I don't have access to Virgin, only BT, As I'm on a NON BT line.

Just not looking forward to this...