back to article Tiscali titsup fears grow

Tiscali's struggle for survival has been dealt a blow by auditors, who refused to sign off its accounts, citing "fundamental uncertainties" about the firm's future. The Italian broadband group, which has about 1.8 million UK subscribers, said on Wednesday that it disagreed with Ernst And Young's conclusion. It said it had …

COMMENTS

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  1. alex_c
    Coat

    Excellent.

    This is hardly a surprise! Nothing brings me more pleasure than the news that this particular ship is firmly-holed beneath the waterline and not long for this world. Never have I had the displeasure of working with a more deluded, paranoid bunch of boys and girls... Of course, by the time they do eventually go under, there won't be any customers left aboard!!

    ...Mine's the one with the Pipex mug in the pocket.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    couldn't happen to a nicer company

    seriously, i hope every member of their 'support' staff dont have a problem finding another job that matches their talents

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Good.

    I welcome the downfall and crushing failure of Tiscali.

    They are an awful company to deal with who seem to have neglected to understand that they are required to provide an acceptable service to their customers.

    I'd rather run over my own head with a tank then have any dealings with those incompetent monkeys.

  4. SmokeyMcPotHead
    Happy

    Thank god...

    ...I bailed out of Bulldog when I did!

  5. Paul
    Thumb Up

    This is a title

    Why pay good money to buy Tiscali when you can, sit back, watch it destroy itself, then pick over the bones when it's dead.

  6. Juan Inamillion

    Made my day

    Nuff said.

  7. Gav Powell

    Think of the (adopted) Children!

    I feel very sorry for some of the people who have been with the various companies Tiscali has acquired over the years since day one - LineOne, Bun, Gateway etc. A lot of these people face a nightmare of finding a new ISP and changing their email address rather suddenly.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Heart

    What's with all the hate?

    I'll actually be sorry to see Tiscali go. Their T.V service has fantastic on-demand channels for programs and whole series. None of the other providers even come close to the choice.

    Or if they do, please let me know so I know who to run to when I abandon Tiscali like the rat I am.

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    Glad I....

    bailed out when i did (8 years as a Pipex customer). The "customer care" dept when i asked for my MAC code refused to believe that as a UK subsidiary co. that they would be afected by their parent co's troubles. How naive. BTW I managed to half my monthly subscription by swotching and removed any download cap. Tiscali can shove their service. If you have any doubts, switch NOW.

  10. David Pollard

    Only one year's accounts? What's the problem?

    The auditors haven't signed off the EU accounts in any of the past 14 years and this doesn't give rise to too much concern.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Tiscali titsup fears grow

    Fears?? Not here... joy, hopeful anticipation, excitment ... various adjectives come to mind, none are anywhere similar to "Fear" though.

    Companies need to provide a service, that is the basis of the market.. Tiscali didn't so Tiscali are doomed and no amount of arm waving italiens will stop that. (sorry to suggest that all italiens are arms waving... but as a nationality you guys do wear your emotions on your sleeves)

  12. Jules

    Competition

    Tiscali may be a shambles but at least they offered an alternative to Sky or BT for pay-TV.

    If the tiscali service goes under (or gets bought by Murdoch) many areas of the UK will be left with a pay-TV duopoly who I fear will be only too happy to push prices through the roof.

  13. James

    Worst company ever.

    Easily the worst broadband provider I've ever used, a nightmare, to cancel, then they kept charging me, and then wouldn't acknowledge the full amount they'd overcharged me by. Ended up getting posted a cheque for less than a fiver.

    My thoughts will go out to anyone losing their jobs, but what a useless company.

  14. Psymon

    at least now I'm going to switch

    I was originally a bulldog customer.

    I stayed when I heard Pipex bought them, but then Tiscali showed up. Never have I known such a flaky service (with the exception of EMBC who provide the east midlands schools).

    Their DNS servers would regularly loose huge swathes of the internet, returning 404s where clearly there should be a site.

    At least this is going to kick my apathy into touch!

  15. phil
    Thumb Up

    QOS

    I used to be a happy Pipex customer, then all of a sudden I was an unhappy Tiscali customer, I am now an ex-Tiscali customer.

  16. M

    Ha!

    Had switched to TitanDSL from Tiscali only last month.

    The so said "Customer Care" who deal with me with my request for MAC code, state that all is fine with TISCALI despise the news of it's financial woe....

    "Not to worry Customer I do think you ought to stay with us Sire!"

    "MAC CODE please!"

    "Customer! Just stay with us, as you wouldn't like all the hassle of transferring to different ISP Service!"

    "Can I please have the MAC Code please!"

    Okay!

    "Can you please email it as well as the letter please?"

    "Hmm okay!"

    **** E-mail arrived with MAC code ***** 50 Sec later....book it with TitanDSL. Not looking back! :)

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    We're with freedom 2surf

    who got taken over by tiscali a while ago. Generally the service 'just works'.

    I wouldn't be so quick to cheer the downfall of Tiscali - it's a sign of the crazy economics of the broadband market business model.

    It looks like you can't run a broadband service unless you are also offering some other service which you can make money on to offset the losses runing broadband is going to bring.

    Every company that goes down means less choice. We'll be left with company a who have phorm or company b who have phorm.

  18. Dick Emery
    Happy

    Yup!

    Left Bulldog last year as soon as I heard they were being taken over by Tiscali. Now with Be and a happy bunny for it.

  19. CockKnocker
    Thumb Up

    HA!

    Good I hate Tiscali almost as much as I hate talktalk. May they burn in ISP hell!

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Pirate

    AC@12:38

    gigbeeragf.pbz

  21. teacake

    Schadenfreude? Me?

    If they do go to the wall, I'll feel sorry for the decent employees of which there surely must be a few, but overall it couldn't happen to a more deserving bunch of festering turds.

  22. Anonymous Coward
    Paris Hilton

    Glad to have left bulldog?

    Why? Didn't Pipex buy them?

    Paris - Because she knows where the pipe(x) has been....

  23. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I like small ISPs

    Tech orientated, good initial chat, and then only support if their network goes down.

    That is my criteria, the only problem was Tiscali kept on hoovering up all the small ISPs, finally it looks like the wolf has run out of huff.

  24. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Down

    You get what you deserve

    the UK ISP industry is in a shocking state as many brands have been acquired by the likes of Tiscali and others and who now rule the roost. Consumers want all for very little and these drop in centres for ISP services provide it. No value just cheap, and you now wonder why they are in dire straights.

    You have only yourselves to blame UK consumers.

  25. Anonymous Coward
    Happy

    Pipex

    Good.

    I know it wasn't Tiscali who made Pipex fall apart, but they own it now and I still remember my experiences of them all too well. A fantastic ISP that fell apart in a year. The only thing that really saved me problems was that then inexplicably lost my credit card number and were unable to continue charging me after I left - And I know that by the emails and letters they sent, whilst ignoring my replies.

    So here's to all the Pipex salesmonkeys soon to make their way to the dole queue in the middle of a recession. If I had a blower and some party poppers I'd set them off now. In fact, the sound of a party blower is what I'm going to hear in my head when I finally read they've gone belly up.

  26. Anonymous Coward
    Thumb Up

    Word can't describe the pleasure this news brings!

    Signed up to these b**tards to be told I'll have broadband in two weeks, a month and half later with no service in sight cancelled my order and subscribed to another ISP, three months later they send me a bill for a service they never provided, I never paid offcourse.

  27. Ade_C
    Paris Hilton

    Woot!

    I'm very much enjoying watching these bunch of cowboys self-destruct. They took over numerous well run and profitable ISPs, outsourced practically everything and pummelled them to fit into the Tiscali collective. They are responsible for putting hundreds of UK based staff out of work while simultaneously providing a rubbish service to their customers all while running their businness into the ground.

    Paris - because Tiscali make her look clever

  28. Anonymous Coward
    Unhappy

    Nildram

    I've been with Nildram for quite a few years now and have been on the edge of jumping ship since Tiscali acquired them, through Pipex. I have to say that I haven't jumped ship because my connection has remained stable, I get 6Mb on downloads, I can get full bandwidth on torrents at any time of the day and I can't be arsed with the hassle of changing an email address I've had for 7 years or so.

    I really wish someone decent would buy some of the subsidiaries or Nildram could find it's way to being independent again (whcih of course it won't) before Tiscali really does go tits up.

  29. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Recommendations please

    Come on you former 'doggers, if Bulldog was once good enough, who have you turned to now? Advice appreciated.

  30. anarchic-teapot

    Re: I like small ISPs

    "the only problem was Tiscali kept on hoovering up all the small ISPs"

    Well, that *is* a very effective way of going bust: buying up other companies without paying attention to how much cash you really have, how well they'll fit into the existing structure, or how much it will cost everyone to adapt.

    (For incurable geeks, compare to buying computers without paying attention to hardware compatibility, OS or available software, then finding out you can't afford to pay the sysadmin to make it work).

    As I understand it, the auditors reckon Tiscali is no longer worth the money, time and effort put into it, it's only worth what someone else is prepared to pay for it. I could probably stretch to a packet of fun-sized Mars bars, if anyone's starting a kitty.

  31. Julian
    Happy

    Karma

    Tiscali systematically bought up smaller ISP's and set about ruining them.

    What goes around comes around Karma :)

  32. Anonymous Coward
    Gates Horns

    MS Office Logo?????

    I like the way this story is shown on the front page with an MS Office logo. Is El Reg trying to tell us something?

    Please tell me Microsoft are about to go titsup as well as Tiscali?

  33. Steve B

    I must have been the lucky one

    Not much choice down here in south Dorset, most of the ISP rely on their own networks and charge an extra premium when they have to use BTs.

    I chose Tiscali as they were the cheapest unlimited and quite honestly I have had a good service with the only hiccup being the last East London BT problem.

    Don't know who I can move to if they go.

  34. Anonymous Coward
    Heart

    I have no complaints

    They sorted my phone problem out quickly and I have never had any problems with the broadband.

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