Tiscali: The Saga Continues

It all seemed to be going so well... I had ended up being transferred to the High Level Customer Complains team (which I cannot help but see as being suspended, perhpas in a hot air bolloon high above Tiscali's main office). This seemed to be a step in the right direction, as that is where they keep the real people.

We spoke, they told me (albeit with an actual apology this time) that no, they cannot re-conenct me to the internets (unless I want to sign up to a new contract, and even the Man from Tiscali didn't seriously expect that I would be willing to do that. )

So after a bit of to-ing and fro-ing, (in which it is possible thatI may have, um, accidentally let slip the fact that I am a lawyer and therefore do know what breach of contract means, and also that thismeans that I did read all of the small print and know that yes, they did breach the contract) they agreed to send be a smallish cheque by way of apology.

Having had some experience of them, I also asked them to let me have written confirmation that the account was clear and had been closed (as I have read of several people having their service ended but the account left open, and payments continuing to be taken.

That was last Wednesday.

I was very patient. I waited until yesterday (i.e. a full week after that agreement was reached) before chasing them up to enquire why I hadn't had the cheque, or the confirmation, and why they had tried to take another direct debit payment from my account. They didn't succeed in taking the Direct Debit because not having had a reply from them, and working on the basis that they couldn't organise a pissup in a brewery are not terribly competent, I made sure to cancel it before the 1st.

I have sent the guy in the complaints department a chasing e-mail and, having heard nothing, aslo managed to track down a phone number. I'm told he is off sick today and yestaerday (which doesn't really explain what he was doing for the other 4 working days since we spoke...)

So, we shall see.

On the plus side, my net connection should be in on Monday, so I am just keeping all available fingers and toes crossed that Virgin are a little more competent than their predecessors. Wish me Luck!

In Which Tiscali continue to FAIL

The Tiscali saga continues. So far I have had 9 different e-mails from "customer support", from 7 different people, none of whom seem to have read any of t he previous mails (in some cases, they appeared not to have read the e-mail to which they were responding, either)

One of them referred me to a term in the T&C which says that you can only cancel by telephone. Reading the whole sentence which she quoted shows that this erfers to cancelling within the 30 day cooling off period after first signing up. Now, if I only had a TARDIS, of course, I would indeed go back to May 2005 and do exactly that, and no doubt save myself a lot of hassle, but it does make me wonder. If you are going to quote something, doesn't it seem fairly basic to at least read it first?

However, It appears that I have now reached the heady heights of the 'High Level Complaints' team. Am curious as to whether it is the complaint or theteam which is High Level but I am hoping that this may, if nothing else, allow me to escape the endless loop of clueless automatons in the "customer support" team.

In happier news, the milkman did agree that it would be unreasonable to charge me weither for the 2 pints of milk delivered on Saturday after they were cancelled, or for the 1 pint of milk NOT delivered on Tuesday... so I feel that one victory, at least, is mine. Dairy Crest have a better and more navigable website than Tiscali do, too. And an 0800 contact number. I wonder if they offer internet access?

In Which There is a Disappointment

So, blogging has had to slow down a little as I currently have no internet access at home (May fleas infest the beds of the people at Tiscali) But, on the pus side, I had a trip planned to London, to go to the theatre and see a couple of exhibitions.


I had a trip to London, to visit relatives and go to the theatre. We had tickets to see ‘Madame de Sade’, starring Judi Dench and Rosamund Pike, and I was interested in seeing it for that reason, and also because a play which has 6 characters, all female, and several of them past the first flush of youth seemed to be to be worth seeing!

I was able to combine the trip with a work-related course, which meant that I could be at leisure in London by 4.45 on Friday evening instead of arriving at 10 p.m. – it was a lovely bright, sunny day (not, admittedly, when I was sitting on the railway station at 6 a.m., but later in the day, by the time I’d arrived in London!)

I met up with my 2nd Cousin John at the Royal Academy, where we were visiting the ‘Byzantium’ exhibition – very interesting it covered the period 330-1453 although the majority of the exhibits seemed to be from the later end of that span – mostly icons and other (Christian) art, but also various manuscripts, silverware, ceramics and jewellery. I found it interesting to see where the various pieces had been borrowed from – lots from Venice (no doubt things which were pinched when the Venetians sacked Constantinople in the 13th Century) but also some from Moscow and a lot from Athens. There were some particularly impressive 6th Century paintings which were originally painted for a monastery at Mt. Sinai – 4 or 5 of them are still at the monastery and had been lent by them, the other 3 were on loan from Moscow, having been taken there in somewhat questionable circumstances some time in the 1850’s…

The exhibition has closed now, but there is further information here

It was interesting to see similar patterns used in the back ground to religious paintings as I had seen in tile work while I was in Istanbul.

On the Saturday we were mainly visiting relatives, then went to the theatre in the evening. We were disappointed to learn, on arriving, that Dame Judi Dench had, unfortunately, sprained her ankle badly on Thursday night so she would not be appearing, instead we would see her understudy. This was a big disappointment as I am a huge fan of Judi Dench’s and have not seen her live for many years.

I have to admit that I was also disappointed by the play itself. It was written by the Japanese writer Yukio Mishima and translated into English – it’s hard to tell whether the fault was with the original or the translation but it did seem very slow moving and there were a number of speeches which were crying out for an editor. The play revolves around several of the women in de Sade’s life; his wife, her sister, his mother in law, and two society ladies, one of whom is a paragon of virtue, the other of whom is decidedly not, and finally, the maidservant. There are no male characters, the Marquis de Sade is the subject of most of the dialogue but is never seen or heard directly.
None of the characters came across as real people, they all seemed to be there to take philosophical stands and then justify them, so that the Wife has speeches about wifely duty and devotion, the courtesan about the ecstasy of sensuality and so forth. Quite interesting viewpoints, in some cases, but it came across almost more like a staged debate than a play.

The set was simple and static – no scene changes, very little in the way of propos, the costumes, on the other hand, were sumptuous – the play is set in 1772-1790 and 5 of the 6 characters are aristocrats, and the costumes reflect this – full period dresses and wigs, which at least gave me something to look at when the speeches dragged!

All in all, I would categorise it as interesting rather than enjoyable – not one that I would feel any wish to see again (even if it had Judi Dench in it the second time around!)

Sticking with the Japanese theme, on the Sunday I went to the Kuniyoshi exhibition , which opened on Saturday at the RA. I had not previously heard of Kuniyoshi but the exhibition was fascinating – the works mainly date from around 1830-1860 but have a very modern feel – you can see the connection to modern Manga. Well worth a visit!

Having a little time left before the train home I finished up with a quick visit to the National Gallery, always worth a look. My attention was caught by a portrait of Jeanne-Antoinette Poisson, Madame de Pompadour which reminded me of Dr Who, and ‘The girl in the fireplace’!

So despite the disappointment over Dame Judi it was a well-spent weekend!