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Bulldog baffles brains
A friend of mine who has been a home computer user for over four years and although not a "techie", has installed both software and external hardware components without any problems. She recently decided to take the plunge and join "Broadband connected Britain" and duly signed up with Bulldog.
Having received a letter from them confirming her order and listing her account details, activation date, user password and user name, she purchased an external USB ADSL modem and eagerly waited the post activation date to install the modem and connect to broadband.
Having installed the modem and checked that it was working OK, she found that her broadband connection would not work and was showing an error message "691 user password and or name not recognised".
Despite checking everything and many attempts over the next few days, she still was receiving the same error message. On phoning Bulldog's help desk she was told that the user name and password in the letter confirming her order was not the one to be used to connect to their Broadband service, they verbally gave her the user name and password to be used and every thing worked OK.
Following advice regarding the risks associated with a broadband connection, she purchased and installed antivirus and firewall software, when she tried to connect to broadband she received the error message " 691 user password and or name not recognised" once again she tried every thing she could think of to no avail.
She phoned Bulldog customer service for help and explained the problem, and was advised that
she would need to speak to the Technical Help desk, when she asked to be transferred, she was told that this was not possible and that she would need to phone them direct, when she asked for the number she was told it's the same number as you dialled for here!
At this point I got the call that all of us who have used computers for years dread "can you help me?", I checked everything that she had done and could find no errors, I then called the Bulldog Technical Help Desk and explained the problem i.e. error message 691 user name and or password not recognised etc. It was obvious that the operator was working from an on screen script and was unsure of what she was telling me, and was going over the same things that I had checked.
Working on the old adage with computers that if it fails to work undo that last thing that was done, I duly uninstalled the Firewall and Antivirus package but still the same 691 error message appeared. At this point I did not believe that the fault was with the computer but at the Bulldog end. Once again we phoned Bulldog to be greeted with a recorded message "if you have error message 691 we are currently trying to rectify the fault ", I asked to speak to a supervisor to complain about the two hours wasted in trying to get the problem sorted out, only to be told a supervisor would phone back in a few hours ( yes, you are right - no phone call materialised ).
The next day with broadband working OK she tried to set up the email addresses, only to find that there was no way to access this part of the site. She duly phoned Bulldog and explained the problem, only to be told that she would need to speak to Customer Services, she then asked to be transferred (I think you know the answer ).
When she called Customer Services she was told that the information required was in the welcome pack. "What welcome pack?" she asked, only to be told that she should have got a Welcome Pack and if she didn't she should have phoned and asked for it. She then asked how she would know if something was missing if no one told her to expect it!
The agent then said that they would arrange the welcome pack with the licence number to set up the email accounts to be posted out. She explained that she would like to set up the email accounts now and could they give her the licence number over the phone, only to be told that this was not possible but ( you have guessed it he would email the details ), when she reminded him the reason for the phone call was that the email was not working, he fell silent.
At this point she gently hung up the phone, the cat and children present in the room recognising the signs quickly left the room before the word " Bulldog " was uttered in a sentence containing words that could not be printed in your excellent magazine.
J Cosgrove
December 9, 2005 in Customer Service | Permalink
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Comments
Was about to join Bulldog ... think I'll give it a miss ... many thanks
Posted by: Snail Male | 9 Dec 2005 18:06:01
Thats why Bulldog is so cheap!
Posted by: Aln Hambley | 9 Dec 2005 18:15:09
bulldog is really really crap, i have it, i know
Posted by: | 1 Feb 2006 03:24:42
I have read some really awful things about Bulldog. I would highly recommend you stay away from this company.
Have a look at http://www.ispreview.co.uk/
Posted by: Jj | 2 Feb 2006 15:33:29
Forget Bulldog by all means but for goodness sake do not go anywhere near Wanadoo either - they are shit. I use v21net (broadband) and Connectfree (dial up) the latter as a back up. Both are small and have been troublefree. I am 71 years young with no axe to grind but I think I have found the best options available. Connectfree has enabled me to send emails to a friend whose dimwit family fiddled with the settings in OE and blocked me and others. Connectfree enabled me to work around her problem that she didn't belive she had. Everybody should have a backup ISP!!!!!
Posted by: Hugh Allen | 6 Feb 2006 00:12:44
I've been with Bulldog for about four months now and, on the whole I'm happy with the choice. That's not to say I think they provide a particularly good service. It's just less bad than others I've experienced.
Don't expect a first time intelligent or helpful response to a technical support query. Being realistic, at the money you're paying it's not economically possible. You might be lucky but the chances are you'll be speaking to someone who's only been in the job a few weeks and has difficulty operating a microwave let alone reading a script. In my experience the second level support is pretty good.
And, actually, I've found the internet conection pretty reliable at a consistent 6Mb.
The one experince that did amaze me was that, at first, I was only getting about 3Mb. I didn't get any real help from Bulldog. It was only accidentally that I discovered that the Speedtouch 330 USB modem suppllied wasn't even capable of more than that with out a firmware upgrade! Bulldog's technical support were grateful when I told them!
The really grotty thing about Bulldog is the phone service. The completely inadequate facilities like voicemailcall barring and call divert are out of the stone age.
When I couldn't "un-bar" my phone and had the usual response that someone will respond "within 24 hours", I was fortunate enough to discover a forum with the personal email addresses of all the Bulldog directors. My service was restored within a couple of hours.
Posted by: Peter Reynolds | 12 Feb 2006 17:36:34
Well i've just tried to connect for the first time and its not working. And yes the tech help is very poor but it was the same with NTL.
Interesting point about the firmware peter, the guy who put our line in told us we would be lucky to get any more than 2mb he said thats all most people had been getting.
Posted by: Neil Rosson | 1 Mar 2006 23:34:11
I've recently joined bulldog tempted with the fast connect YEAH RIGHT!!! lol....after installing and setting it up, after realising that you have to download the updates to get it to work properly i managed to get connected... I to was having prob with getting access to the bulldog lounge, contacted the customer services and low and behold i evebtually got connected lol...But the issue i have know is that the modem/connection slows right down and dies a death lol... i have to reboot the computer for it to reconise the modem again what a game...the other issue is that the connection speed connections a 3.8-4.2 and the excuse they come up with is "We only state that you can get "upto" 8mbp we dont say ypu actually get that" that cheesed me off...Well fairs fair, iam am getting a fast connection still for the 20 pounds i am spending but be nice to have a service without a continous fault...
Posted by: Andrew | 4 Mar 2006 20:07:16
BullDog should be called BullShit for its shitty customer service.
I phoned them because I could not connect to any Microsoft webpages such as Hotmail and Msn. The female employee who was on the phone persisted that it was a Microsoft problem. I know It was not a Microsoft problem because I did a tracert on Hotmail and it timed out on the 9th hop an d we could see that the problem was on BullDog's side. That woman still persisted that it was a Microsoft problem. Other sites such as soccernet.com and other couple of websites still don't work.
Posted by: Jonathan | 10 Apr 2006 16:38:31
Bulldog pros and cons
- customer service is shit
- migration product (1MEG Anytime) is a business product without any download limits
- after migration to a higher product (8MEG GOACTIVE in my case) is a residential product with a download limit of 1GIG (this gets swallowed up very quickly just by leaving your PC "on" for a day or two).
I've tried complaining and reasoning with Bulldog to get me onto the product I ordered / but to no avail.
I guess even if I stay on the 1MEG product I only have to do so for the 6mths of minimum contract. Then I can switch but by the sounds of things everyone else is just as shit as Bulldog unless you want to pay BT or AOL rates.
Anyways the up shot of it is
- just dont bother with them unless you fully expect not to get the product you asked for if your BT exchange needs to be upgraded (local loop unbundled).
- as well as installing their own 8MEG kit in the exxchange BG need to assign you a port I'm told which can also take forever.
- for £9.75 a 1MEG line without download limits is fine PLUS i get to keep my BT line / after 6mths if they insist upon me moving to Bulldogs landline - I will leave BD as i'm told there ar ehuge problems switching back to BT.
Posted by: Jay | 1 Jun 2006 18:40:43
Bulldog pros and cons
- customer service is shit
- migration product (1MEG Anytime) is a business product without any download limits
- after migration to a higher product (8MEG GOACTIVE in my case) is a residential product with a download limit of 1GIG (this gets swallowed up very quickly just by leaving your PC "on" for a day or two).
I've tried complaining and reasoning with Bulldog to get me onto the product I ordered / but to no avail.
I guess even if I stay on the 1MEG product I only have to do so for the 6mths of minimum contract. Then I can switch but by the sounds of things everyone else is just as shit as Bulldog unless you want to pay BT or AOL rates.
Anyways the up shot of it is
- just dont bother with them unless you fully expect not to get the product you asked for if your BT exchange needs to be upgraded (local loop unbundled).
- as well as installing their own 8MEG kit in the exxchange BG need to assign you a port I'm told which can also take forever.
- for £9.75 a 1MEG line without download limits is fine PLUS i get to keep my BT line / after 6mths if they insist upon me moving to Bulldogs landline - I will leave BD as i'm told there ar ehuge problems switching back to BT.
Posted by: Jay | 1 Jun 2006 18:40:44
I am with Bulldog Broadband and have been for several years now before they were bought out by Cable & Wireless.
Latest news is that Bulldog are no longer accepting new customers, as many customers had suggested they should do years ago (ones having problems with customer support mostly) I have to say i have never had many problems with Bulldog at all other than a hissing phone line with some interferance and sometimes the phone line is barely impossible to let others hear you it is so qiet for them to hear you speak on. Anyway as you can imagine both BT and Bulldg deny the problem lies with them - they would wouldn't they and if the problem is within your household i.e not out in the street and you call BT out they charge you hundreds of pounds for a call out charge and then a rip off amount per hour.
So Bulldog now apparently tell us they are no longer acceptingnew customers until they have expanded their network and gone more advanced with 16Mbit net cons but has any one tested them and tried to signup as a new customer yet? Are they telling us the truth and are they improving their customer support. The letter which stated all this also said technical engineer teams were fully operational as always.
Well why then do I have problems only just recently has this happened but has since improved by itself....well you knwo when your Router/Modem flashes and goes amber in colour from being green flashing this means it is out of sync or is not connected to the ISP and thsi happened to me for one week and downtime was an estimated 80% to 90% which is the worst ever so I am happy it was short lived.
Everything seems fine now but some slow speeds on my 1mbit net con. I hope to be changing ISP for better speeds and better prices. Bulldog and BT are rip off merchants as are all other leading ISP companies in the UK - take a look at third world countries and see their ISP companies offer great services and much better infrastructure at a fantastic price. You can get a 22Mbit net con that equates to £12 a month. Best you get that for in the UK is around £22 - £24 pm for a 22Mbit net con.
And if you need SDSL which means same upload speed as download speed - well that costs anything from £60 pm to £3600 pm depending on who you go with.
May be it is time to leave the UK since third world countries can even afford to have better more advanced technology than we have - it must be bad.
By the way I am not leaving Bulldog in the near future because of their poor service but because I just want better speeds and prices. no other reason. Bulldog has alway sbeen good to me I can't lie, and I do agree with people who are having problems and I also disliek any corporation that uses scripts - we may as well be talking to monkeys - it really it this bad because they are not trained staff at all. Woudl sav emoney having a recorded message service as a trouble shooter than have untrained monkeys for customer service.
Posted by: Aaron | 14 Jun 2006 19:52:50
Why are BT rip off merchants? Need I list all the reasons it could be endless.
Well all major UK ISP companies are especially ones that offer ones that are capped, so having to pay an extra £1 per GB used this is insane.
This cripples the very foundations setup that founded broadband. Unlimited fast Internet. that is what it was all originally about. If you don't us eit often enough then stay with dialup and get ONSPEED or similar service that compresses data to make it as fast as 512Mbit net con.
So if you go with an ISP package that is capped it does not matter if they have 1 Trillion Terrabytes per second speed - it all still depends on other servers online and what kind of servers websites are installed on! This is the problem with download speeds - data is still being uploaded to you never forget this and this is why all net cons need to be SDSL so all speeds are consistent and the same speeds upstream and downstream and reliable both ways.
For now SDSL is too expensive in the UK but it will change and is already prices have already been cut in half the last two years. Just wait until Internet 2 and Internet 3 is introduced in the future all speeds will be almost instant then. Internet 2 has existed since the WWW was invented and has been in use by governments and corporations for as long as the WWW has been in use.
Lets just hope the Internet is still free by then and has no censorship of information because information control is mind control - the very reason why mainstream propaganda corporate-government controlled media is dying and people are looking at alternatives - for facts and truth. If the corporate United Nations' get their way and take control of the Internet then all ISP companies will charge you for every single email you send! An end to all newsletters and turth movement mail lists. All websites and services will be licensed under new UN laws (and taxed by the UN) and be regulated and pre approved so free media will cease to exist (this is starting to sound like world government is taking over no?) and all will be lies and propaganda once again if the corporate elite cartels get control of the WWW as they want to do.
Posted by: Aaron | 14 Jun 2006 20:08:15
Hi,
Could you please direct me to the forum that gives all the directors email addresses for Bulldog???
Thanks in advance.
Posted by: Will Pudney | 28 Jun 2006 11:32:59
What a terrible experience. Had many simliar problems with Bulldog and their service/techincal issues. Far too depressing to go in to details!
Posted by: jon | 4 Jul 2006 16:14:11
