Bullshit II

Another day attempting to contact Bulldog support over the phone. The new 8Mbit broadband gave out before its first day!

I wrote a long email to the complaints department:

“Dear Sir/Madam,

On 26th My I ordered Bulldog broadband on a new phone line. As the price of an installation of a new line was previously too expensive, I took advantage of the offer at the time. I asked on how my Ethernet router would work with the new connections. I was told that there would not be a problem here and I could easily connect the router to the broadband connection.

On ordering the new line I made every effort to avoid mentioning the existing phone line which is on the Onetel network. I wanted to ensure that no one would try to convert this line as the phone call charges are much lower than Bulldog’s prices.

The “welcome email” promised within a few days never arrived. I called Sales and Customer Support on a number of occasions to follow up my order. The NTL broadband was due to be cancelled and I needed a replacement service as soon as possible. Over two weeks after the order, I finally arranged a day and time for the BT Engineer.

On Monday 20th June the Onetel phone number went dead and no one could call our number. I tried to call on that same evening without a reply. This caused a lot of inconvenience on the day.

When I tried to call out on the home phone number, I received a Bulldog phone message. This phone line should NOT have been altered in anyway. I did not request the line to be transferred to Bulldog and I did not make any agreements with Onetel or Bulldog for any changes here. I have written to Oftel for further information on this matter.

The BT engineer who was booked in to install the new phone line was due on Tuesday, yet he failed to appear. I wasted an entire day away from work to wait for his arrival.

On Wednesday, the BT engineer finally arrived. Thankfully, he was very cooperative and installed the new telephone line to the study as requested. Our home phone number was now completely disconnected and did not have any dial tone. Onetel were called to contact a BT engineer to sort out the mess.

Throughout Wednesday I continually dialled the Bulldog Customer Support phone number and failed to get through on a single occasion. I spent most of the day attempting to call Customer Support, yet to no avail.

On Thursday, after many attempts and 40 minutes listening to the same track of music, I finally managed to contact Bulldog Customer Support. They were able to give me the login and password details (which I had not received by post or email) so that I could connect to the internet for the first time.

I had since discovered that the Netgear router was not configured to handle broadband connections and I required a modem to connect the home network to the internet. An ADSL modem with Ethernet out will cost me an extra £50 that I had not accounted for. The sales person specifically stated that my Netgear router would support the broadband connection without any further equipment. It was fortunate that I had accepted the free USB modem for single user internet access.

Today, a BT engineer connected my home phone number, four days after it was disconnected. I have wasted a lot of time and money to get the home phone number restored to its original configuration with Onetel. There was absolutely no need to touch my existing phone number. As a direct result of your error I have not received phone calls from friends, family or business calls for almost all of this working week.

After one day’s internet access, the speedtouch modem has stopped working. I called Customer support again (after 10 attempts and a 30 minute hold). The person I spoke couldn’t offer any support and advised me to call the Speedtouch support line. However, she didn’t have this number available and told me to call 118118! This is simply unprofessional. Now I have been on hold to a premium rate number on my mobile phone (20p/min) trying get through to their support department. When I finally talk to someone, I discover that she gave me the wrong number! I had just spent 30 minutes of my time and £6 on an unnecessary call given to me by a rude member of staff!

After one hour, I finally got through to Bulldog for the Speedtouch modem number, just to find that it was unnecessary in the first place. The customer support person told me that there was a problem with the connection and it was unlikely that the modem was at fault. I was informed that there are many occurrences such as this: malicious errors by the engineers at the phone exchanges. He told me that it was unlikely for a member of the technical support team to resolve this problem before Monday as it was already Friday evening.

I have had only one day of broadband since the supposed start date of 21st June. Due to the unreliability of this broadband service that you provide I have re-entered into a 12 month contract with NTL (my previous ISP) so that I will always have a backup internet connection in the likely event that your broadband fails. I am on the NTL connection as I email this complaint to you.

The entire phone support system is infuriating, even when I do manage to get past the “extremely busy” disconnection message, on several occasions I am disconnected before being put on hold or as customer support retrieve the call.

This is clearly the fault of Bulldog Broadband and as a result I want financial compensation for my time and money spent recovering from your installation process and faulty gear. I would also accept an equivalent additional months broadband from you.

I am very unhappy with the appalling level of customer service I have received to date. I have stopped recommending your service to friends and family as I would not wish to put anyone through this ordeal.

Yours,

Noah Hearle”

If anyone else has a similar level of Bulldog incompetence, reply here!

Note: Since posting, I have secured 2 months free on top of the first free month as well as 2 weeks extra for the downtime. If you complain loudly to the right people, anything is possible…

Last updated on Monday, 23rd February 2015