By Jo Best, 17 September 2004 16:40
NEWS A group of Bulldog's broadband customers are so annoyed at the ISP's customer service record that they've launched a campaign to get Bulldog stripped of its title of 'Consumer broadband provider of the year'.
The petition has so far attracted more than 100 signatures from irate Bulldog customers who are petitioning the Internet Service Providers Association (ISPA) to strip the ISP of the title it was awarded last year.
The substance of the customers' ire hinges on three issues. According to the petition, "a) Bulldog DSL is not responding to emails sent to customer service and technical support, b) not updating its internet status page in a timely manner, c) making it difficult to report faults due to high call waiting queues."
One of the users who signed the petition under the name Mike wrote: "Appalling customer service, too many breaks in service, impossible to contact or get a response from. On what criteria did they get their award?"
Another customer complained of waiting for nearly three hours to speak to customer services while several others said they had been receiving broadband speeds vastly slower than those they had signed up for. 'Duncan Goodall' wrote: "Connection speeds are faster on a dial-up."
The ISP said that it was aware of the problems with its service but the disruption was down to network improvements.
"Bulldog confirms that essential scheduled work on the Bulldog network is continuing. Bulldog is aware that this work may cause some service issues for a small number of users, and would like to apologise for any ongoing problems with the Bulldog service," the ISP said in a statement.
An ISPA spokesman said it was unlikely that Bulldog would be stripped of its title, given the ISP was awarded it for its previous performance in 2003 and early 2004.
That doesn't mean it's not taking the complaints seriously. "We've been in touch with Bulldog about their service levels," the spokesman told silicon.com and confirmed the Association would be having a meeting to discuss the issues.
Comments
There are 21 comments. Join the discussion
1. Jon Pennycook
Sounds rather like NTL. They never respond to support emails, and their support desk closes not long after I get home from work. Fortunately their network has improved recently, just in time for the increased bandwidth.
I liked C&W and Telewest - they had 24x7 telephone support, and responded to email support queries.
2. Andrew Humphries
where can i get my hands on this petition? I'd like to sign it too and put my annoyed comments on there.
3. Jim Walters
Sounds like most ISP's out there, switch to Zen Internet (www.zen.co.uk) I'v had nothing but excelent servise from them.
4. Ben Bissett
Please tell me how to sign up for this petition, I have had enough of Bulldogs disgusting level of customer service and reliability... How someone gave them an award I will never know!!
5. Keren Ki
Signatures are now at 250! Read it yourself here! http://www.petitiononline.com/bulldogd/petition.html
6. Neil Oakman
We've been running over the Bulldog network for a little over a year now, and the last three weeks have been appalling.
Speeds are in the realm of dialup, and the latency is terrible. Hitting 8000ms+ whenever data is pushed out over the line. As we use video conferencing heavily the latency is a killer.
Thankfully we're migrating away from them tomorrow.
Petition is here:
http://www.PetitionOnline.com/bulldogd/petition.html
7. Steve Wright
Truly abismal service!
I have been with Bull Dog for only 5 weeks and this has been possibly the worst mistake, by my own selection, that I have ever made in terms of selecting one particular company for my service needs.
Needless to say I am now looking to take legal action to terminate my contract with this company.
No one would be expected to stand for this kind of service face to face in a store, why on earth should we be subjected to it because it is Internet based?!
"ISPA 2004 Award" - Oh the irony!
8. David Parsons
And people take the 'Mickey Mouse' out of AOL.
I have never had to wait two hours for a customer service rep to speak to or type to me regarding problems.
I grant you they don't always get what I'm trying to tell them but generally they do get problems solved.
I, on the other hand , however am not going to tell them they are good their customer survey...... just to keep them on their toes ;)
Scoff away 'Proper' service users.
9. William McAinsh
The problem is who to migrate to??? I've dealt with several adsl/sdsl providers in the past year and they have all been as bad as each other.
I've been using bulldog in some locations for over a year and the problems described only seem to have started since they were taken over.
10. Dennis Farm
Where can I find this group? I'd like to sign up as well, as Bulldog never seems to answer phone calls, emails or even letters.
11. m collum
bulldog is by far the worst isp provider i have used my 56k modem was faster and i am paying for a 2mb connection it is a joke i am trying to get in touch with them this last two weeks
12. anonymous
Try Topletter.com. They have people answering the phone, no queuing systems. Their broadband is also damn fast!
13. James Dower
I have just left bulldog after a week of trying to get through to them on the phone. 30mins on hold. Speaking to five different people. All just becaues im moving house. I was forced to pay £50 to cancel my account. And £50 to re-connect, but I had to choose a more expensive package. So I told them to get lost. It still cost me £50.
14. Mike Daniels
Of all those 494 signatures for the petition, i bet you not one of you took the time to read the press statement that Bulldog released regarding the problems and difficulties they were having, I was affected by it but you don't see me deserting them. For everyone's record, the problem has been fixed and i'm enjoying my 4mb line. What will you do if it happens to another ISP, jump ship again. Customers with no loyalty.
15. Justin Millner
Is there a common theme here with every organisation C&W have purchased? NTL, Anite Systems, Bulldog, several hosting companies abd more. C&W have no intergration and transition managment skills, the senior mgmt team purchase for their ego against business plans that their due diligence teams have told them are flawed and what to you get? Shareholder value flooding down the drain. Seems like this C&W management team is little better than the last lot or the lot before them etc. etc.
16. anonymous
thats nothing - I have been waiting for over a year for eclipse to sort out a billing problem! support is appauling and they grab money at any oppurunity, making themn very poor value. They used to be the best isp, but they must surely rank as one of the worse!
17. Simon Greer
I have just got out of my Bulldog contract - best thing I ever did. Their customer service is the worst you could ever imagine!!
18. Andrew Cross
Because of Bulldog I have no landline or internet access since 29th June!!
I have written, faxed, emailed (from work) and phoned, but have received NO reply at all from them.
OFCOM say they can't act on individual cases.
If I give up on them, BT advise reconnection on 12th August!
HELP!!! What can I do to get a reply from Bulldog??? Camp on their doorstep?
19. Tony Pritchett
I have been without any connection - no phone, no broadband for 2 weeks now as a result of signing up with bulldog, and no indication when it will be restored because customer services don't respond. I would like to join with others to take legal action. No point in doing it individually, as costs would be larger than any compensation. Anybody interested?
tony@agmp.net.
20. h.bhogal
I applied for bulldog broadband in April 05. I was without any connection for one month. I gave ultimatum to cancel their contract and went to previous supplier. Since then I have send them e-mails asking for refund of £60.00 and £30 for buying 2 micro filters. So far I have not received any reply.
I will NOT recomend this company to anyone.
21. Takeme foraride
I agree where can we get hold of that petition, I would love to ask them if they still intend to be paid for causing this stress
bad language does not come into it, when I try to log in and see my bill the site says am wrong (please enter your details again and again and so on) and my so called 8mb is only at best 3.5mb.. let me at the petition