@Jack,
> Works really well for thieves....
Nice attempt to deflect the argument by tossing in a point that's totally irrelevant, even it were...
Make that 13 people now - I got refused today at Manchester airport.
I thought I was up to date on this legislation - I knew of the EU ruling from...
Don't forget to check out apps like GoodReader or SlideShark either, they're indispensible for people on the go in presentation situations. Best...
Well it seems there is something a number of us agree on. Why is the Ubuntu Unity launcher so ugly?
I thought perhaps it was something to do with...
Duplicate comments are not made intentionally. Its very good to know that now you are keeping check on this problem because sometimes a commenter...
"the very significant number of users" and "many (most) of us" - you have no evidence for these statements. It is a fact that most users are saying...
Another grammar faux pas is the improper use of "you". When sitting down down in a restaurant, for example, I get cringe when the waitress...
And NOW, folks, for Canonical's next trick...
Kubuntu is late.
Here's a pencil. Draw your own conclusions.
cf.:...
@kevinmchapman. The discussion here reflects the very significant number of users who really do like the traditional menu system and who wish to...
Er, no... It is an efficient means of finding the application/file/setting you need in one place. The icons are a simply a fallback for when you...
Isn't the provision of a text based search an admission by the developers that the mass of icons approach does not work? I don't need to use a...
"Unity and GNOME 3 both abandon the old text-based cascading menus in favour of a graphical icon-driven system."
Point truly missed. Both use a...
whs001 - Thank you, I'm glad you liked the article.
I absolutely agree with you on your first point. I should perhaps have made it clearer that...
If we allow corporate interest to dictate the way our government circumvents due process against foreign entities then we should accept the same...
I totally dislike pirating of works, I fear that artists will be deterred from creating works if they think that they are going to get ripped off....
How dare film makers, artists or anybody that invests in creativity stop us pirating their works for free. I want to be able to walk into my local...
@GrueMaster. I prefer horses for courses rather than one size fits all. I, and I suspect most other computer users, do not really wish to have...
The product that scares me every time I have to use it is the Office 2007 version of Excel.
The first bug that I found was applying the median...
Nice review and very informative. One thing I'd like to add (in reply to whs001's 1st question), the main reason to have the same interface from...
I'be been using Mint 12 since the RC came out, and I am far more happy with the Cinnamon, the Mate, and, yes (with extensions), theGnome 3...
Talkback
My experience with Bulldog over the past couple of months has left me deeply frustrated. Customer services is extremely hard to contact,having to wait over one hour in some instances on the phone. Emails get no response. I met someone at a function today who happened to tell me that the performance was no good. After keeping me waiting for two months (since I placed the order and cancelled my old isp account) I've now been told that I can't have a 4mbps connection since my line will only support 2mpbs. . This is something they should have picked up on day one. They won't give me a 2mbps connection.
I'm totally appalled at the whole situation. I wouldn't recommend Bulldog to anyone.
Bulldog did not fix any problem.
Look on their website on the customers forum everybody complaining about lost of connection and low spped.
I am one of those customers I pay for a 4 meg connection ..
I get 2 meg connection disconnected all the time.
I have problem to open webpage, chatting open my email...
It is making me realy frustrated and nervous, look like I am using a dial-up connection
I just wrote a message talking how bad is bulldog connection ... I am using now and the page did not refresh s I am not schure if you recived...
I use bulldog I pay for 4 meg connectio and i get 2 meg , the line keep disconnectin all the time it is getting frustrated and nervous you can use chat line or play a online game, I have problem to open my email and so on.
this is cable and wireless company i think so what do you expect...
Bulldogs biggest issue for me is that they will apparently say anything to get people to sign up then make no effort once they are. I keep connecting at speeds of up to 7mb for their 4mb service, and as this is unsustainable the modem disconnects every 30 seconds. They told me that they would cap the speed, but this only lasted a few days and I'm back to square one now. I had been a customer in the past and was very impressed with their service. Now that they've grown their service has slipped to the point where its unusable, they're uncontactable and I'm unimpressed.
I have to say that initially I have been very impressed with Bulldog. My phone line and Broadband service were activated mid afternoon as promised. I was with BTyahoo on the 2mb service , but I only ever received 1 mb at best (verified using ZD bandwidth service). this was also subject to a number of line test etc from BT and that it was acceptable for me to have 1mb on a 2mb service ?????. Today using the same ZD tool I received speeds of anything between 4.2 mb and 5.4 during 10 tests in the afternoon on Bulldog. All pages come up near instantly fantastic !!!.
ONLY 16 CALLS? PERHAPS THIS IS BECAUSE MANY OTHERS LIKE ME COULD NOT GET THROUGH..
THE TELEPHONE NUMBER IS EITHER CONSTANTLY ENGAGED OR GIVES A MESSAGE TO SAY THAT THEY'RE TOO BUSY TO ANSWER!
THE COMPANY REPEATEDLY FAILS TO RETURN MY CALLS AND EMAILS AND HAS BEEN UNABLE SO FAR TO OFFER A RELIABLE PHONE SERVICE OR BROADBAND CONNECTION. IT CAN'T EVEN GET IT'S BILLING CORRECT AND HAS FAILED TO GIVE A PROPER ANSWER TO MY REQUESTS FOR AN EXPLANATION OF THIER BILLING.
BULLDOG APPEAR TO BE IN A WORSE STATE THAN THEY WERE IN SEPTEMBER 2004 WHEN THEY ANNOUNCED A TEMPORARY CESSATION OF NEW SIGN-UPS BECAUSE THEY COULD NOT COPE WITH THE CUSTOMERS THEY ALREADY HAD.
B.T. WERE MERELY BAD, IN MY EXPERIENCE BULLDOG ARE TOTALLY INCOMPETENT AND I RUE THE DAY I SWITCHED TO THEM.
Bulldog internet DO NOT GO ANYWHERE NEAR THEM..They are the most incompetent company I have ever dealt with. I placed an order for their supposed 4MB service back in march...They told me 20 days to connect, I decided to wait. After almost 20 days having heard nothing I contacted them and they told me BT said I had my customer number wrong, I didnt and in any case no one had checked...They said it would be at least 20 more days to connect. I said I would like to cancel, 2 weeks of calls to get a cancellation form and lots of hold music later NO APOLOGIES. I then spent a further 2 weeks chasing a confirmation that the order had been cancelled. June 01 they said it had. The next day I receive a modem, I send it back, then they e mail me and tell me I would be connected soon !!! Again more time wasted trying to speak to someone and even harder someone who even tried to help !! Again nothing ....
then they migrate my line over, FIVE HOURS ON THE PHONE including 3 to BT neither company prepared to accept any responsibility and my ISP with whom I had a service running perfectly well tells me that they have to cancel my service as I have no BT line currently I am waiting to find out what they are going to do about this whilst my business suffers further...WHAT A COMPANY.
I have recently upgraded bulldogs 2mbps broadband to 4mbps eversince i`m gettin cut off by their servers. I mean it was bad in the past but it`s got much worse now. I`m receiving no reply from then to my emails regarding connection stability, they fail to return my phone calls, and so on and so fourth....
I am completely frustrated of their service and i hope that some one else is going to bring their 8mbps service forwards so i could imediately swich.
I have recently upgraded bulldogs 2mbps broadband to 4mbps eversince i`m gettin cut off by their servers. I mean it was bad in the past but it`s got much worse now. I`m receiving no reply from then to my emails regarding connection stability, they fail to return my phone calls, and so on and so fourth....
I am completely frustrated of their service and i hope that some one else is going to bring their 8mbps service forwards so i could imediately swich.
Chris Butler , writes of his problems, yet I had a similar cancelletion which I did by email without any of the fuss he describes.
They should rename their service to "Balls"
I wont even begin to tell my story but i will say other stories do make mine seem small in comparison. It seems amazing that if you want to buy they answer the phone straight away but customer services thats an hour or so wait. They have some of my money and i will try to get it back but cancelling my account on time is impossible as they do not acknowledge they have received my cancellation form. I have sent it 3 times.No idea of the waiting time was given to me and we could be talking 3 months. They give no discount on the fact you are not getting the 8mb...is anyone? They do however say up to in the ad so watch this. Basically if i lose 60 pound its got to be better than giving them anymore. Anyone wanting to take this further to get money back let me know how?
Ta
ray.smith3@ntlworld.com
I am reading your feedback to the Bulldog Service on 28 June 2005 one day after the BT engineer came to connect me as arranged. He said his work was done and that we were just waiting for 'the exchange' to do their thing. 24 hours later there is still no phone connection, I get no help from Customer Service whose line merely tells me to go to the internet site and there my log in attempt fails without explanation. I am worried that I am joining a nightmare.. There are no dates on your other correspondent's complaints. I am in Croydon, Surrey. AM
STAY AWAY FROM BULLDOG THEY ARE THE WORST COMPANY I HAVE EVER DEALT WITH BE WARNED
8 Meg Broadband In The UK
Bulldog or UK Online? Choose UK Online and save the hassle.
We’ve had broadband with Bulldog for over 2 years now, and not had any complaints till recently. Just the plain vanilla 500 anytime package. Then we made the mistake of choosing to upgrade to 4 Megs (now 8 Megs).
The Inter@ctive package was what we had chosen, 8 Meg broadband, no download caps, with landline provided by Bulldog (not BT).
Tuesday 7th June was the date the 4 Meg was supposed to go live, and just the anticipation of whether we would get 4 Meg (and get it upgraded to 8 Meg for free by the end of the month) or get 8 Meg right from the beginning was killing me. I could not wait till I got the upgrade.
08:51, Tuesday morning, the router disconnects, and then reconnects.
08:52, the router disconnects again. Little did I know that the last 1 minute of uptime was the last time I would get to connect to the Internet for the next week at the least.
I thought, no problem, well have the 4 or 8 Meg in a few hours. Later on Tuesday, we still could not connect to the Internet. Our phone didn’t seem to work either. We then get an email (thank god for my Pocket PC), which tells us that there is a fault on our line, and the engineers are trying to fix it. No problem I thought, it can’t take that long, so long as we have our Internet back by tomorrow.
Wednesday, still no Internet and our phone number seems to have changed. We didn’t even get an email to notify us that it had changed. If you try our old number, the phone just rings and rings on your end, but our home phone won’t ring at all. You call the new number, and it works, but still no Internet.
Later I find out that there fault on the line still hasn’t been fixed, and as such, we have been given the new number temporarily, and that it will be changed back as soon as the fault is fixed, but no broadband till then. However we can use their Dial-up backup till then, which by the way is a 0845 number, and that means you get charged for using Dial-up Internet, even though you are paying for Broadband Internet (Internet that’s supposed to be up to 160 times faster than 56K dial-up). Only one problem, we have no dial-up modem.
It’s now Monday, and after having phoned tech support every day since Tuesday, still no success. Lucky they have a free 0800 number. Even still, the queues times can be from 15 minutes to 40 minutes, and that’s if you can actually queue, the queues might be full, and you will have to try again later.
All this, and no 500K Internet or 4000K (or 8000K) either. On the other hand, a friend of mine changed from his old ISP to UK Online (8 Megs, 500 GB cap), and the downtime was no more than 2 hours.
Now the fault on the line,
1) Bulldog inexperienced engineers messed up when changing the line from BT to themselves.
2) Bulldog doesn’t know what’s happening, whether the fault existed or not, but are just delaying the upgrade or having trouble coping with demand from customers regarding upgrades/new contracts, since they announced the free upgrade to 8 Megs, and the £1 for the first month offer on Friday 3rd of June.
3) The problem was there before, or just surfaced, and they are trying their best to fix it. Still, why is it taking this long, are their engineers so inept?
Either way, it doesn’t look good for Bulldog, so I highly recommend any ISP other than them. Currently, its seem UK Online are the only other choice for 8 Meg broadband, sure you get the 500 GB cap, but at least you actually get to taste the Internet, rather this lame service on the side of Bulldog.
Got the internet back after 8 days of downtime, and now the router keeps on disconnecting. Been told by my routers tech support (you can actually talk to these guys on the phones, it not always busy unlike Bullshit Communications) to lower the MTU size, which gives me longer connections, but completely rubbish internet speeds. I've since, tired about 20 different MTU sp
(Continued) I've since, tired about 20 different MTU speeds all are bad.
Why should cusotmers have to configure their routers and modems to match the ISP, especially this much trouble. Why dont the ISP change their setting to match the customers. On my next phone call to Bullshit, I will refuse to hang up, untill I have had 30 minutes of stable internet, and will not even lift a finger towards changing settings on my side. I will be their nightmare.
Hi,
I upgraded to Bulldogs telephone / 8mb broadband service....I have typed so many emails on this including one to ajennings@arbitrators.org which I have detailed below....still no reply from Bulldog or the arbitrators....
I originally placed my order in early April, the service was eventually activated 29 June!!
I wanted to bring this to the attention of any customer considering leaving BT for the sake of cost as the Bulldog’s ability to deal with issues seem to relate to the famous saying “you get what you paid for”
1st July - I managed to obtain from Bulldog staff a mobile number (more cost!) of a ‘senior’ representative. Katrina rather bluntly advised that Bulldog have made errors and that no promise could be made with regards to fixing the error, maybe by the end of next week. As to why the upgrade took from April to June 29, who knows. I pointed out that this was unacceptable given the fact that I had a fully function phoneline before the upgrade.
Katrina promised to transfer all my incoming calls to my mobile to ‘soften the impact’ by 4.30 no divert had been put on, Katrina is now on holiday for a week!
4th July…..Still no incoming calls…..No sign of resolution from Bulldog?
===============================================================
EMAIL TO ajennings@arbitrators.org
Good morning,
Please may I seek your advice / guidance concerning Bulldog Communications LTD's continual service failings.
I have been a Broadband (DSL) customer of Bulldog Communications Ltd for at least 18 months, during which I have had very little contact with their Customer Service area.
In April I was invited via email (as an existing customer) to upgrade my Internet service and transfer my telephone service over to Bulldog Communications Ltd.
The packaged deal on offer was good, so I telephoned their Sales area to place the order. I received an email confirming my order and service will switch over from BT within the next 30 days.
Mid May, I have heard nothing, attempted to call their Customer Services without success, "we are experiencing large call volumes, please try later".
I sent an email to Customer services@ mailbox for an update, no reply. I forwarded a copy to complaints@ mailbox, an automated reply advising that a rep will call shortly, no reply to date?
Further emails were sent, mid May I received an email advising that "as an existing customer Bulldog Communications Ltd currently have no upgrade procedure in place" but given the circumstances Bulldog Communications Ltd would "honour" my application.
I sent an email to complaints@ mailbox requesting clarification, as at this stage I was unsure of whether the order was in place or not?
June, I now receive an email advising that the activation date would be 29th June....
29th June, service is activated, 2.30pm I am inundated with calls on my mobile querying as to why no one is answering the home phone?
Further investigation reveals that I have 8mb Broadband, a crackling phone line, and no incoming phone calls?
Attempted to call Bulldog Communications Ltd, "we are experiencing large call volumes, please try later". 7.30pm I am finally at a stage where I am in a queue, 55 minutes later I am connected.
Explained that I have upgraded and now no one can call my landline. When I ring 01634 ****** (my ported BT no) from my mobile I hear a ringing tone on the mobile but the landline does not ring? When I dial my mobile number from my landline the mobile rings, but it displays 01634 ******? When I ring 01634 ****** from by mobile I hear a ringing tone but the landline still does not ring?
The rather blaze advisor pointed out this could be due to an 'incorrectly positioned jumper', a call would be logged with an engineer, the fault is with BT and not Bulldog, this would take at least 48 hours!
I told the advisor that this is not acceptable. I cannot believe
After they lured me away from BT, as soon as Bulldog connected me, my line died. My telephone and internet have been off now for three weeks courtesy of Bulldog's ineptitude. I have spent hour after hour trying to get through to their customer service dept. When I have managed to actually contact someome, three times their customer service dept has hung up on me, and I am not impolite.
I want off this company, but I don't know how to do that without having a reliable method of contacting them. Their customer service is non-existent, and their ability to offer any email support is so unresponsive as to make Rain Man seem interactive. I may well be visiting their head office in the next few hours to try to cancel my service.
If you want an ISP, avoid Bulldog like the plague.
Just take a look at ADSL Guide. They're an impartial site. This page compares the large ISP's. Check out who's on top, Zen Internet, for everything!
http://www.adslguide.org.uk/isps/compare.asp?bt=ON&bulldog=ON&demon=ON&ntlhome=ON&pipex=ON&zen=ON&cmp_action=Compare
I signed up with Bulldog for their superactive service around 3 weeks ago.
I was informed activation of line + service would start wed 29/6/05.
Received new modem + tried to setup system on Sat 2/7/05 only to find my phone was dead - could not receive or make calls - as my existing service was to transfer to Cable & Wireless.
Eventually logded the fault with them on the Sat after lengthy wait approx 30 mins.
On SUN 3/7/05 phone dialling tone returned but still could not receive calls. Tried Broadband connection again - it worked for approx 1 hr and line went down.
Mon 4/7/05 - After 40 min wait eventually got thru' and logged another line fault and also complained about broadband line going down. After brief discussion I was told the username I was provided was incorrect.
Tried the corrected username and system still does not work.
Today is TUES 5/7/05. My home phone STILL cannot receive calls (4 Days now) and I have no broadband connection.
I cannot get thru' to Bulldog as their phone lines are so busy they are not even putting people in queues but telling us to ring back at another time.
I sent an email to cancel my subscription (before its even got underway properly) because the service is so poor.
I am getting married in a few weeks and need guests to reply to me by phone and I now have no incoming phone !!
I'm absolutely FUMING !!
This company is an absoulte joke !
Bulldog - DONT TOUCH THEM WITH A BARGEPOLE. Ok so I buy it and telecoms services and spend >500K per annum with bulldogs parent compay C&W. In december I wanted a 2Mb leased line circuit, and went with them on price, and the backing of my C&W relationship. What a disaster - I couldn't get acknowledgement of the order, confirmed delivery dates or anything. In the end having wasted ten days chasing their sales team up. I gave up cancelled the order and went with Demon. About 3 hours later my order was raised, confirmed, delivered and implemented on the due date.
Bulldog more like Bull****
Yeah ive had same problems. Signed up in April for a 4 mb service they said i could have in May when local exchange changed over so had a 1mb connection from them till then. Howerver, change over of exchange did not happen untill 30th June and service has not worked since various problems either no signal on adsl line or when i did get a signal I got password domain problems, even after they advised me that i was using correct info, now has gone back to no signal again. Makes me laugh that they are now pushing a 8mb service when they cant even get there 4mb service to work .
I had the same problems as many others in the first week of Bulldog. I put in a fault call and the Bulldog engineer phoned me on Sunday morning, 3 days after placing the call. He assured me that my line test was near perfect, and the fault was likely on my house wiring. He recommended disconnecting the extension wiring from the NTE5 box and putting a filter on the NTE5 box and connect the current wiring to the telephone side, and run a seperate extension for broadband only to the router.
This has completely solved the problems.
I have spent the past two days trying to call Bulldog customer service. I continually get a recorded message saying that"we are experiencing extremely high call volumes", and then get cut off. Is there any legal option for terminating the contract due to lack of service?
Don't go near this lot! It took them 3 months to connect me because they a) sent the wrong info to BT and b) just seemed to loose the order. When it was connected, speed was very variable - sometimes 3.5M and then a few days ago it was down to bits per second. I kept my Demon connection just in case Bulldog proved to be as bad as their reputation suggested. When I swapped back to the Demon service it worked fine – so its not my system that is causing the problems.
However, the worst thing is "customer service" if you can call it that. I signed up as a business customer on pro@active plus - and the phone still says "sorry we are busy" and hangs up. This is unbelievable.
There was no attempt to check my line before provisioning so I was surprised to discover that all I could get was 3.5M not 8M. That was deceptive advertising.
I have written a detailed letter to C&W and copied to Bulldog but no response, so its time to give up and wait for Demon to supply their promised 2M upgrade. Well Demon is solid and reliable and that is what I need.
Bulldog customer service has to be the worst I have ever experienced. In trying to sort out being over charged I have sent numerous e-mails, faxes, letters, none of which have ever been answered, in addition to the numerous phone calls, most of which are terminated by a recored message telling me they are experiencing high call loads and if I do get through the average time to speak to some incompetent imbecile in their customer services is about 1-2 hours.
I have sent an equal number of e-mails asking for my MAC code so I can go elsewhere but theyu will not even reply to that request. I have now contacted Trading Standards.
DO NOT GO NEAR THIS ISP..you will regret it.
ntl provides a worse service than bulldog they are so crap id only recomend them to my worst enemys they got my bills wrong from may2004 until january 2005 when they cut me off after they had stopped taling my directdebit by their own mistake and then acused me of not paying!! even when theyd cut me off they told me they hadnt..they dont even know when there own customers have a conection they then continued to add £24.99 a month to my bill saying untill i cleared what i owed they carry on charging you even though they no longer provide a service to you..how outragous is that???? there modems dont conect you most days or require you to shutdown your pc 2 or 3 times and experience delays of 15-25 mins everyday before you get online.. i switched to bt and i get online within seconds everytime now and its cheaper and some of there call center staff have brains no ntl staff ive ever spoken to had an iq above 3 they seem to hire from thick idiots recruitment agency inc
I cannot put it in better words :
""Customer services is extremely hard to contact, having to wait over one hour in some instances on the phone. Emails get no response."
"I had been a customer in the past and was very impressed with their service. Now that they've grown their service has slipped to the point where its unusable, they're uncontactable and I'm unimpressed."
"Bulldog appears to be in a worse state than they were in September 2004 when they announced a temporary cessation of new sign-ups because they could not cope with the customers they already had".
"I’m receiving no reply from then to my emails regarding connection stability, they fail to return my phone calls, and so on and so forth.... I am completely frustrated of their service and I hope that some one else is going to bring their 8Mbps service forwards so I could immediately switch."
"It seems amazing that if you want to buy they answer the phone straight away but customer services then that’s an hour or so wait."
Words taken from ZNet site.
I cannot put it in better words :
""Customer services is extremely hard to contact, having to wait over one hour in some instances on the phone. Emails get no response."
"I had been a customer in the past and was very impressed with their service. Now that they've grown their service has slipped to the point where its unusable, they're uncontactable and I'm unimpressed."
"Bulldog appears to be in a worse state than they were in September 2004 when they announced a temporary cessation of new sign-ups because they could not cope with the customers they already had".
"I’m receiving no reply from then to my emails regarding connection stability, they fail to return my phone calls, and so on and so forth.... I am completely frustrated of their service and I hope that some one else is going to bring their 8Mbps service forwards so I could immediately switch."
"It seems amazing that if you want to buy they answer the phone straight away but customer services then that’s an hour or so wait."
Words taken from ZNet site.
AVOID THEM LIKE THE PLAGUE... I have been without a working telephone ever since I was activated 2 weeks ago. It took me about 3 days to contact them by phone as it is constantly busy. Was told that their engineers will look into it and call back the next day. NOTHING... I managed to get through again after hours of waiting. On asking to speak to a manager or supervisor, i am told they do not have any. What rubbish! All they do is give you an excuse to fob you off. I have left me mobile for someone to contact me but still 2 weeks later, NOTHING! I have emailed still NO RESPONSE! I can understand that sometimes things go wrong. But for a customer service to act in this manner is inexcusable. Trust me on this one. Steer well clear!
The reason for only 16 complaints is that they do not answer the phones, or reply to emails... the 16 complaints were probably people who told the sales number - or prehaps the sales team themselves complaining that they can't download music.... Complete load of Bull
At bulldog's request I was released from B.T ON 30/06/2005 AND SINCE THIS TIME HAVE HAD NO PHONE LINE! trying to get thru to Bulldog is a joke as they just say" we are busy try later".I have not been called back as promised and so have requested to go back to Bt which will take ten days from now, but untill Bulldog actually connect me Bt cannot pick me back up.I am apalled that a company can CAUSE SUCH MISERY AND STILL BE ABLE TO TAKE ON NEW CUSTOMERS! oddly enough the sales line is always avaiable to take calls BEWARE!
Just wanted to add my voice to the Bulldog malcontents. We've been phoning customer support every day for a week and after an hour or so get through to someone who can't help, promises a call back from someone who can, but the call never comes. They've hung up on us a couple of times. It's hopeless. I hope the switch to UK Online isn't so troublesome.
Dear Sir/Madam,
I read with dismay that the only way possible to obtain my password would be to contact my router manufacturer. As an IT Senior Consultant in a big 4 technology implementation company, it strikes me as worrysome that bulldog would not hold user access authentication details. This poses some interesting questions:
1) How is the user actually authenticated? This points at a very insecure transportation medium if access to your network is dependent only on the authentication of a host device, which could easily be compromised.
2) The support and maintenence of this model would be very precarious; bulldog would have to supply (potentially privileged) password information (potentially a breach of the data protection act) to a 3rd party. Every time passwords were updated (I assume and hope that bulldog has a password expiration policy!), all router manufacturers would have to be alerted.
3) The storage of passwords on a router is contrary to standards for routers (usually a restriction is performed at the MAC address host NIC adaptor end), this suggests that specific models of routers would be custom built for bulldog - this seems odd as bulldog claim that any router can be used to provide the service. If these passwords are stored on the router, under what authentication are they stored?
It has taken me nearly two months for this question to be resolved; I've tried phoning bulldog, over the months only to be greeted by a recorded message asking me to try later. Only today, after waiting an hour, did I manage to talk to a very helpful (I'm sure this must run contrary to Bulldog's customer service role description) customer representative - Helen Sharp who was able to provide this information to me within twenty seconds.
As I have been without access to your service for a month (bulldog have failed to provide me with a service despite my best endeavors to resolve this), please credit my account with one month of service charge.
Regards,
XXX XXXXXX
========================================
Message date : Jul 16 2005, 01:20 AM
From : "Bulldog Communications Customer Services Team"
To : XXXXX@XXXXXX.freeserve.co.uk
Copy to :
Subject : Re: Your Bulldog enquiry ref. XXXXXX
Dear XXX,
Thank you for your email. The user name and password for your router is not supplied by Bulldog. Please refer to the manual you received with your router or try contacting the manufacturer. Sorry for any inconvenience.
Should you require any further information please do not hesitate to reply back to us or call Customer Services on our free phone number 0800 404 8151.
Kind Regards
Matthew K
Bulldog Communications Customer Services Team
Contact:
General Queries: customerservice@bulldogbroadband.com
Technical issues: support@bulldogbroadband.com
Finance issues: finance@bulldogbroadband.com
Useful links:
Direct Debit Form: http://www.bulldogbroadband.com/support/dd.asp
Network Status: http://status.bulldogdsl.com/news.php
Bulldog Communications Ltd
http://www.bulldogbroadband.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "XXX XXXXXX"
Date: 08 July 2005
Subject: Re: Forgot Password For Bulldog My Account
REF: XXXXXXX
Dear Sir/Madam,
I have been unable to access broadband as my router tells me that my usename and password is not recognised. I am using the username XXXX-XXXXX@bulldogdsl.com. However, I do not have a password. Please can you send me my password today as a matter of priority (lack of network access will cost me a day of consultancy chargeable time).
Regards,
XXX XXXXX
========================================
Message date : Jun 08 2005, 09:04 PM
From : "Bulldog Communications"
To : "XXX XXXXX"
Copy to :
Subject : Forgot Password For Bulldog My Account
Dear XXX XXXXX
Bulldog My Account Detail
login name : XXXX
password XXXXX
You allow to login with the above detail to view orders and change your personal details.
E
My 2 penny worth.
This is part of an e-mail i sent to their complaints department
"1. Wait 4 months for my order to get processed.
2. Take weeks to get replies when e-mailing customer services.
3. E-mails to complaints address ignored.
4. Written letters to managers to complain to are ignored.
5. Managers never around when I ask to speak with someone to complain to.
6. When phoning up, wait 50+mins to get through, a nice message telling you to e-mail customer services instead, what's the point it takes weeks to get a reply.
7. Get charged for a service that I haven't been even connected to.
8. Phone to sort this out, wait 50mins, go through the phone menu options to speak with someone for a finance matter, get through to customer services, then have to wait because you get transferred, what's the point of going through the menu options ?
9. Finally think you have sorted everything out, get the next bill and still being charged for the package that I shouldn't be and no refund like I was promised.
10. Work out that I have spent a day (7 hours) on hold.
11. Look at your jobs page, loads of adverts for managers, try getting actual front line staff that will actually do some work to shorten the time on hold and provide a better service.
12. My past 4 months experience of Bulldog "UK's Best Consumer Broadband ISP 2004", what an absolute joke.
Cheap as chips, this is the only reason you are still operating as a company because your customer services & company management is a joke.
"
Really wish we could get some TV air time on this joke of a company, especially with the types of adverts they have.
I had terrible problems when I made the switch. I got an amazing 8meg connection immediately but no one could call my phone for 8 days as it did not ring. I continued to have BT's voicemail with no way to access it and - so for 8 days no working landline despite a multitude of calls and undelievered promises. Lucky for me I use Skype which meant I could use the Broadband connection!
Bulldog customer services were useless and surly. I only got satisfaction when I emailed Richard Lapthorne directly with a cc to Bulldog customer services. Amazingly, everything got fixed pdq after this.
All was well for a couple of days until I started to get a crackly line and complaints from people I was talking to. Again a quick email to Lapthorne did the trick.
I recommend everyone with a problem contacts him directly!
Bulldog is great, when everything is working, trouble is that is often not the case, especially if you use their phone package and their "customer service" is NON-EXISTANT, really.
Firstly you can currently only get into the queue about 15 mins a day and then its a 15min wait (at least) for the rest of the day you get told they are too busy to take calls. If you email then you are lucky if you get a response within 3 days. I have been without a voicemail service (I can't acutally pcik them up) for a week, and Bulldog has still not sorted it.
Don't go near BullDog, have a look at www.bullshitbroadband.com for an idea of what being a customer is like.
Hi i am from Leeds West Yorkshire and only change to Bulldog on the 15/07/05 swapping from gio internet because of bad sevice from them only to receive further poor sevice from Bulldog
I have problems logging on and then when on it is switched off for no reason only to go through the same thing trying to reconnect
My PC runs as slow as a snail and drives me mad.
I have repeatedly tried to contact them by phone but cannot get through to them after holding on for an hour at a time and more
I have then sent them repeated emails to which i receive a automated response and another ID number but cannot get sorted so I have turmanated my new aggreement with them under the 1 months free trial and customer right to cancel but they are ignoriong this
what would you recommend I do
Brian Tench
I've come across some isp's using circuit identification instead of a password. I've come across this with Bt mostly in the password field try 19 *'s or 19 |'s and no that's not an 'L' is the vertrical double dash.
Hope this helps.
also i think bulldog is getting confused with the router access password!!
JonC
Bulldog are the worst company I have ever dealt with. Their bills to me run into hundreds of pounds every month - I am unable to view any billing details, can't get through to the finance department, the Broadband connection breaks down all the time and is slow by anyone's standards etc etc etc
Bulldog's full of bullshit. I'd recommend that you tell your bank to invalidate any method of payment with Bulldog. Luckily, I've got a sympathetic bank that cancelled out any transactions between me and Bulldog. Spread the word...Bulldog's shite.
I transfered to Bulldog from Bt in February this year & encountered promblems immediately.The constant breaks in connection or being connected then losing the connection & being unable to reconnect for hours sometimes days.The response from Customer service was the worst I have ever experienced, phoning sometimes up to six times a day and waiting for up to an hour and never speaking to anyone or being told they were busy & to try later then being promptly disconnected.When I was able to speak to someone the advice was useless.I was told once to reconnect My old Bt modem as the one supplied by Bulldog was not very good ! e-mails remained unanswered and a letter sent to their head office in July by recorded delivery. I reconected to Bt in May but Bulldog are still billing me for a service they no longer provide & debiting my credit card, which to me seems tantamount to some sort of fraud. Please if anyone wishes to contact me do so, I have thought about a demo at their head office as I feel so powerless. Also contact the BBC programme WATCHDOG. The response from their spokesman last night incensed me. I would never recommend this company to anyone.
Please tell me how to get bulldog to respond to my calls. They upgraded me from their Alltime 1000 service, having been with them for 18 months with no problems, to their 8MB super@ctive service on the 26/08/05. I have had no broadband service since that date and also lost line service for 30 hours having rung on numerous occasions with over 4 outstanding tickets and still no-one calls back to confirm or check or test anything with me. Also I found out that if you give them your mobile number and they call and you cannot answer i.e. poor reception or in my case I was riding my motorbike home from work, they will close the call. What should I do to get the service they promise in there advertising campaign? Should I cancel before I’m charged for a service I am not receiving?
How does 3 month without a phone line or broadband grab you ? don't go there....
I also suffered major communication problems with their Customer services dept, all the usual no replies to emails, long waits on the phone.
Then... I found the email addresses of all their directors on their website... I emailed customer services and Cc... Every one of their directors and managers listed on their site at 19:30.... You guessed it by 10:00am the following morning I received a call from their customer services dept to resolve the problem... I am no longer a customer of the company. at the time Bulldog had all the directors contact details... surprisingly they have removed these contact details now... however if anyone is interested I have included them below, not sure if they are still current though...
EmanueleAngelidis@bulldogbroadband.com, DavidFerguson@bulldogbroadband.com, DianeMills@bulldogbroadband.com, SandroFalleni@bulldogbroadband.com, KevinWest@bulldogbroadband.com, PaulWitkowski@bulldogbroadband.com, KeithBadman@bulldogbroadband.com
terrible service. no incoming / outgoing calls since july 2005......
fault re-logged monday 12/09/05
NB 2 months since first fault
fault closed tuesday 13/09/05...but not resolved
re-opened today 14/09/05.
Initial fault was reported by email. Bulldog response...."please call us when you are home"....difficult in the least considering the issues !
DO NOT USE Bulldog
why oh why are bulldog still allowed to run as a company, when judging by all the complaints listed and so meant to be watchdogs are knowledgable of the situation,yours totally menaced in the head Ozlandia (thanks bull**!!*"!!)
ive got bulldog ive been with them for about three months now with no trouble when i fone them i get though i tryed tisacli they are crap really crap then i tryed bt ever more crap
tiscali talk to somone in india i think when you fone them
bt press number 1 then press number 2 now press number 10 and so on then its a recorded message
bt could only give me upto 1 meg when they said i could have upto 2 meg
so now ive got bulldog i get anything between 3.3meg -4meg im ok with that
bt said i couldnt have have 2 meg so why have bulldog got me between 3-4 meg