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Bulldog
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greeneggsandham
Posts: 74 Forumite
I’d like to use this forum as an opportunity to vent my spleen about that pitiful excuse for a broadband provider, Bulldog, and warn other moneysavers who may be considering switching to them. My advice, in short, DON’T.
I have had my phone line and broadband from Bullsh*t (BS for short) broadband since 2006 when they first offered broadband services in my area. The reason I had switched to BS was that at the time I did not want to get tied into a lengthy contract, and they were the only broadband provider that offered a no-tie in package. There’s a very good reason for this: what they don’t tell you is that they don’t need to tie you in with a contract because they have the system set up in such a way that once you are with them, its almost impossible (or at least a HUGE hassle) to switch to another ADSL provider (the ones that provide your broadband down a BT line, so that’s pretty much everyone in this part of the UK apart from virgin cable). More about that later.
Customer dis-service.
To begin with they could not supply the phone service, so they provided a temporary, much slower broadband package and I continued to get my phone calls from BT. When the changeover of my phone line eventually went ahead (eight months later!), a very strange thing happened. I started getting phone calls intended for someone else. This someone eventually tried calling his own phone number and got through to me. It turned out I could make outgoing calls from my line, but was only receiving incoming calls for this other customer, while he wasn’t receiving any calls at all and couldn’t make outgoing calls at all. It took me about 5 or 6 weeks and countless calls to BS customer service to get this sorted out, and they refused to refund my line rental for this period, even though nobody could call me at home during this time. I wrote to BS “customer service” to complain about this and forwarded a copy to the trading standards agency. I received no official reply to my letter in writing, but I vaguely remember getting an email acknowledgement and being asked to call “customer service” to discuss it! I didn’t bother as my sanity was worth more to me than the refund at this point.
The broadband service with BS is pretty rubbish too. Recently my broadband connection went down for 2 days. Every time I called “customer service” I got a recorded message saying that they were aware of a technical issue and it would be resolved shortly.
A while back I received a letter to notify me that bulldog was being taken over by Pipex, and they were switching their business to corporate accounts only, but existing residential customers did not need to worry as nothing would change. It seems that residential customers are just not profitable enough for BS, so it comes as no surprise that they make no effort to provide a decent service or keep customers happy as they don’t care whether they keep their residential customers or not.
N.B. Apparently, it seems that Pipex are now also owned by Tiscali (don’t quote me on this) and they also have an appalling customer service reputation, so things are not going to get any better.
Secret download limits, or ‘unlimited as long as its less than 1GB’
When I signed up with BS I was getting “unlimited 1Mb broadband” for £9.75 per month, plus phone line rental of about £10 a month. A few months ago my total bill shot up from around £20 per month to £40! :eek: This was largely due to “broadband usage charges”; slightly strange given that I’m on an unlimited package. I thought this might just be a one-off because I had used a bit too much bandwidth that month (or something) so I ignored it, but since then I have had usage charges on every bill. When I checked the ‘my account’ section of the website, it was not very helpful. It listed my broadband usage for previous months, but did not tell me how much I had used so far this month, and there was a blank space in the section titled “monthly usage allowance”. Judging from the packages available to new customers, the £9.75 broadband comes with a paltry 1GB download limit, so I’m assuming I’ve been switched onto that without my knowledge, but I can’t be sure. Either way it would have been nice if they had written to me to let me know that the unlimited broadband would now be ‘unlimited as long as its less than 1GB’ broadband.
This was the final straw and I started investigating alternative broadband providers, having come to the conclusion that I may as well tie myself in to a contract instead of being stuck with BS through sheer inertia. Not so easy.
When is a BT line not a BT line? When it’s an LLU.
When I switched to BS, I assumed that, like most other ADSL broadband providers, the service would be supplied down my existing BT line, with BS simply administering the service. (This is much the same as switching your gas supplier for example; the gas still comes to your house down the same pipes). However, when I recently called BS to request a MAC code (the number requested by most other broadband providers when you switch to them, in order to enable a seamless transition from one provider to the next with little or no downtime or loss of service) I was told that they don’t provide MAC codes. (NB, I have recently read that this is illegal and they MUST provide a MAC code even though it will be pretty much useless for most ADSL providers). This is because, unbeknown to me, when I switched to BS, although they use my old BT line to supply the service, they physically disconnected the line at the exchange and connected it to their system. (I think this may in fact be an over simplified version of events but that is what they told me anyway). This means that if you ever want to go back to BT, you will be treated as not having an existing BT line and will count as a completely new connection (with all the accompanying connection fees). For those that want to look this up, its called a LLU broadband provider, although it still uses your old BT line and its NOT cable. The main gripe here is that they don't tell you this at the time and they don't warn new customers about how difficult it will be to switch back.:mad:
Most ADSL broadband providers will not even book an order for a new broadband service until you have an active BT line up and running. So, if you are currently with BS and you want to switch, this is what you will have to do:
In the mean time, the moral of this story is; “Never go near a Bulldog’s !!! unless you want to be shat on”.
I have had my phone line and broadband from Bullsh*t (BS for short) broadband since 2006 when they first offered broadband services in my area. The reason I had switched to BS was that at the time I did not want to get tied into a lengthy contract, and they were the only broadband provider that offered a no-tie in package. There’s a very good reason for this: what they don’t tell you is that they don’t need to tie you in with a contract because they have the system set up in such a way that once you are with them, its almost impossible (or at least a HUGE hassle) to switch to another ADSL provider (the ones that provide your broadband down a BT line, so that’s pretty much everyone in this part of the UK apart from virgin cable). More about that later.
Customer dis-service.
To begin with they could not supply the phone service, so they provided a temporary, much slower broadband package and I continued to get my phone calls from BT. When the changeover of my phone line eventually went ahead (eight months later!), a very strange thing happened. I started getting phone calls intended for someone else. This someone eventually tried calling his own phone number and got through to me. It turned out I could make outgoing calls from my line, but was only receiving incoming calls for this other customer, while he wasn’t receiving any calls at all and couldn’t make outgoing calls at all. It took me about 5 or 6 weeks and countless calls to BS customer service to get this sorted out, and they refused to refund my line rental for this period, even though nobody could call me at home during this time. I wrote to BS “customer service” to complain about this and forwarded a copy to the trading standards agency. I received no official reply to my letter in writing, but I vaguely remember getting an email acknowledgement and being asked to call “customer service” to discuss it! I didn’t bother as my sanity was worth more to me than the refund at this point.
The broadband service with BS is pretty rubbish too. Recently my broadband connection went down for 2 days. Every time I called “customer service” I got a recorded message saying that they were aware of a technical issue and it would be resolved shortly.
A while back I received a letter to notify me that bulldog was being taken over by Pipex, and they were switching their business to corporate accounts only, but existing residential customers did not need to worry as nothing would change. It seems that residential customers are just not profitable enough for BS, so it comes as no surprise that they make no effort to provide a decent service or keep customers happy as they don’t care whether they keep their residential customers or not.
N.B. Apparently, it seems that Pipex are now also owned by Tiscali (don’t quote me on this) and they also have an appalling customer service reputation, so things are not going to get any better.
Secret download limits, or ‘unlimited as long as its less than 1GB’
When I signed up with BS I was getting “unlimited 1Mb broadband” for £9.75 per month, plus phone line rental of about £10 a month. A few months ago my total bill shot up from around £20 per month to £40! :eek: This was largely due to “broadband usage charges”; slightly strange given that I’m on an unlimited package. I thought this might just be a one-off because I had used a bit too much bandwidth that month (or something) so I ignored it, but since then I have had usage charges on every bill. When I checked the ‘my account’ section of the website, it was not very helpful. It listed my broadband usage for previous months, but did not tell me how much I had used so far this month, and there was a blank space in the section titled “monthly usage allowance”. Judging from the packages available to new customers, the £9.75 broadband comes with a paltry 1GB download limit, so I’m assuming I’ve been switched onto that without my knowledge, but I can’t be sure. Either way it would have been nice if they had written to me to let me know that the unlimited broadband would now be ‘unlimited as long as its less than 1GB’ broadband.
This was the final straw and I started investigating alternative broadband providers, having come to the conclusion that I may as well tie myself in to a contract instead of being stuck with BS through sheer inertia. Not so easy.
When is a BT line not a BT line? When it’s an LLU.
When I switched to BS, I assumed that, like most other ADSL broadband providers, the service would be supplied down my existing BT line, with BS simply administering the service. (This is much the same as switching your gas supplier for example; the gas still comes to your house down the same pipes). However, when I recently called BS to request a MAC code (the number requested by most other broadband providers when you switch to them, in order to enable a seamless transition from one provider to the next with little or no downtime or loss of service) I was told that they don’t provide MAC codes. (NB, I have recently read that this is illegal and they MUST provide a MAC code even though it will be pretty much useless for most ADSL providers). This is because, unbeknown to me, when I switched to BS, although they use my old BT line to supply the service, they physically disconnected the line at the exchange and connected it to their system. (I think this may in fact be an over simplified version of events but that is what they told me anyway). This means that if you ever want to go back to BT, you will be treated as not having an existing BT line and will count as a completely new connection (with all the accompanying connection fees). For those that want to look this up, its called a LLU broadband provider, although it still uses your old BT line and its NOT cable. The main gripe here is that they don't tell you this at the time and they don't warn new customers about how difficult it will be to switch back.:mad:
Most ADSL broadband providers will not even book an order for a new broadband service until you have an active BT line up and running. So, if you are currently with BS and you want to switch, this is what you will have to do:
- Call BS and give them their month’s notice of cancellation (feel free to let them know what you think of them at this point). When I called to cancel poor guy at “customer service” half-heartedly tried to persuade me to stay by offering me a deal that was of no use whatsoever, and he obviously knew it was rubbish because he could barely bring himself to say it!
- Call BT and ask to be reconnected. If you can tie yourself into a contract for a phone landline service with BT you may get away without having to pay astronomical reconnection charges, but this will obviously limit you to using BT as your phone provider for at least 12 months.
- Wait.
- When you finally have an active BT line, phone whichever ADSL broadband provider you have decided to use (probably not a good idea to choose Tiscali!) and book a date for activation of your broadband account.
- Hope that this doesn’t take too long, because in the meantime you will probably have to find a half-decent dial-up provider so you can at least check your email.
In the mean time, the moral of this story is; “Never go near a Bulldog’s !!! unless you want to be shat on”.
0
Comments
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Sympathise with your tale of woe but this is what LLU providers DON'T explain when you sign up to their cheap deals.
Fell into exactly the same trap with Talktalk.
"NB, I have recently read that this is illegal and they MUST provide a MAC code...." only applies to non-llu connections. LLU migrations were not factored into Ofcoms' regulations when they were cobbled together.“I look like Spiderman at a funeral”~ Karl Pilkington0 -
Thanks deklan99! So TalkTalk use this sytem too huh? And there I was feeling bad that I couldnt switch to talktalk cause I don't have a BT line! Maybe I can get an LLU MAC code and switch straight from bulldog to talktalk! Might be nice to get a list on here of LLU providers so that people know what they are getting into if the sign up with one of them.0
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In theory it should be possible to migrate from one LLU operator to another. There are no guidelines in place for this and it depends on the gaining voice provider whether they will assist or not.
"A new migrations code of practice has been developed and is to be launched in March 2008. The new code is expected to be a definitive guide for all migrations and home mover processes." is from this http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/3454-new-migration-code-of-practice-on-its-way-in-march-2008.html - no sign as yet.“I look like Spiderman at a funeral”~ Karl Pilkington0 -
AOL:
O2 / Be:
C&W / Bulldog:
Edge Telecom:
Entanet:
Lumison:
NewNet:
Node4:
Orange:
Pipex:
Sky / Easynet:
Smallworld:
TalkTalk (CPW):
Tiscali:
Tiscali TV:
WB Internet:
Zen Internet:Utinam logica falsa tuam philosophiam totam suffodiant.0 -
bulldog failed the day they were bought by pipex. now they been bought by tiscalli we have no-hope thought to be honest they been pretty good to us
Slimming world start 28/01/2012 starting weight 21st 2.5lb current weight 17st 9-total loss 3st 7.5lb
Slimmer of the month February , March ,April
0 -
AOL:
O2 / Be:
C&W / Bulldog:
Edge Telecom:
Entanet:
Lumison:
NewNet:
Node4:
Orange:
Pipex:
Sky / Easynet:
Smallworld:
TalkTalk (CPW):
Tiscali:
Tiscali TV:
WB Internet:
Zen Internet:
Thanks for that, quite an eye opener, didn't realise there were so many. So would I be right in thinking that if you are stuck in a contract with BT for your phone line, you can't get broadband from any of these because they will disconnect your line from BT? I ask because a friend who has a fairly new BT contract tried to get Virgin cable but was told she couldn't , so she phoned up and signed up for a broadband contract with tiscali the other day (before I found out they were in league with Bulldog, or I would have warned her). Is this possible??0 -
greeneggsandham wrote: »Might be nice to get a list on here of LLU providers so that people know what they are getting into if the sign up with one of them.
To further complicate matters some providers, such as Sky, offer Shared LLU whereby only the adsl element is unbundled and your phone line remains connected to BTs' network although you could pay another provider for line rental. Not so hard to migrate to/from and preferable to full LLU, as you and I have found.“I look like Spiderman at a funeral”~ Karl Pilkington0 -
Has anyone seen a list of ISP's that are 100% LLU?, I believe TalkTalk & Tiscali would also be on such a list, whereas Sky, Be/O2, AOL and Pipex would not as they do not have compulsory phone deals as part of their contracts.To further complicate matters some providers, such as Sky, offer Shared LLU whereby only the adsl element is unbundled and your phone line remains connected to BTs' network although you could pay another provider for line rental. Not so hard to migrate to/from and preferable to full LLU, as you and I have found.0 -
not sure any isp is exclusively lluUtinam logica falsa tuam philosophiam totam suffodiant.0
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Anybody reckon I've gota leg to stand on re the fact that they slapped a pathetic download limit on me without telling me, when I was supposed to be on an unlimited deal, and the first I know about it is when I go over the (secret) limit and get charged for it? Anybody got any experience with this??0
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