Broadband complaints

Cody · 17 Nov 2006 at 08:02

I remember seeing a feature on working lunch about the 2 groups that all ISPs are part of which you can complain to but I can't remember their names - does anyone know what they are?

The problem is that my Bulldog connection has not been cancelled and on the day I came on holiday they have taken 56 pound from my account, when I call up I am told that my bdol number does not have my details on - they appear to have reassigned the number but not cancelled the contract and are still billing me.

I have faxed my order confirmation with my bdol number on but have had no response - that was last wed before the 56 pound was taken. Their customer services are absolutely pathetic - I cancelled the contract as I had no service 25 days after the connection date and I had a half day off work to wait for a engineer that didn't turn up.

Moredhel · 17 Nov 2006 at 08:24

Ofcom would probably be the ones to speak to.

kefkef · 17 Nov 2006 at 08:33

might be worthwhile looking on adslguide.org to see if anyone else has had this problem and who they spoke to, sure i've seen stuff before about bulldog and connections.

KurTz · 17 Nov 2006 at 08:36

Firstly cancel the Direct Debit with your bank. And / or if you have access to your online Bulldog account still, go into that and delete your bank details. Dont know if you can do this with Bulldog, I know you can with my ISP.

Secondly Bulldog should give you an immediate refund based on the fact you've cancelled you're agreement with them.

Indeed Ofcom can help but it may take time, and generally they will only get involved as a last resort. You should in theory be able to sort it out directly with Bulldog. Ask to speak to the Manager when you ring up, always works for me!!

Good Luck

Cody · 27 Nov 2006 at 07:57

Called them yesterday and they gave me some bs about me signing a 12 month contract and having to pay off the rest of the contract, despite never having any service from for 3 months.

Pez · 27 Nov 2006 at 08:10

Cody said:
Called them yesterday and they gave me some bs about me signing a 12 month contract and having to pay off the rest of the contract, despite never having any service from for 3 months.

So did you actually sign a 12 month contract?

Redrum · 27 Nov 2006 at 08:19

Your first step should be the internal complaints department, which is also what any regulator like Ofcom will tell you if you go to them. You need to put the complaint in writing to them. Also, your bdol number would not have been reassigned. Call customer services again, and if they can’t find your account, get them to search by your phone number. Then if they can’t resolve the issue, say you want to make a formal complaint. They will either give you the contact details, or pass you on to a manager who will give them to you.

A formal complaint will get your query dealt with by someone at head office instead of in an outsource call centre, and it will be someone with some power and discretion.

Kell_ee001 · 27 Nov 2006 at 08:42

Cody said:
Called them yesterday and they gave me some bs about me signing a 12 month contract and having to pay off the rest of the contract, despite never having any service from for 3 months.

If you signed up to a 12 month contract and refused / cancelled their service before that time is up, you're likely to have to buy out of your contract.

benneh · 27 Nov 2006 at 08:51

Kell_ee001 said:
If you signed up to a 12 month contract and refused / cancelled their service before that time is up, you're likely to have to buy out of your contract.

This is of course as long as he is receiving a reasonable service (as agreed upon in the contract).. Which he appears not to be.

VeNT · 27 Nov 2006 at 08:51

but if they failed to provide you with the service laid out in the contract they themselves may be in breach.

damn beaten!

Kell_ee001 · 27 Nov 2006 at 08:53

benneh said:
This is of course as long as he is receiving a reasonable service (as agreed upon in the contract).. Which he appears not to be.

Sounds like he refused the service rather then they didn't provide it which is a different matter entirely.

johnny6 · 27 Nov 2006 at 08:56

Hmmm I'm with bulldog they don't sign you into a 12 month contract as far as I know. Its on a month by month basis. One of the reasons why I am with them to be honest.

It took 4 months and about 2 dozen telephone calls from placing my order to it all being up and running, I can see why people struggle to get passed the installation stage. Once it was all in however its worked excellently. I've had it for just over 2 years now and I've only had about 6 hours down time in total over that 2+ years. Not bad I'd say.

I did complain several times about the problems I was having with installation and I was lucky enough to get £10.00 knocked off my monthly bill for the first 12 months.

HOWEVER I have noticed that since pipex took over the bulldog service I am experiencing more problems. I find that I get disconnected more now than I ever did when bulldog were running things, and for some reason they are no longer willing to take my payment by the direct debit that was set up at the very beginning. Meaning I have to ring up every month and pay my bill which with their current customer service means I'm normally waiting for a very long time.

The funny thing was the customer service rep gave me some line when I asked why they were unable to take the money by direct debit the same way they had for the last 2 years, and I called BS and put my girlfriend on the phone (who is a personal banker) and she polity explained to him that what he was actually saying was complete toss. It was the funniest thing ever the poor bloke didn't know what to say and just agreed with her.

So I still don't know the real reason why they refuse to take the money by DD. Still now I don't pay the bill until they send out a letter demanding payment. If they want to waste my time I'm gonna waste theirs.

Rhyzz · 27 Nov 2006 at 09:41

Firstly, ring up and say 'Can I speak to someone who knows what they're doing please' just to make sure you have their attention.

Threaten to charge the funds back to your card if you're not dealt with there and then. This will get their knickers in a twist.

If they reel off some crap about them suing you, just say you broke the terms of your contract when you didn't provide me with service for 3 months.

Dolph · 27 Nov 2006 at 09:49

Rhyzz said:
Firstly, ring up and say 'Can I speak to someone who knows what they're doing please' just to make sure you have their attention.

Stupid idea, put the back of someone who is able to help you the moment you get on the phone.

First tip about customer services, if you are nasty, rude or dismissive, then you'll only get what the person you speak to has to do, not what they could do, and it will also tend to lead to speaking to someone higher up who also doesn't think very highly of you.

Being polite and explaining the situation calmly and sensibly is far more likely to get results than ranting, being insulting or claiming the person you're speaking to doesn't have a clue before you've even given them a chance.

Threaten to charge the funds back to your card if you're not dealt with there and then. This will get their knickers in a twist.

No it won't, if they believe they have a correct contract on their side. Such threats are a waste of time if you're held to contract, it simply leads to debt collectors eventually if you refuse to pay.

If they reel off some crap about them suing you, just say you broke the terms of your contract when you didn't provide me with service for 3 months.

And this will get you nowhere without proof, without knowing the full story it's impossible to say whether this will work, and more to the point, it's unlikely someone in an outsourced call centre will care, or have the ability to terminate the contract for a claimed breach, certainly not without getting a proper investigation done.

To the OP, I would have to agree with Redrum, if you want to get this resolved, follow the correct process, don't be rude, don't be nasty, don't threaten to stop/withdraw payment, as none of these things help. Explain what's happened, how you believe it is the companies fault, and take it from there.

Rhyzz · 27 Nov 2006 at 09:53

Being polite gets you nowhere. Been there done that. Being assertive and being rude are 2 different things.

Charging funds back to a card means the company will start to take an interest in your situation. When you receive the letter or phone call, simply explain the issue if you have been unsuccessful in doing so prior to the chargeback and they will suddenly start to investigate.

I don't know his situation with regards to the 3 months of non-service, but if you can't prove they have done you wrong on the contract you shouldn't even be in this situation and should have swallowed the fact that you signed a 12 month contract.

Dolph · 27 Nov 2006 at 10:04

Rhyzz said:
Being polite gets you nowhere. Been there done that. Being assertive and being rude are 2 different things.

You don't think coming on the phone and demanding to speak to someone who knows what they are doing, before giving the person you're speaking to a chance is rude?

Charging funds back to a card means the company will start to take an interest in your situation. When you receive the letter or phone call, simply explain the issue if you have been unsuccessful in doing so prior to the chargeback and they will suddenly start to investigate.

Depends entirely on the company, some will just blacklist your card and demand payment again on reciept of a chargeback, especially if they believe you're held to contract.

I do a lot of complaint handling at work, and so far you'd only be getting the minimum help from me if your attitude here was reflected in your attitude on the phone to staff. If the situation comes down to discretion (as these kind of complaints often do), you definitely want the person you're talking to on your side, not to have put their back up early on.

MNuTz · 27 Nov 2006 at 10:20

I tried to cancel my virgin account on the 2nd Jan 2006, i finally got it cancelled on the 4th November, thats at £24.99 a month.

I am now in the process of trying to get some, if not all my money refunded as the connection was never used in all that time.

Virgin = ****

Vixen · 27 Nov 2006 at 10:34

Rhyzz said:
Being polite gets you nowhere. Been there done that. Being assertive and being rude are 2 different things.

Charging funds back to a card means the company will start to take an interest in your situation. When you receive the letter or phone call, simply explain the issue if you have been unsuccessful in doing so prior to the chargeback and they will suddenly start to investigate..

You've obviously never worked in customer services. If a customer came on the phone telling me straight off they wanted to "speak to someone who knows what they're doing", I'd do as little as I possibly could for them, and probably just pass them off to another department. If a customer is friendly, I'll bend over backwards to help. I've got a file at work where I store information and phone numbers outwith the mandates of my own department, and they only get used when someone is being polite.

Locrian · 27 Nov 2006 at 10:36

Oh god, good luck buddy. Bulldog are the biggest joke ever. On the 9th september i placed an order with them for broadband. They immediatly took the £100 connection charged but i realised i wouldn tactually be getting a connectino for at least a month. On the 13th after realising how incompetent they were i cancelled said order and went with ntl instead, who fixed me up within 7 days.

Today, 27th November I STILL have not been refunded the £100 despite numerous phone calls, complaints and discussions with customer services. They are poorly trained and LIE constantly. I have been promised my refund within 7 days so many time its ridiculous. Every time i call back however (dont expect them to get in touch with you) i find out my account still has not even been cancelled yet.

So what do you need to do from here? Have a look here on this hard to find page.

http://www.bulldogbroadband.com/residential/legal/code_complaints.asp

Ignore customer services, they are a total joke. Also ignore their official complaints procure, because they give themselves something stupid like 2 months to resolve the issue. The people you should be able to talk to are bulldogs ADR, (alternative dispute resolution) scheme which they are legally obliged to have. Details here http://www.arbitrators.org/cisas/index.asp. However they insit you have to have been trying to resolve it for 12 weeks. Everything in the 'they have stolen my ******* money, give it back' world seems to take months and months.

Also, since you have had no service you are entitled to cancel and a full refund.

Locrian · 27 Nov 2006 at 10:37

Vixen said:
You've obviously never worked in customer services. If a customer came on the phone telling me straight off they wanted to "speak to someone who knows what they're doing", I'd do as little as I possibly could for them, and probably just pass them off to another department. If a customer is friendly, I'll bend over backwards to help. I've got a file at work where I store information and phone numbers outwith the mandates of my own department, and they only get used when someone is being polite.

Seriously, you do not know bulldog. One time a called up, and as part of the security check the chap asked me for my account password. Not just a few letters from it, my full password. Not once in 10 phone calls was i asked this information, and i refused to tell him my 'password' over the phone because i had on idea what it was. He said i failed the security check. I asked him the procedure to reset the password (which every major bank does) and he said i couldnt since i failed the security check. Which i explained i couldnt pass since i didnt know the password. So i asked to speak to a supervisor, which he said i couldnt because i failed the security check.

When i actually speak to them, they lie. They outright lie to you. For 3 weeks i was told my account had been cancelled, then the 4th week i called i spoken to the operator who informed me there was no cancellation nor were there any notes on the system explaining my situation.

The operators at bulldog are totally and utterly incompetent douche bags. The ONLY 2 TIMES i have ever had a good experience are when i talked to 2 female operators because they were actually doing their jobs and pleasant to talk to.