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Comments:
On March 3 I had an email from Bulldog telling me my bill was ready to pay and to see it on their website. Not only did I cancel my account well over a year ago but I've made two successful claims against them through the regulator CISAS since then.
I'd suggest the person posting below also complains to CISAS. I'm on my third complaint.
I was connected with Bulldog broadband from 2003 to 2004. Paid by credit card. Had an issue at the time about being overcharged on a monthly basis can't remember if it got resolved.
Migrated to another ISP well outside the 12 month minimum contract period.
2007, I get a bill for £59 from C&W quoting the bulldog account details, assumed it was a glitch in their system & ignored it. Now, I'm getting Moorcroft Debt Recovery threatening court action if I don't pay this money!
The bill (dated 1/9/2007) does not detail a service, but has a forwarding balance & a weird credit for a 3 day period in 2007, but the balance is £59. Bear in mind, that prior to this I had migrated from f2s to TalkTalk. Migrations end the agreement & the account needs to be settled prior to getting the MAC number to migrate with.
Moorcroft insist they don't need to supply more info about the bill. Bulldog, Moorcroft & C&W have not supplied me with any further information despite several requests.
To me, this is criminal, I want the company shutdown. Willing to join a class action if I thought this could force them out of business.
First things first - if you aren't a customer of Bulldog, NEVER become one! If you are and are having problems with them taking your money - DON'T give up, you can win. Keep all emails and written correspondence that passes between you and Bulldog and note down times of a calls to them and who you spoke to - first names will do. Hopefully my experience below will give some of you heart that you can beat them!! The crux of the story is that they are so incompetent, if you hold your nerves and demand your legal rights, they cock up their end of the deal so badly, due to their inefficiency and lack of adequate record keeping, that they can not pursue you through the courts and they give up trying.
I signed up for their no contract service in Feb 05. I had problems connecting off and on for the first few months and eventually got dealt with, after many calls, by their techie team. They admitted that the comp,any was expanding so quickly that they hadn't purchased enough 'packet access' from BT, so at busy times it was hit and miss if you could connect. They seemed to resolve that problem in early summer '05.
In July '05 I experienced a weekend when I could not connect at all. Their Customer services call centre either was engaged, or did not answer, so I called the number for people who wanted to sign up with them. Lo and behold I was answered first time. (TIP: I recommend anyone having problems getting through to their Customer Service (sic) team does the same. Once through, DO NOT allow them to transfer you to Customer services, you will be cut off. Tell them you are an existing, paying customer with a problem and demand, don't ask, to speak to a Supervisor. There will always be one on duty, whatever you are initially told. On their sales line, they are paying for the call, so tell them you will hold on until a Supervisor is available.)
I asked their supervisor when I could expect to receive an internet service and was told that their tech team did not work weekends and they would be in on Monday, so nothing would be done before then. I then said that I expected a refund for the two days I had not been able to receive a service. They told me this was not possible, so I advised them that I considered this a breach of contract on their part which was unnacceptable and was therefore terminating my account immediately as they had failed to provide a service or adequate technical support. The reality of a poor/non-existent service being materially different from the advertised service on numerous occasions was sufficient evidence to prove this.
To cut a long story short, the next day they illegally took a direct debit from my account for that months payment - 10 days before it was due. I immediately instructed my bank not to pay any more DD's to them.
Once I had terminated my direct debit, I advised them they could not take money from my account. They said they had no record of the call in which I told them to close my account and no record of the direct debit. I kept details of all this correspondence. They continued to bill me each month and I kept all the emails.
One year later, I had pretty much forgotten about Bulldog, when they started to email me demanding £258 for the money I 'owed them' for the remaining months of the 'contract' I had terminated 'early'. i advised them that I had not been on a years contract and requested that they show me the documentation that proved otherwise. They said that it was an 'electronic' contract, so they could not show me this in writing. Each time they said this I replied and told them that this was unnacceptable and if they wanted the money, they would need to prove their entitlement to it by showing me where I had signed up for a year's contract. This email tennis went on for about another year, with their average turnaround time for an email response being 6 - 12 weeks.
After this time they sold the debt to a debt collection agency. Then the fun really started. A debt collector turned up at my door demanding the £258 and saying I would be taken to court if I didn't pay. I researched my rights and found out that, yes, they could take me to court, however to prove their case they had to provide, in writing, a contract signed by myself to prove I had agreed to a year's contract. Knowing no such document existed, I knew they couldn't provide one. each time the debt collection agency (FYI: Moorcroft Debt Recovery)contacted me, I put in writing that I was unable to pay the debt until they provided a copy of the contract I was being asked to honour.
The debt collection agency always requested I called them, but I advise never to do this - always write, always do this within the time-frame they give you - usually only 2-3 days from the date of their letter. This is so they cannot instigate legal proceedings against you, as while you are in correspondence they 'freeze' any action. Always enclose a copy of the letter from them you are replying to, and always get proof of postage and keep copies of EVERYTHING!
The debt collection agency cannot answer any questions about your account with Bulldog - they have simply purchased the debt from them and wish to recover it to cover their outlay. Any request you make of them for information, they have to pass to Bulldog for a response. This takes ages as Bulldog are so poorly organised, and in any event, you no longer owe Bulldog money as they have sold the debt to the debt collection agency, so Bulldog no longer really care, they have had their cash!
In the end, I did a little research into my rights under the Data Protection Act. I advised the debt collectors that, seeing as Bulldog and I were in dispute, I required copies of every single piece of data they had stored on me. Emails, recordings of telephone conversations, letters they had sent me, every single bill and invoice, the lot. The collection agency questioned this and said it would not help and that I was stalling (which I was!). However, once I pointed out that it was my legal right that they provide me with this evidence that I could use in my defence, they had to back down and try and provide it. They did advise me that they would be proceeding immediately with court hearings though.
Unsurprisingly enough, it's been almost a year and I never heard from them again. I knew that Bulldog could not come up with all the documents that I had requested, which they were legally obligated to do. I also assume that Moorcroft debt recovery realised that to pursue me for £258 was going to cost them significantly more.
Moorcroft bought the debt from Bulldog on the assumption that a couple of menacing letters and a visit from a debt collector would scare me into paying. They are not allowed to forcibly enter your house and recover goods to pay the debt until they have a Court injunction against you. Even if they obtain that you have a grace period to pay the debt, and if you do so, they can't touch you further. Taking someone to court and losing is expensive for them, so if you stand up to them they eventually go away as they are losing money by expending resources chasing you.
Hello to all the sufferers of bulldog.
I was a customer of bulldog for the last 18 months. they provided broadband and phone line, and as with most of these companies were very eager to take on my account,but it only took them three months before things started to go wrong. My bills were paid and then i was told that i still owed money, call bulldog "Ok thats sorted out for you now" next bill comes in and shows unpaid amounts from previous month, call bulldog " Ok thats sorted out for you now" and thats how it goes on. Not only with bills but with technical requests too, it can take more than 5 calls to "Customer Services" to get anyone who is clever enough to even understand a request, let alone carry it out.
I have been involved in installing telephone systems for residential and business customers for the last 15 years so i know perhaps more than most about whats possible and whats not. So what do you do. Well i have set myself up as a competitor to bulldog and all of the other providers out there including BT, although as everyone knows you can never really get away from BT.
I can now supply telephone lines, business broadband, cheaper calls, business mobiles, IP lines, 0800,0845,0871 lines and all the other services that should be simple but so many providers get wrong because they lose touch with their customers.
Lets teach them all a lesson, move your account to someone who will at least try to provide a service and not just sit on the end of a phone pretending to do the job. If you are interested you can email me at timetomove@qcomm.co.uk and lets see if we can't provide a better service.
We deserve it.
Hello everyone! I've read the comments on this forum and thought i would leave this message.
A new prime time TV show seeks to get results on your behalf with consumer problems.
Have you had a bad experience that needs addressing? Have you been ripped off and want revenge? Does someone's bad service need highlighting to a national audience?
email or call us us in confidence, and we will get to work on your behalf.
email complain@northonetv.com
or call matt on 0207 502 5812
CISAS have awarded me what they describe as "a significant sum" of £600 for all the problems I have had with Bulldog. The firm has been heavily criticised and Bulldog has been ordered to close my accounts, remove my details from the billing system and to carry out a wholesale review of the case.
The adjudicator says there have been "significant failures" in the customer complaints procedure.
I was initially offered £20 by Bulldog which I refused and I'd urge anyone with problems with this firm to take them to CISAS. I found it a very quick way of sorting Bulldog out and wish I had done it a long time ago.
I have an identical problem with Bulldog and have made a complaint to the regulator CISAS. Bulldog is continuing to take money from my credit card after I cancelled the service four months ago. I've written to countless people at the firm to complain and the result is always the same - they just carry on helping themselves from my credit card.
I strongly urge you to contact CISAS to make a complaint http://www.cisas.org.uk/ . You can start the complaint through their website and then send them the documentation.
I've also complained to trading standards who have told me CISAS have teeth and should be able to stop Bulldog's behaviour.
I can't wait to read what Bulldog say about my complaint, fortunately I insisted on most communication being by email and letter so there is plenty of evidence to support my case.
This is definitely a rogue firm. I discovered too late, just after I signed up for it, that there had been numerous complaints to Ofcom. The problems the firm's accounts dept have are far from over.
It is listed on Blagger.com under "Bulldog Broadband" and "Bulldogbroadband" and has rating of five thumbs down under BOTH names.
I have been trying to cancel my account with them since January 2007. As of today, 2 August 2007, I have had no success.
To cancel you must contact their cancellation team which is difficult (long queues and they don't always pick up the phone). They will tell you there is a 30 day notice period before the service will be disconnected.
Then they don't disconnect you.
Then you call them up and they have no record of your cancellation request.
Then they keep taking your money.
Then you have to repeat the whole process.
Including the part where they have no record of your request and they keep taking your money.
They are currently offering new customers a monthly service at £9.75 a month, which is what I paid. While with them however the price has risen until now I am paying £57.00 per month.
Other sources on the internet also confirm they are quick to send in debt collectors when their bills are disputed.
By signing up for services with a different provider, I have now ended nearly 2 years with bulldog. Please people, go through the new provider switch process, rather than cancel directly with bulldog, providing you are not legally obligated to continue with them (owe money on a contract basis, that isn't finished). It is not adviseable to cancel payments from Direct Debit until you have finished paying what you owe. Or at least get it in writing, that you have alternate arrangements for payment of the final amount. That way, you will not be in the wrong. Then, if you find you have been charged inappropriately, and you have all correspondence, bills etc, you should have grounds for a claim...with the right legal guidance. I know how exhausting it can become, when you try to work things out the right way, but never get anywhere. I also don't understand why there cannot be experienced, English speaking staff, there as back up.
I have been with bulldog for nearly 2 years, having joined on a no contract plan. In the beginning, there were lots of overcharges, and these took 6 months to fix. Recently I was informed it would cost a one time £20 to UPGRADE to a cheaper plan, which is not really an upgrade, it is the same plan as I have, but just cheaper now. A cheek, when others can get it cheaper from the start, so what happened to loyalty? Even more of a cheek, when you think we were entitled to higher speeds that most of us never got past 2~2.5mb, and this has been the case for 2 years. But notice how useless the connection gets when we want to download a file? Anyone else get freezing on a high spec computer? And now, Bulldog is charging me over the evening call rate, and when I sent an e mail, all I got for my 5 days waiting for reply, was the rate they charge, which obviously I knew, and they couldn't be bothered to check their mistake out. Or, still cannot get past 1st grade mathematics. And to all of you, never give up, as if you persist, agencies like OFCOM will have to sort things out. Or try the Citizens advice bureau, as they have legal help and advice. They will try to find out where we can get results, backed by them?
I am so disgusted with this firm that I am going to take them to the county court for falsely telling a credit reference agency that I had paid a bill late. I hadn't. They had failed to take money from my credit card.
Fortunately I can prove, because I've had exchanges of dozens of emails, that they had my credit card number many times.
On March 30 I told them I was cancelling the account and guess what? They're still debiting my credit card in May.
Watch this space. I've given them a figure of compensation I expect and they have a further two weeks to come up with it otherwise it's definitely a county court job.
Easily the most incompetent firm I have ever dealt with. I even wasted my time writing to the chief executives of Bulldog and Pipex but didn't get a reply.
Let's hope Ofcom and the Information Commissioner to whom I have also complained have big teeth to protect consumers from this firm.
I've taken my business elsewhere because I can't stand the distress and aggravation of dealing with Bulldog any more.
Hopeless, terrible customer service. I've written to their MD at their head office and not had a reply and also now written to the customer service dept at Pipex which now owns them, also with no reply.
If you phone them the customer service reps speak such poor English you can't understand what they say and they can't understand you. They messed up my account and then credited me with some free months but at the end of that time they failed to reactivate the credit card and the first we found out was when they cut the service off. Later I found they had affected my spotless credit rating by recording this as a late payment when it was nothing of the sort, it was their mistake,
They can't change the billing address and they can't send a direct debit form (our bank account needs two signatures to authorise it). They told me to do the direct debit online but you couldn't as they well knew that part of their website was out of action for days.
So all in all totally useless and I have no option but to take it up with Ofcom. A terrible firm and I can't wait to switch back to BT. The actual service has been fine, no problems, just terrible customer service.
I joined them in 2004... they didn't emailed me saying they were having problems with billing and didn't take any money for six months...
Called several times to sort this out, without success!
Then they added a £200 charge onto the balance of the account. No one has explained why!
Finally managed to set a payyment plan up and I'm down to the couple of hundred I now owe! But I'll damned if I'm gonna the £200 charge!!!!
After hundreds of phone calls, emails and the passing of two years its still not sorted. Unbelieveable!
Looking at this site I see a lot of similarities to my experiences, my favourite is when they offer to call back in 48 hours and never do, or when they put you on hold and hang up!!!!!
Ijoin bulldog in march 2006 but i have to move my home so i chose to
continue bulldog service because the said that there will be no extra
charges they send me email"This is to confirm that we have cancelled your
ADSL account with
BulldogDSL. Your ADSL service will cancel on 10 May 2006.
You will not be charged for the full term of the contract because you
have
ordered a new line with us, ref bdol6074583.
but they still charge me for full contract wich was 181.53 £ then
from 10/05/06 up to 23/05/06 ythey was completed service activation
but internet WAS NOT WORKING!!!!!!!!!!even single day
i HAVE SPOKEN WITH TECHNICIAN DEPARTAMENT ABOUT FOULT DOZEN TIMES THERE
ARE FEW REFERENCDE NO. 178465 168244 AND FEW MORE OK UP TO 31/08/06
I RECIVED SEVRAL MORE BILLS INCLUDING LINE RENTAL AND BRODBAND BUT
BRODBAND WAS NOT WORKING LIKE I SAID
their TECHNICAN SAID THAT IT WILL NOT WORK
ANYWAY they CHARGE ME FOR BRODBAND AND THEN SIMPLY CHANGE MY SERVICE
FOR PAY AS YOU GO WITHOUT ASKING ME FOR APROVAL
Bulldog is NOT complying with the requirement not to issue bills to
customers for services which have not been provided
IN CONTRACT WAS LINE BRODBAND NOT LINE WITHOUT BRODBAND
IN THAT CASE I DONT WANT their PHONE LINE
I called and spoken with their customer service and they agreed to
cancel my account but no action was taken
THERE ARE SEVRAL BILLS WICH they SEND TO ME ACORDING TO THEM YOU
REFUNDED ME SOME £ BUT THATS NOT 181.53??????AND WHAT ABOUT THE TIME WHEN
INTERNET WAS NOT WORKING WHY they CHARGE ME FOR THAT EVEN WHEN I CALLED
AND SAID THAT there is foult HAVE TECHNICAL REFERENCES NUMBERS
SO ALL MY MONEY WENT TO COVER THE TIME WHEN ACTUALY I DIDNT HAVE a
INTERNET?
AND WHY they CHANGE MY SERVICE PLAN without asking me first
they didnt send me any notification about change to pay as you go for
phone line they schould cancel my account insted they change service
plan
please help???
They are bunch of thiewes!!!Worst company I have ever dealt with.I have cancelled my account in April, but they still charged me through the direct debit. After couples of calls and neverending waiting on the line to get somebody to speak with I have been told, that they are sorry and will send me a refund. I have recieved also final bulldog bill in june via email confirming a refund,which was much more less then it should be ,but never mind. At least something finally. But guess what.I am waiting till today and still didin`t get even penny back. I have called maybe 20 times since that time, wasted so much of my time and every time I`ve got somebody from the customer service the only way how they could help me was only asking my card details.I was told that they will pass them to the financial department and they will contact me.When I asked when they will contact me they told me to be patient. This happend 5 times and I was told exactly the same bull.... every time and nothing happend. And now I am really afraid that I gave them my card details to that bunch of thiewes and li_ars. If I ask them to connect me straight to finance department, they tell me that they do not have a number.So who can help me then?? Could anybody give me advise what to do.. I am not that interested in that refund just now, but I want them to realise that they cannot deal with their customers like that. I have switched to Telewest Broadband and didn`t have any hassle yet.Thanks 4 your help.
I am shocked to learn that so many other people are dealing with the same issues I am facing with this company. I too set up a direct debit and Bulldog failed to take any payments despite each bill indicating that they had taken the money from the account. I complained in May and am still waiting for the issue to be dealt with. In the meantime I have had to put up with aggressive and arrogant "customer service" Agents phoning and demanding money which I have refused to pay until the issue is dealt with. What is even more concerning is that I informed Bulldog in July (after they cut off my line) that I wanted to cancel the contract. I have been informed by their useless agents that they have no record of this request - the reason for this I assume is that their staff do not speak or understand any english. I have complained to CICAS and OfCom and am desperate to put an end to this nightmare. Bulldog are by far the worst company I have ever dealt with. I think they should be shut down ASAP to prevent any one else being ripped off by them. Joining Bullsog was the worst move I have ever made and I am keen to explore ways of highlighting the poor levels of service they provide to the general public.
You should visit the Advertising Standards Agency web site and complain - they offer to help and if its not their remit, they will tell you who can help. They have some interesting articles showing what they have already done to firms like TalkTalk. Ofcom also have a duty to regulate these people and if enough people complain they can make their life very difficault.
Because they are full of bull. I joined in May, firstly they set up the wrong package and charged me £60 instead of £30, secondly they charged my credit card instead of direct debit. Each monthly bill contains a charge of £2 for credit card charge. We are in Nov and they have still failed to set up my direct debit. It got to the stage in July where a Bulldog person blocked my card which would force Bulldog finance to take the payment via direct debit. Guess what, no payments were made between July and sept and I get black markers against my credit. I have called Bulldog about 30 times and written various emails. Each time I have supplied them with my account number and sort code. But my bank confirmed that the direct debit had been set up for nearly 6 months and Bulldog had not activated. The latest is that my bank has revoked the direct debit as it was set up for 6 months without bulldog taking payment. Their people are useless, mindless zombies who cannot resolve problems. There is no seniot management that is contactable (hopefully they will all be fired by Pipex sonner rather than late). I have asked them to cancel the contract as they are in breach for not setting up my direct debit. I have asked them to send me a mail confirming that there will be no penalty. giess what, "they do not have authorisation to do that". Anybody out there have any ideas?
free Bulldog, (Bull****) more like, when the rep came and told me that i get free connection, free instalation, free line rental, free call 24/7 (L&N) & free internet acess for two months, i thought this is a good offer, if i was not happy with the service i could cancel within the two months and still not have to pay a penny. When the package arrived i installed it and took advantage of using the internet, when i managed to get on line three days later as i could not connect it was slower than any internet that i had ever been on. Every time someone called the house it would cut internet off then took about twenty minutes to get back on, i called and called but no answer, two weeks later i got through. After being transfered from one part of the globe to the other nobody could help me, in the end i got that fed up and cancelled my service. I disconnected all the equipment so not to use it, now i have just been landed with a £360 Debt recovery bill, still no joy from bulldog. Anyone who reads this if you have any advice please post it
Like a lot of people I also rang bulldog and cancelled my account and then cancelled my direct debit as i was moving house.But bulldog kept billing and taking money and then putting it back.I ignored this for a few months as i though it was a billing problem on their side but then after about 6 months asked them what the story was and they said i hadnt cancelled and then said it was now oficially cancelled.They then must have been sending me threatening letters but i obviously wasnt living there anymore to recieve them and now all of a sudden i have debt collectors ringing me which im a bit worried about.Any suggestions? Could i just ignore the debt collectors as they dont know where i live or what approach should i take?
Well I joined bulldog for £1.00 had my own router etc... They took a while to set up my broadband. My phone took about six months to transfer! I have had my phone with them for one month, I’ve already had enough! I needed my telephone cable on the eaves of my house moved due to building work so I asked them the procedure I should take? They told me BT had to do it, BT said Bulldog needed to simply contact the BT engineer’s dept and so forth this continued for weeks until we struggled around the cable ourselves and got the work done. After being spoken to like dirt by their call centre staff who seem to have had no training and of all the twelve or so I spoke to they have serious attitude problems. I have decided to return to BT - but not so easy Bulldog are causing yet further problems by not allowing my line
to be returned easily to BT I must have been on the phone for about 10 hours to Bulldog being passed from nerd to nerd I believe they are also linked to Pipex so beware! I am no waiting to see if I get threatening letters from them saying I owe money?????????? Has anyone written to Watchdog? I am, I have reported them to Ofcom so everyone please join forces and all report them
My phone line and as the result ADSL has been
disconnection for a long time and no one at BB seems to care. I called their support centre and they gave me the reference number 209250. I called after 3 days to find out they have closed the case with no reason. They open another ticket with reference number 209720. I still haven't heard from them.
I had disconnected ADSL service for days with BB before but it wasn't the phone line. I think things are getting worst every day with BB.
Totally Rubbish. THIS COMPANY GIVES MISLEADING INFORMATION TO ITS CUSTOMERS.
I signed on to BB on the bases of a NON 12 MONTHS contract and that you could cancel after 1 month.
When i signed up the sales person told me that there is a £1 connection fee and thats all. You get a FREE MODEM, NO 12 MONTHS CONTRACT and its a fixed line rentle!
Guess what guys! It was a lie, They were lieing! I had problems with the service and decided to cancel my CONTRACT after the one months period and GUESS WHAT, i was billed for £158.10
and another £99.80 for another line!
I was extremely shocked cause firstly they charged me for the equiptment and secondly £158.10 + £99.80 thats £257.90, JUST FOR 1 MONTH!
They must be having a laugh! My previous BT Bills were quaterly and still didnt even add up to £250!
Well i phoned there customer services 5/6 times but they kept on transfering me to different people and eventually they hanged up!
I then decided to email them and explain and all i received was BILLS of £257.90! There was no response to my email.
Further i wrote to them by letter a few times but once AGAIN they didnt reply to any of my letters, except sent me threatening letters for not making payment! They said they would take legal action.
During that period i cancelled my direct debit so they couldnt take any payment from my account until the matter was resolved.
However i kept on writing letter to them but still havent heard anything from them.
Unfortunatly last week i received a letter from a Debt Recovery Agency acting on behalf of Bulldog to collect £158.10, and if i wouldnt pay they would take legal actions and send baliffs to come to my house.
I was so disgusted and shocked as i have never in my life got any bad credit like this and for something, which i am not liable of to pay in the first place.
I phoned the debt recovery Agency and explained that i am waiting for bulldog to reply to my letter and resolve the matter but they wouldnt listen to anything and suggested me to make a half payment of £79.10, so that they can put the account on hold and not go further to take legal action against me.
I have wrote to bulldog again yesterday and have given them 7 days notice to reply otherwise i will take action against them.
The only thing is i dont know what to do. How can i pay £257.90 just for 1 MONTH and how can i prove to them that they said the equiptment was FREE. Bulldog has changed all there polocies and they dont even have the NO MINIMUM CONTRACT OFFER anymore.
I am sure many people signed on to that offer before.
The funny thing is when we sign up they mention "this call may be recoreded for training purposes" Well MR BULLDOG, If you want to listen VERY CAREFULLY TO THAT CALL, we dont even have to go to the court!
If anyone else is in the same situation please let me know. Maybe we can take them to court together!
This is the worst company ever!!!! Since the day I signed up with them it has been nothing but trouble. The customer service representatives are useless and the service is horrible!! They stole £200.00 out of my account for no reason two months ago and still have not repaid me. On top of that they "forgot" to cancel my first account and kept charging me for it while they were charging me for the new account and still have not credited my new account with that money and have now cancelled my phone line because they said they are "understaffed" and haven't had a chance in 6 weeks to do this!!! They want me to pay them more money even though they owe me over £200.00!!! This is a horrible company and these are just a few of the complaints I have against them. If anyone has any advice to get away from this company I would love to hear it and for anybody who is thinking about signing up with them FORGET IT!!
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Comments:
I'd suggest the person posting below also complains to CISAS. I'm on my third complaint.
Migrated to another ISP well outside the 12 month minimum contract period.
2007, I get a bill for £59 from C&W quoting the bulldog account details, assumed it was a glitch in their system & ignored it. Now, I'm getting Moorcroft Debt Recovery threatening court action if I don't pay this money!
The bill (dated 1/9/2007) does not detail a service, but has a forwarding balance & a weird credit for a 3 day period in 2007, but the balance is £59. Bear in mind, that prior to this I had migrated from f2s to TalkTalk. Migrations end the agreement & the account needs to be settled prior to getting the MAC number to migrate with.
Moorcroft insist they don't need to supply more info about the bill. Bulldog, Moorcroft & C&W have not supplied me with any further information despite several requests.
To me, this is criminal, I want the company shutdown. Willing to join a class action if I thought this could force them out of business.
I signed up for their no contract service in Feb 05. I had problems connecting off and on for the first few months and eventually got dealt with, after many calls, by their techie team. They admitted that the comp,any was expanding so quickly that they hadn't purchased enough 'packet access' from BT, so at busy times it was hit and miss if you could connect. They seemed to resolve that problem in early summer '05.
In July '05 I experienced a weekend when I could not connect at all. Their Customer services call centre either was engaged, or did not answer, so I called the number for people who wanted to sign up with them. Lo and behold I was answered first time. (TIP: I recommend anyone having problems getting through to their Customer Service (sic) team does the same. Once through, DO NOT allow them to transfer you to Customer services, you will be cut off. Tell them you are an existing, paying customer with a problem and demand, don't ask, to speak to a Supervisor. There will always be one on duty, whatever you are initially told. On their sales line, they are paying for the call, so tell them you will hold on until a Supervisor is available.)
I asked their supervisor when I could expect to receive an internet service and was told that their tech team did not work weekends and they would be in on Monday, so nothing would be done before then. I then said that I expected a refund for the two days I had not been able to receive a service. They told me this was not possible, so I advised them that I considered this a breach of contract on their part which was unnacceptable and was therefore terminating my account immediately as they had failed to provide a service or adequate technical support. The reality of a poor/non-existent service being materially different from the advertised service on numerous occasions was sufficient evidence to prove this.
To cut a long story short, the next day they illegally took a direct debit from my account for that months payment - 10 days before it was due. I immediately instructed my bank not to pay any more DD's to them.
Once I had terminated my direct debit, I advised them they could not take money from my account. They said they had no record of the call in which I told them to close my account and no record of the direct debit. I kept details of all this correspondence. They continued to bill me each month and I kept all the emails.
One year later, I had pretty much forgotten about Bulldog, when they started to email me demanding £258 for the money I 'owed them' for the remaining months of the 'contract' I had terminated 'early'. i advised them that I had not been on a years contract and requested that they show me the documentation that proved otherwise. They said that it was an 'electronic' contract, so they could not show me this in writing. Each time they said this I replied and told them that this was unnacceptable and if they wanted the money, they would need to prove their entitlement to it by showing me where I had signed up for a year's contract. This email tennis went on for about another year, with their average turnaround time for an email response being 6 - 12 weeks.
After this time they sold the debt to a debt collection agency. Then the fun really started. A debt collector turned up at my door demanding the £258 and saying I would be taken to court if I didn't pay. I researched my rights and found out that, yes, they could take me to court, however to prove their case they had to provide, in writing, a contract signed by myself to prove I had agreed to a year's contract. Knowing no such document existed, I knew they couldn't provide one. each time the debt collection agency (FYI: Moorcroft Debt Recovery)contacted me, I put in writing that I was unable to pay the debt until they provided a copy of the contract I was being asked to honour.
The debt collection agency always requested I called them, but I advise never to do this - always write, always do this within the time-frame they give you - usually only 2-3 days from the date of their letter. This is so they cannot instigate legal proceedings against you, as while you are in correspondence they 'freeze' any action. Always enclose a copy of the letter from them you are replying to, and always get proof of postage and keep copies of EVERYTHING!
The debt collection agency cannot answer any questions about your account with Bulldog - they have simply purchased the debt from them and wish to recover it to cover their outlay. Any request you make of them for information, they have to pass to Bulldog for a response. This takes ages as Bulldog are so poorly organised, and in any event, you no longer owe Bulldog money as they have sold the debt to the debt collection agency, so Bulldog no longer really care, they have had their cash!
In the end, I did a little research into my rights under the Data Protection Act. I advised the debt collectors that, seeing as Bulldog and I were in dispute, I required copies of every single piece of data they had stored on me. Emails, recordings of telephone conversations, letters they had sent me, every single bill and invoice, the lot. The collection agency questioned this and said it would not help and that I was stalling (which I was!). However, once I pointed out that it was my legal right that they provide me with this evidence that I could use in my defence, they had to back down and try and provide it. They did advise me that they would be proceeding immediately with court hearings though.
Unsurprisingly enough, it's been almost a year and I never heard from them again. I knew that Bulldog could not come up with all the documents that I had requested, which they were legally obligated to do. I also assume that Moorcroft debt recovery realised that to pursue me for £258 was going to cost them significantly more.
Moorcroft bought the debt from Bulldog on the assumption that a couple of menacing letters and a visit from a debt collector would scare me into paying. They are not allowed to forcibly enter your house and recover goods to pay the debt until they have a Court injunction against you. Even if they obtain that you have a grace period to pay the debt, and if you do so, they can't touch you further. Taking someone to court and losing is expensive for them, so if you stand up to them they eventually go away as they are losing money by expending resources chasing you.
I was a customer of bulldog for the last 18 months. they provided broadband and phone line, and as with most of these companies were very eager to take on my account,but it only took them three months before things started to go wrong. My bills were paid and then i was told that i still owed money, call bulldog "Ok thats sorted out for you now" next bill comes in and shows unpaid amounts from previous month, call bulldog " Ok thats sorted out for you now" and thats how it goes on. Not only with bills but with technical requests too, it can take more than 5 calls to "Customer Services" to get anyone who is clever enough to even understand a request, let alone carry it out.
I have been involved in installing telephone systems for residential and business customers for the last 15 years so i know perhaps more than most about whats possible and whats not. So what do you do. Well i have set myself up as a competitor to bulldog and all of the other providers out there including BT, although as everyone knows you can never really get away from BT.
I can now supply telephone lines, business broadband, cheaper calls, business mobiles, IP lines, 0800,0845,0871 lines and all the other services that should be simple but so many providers get wrong because they lose touch with their customers.
Lets teach them all a lesson, move your account to someone who will at least try to provide a service and not just sit on the end of a phone pretending to do the job. If you are interested you can email me at timetomove@qcomm.co.uk and lets see if we can't provide a better service.
We deserve it.
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Have you had a bad experience that needs addressing? Have you been ripped off and want revenge? Does someone's bad service need highlighting to a national audience?
email or call us us in confidence, and we will get to work on your behalf.
email complain@northonetv.com
or call matt on 0207 502 5812
The Complainers at 10th Sep 2007, 07:38PM
The adjudicator says there have been "significant failures" in the customer complaints procedure.
I was initially offered £20 by Bulldog which I refused and I'd urge anyone with problems with this firm to take them to CISAS. I found it a very quick way of sorting Bulldog out and wish I had done it a long time ago.
I strongly urge you to contact CISAS to make a complaint http://www.cisas.org.uk/ . You can start the complaint through their website and then send them the documentation.
I've also complained to trading standards who have told me CISAS have teeth and should be able to stop Bulldog's behaviour.
I can't wait to read what Bulldog say about my complaint, fortunately I insisted on most communication being by email and letter so there is plenty of evidence to support my case.
This is definitely a rogue firm. I discovered too late, just after I signed up for it, that there had been numerous complaints to Ofcom. The problems the firm's accounts dept have are far from over.
My advice is don't touch it with a bargepole.
It is listed on Blagger.com under "Bulldog Broadband" and "Bulldogbroadband" and has rating of five thumbs down under BOTH names.
I have been trying to cancel my account with them since January 2007. As of today, 2 August 2007, I have had no success.
To cancel you must contact their cancellation team which is difficult (long queues and they don't always pick up the phone). They will tell you there is a 30 day notice period before the service will be disconnected.
Then they don't disconnect you.
Then you call them up and they have no record of your cancellation request.
Then they keep taking your money.
Then you have to repeat the whole process.
Including the part where they have no record of your request and they keep taking your money.
They are currently offering new customers a monthly service at £9.75 a month, which is what I paid. While with them however the price has risen until now I am paying £57.00 per month.
Other sources on the internet also confirm they are quick to send in debt collectors when their bills are disputed.
maruko at 23rd May 2007, 02:08AM
Fortunately I can prove, because I've had exchanges of dozens of emails, that they had my credit card number many times.
On March 30 I told them I was cancelling the account and guess what? They're still debiting my credit card in May.
Watch this space. I've given them a figure of compensation I expect and they have a further two weeks to come up with it otherwise it's definitely a county court job.
Easily the most incompetent firm I have ever dealt with. I even wasted my time writing to the chief executives of Bulldog and Pipex but didn't get a reply.
Let's hope Ofcom and the Information Commissioner to whom I have also complained have big teeth to protect consumers from this firm.
I've taken my business elsewhere because I can't stand the distress and aggravation of dealing with Bulldog any more.
If you phone them the customer service reps speak such poor English you can't understand what they say and they can't understand you. They messed up my account and then credited me with some free months but at the end of that time they failed to reactivate the credit card and the first we found out was when they cut the service off. Later I found they had affected my spotless credit rating by recording this as a late payment when it was nothing of the sort, it was their mistake,
They can't change the billing address and they can't send a direct debit form (our bank account needs two signatures to authorise it). They told me to do the direct debit online but you couldn't as they well knew that part of their website was out of action for days.
So all in all totally useless and I have no option but to take it up with Ofcom. A terrible firm and I can't wait to switch back to BT. The actual service has been fine, no problems, just terrible customer service.
Called several times to sort this out, without success!
Then they added a £200 charge onto the balance of the account. No one has explained why!
Finally managed to set a payyment plan up and I'm down to the couple of hundred I now owe! But I'll damned if I'm gonna the £200 charge!!!!
After hundreds of phone calls, emails and the passing of two years its still not sorted. Unbelieveable!
Looking at this site I see a lot of similarities to my experiences, my favourite is when they offer to call back in 48 hours and never do, or when they put you on hold and hang up!!!!!
continue bulldog service because the said that there will be no extra
charges they send me email"This is to confirm that we have cancelled your
ADSL account with
BulldogDSL. Your ADSL service will cancel on 10 May 2006.
You will not be charged for the full term of the contract because you
have
ordered a new line with us, ref bdol6074583.
but they still charge me for full contract wich was 181.53 £ then
from 10/05/06 up to 23/05/06 ythey was completed service activation
but internet WAS NOT WORKING!!!!!!!!!!even single day
i HAVE SPOKEN WITH TECHNICIAN DEPARTAMENT ABOUT FOULT DOZEN TIMES THERE
ARE FEW REFERENCDE NO. 178465 168244 AND FEW MORE OK UP TO 31/08/06
I RECIVED SEVRAL MORE BILLS INCLUDING LINE RENTAL AND BRODBAND BUT
BRODBAND WAS NOT WORKING LIKE I SAID
their TECHNICAN SAID THAT IT WILL NOT WORK
ANYWAY they CHARGE ME FOR BRODBAND AND THEN SIMPLY CHANGE MY SERVICE
FOR PAY AS YOU GO WITHOUT ASKING ME FOR APROVAL
Bulldog is NOT complying with the requirement not to issue bills to
customers for services which have not been provided
IN CONTRACT WAS LINE BRODBAND NOT LINE WITHOUT BRODBAND
IN THAT CASE I DONT WANT their PHONE LINE
I called and spoken with their customer service and they agreed to
cancel my account but no action was taken
THERE ARE SEVRAL BILLS WICH they SEND TO ME ACORDING TO THEM YOU
REFUNDED ME SOME £ BUT THATS NOT 181.53??????AND WHAT ABOUT THE TIME WHEN
INTERNET WAS NOT WORKING WHY they CHARGE ME FOR THAT EVEN WHEN I CALLED
AND SAID THAT there is foult HAVE TECHNICAL REFERENCES NUMBERS
SO ALL MY MONEY WENT TO COVER THE TIME WHEN ACTUALY I DIDNT HAVE a
INTERNET?
AND WHY they CHANGE MY SERVICE PLAN without asking me first
they didnt send me any notification about change to pay as you go for
phone line they schould cancel my account insted they change service
plan
please help???
Like a lot of people I also rang bulldog and cancelled my account and then cancelled my direct debit as i was moving house.But bulldog kept billing and taking money and then putting it back.I ignored this for a few months as i though it was a billing problem on their side but then after about 6 months asked them what the story was and they said i hadnt cancelled and then said it was now oficially cancelled.They then must have been sending me threatening letters but i obviously wasnt living there anymore to recieve them and now all of a sudden i have debt collectors ringing me which im a bit worried about.Any suggestions? Could i just ignore the debt collectors as they dont know where i live or what approach should i take?
Please help!
to be returned easily to BT I must have been on the phone for about 10 hours to Bulldog being passed from nerd to nerd I believe they are also linked to Pipex so beware! I am no waiting to see if I get threatening letters from them saying I owe money?????????? Has anyone written to Watchdog? I am, I have reported them to Ofcom so everyone please join forces and all report them
RUDE UNHELPFUL RIP-OFF MERCHANTS
disconnection for a long time and no one at BB seems to care. I called their support centre and they gave me the reference number 209250. I called after 3 days to find out they have closed the case with no reason. They open another ticket with reference number 209720. I still haven't heard from them.
I had disconnected ADSL service for days with BB before but it wasn't the phone line. I think things are getting worst every day with BB.
I signed on to BB on the bases of a NON 12 MONTHS contract and that you could cancel after 1 month.
When i signed up the sales person told me that there is a £1 connection fee and thats all. You get a FREE MODEM, NO 12 MONTHS CONTRACT and its a fixed line rentle!
Guess what guys! It was a lie, They were lieing! I had problems with the service and decided to cancel my CONTRACT after the one months period and GUESS WHAT, i was billed for £158.10
and another £99.80 for another line!
I was extremely shocked cause firstly they charged me for the equiptment and secondly £158.10 + £99.80 thats £257.90, JUST FOR 1 MONTH!
They must be having a laugh! My previous BT Bills were quaterly and still didnt even add up to £250!
Well i phoned there customer services 5/6 times but they kept on transfering me to different people and eventually they hanged up!
I then decided to email them and explain and all i received was BILLS of £257.90! There was no response to my email.
Further i wrote to them by letter a few times but once AGAIN they didnt reply to any of my letters, except sent me threatening letters for not making payment! They said they would take legal action.
During that period i cancelled my direct debit so they couldnt take any payment from my account until the matter was resolved.
However i kept on writing letter to them but still havent heard anything from them.
Unfortunatly last week i received a letter from a Debt Recovery Agency acting on behalf of Bulldog to collect £158.10, and if i wouldnt pay they would take legal actions and send baliffs to come to my house.
I was so disgusted and shocked as i have never in my life got any bad credit like this and for something, which i am not liable of to pay in the first place.
I phoned the debt recovery Agency and explained that i am waiting for bulldog to reply to my letter and resolve the matter but they wouldnt listen to anything and suggested me to make a half payment of £79.10, so that they can put the account on hold and not go further to take legal action against me.
I have wrote to bulldog again yesterday and have given them 7 days notice to reply otherwise i will take action against them.
The only thing is i dont know what to do. How can i pay £257.90 just for 1 MONTH and how can i prove to them that they said the equiptment was FREE. Bulldog has changed all there polocies and they dont even have the NO MINIMUM CONTRACT OFFER anymore.
I am sure many people signed on to that offer before.
The funny thing is when we sign up they mention "this call may be recoreded for training purposes" Well MR BULLDOG, If you want to listen VERY CAREFULLY TO THAT CALL, we dont even have to go to the court!
If anyone else is in the same situation please let me know. Maybe we can take them to court together!
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