Having endured many months of problems getting things connected and accounts activated (take a look at my earlier rant about utilities) I had become accustomed to pathetic customer services. However, Bulldog beat them all.
Somewhere along the line the 'big wigs' at Bulldog would of had to formulate a strategy for resolving customer queries. It looks like this meeting was a very short one. Their answer to everything; outsource to India! Yes, thats right, another company jumping on that band wagon.
Due to restrictions imposed upon me by my landlord (no cable allowed :( ) I was left with very few choices for an ADSL provider. I opted for the best of a bad bunch, Bulldog. That is when things started to go wrong.
The connection took 6 weeks to be sorted, instead of the maximum of 4 stated on the website and on the letter. Strike 1!
Fitting day came, credit where credit is due, the engineer was early and switched on the socket nice and quickly. Now according to the letters, emails and the assurances of the fitter, the line should be active within 4 hours.
Five hours later, nothing. Time to call the helpline.
Strike 2! Useless in the extreme. With great lines like "if you want to complain about your lack of internet connection you will need to send an email to..." and "have you checked your connection status online?" it is difficult for me to comprehend how these people survive.
At this point I was getting somewhat annoyed, clearly those 'big wigs' who made these procedures lack some common sense. How exactly do you send an email or look at a website when they haven't got round to pulling their collective finger out and switching on my line!
I called back later on in the evening before the so called "support" line closed. Strike 3 and in a big way! This time the bouffon on the other end claims "if it is not on now sir, it probably wont be until monday". Time to get the supervisor!
After a brief vent of some more choice points that I wanted them to fully understand in no uncertain terms (mostly arguments about them lying in their correspondence and delaying of services equating to breaches of contract) I calmed down slightly.
In hindsight the most worrying and down right rude part of this escapade was that not a single member of the support staff ever apologised or even showed the slightest form of remorse. Yes, I was at times slightly abrupt and even bras, but only because I was getting no where!
Maybe in the future those same 'big wigs' will sit down and decide that if their customer service was better and actually helpful they might shrug off the bad image, get more customers and make money that way instead of cutting corners by giving everything to the lowest bidder.
At the moment, my internet connection is running well and I have no complaints about that thankfully, as I really do not relish having to speak to "support" again!
Rant over and out .. for now..