Bulldog is halting the provisioning of some new broadband punters in a bid to ease the problems that have plagued the ISP for weeks.

In a grovelling statement designed to explain why "all aspects of our customer service have fallen well below the standards you and we demand" Bulldog blames an "administrative error" for delaying the implementation of new capacity for its network.

Snag is, it's unclear from Bulldog's statement exactly who is to blame - the ISP or its supplier BT. No one at Bulldog was available to shed any light on this question at the time of writing. BT is currently checking to see if it was responsible for the cock-up.

Either way, as a result of the "error", Bulldog has suspended "provisioning of new customers with IPStream-based services until the new capacity is in place". And it's expanded it tech support numbers so that hacked off punters don't have to wait for hours to speak to someone when their service is running at a crawl.

Bulldog's statement - complete with all the fluff and nonsense associated with a company that "shares [its] customers frustration at the difficulties in reaching us" - is below.

"Bulldog strives to provide high-speed and secure services to all of its customers. This focus on high speed and high quality has meant that the numbers of people choosing Bulldog have grown very rapidly in recent months. Recently that has meant that all aspects of our customer service have fallen well below the standards you and we demand. We share our customers' frustration at the difficulties in reaching us, and would like to apologise.

"To support our rapid growth, Bulldog ordered additional IPStream capacity from BT several months ago to double network capacity and maintain the high network performance which has been the foundation of its reputation.

"Unfortunately, an administrative error meant that capacity Bulldog had anticipated being implemented in late August has been delayed. BT is committed to have this additional capacity provided to Bulldog no later than 4 October.

"In the intervening time, some customers whose services are based on IPStream have been experiencing speeds slower than the very high speeds that they have come to expect. Customers whose services are based on DataStream or on Bulldog’s own LLU network are unaffected.

"As a result of the IPStream delay, enquiries to Bulldog's customer service team have increased. To meet this additional demand Bulldog has trebled its customer service and technical support teams over the last two months. An additional 30 customer services staff begin working on 22 September.

"To accommodate the expanded teams, Bulldog has taken extra office space but this caused short-term disruption to the phone system, with customers waiting for long periods and experiencing dropped calls. These issues have now been resolved.

"Similar pressure led to the backlog of email enquiries which we have greatly reduced and will have cleared completely by 1 October.

"Bulldog has suspended provisioning of new customers with IPStream-based services until the new capacity is in place, both to ensure that the quality of service for existing customers is maintained, and to ensure that new customers get the high quality of service that Bulldog expects to provide.

"Until recently our reputation for customer service was a source of pride for us and envy for our competitors. We intend to win it back." ®

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