In a recent post, I talked about poor customer service from BullGuard, the anti-virus software company. A relative of mine paid for their subscription to be renewed, but the money was lost and their protection was disabled.
I’m pleased to say that BullGuard have now resolved the situation satisfactorily and my relative is now happily using BullGuard once again.
After my previous post, I was contacted by both Ovidiu Anton, Head of Customer Support and Bronwyn Gascoigne, Australian Sales Manager.
I hadn’t realised that BullGuard has an Australian office. They aren’t listed in either the White Pages or the Yellow Pages and a Google search didn’t turn up any results.
There is now an Australian Office listed on the BullGuard Contact page, but this page only included the UK, Denmark and Romanian offices when the issue first occurred. There’s still no phone number for BullGuard’s Australian office, but that’s because BullGuard doesn’t have phone numbers.
BullGuard are a modern Internet based company that uses Live Chat for support. That’s fine for modern Internet users, but there are plenty of potential customers out there who are a little more old-fashioned and are looking for a phone number. That’s not a criticism, just an observation.
Anyway, BullGuard do have staff in Australia and they are very helpful, if Bronwyn’s example is anything to go by. Most of my correspondence was with Bronwyn who did a great job of communicating. She answered emails quickly, politely and clearly and advised us when the problem was resolved.
Bronwyn also sent my relative what appears to be 3 free copies of BullGuard. I’m not sure how long the licenses are for, but they’ll be able to give it to their friends to try the product. I may even give BullGuard a whirl myself – although I’m quite happy with Avast, so we’ll see.
The situation was probably helped by my relative sending a scanned letter from the bank, confirming that the cheque was sent to Global Collect BV. It wasn’t straight forward to get the letter or they would have done this sooner. I have to say that BullGuard really should have been able to investigate the situation without this letter.
It took about three days from the time BullGuard got the scanned letter, until the subscription was renewed and BullGuard started working again. It probably should have been done immediately – the problem was with Global Collect BV, not my relative – but anyway, BullGuard is working again and my relative is happy that the situation has been resolved.
In hindsight, it seems to have been a simple administration error between BullGuard and Global Collect (although my relative still lost out). The problem could have been avoided if a credit card had been the method of payment instead of a cheque.
The Lesson: Use a credit card when purchasing over the Internet.
There are concerns about credit card fraud online, but you’re probably protected by your credit card company. If you’re dealing with a traditional ‘bricks and mortar’ company, a cheque may be fine, but if you’re dealing with an Internet based company, credit card is the way to go.
To conclude, BullGuard’s customer service was poor in the first place, but they recovered well and resolved the situation quickly, rather than let it fester. Thanks BullGuard for sorting this out!
That’s nice to hear and goes out to show the power of blogging these days! Glad to read about it..
Hi K,
Thanks – yes, blogging does add a little bit of power to the little people. Years ago, instant exposure wasn’t possible. Hope you’re keeping well.
It’s good to hear that, despite and initial poor result, the situation was resolved. It proves that the company ultimately does care about their customers which is more than can be said for some.
Exciting to see what an impact a blog can have today. If you do try Bullguard, please do a review of the product itself.
I’ve never tried Bullguard before. Thank you for the awesome information.
Wow a software company that make good on a correction. I love it. there is power in blogging!
Contacting by phone seems more natural for some people. LiveChat is a good invention though
Blogging is powerful enough to bring down old established empires. It is good that the company acted responsibly and took corrective action.
Bullguard? never try that before but I always heard something about that. Thank’s for sharing.
A software company that make good on a correction
Yes I think the “power of blogging” has been established for a couple years now. But the oldest business practice in the book: Customer Service and all that implies is now becoming the new “thing” for so many companies. Funny how these trends are.
hi, please check this out..
Ha even though i commented on the Cust. Service issue page, its now that i got some time to go through the article, and dear glad that they took measures in resolving the issues and have you tried bullguard?
This is whats cool about blogging.. Knowledge about computers, protections, and the like are extremely enhanced through this. I’ve never heard about “bullguards” before, now I have a new topic to research on, this might be useful. =)
It’s nice to see a company take responsibility and also give you some free stuff for the troubles. There are a ton of companies out there that would have just blocked it out and just moved on. At least you know that they will take care of you if you have an issue.
I think your better off using a credit card no matter what. Even brick and mortar stores it is better with credit card if you have a problem. Atleast you can refuse payment then the company has to help if they want to get paid.
I think admitting fault and taking responsibility was a very good move by Bullguard from a customer service standpoint.
Hey even i also caught in credit card fraud, i ordered an E-Book for that i ve to pay initial amount of $4 for registration and i did same, but after few days i realized that i even did not get registered and my money is getting looted again and again when i got to know i lost around $90 and then i cancelled my card
You sent me a mail of renewal which i did not ask for, and has taken an amount of
549.95 Danish Kroner from my accout. I reply to your mail that i did not ask for any renewal but you still went ahead and to my Money. Please, return my Money because i did not make any agreement with bullgaurd this year 2014.
Secondly why is it that, all your phone numbers are hidden?
Thanks
Mabel
Hi Mabel. This website isn’t related to BullGuard at all, I just wrote about them once. You’ll need to go to BullGuard’s site for help. Best of luck. Stephen