Don`t buy bullydog

[TedTurbo]

I haven`t been on here in a while but thought i would pass on an experience i`m having. I just bought a 2007 dually six speed and put a triple dog downloader in it. I will admit that the truck performed well with it but i took it back to stock yesterday to update it on the computer. After i returned the truck to stock it tripped a couple of codes. One was a speed sensor and i`m not sure about the other yet. I had a check engine light,abs light,parking brake light,airbag light all lit up in the dash not to mention my speedo quit and i lost my brake lights. I was on the phone with bully dog for over an hour and they told me to disconect the battery for an hour and i should be fine. Well it wasn`t so the truck is now at the dealer and they said they`re not sure what they can do cause they feel that the computer has bee tampered with. I`m keeping my fingers crossed that it will be fixed and i`ll still have a warrenty. I realize i took a risk in doing this mod as we all do but would hate to see someonels go through this as well. Just thought i`d pass this on. Ted

 

[WUnderwood]

I have heard from numerous people that the Bully Dog customer service bites

 

[TedTurbo]

The service was bad enough i just didn`t realize that taking the download out would do so much damage.

 

[jltcasper3]

Buy a Smarty, No problems, Good Service

 

[CStraface]

Check your fuses... the no speedometer issue sounds like it could be a fuse issue.



Now as far as the BDDL. I have been happy with mine. The customer service I recieved when I tripped up my downloads was just fine. Got a 20 minute walk through over the phone. Plus it makes good power.



Did you do what I did, and just turn the BDDL to stock on the box, or did you actually uninstall the download off the computer. I made the mistake of thinking that the "on the fly" stock was what bullydog meant when they said "stock" but I was wrong. So my issue with my BDDL was my fault, and BD walked me through it to fix it. Althought their directions are not so clear on this "stocK" issue.

 

[Bekim]

BullyDog Triple Dog with Outlook here. 40,000 miles here and flawless. True their customer service people are worthless!! But if you talk to someone at the Aberdeen facility, they know their stuff!

I was confused about what steps were needed to uninstall the software and got solid answers when I talked to the right person. Sometimes it takes a little heat to get someone with knowledge on the horn over there.


Keep in mind that anytime you alter your stocker with any mod, you take a risk.
And we need to own up to the risks!
Mike
###

 

[CDonaldson]

Hey Ted.



Sorry to hear about your problems. Somewhere on one of the sites, may not be this one, I read about some problems regarding the 2007 models and differences in the computers. It may have been in a Smarty thread? As best as I can recall, the person was discussing how the dealer can 're-program' or overwrite all your stock stuff with the batteries disconnected, some kind of a master program. I could have this info wrong, but this person did get the truck back up and running without too much hastle. Maybe the dealers just try to screw with you a little before they give you back your truck fixed to get a point or 2 across?



Many of the guys that have had programming problems with the Smarty also had BD's on thier trucks first. There might be some info there to help you.



CD

 

[TedTurbo]

Thaks,I did update the triple dog to the new version for my o7. It`s just when i downloader my stock setting back into the thuck that things went bad. I did check all fuses and they were fine. We`ll see what happens today. The dealer is suppossed to call me this morning to let me know whats giong on. I appreciate the help guys.

 

[Bodie]

I had sent a power pup in for a reflash, and it took two weeks of me screaming at EVERYONE to get it back. I seriously was on the phone with them every day for a week. I sold it before I ever even got it back from Bullydog, I will never own any of thier products.



BULLYDOG HAS THE WORST CUSOMER SERVICE I HAVE EVER HAD THE DISPLEASURE OF DEALING WITH!

 

[Summit]

when i bought my new TST it came with the wrong injector harness then they sent me 2- bad injector harness but i didnt get on here & tear TST a new one,, stink happens.



I had a download "hangup" @ 27% one day,, unhooking the batteries resets the ecm to stock.



why do so many people run staight for the dealer when they have a programer issue? D/C is waiting for you guys.

 

[CStraface]

when i bought my new TST it came with the wrong injector harness then they sent me 2- bad injector harness but i didnt get on here & tear TST a new one,, stink happens.



I had a download "hangup" @ 27% one day,, unhooking the batteries resets the ecm to stock.



why do so many people run staight for the dealer when they have a programer issue? D/C is waiting for you guys.

I'm right there with ya. I appreciate different opinions, and fully respect them, but sometimes the way things are worded can get the best of you.



Tuning our trucks is a fun thing. We must go through the displeasure of having things go wrong and fixing them, thats what it's all about. But that doesn't mean that Bullydog is a terrible company.



Ok, so maybe their customer service can be a bit better, but regardless, I know there are many happy bullydog customers who have been making great power with their products. Don't hang them out there to dry because of one bad experiance...

 

[TedTurbo]

I tried unhooking the batteries and that didn`t work. . and i`m not runnig for the dealer. . I just want my truck fixed and was sharing my expeirence so someone else doesn`t have to go through this. There are people out there with bully dog products that have no problems i`m sure but there are also others like me that have bad experiences as well. My truck now needs a new ecm because the downloader erased its memory. Not hanging anyone out to dry so to speek. Just making others informed. When your spending this kinda money on a truck and a company tells you thier product won`t harm your truck and in turn it does it sucks...

 

[CStraface]

I tried unhooking the batteries and that didn`t work. . and i`m not runnig for the dealer. . I just want my truck fixed and was sharing my expeirence so someone else doesn`t have to go through this. There are people out there with bully dog products that have no problems i`m sure but there are also others like me that have bad experiences as well. My truck now needs a new ecm because the downloader erased its memory. Not hanging anyone out to dry so to speek. Just making others informed. When your spending this kinda money on a truck and a company tells you thier product won`t harm your truck and in turn it does it sucks...

I agree with you as well. These products do cost a lot of money and we all hope they work as described. But then again, you are taking that risk of messing with your stock truck... there's a reason why dealers void warranties so easily.



I don't want to get into a programmer war here, but I'm simply trying to point out that different tuners work different on different trucks, and I am sure every major programmer company out there has its fair share of un-happy customers... but it would be interesting to know the ratio between un-happy to happy????

 

[JBee]

I've had overall good experience and good phone/email support. I've sent mine in for an upgrade to work on my 06 since it's different version software on the outlook and they did it free of charge and in a rapid fashion. Now, in the last several months I believe they've outsourced their product support so I no longer deal with the same people and I've had a friend have poor quality of service through them until I gave him contact names that I still had in my inbox.

 

[CDonaldson]

SO - HEY TED, How has your ECM problem progressed?



I got to thinking about why disconnecting the batteries works, it is because the ECM will then reset to the basic firmware. IF your BD unit erased the basic firmware that suggests that the 2007 models have an entirely different basic memory system without firmware OR your ECM was NOT RIGHT to begin with? I would be asking the dealership WHY they can't re-program the ECM with it's origional software. Yes, they might make you pay for the re-programming, but they should be capable of writing to the main memory and it should work like any other computer, meaning it should be a READ ONLY with overwrite protection?



CD

 

[AK RAM]

The service was bad enough i just didn`t realize that taking the download out would do so much damage.

…. and everyone thought I was absolutely crazy when I posted up about all my problems with Smarty after using it and returning to stock. It is not impossible for a downloader, any downloader, to mess things up. Sorry for the hijack.



BullyDog's customer service does not have the best track record by a long shot. When you call, ask for Justin. He is hard to get a hold of, but is the man you want to talk to if you have a problem.

 

[ACoyle]

Just a quick thought. The ECM is a computer. The basic program has to be in EEPROM (Rewritable ROM (Read Only Memory)).

If it was otherwise, it would not be possible to manufacture it. Also it certainly could not sit on a sshelf. Therefore, Disconnecting the batteries would be ineffective. If the contents of the EEPROM get corrupted' as in a failed download, you would get what we call unspecified results. The only fix would be to wipe it out and reload it.

Out of curiosity, have you tried restoring the higher performance profile. If the truck ran with that before, it should run again.

If that does not work, Then the reflash went really badly and a total reload must be done.

I would believe that the dealer would have to do that. Most likely, the downloaders only write the tables. I would also suspect a downloader hardware failure.

 

[Prairie Dog]

I was thinking the same thing and I would be surprised if DC used some old type of memeory (bubble, etc. ). The memory is most likely non-volatile and just having power removed wont hurt it. Probably has to be over written, corrupted or suffer from a defective CRC (memory) location.

 

[TJolley]

I to had a similar problem with one of BDs programers not on my 05 but a 2002 ford 7. 3l

I returned it to stock all the warning lights came on and truck would not start at all

Got on the phone with the guy's in Aberdeen ID (the only way to go) they said that they could download the stock tune to a similar programer and send it to me overnight.

I'm so close I just drove up there and they had it waiting for me, they traded in my old programer for an updated one.

I'm sure they can do the same if the dealer is going to charge you, they just need your Date of Manufacture and vin. #

Trucks had no problems since

 

[PHeadings]

I haven`t been on here in a while but thought i would pass on an experience i`m having. I just bought a 2007 dually six speed and put a triple dog downloader in it. I will admit that the truck performed well with it but i took it back to stock yesterday to update it on the computer. After i returned the truck to stock it tripped a couple of codes. One was a speed sensor and i`m not sure about the other yet. I had a check engine light,abs light,parking brake light,airbag light all lit up in the dash not to mention my speedo quit and i lost my brake lights. I was on the phone with bully dog for over an hour and they told me to disconect the battery for an hour and i should be fine. Well it wasn`t so the truck is now at the dealer and they said they`re not sure what they can do cause they feel that the computer has bee tampered with. I`m keeping my fingers crossed that it will be fixed and i`ll still have a warrenty. I realize i took a risk in doing this mod as we all do but would hate to see someonels go through this as well. Just thought i`d pass this on. Ted

Ted, I don't know how many downloaders you have used in the past or if this is your first one, but I have a couple questions for you.



When you use the downloader are you waiting until the downloader tells you to unplug it and cycle the key?



Did you try to reinstall one of the bd programs after the stock one didn't load right?