BT under fire from residents after four week phone line fiasco
BT has come under fire from residents who claim that, despite being left without internet access and the use of their landline, the firm failed to inform them of the cause of the fault, and sent mixed messages to neighbouring residents as to when the issue was likely to be resolved.
Resident Fiona Racher has been without service since March 1.
“The main issue is their correspondence,” she said. “There’s no regard for the aggravation that it’s causing people.
“BT should have quickly acknowledged that there was an issue and promised an update on a certain date.
“Instead we have received many promises that it would be fixed by a certain date, then when that date arrived, a new date was set.”
BT spokesman Ian Read said that the faults in Brightwalton and Leckhampstead had been caused by water damage to around 170 metres of cabling.
He added that temporary service had been provided in Brightwalton until work was completed on the repair on March 27.
Mrs Racher added that while her phoneline has now been reconnected, this was not until around 6pm on Monday (7), and no temporary service was provided to her.
In Leckhampsted, Bob Hall has been without a working line for four weeks.
Mr Hall said, however, that since questions had been lodged by the Newbury Weekly News, BT had begun to make progress.
“It's been more than four weeks now, which I think is pretty poor,” he said. “However I now have somebody in the UK who is keeping me updated, and she has been excellent.
“If it wasn't for her I would be tearing my hair out, because the rest of the organisation seems to be pretty clueless.
“They, for instance, sent me another text a couple of days ago saying that it was fixed, when it wasn't.”
Mr Read added: “Openreach engineers have been replacing around 170 metres of cable, which is a complex and time-consuming repair job.”
He failed to comment on the complaints lodged by residents on the customer service they had received.