‘Phone wrangle is driving me crazy’ (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

‘Phone wrangle is driving me crazy’

9:00am Saturday 4th February 2012 in News

UPSET: Barry Casson says everytime he thinks the situation is close to being resolved, another problem pops up

A Bradford garage owner is set to make a formal complaint to the telecoms watchdog following a frustrating eight-week battle to have his phone and internet re-connected.

Barry Casson, the owner of Eccleshill Motorcycles, is preparing a formal complaint to the ombudsman, in a bid to claim back thousands of pounds in lost business while his phone and internet have been disconnected.

The Telegraph & Argus reported last month he has been without either telephone or broadband – or both – since December 8, a situation he said has been driving him “crazy”.

He thought his problems were close to being sorted after agreeing for an engineer from the phone network BT Openreach to call at his business in Harrogate Road.

But he received a letter from his communications provider TalkTalk sent the day before the engineer arrived, told him he would be cut off completely.

The engineer restored the phone line fully but not the broadband internet.

He is now continuing to work with TalkTalk to restore his broadband.

Mr Casson, 54, said: “The problems just keep coming.

“When I think I’ve sorted it out, another problem pops up and puts a cat among the pigeons.”

His ordeal started when he decided to swap his home and business telephone line and broadband from TalkTalk Residential to rival Unicom.

He later realised Unicom could not provide a fast enough internet connection and cancelled the contract but, by this time, his phone had been cut off.

He spent hours on his mobile phone talking to representatives of TalkTalk and Unicom but neither company admitted responsibility for the issues with his phone line.

In more than eight weeks since the problem started, he said he had lost a “significant” amount of business and had been forced to make one of his staff redundant.

He said: “What I cannot understand is why these companies don’t talk to each other. There is no communication between the companies responsible for somebody’s telephone line.

“It must be happening all over the place but I suppose people get so frustrated they just give up.”

He has now managed to get his phone fully reconnected and is working with TalkTalk Business to get him back online.

In the meantime, he is preparing an official complaint to the Telecoms Ombudsman.