Couple left waiting months for telephone connection (From Worcester News)

Couple left waiting months for telephone connection

11:10am Wednesday 6th February 2013 in News

A COUPLE living in a new housing development in Droitwich Spa have been left without telephone and internet connection since they moved in.

Ann and Richard Hunt, who live at the Bovis Homes development at Harrison Park, off Worcester Road, have still not been connected by BT despite requesting a landline installation in October last year.

Mr Hunt, who moved into the estate with his wife on December 14, 2012, said he contacted BT on October 26 in order to arrange for the landline to be set up.

However, after a delay, the couple were then told the service could not be installed because no lines were available. BT also advised Mr Hunt that there is an on-going problem with the telecom ducts along Worcester Road.

He said: “Despite being without either a telephone line or broadband connection BT has still a managed to bill us.

“As we were expecting BT to connect us on December 21, 2012, we included this telephone number when sending out our Christmas cards. The number was also provided to several other organisations, including banks, doctor and dentist when we notified them of our change of address.

“What has made it even worse is that BT has managed to connect the telephone number at the exchange, along with the 1571 service included in our order. Since that date, numerous friends and family have advised that they have left messages. As these cannot be accessed by us, we were unaware that they had tried to telephone us.”

Despite numerous visits from contractors to try and resolve the issue, the pair are still without a connection nearly four months after their original request.

A spokesman from BT said: “It has taken much longer than we would normally expect to connect Mr Hunt due to a number of factors.

“As it’s a new line, around 100 metres of new underground cable is required to provide telephone service at this address.

The first stage of this work has taken longer than normal to complete. Engineers encountered a number of technical issues which have caused further delays, including underground blockages in the ducting that serves Mr Hunt, as well as delays caused by the recent bad weather.

“The next stage in the digging process is due to start later this week, and we hope to have the new cable in and connected soon afterwards.”