Hastings florist says he has lost 'thousands' in trade due to faulty BT business phoneline
A Hastings florist says he has lost 'thousands' of pounds in trade because his BT business phoneline has constantly cut out for more than a year.
Gary Dann, owner of Mount Pleasant Flowers, on Mount Pleasant Road, said the problem started after BT encouraged him to install Cloud Digital and full fibre broadband.
He added that he has tried to resolve the matter with BT but each time his phoneline drops, reconnection takes two to four weeks.
Gary said: “I have owned Mount Pleasant Flowers for 25 years. BT said I should upgrade to full fibre and cloud digital but since this was installed more than 18 months ago, it has caused nothing but trouble, disrupting our phone and business line and leaving it dead for weeks at a time.
“We lost thousands of pounds in business due to having no phone line over the busy Christmas period. Again, on Tuesday, February 24, the phone went dead.”
He said he contacted Hastings MP, Helena Dollimore for help, who then wrote to BT's CEO on February 27 to highlight his plight.
Gary added that when people call his business line while it is disconnected, they are told it is an invalid number.
He said: “We have customers all over the UK and abroad, such as France, Spain, Holland, Australia, New Zealand, and so on. We will never know how much business we have lost.”
He added that the business line was back up and running on March 5 and hopes it will stay active, especially with the busy Mother's Day period approaching.
A BT spokesperson said: “We are very sorry for the long-standing issues Mr Dann has had with his phone service.
“A technical error meant his phone line had been impacted. We have identified and corrected this fault and have also sent Mr Dann replacement handsets. We will be in touch with Mr Dann to discuss compensation and a goodwill gesture once he is satisfied that his complaint has been resolved.”