By Isle of Wight Observer
A Carisbrooke couple had a frustrating experience trying to sort out their broadband service after it failed almost a month ago.
Charles and Josephine Barry, of Calbourne Road, contacted TalkTalk on February 13, and expected a swift fix to their connectivity woes. Since then they have received repeated assurances that a solution was imminent, including being told, in late February, that “an engineer was on his way to the exchange.”
After TalkTalk representatives told them that 800 customers were affected, but puzzled by the lack of media coverage, the couple asked if the IW Observer knew what was going on.
We contacted TalkTalk, and were told that the problems were down to OpenReach, a subsidiary of BT, with work expected to be completed this week. However, when we spoke to Charles a few minutes later he told us that another TalkTalk representative had just called him and assured him there were no issues with OpenReach, and a new router was being sent out.
A TalkTalk spokesman said: “We apologise for the connectivity issue Mr and Mrs Barry have experienced, which appears to be linked to an OpenReach infrastructure fault. The repairs are being treated as high priority, and we’re continuing to investigate. Mr and Mrs Barry will receive compensation once their service has been fully restored.” He explained that the new router was being supplied simply to make sure their home equipment was in working order.
OpenReach had a somewhat different take, hardly anyone was affected and they fell back on a popular Island excuse for most problems – it’s Island Roads’ fault. A spokeswoman confirmed that the 800 number had been an “initial estimate” given to TalkTalk, and explained: “We’re sorry this is taking longer than we would have liked. Our network was damaged by a third party, and we need to install 30 metres of duct. Four customers have been affected. We need traffic management permission for the work to be completed safely, and hope to have this in place later this week. We anticipate being able to reconnect Mr and Mrs Barry early next week.”
Charles said: “When someone suggested that the engineer, who was ‘on his way to the exchange’, must be saving up for a ferry ticket I had to smile. But really it has been very difficult. We all rely on internet access these days.
“I don’t believe anything has been done until now – we’ve had excuse after excuse, with conflicting stories the whole time. I popped into the IW Observer office, in Newport, because I was surprised it had not been reported that so many people had been without broadband for so long. Yesterday 800 people were affected – today we might just need a new router – I suppose all this frustration is just the way life is these
days.”
Many Islanders might be tempted to agree!