Phone fault costs taxi driver business

Phone fault costs taxi driver business


By Louise Brain
MOBILE phone customers of O2 were left without a signal for four days, leaving a taxi driver claiming he missed out on hundreds of pounds of business.
The fault left users unable to make or receive calls in the centre of Downham.

Angry customers claim they were told by O2 staff the problem was as a result of a mast being removed from the old fire station in Priory Road. But O2 told the Lynn News it does not know what caused the fault and is now looking into it.

The problem began on Thursday afternoon, July 12, and was not resolved until Monday afternoon.

Trevor Pywell (60), who runs taxi business Trev's Cars from his home in Town Estate, Downham, said he missed more than 180 calls by Saturday morning, which would equate to at least £300 worth of work. He managed to get back to some of his customers in time to still get their trade but now plans to fight O2 for compensation.

He said: "It's the principle that they couldn't let us know. I just feel it's bad management all round by O2."

Lawrence Welham, who lives in Beech Road, Downham, and runs Lewks music and movie store in the town, is also an O2 user.

He said O2 staff told him during the fault that it was caused by work to replace local equipment and could take until the end of the month to sort out.

He said someone else was told a mast had been blown down during a storm and some people he knew were on the verge of buying new phones because they did not realise the fault was with their operator.

He added: "I can't imagine that O2 could not have thought about this. They could easily have looked at the post codes and sent a text to everybody they thought might be affected and said there may possibly be a problem."

O2 spokesman James Stevenson said the fire station mast had been removed and replacement measures immediately put in place more than a week before the problems, on Tuesday, July 3.

He added: "We are going to have a test drive now to make sure it's behaving the way it's supposed to. If anybody has been inconvenienced we are sorry."