Pensioner calls on phone firm (From News Shopper)

Pensioner calls on phone firm

10:01am Wednesday 22nd November 2006 in

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A FURIOUS pensioner staged a lie-down demonstration to protest about poor phone service.

Brian Crews signed up with Talk Talk through the Carphone Warehouse in July because of the free broadband offer but has had numerous problems since then.

He tried to install the software to run the internet on both his computers but it only worked on one.

Mr Crews called in a computer consultant to fix the problem and made the company pay by issuing a county court summons against it.

The problems got worse for Mr Crews and his wife Valerie, 69, of Dellfield Close, Beckenham, when their phone line went completely dead on November 6.

They were told there was a fault with the line and they would not be reconnected for another week.

This was the last straw for 71-year-old Mr Crews.

He says he was sick to death of the Carphone Warehouse's customer service staff and decided to take direct action.

The former Lewisham Council assistant finance director said: "I was calling them up and getting promises but no responses.

"I was staying in for days but nothing was happening."

The grandfather-of-six made posters advertising his problems and put them up near his home but still nothing happened.

Mr Crews went to the Carphone Warehouse store in High Street, Beckenham, on November 16.

He took a sleeping bag, pillows and sandwiches with him and vowed to stay until his phoneline got reconnected.

It was fixed within three hours.

Mr Crews said: "They pulled out all the stops to fix the problem but the service is so poor.

"I would advise everyone to have nothing to do with Talk Talk."

A Carphone Warehouse spokesman said: "Talk Talk is contacting Mr Crews and investigating. The problem is almost resolved.

"We are continually trying to improve our customer service and will keep working on this."