A FARMER has spoken of his frustration at the standard of service from BT after being cut off for weeks and being stuck for 17 minutes on their 0800 helpline.

A FARMER has spoken of his frustration at the standard of service from BT after being cut off for weeks and being stuck for 17 minutes on their 0800 helpline.

Tony Last, from Church Farm in Gosbeck, near Needham Market, is dismayed at the service from the telecommunications giant.

Sixty-one-year-old Mr Last, who lives at his home with wife Patricia, 57, and their two sons first found his phone went dead on Saturday, January 31.

The family contacted BT after the weekend and despite follow up calls were still unable to use their phone last night, 26 days after it first went wrong.

They are now having incoming calls diverted to their mobile phone, but Mr Last has to walk outside and up to 50 yards away from their home to hear people properly because of signal difficulties.

He said: "This has affected us and one other villager who went off at the same time. I understand it is nothing to do with the exchange, or our property, but the system and a lot of cable that needs replacing.

"When we first went off I dialled the BT 0800 helpline and was on there 17 minutes. What is wrong with BT, why will they not sort it out? It is very important for us to have the phone, we totally rely on it. It's very frustrating for people ringing us.

"With the mobile I have to go outside sometimes, up to 50 yards from my property, there's not a very good signal.

"BT have told me I can claim back mobile calls, but we should also be compensated for being off. I have never been cut off for this length of time. Even after the hurricane in the 1980s, we were only off for a few days.''

A spokeswoman for BT said: "We are sorry to hear that the customer is unhappy with the length of time he waited to talk to someone.

"We are committed to customer service and the vast majority of our many millions of customers are happy with the service they receive when they phone BT.

"On this occasion it does appear that Mr Last had to wait longer than usual to speak to a customer service adviser and we are sorry.

"A lot of work has needed to be done in preparation for the repair of Mr Last's service,

We do apologise for the delay, which has been longer than we had foreseen, we have an engineer going to the scene to try and provide temporary service and then we will do the work on replacing 300 metres of overhead cables to restore service on a permanent basis.

"We apologise for any inconvenience this has caused.''