Shropshire residents furious as BT 'takes weeks' to fix broadband problems
Scores of residents in rural communities in Shropshire have made complaints over their broadband service, it has been claimed.
Councillor Heather Kidd, Shropshire councillor for Chirbury and Worthen, said she has received "a huge list of complaints" over the service provided by BT Openreach.
She has called for residents experiencing problems with their broadband service to contact her.
She said that some homes in the Hampton Beach area had only been reconnected in the last few days after being without broadband for several weeks.
She said: "This standard of service is truly dreadful. Some in the Hampton Beach area have only been reconnected in the last few days despite the sustained effort of residents and myself over the last few weeks.
"The surgery in Worthen and some properties in the village have also been affected.
"We have had a variety of excuses as to why the work hasn't been done and it's pretty clear that rural areas get a very poor priority as far as Openreach are concerned.
"After a great deal of hassle from residents and myself, most have now been fixed but these problems have been going on since December and it's not right that we have had to go through all this just to get phone lines fixed."
Councillor Kidd said that people had been left unhappy at the Openreach complaints system. She said: "I would actually like to thank Kelly McFarlane on the chief exec's office at Openreach for getting the engineers out the day she picked up my email. She was very effective indeed.
"The service from BT Openreach in this area is very poor if using the complaints system. I have a huge list of actual complaints and responses – many on text responses from BT – and I have sent many of them to both the chief executive of BT and Openreach for investigation. Many were disingenuous, inaccurate and blaming anyone other than Openreach."
A spokesman for BT Openreach said it had resolved the issue with the medical practice.
