BT has come under fire for its ‘woeful performance’ in dealing with a long-running problem in Milverton.

Cllr Gwil Wren says up to 30 customers on the Milverton exchange began to experience intermittent interruptions to their calls about 18 months ago.

These would either be a complete loss of service or having calls where one party could not be heard. These events would occur randomly for up to several hours at a time and caused considerable inconvenience and at times distress.

BT sent engineers to investigate these complaints but as the problem was intermittent they often said the line was working and sent the householder a bill for £130. Eventually, after several months, the problem was traced to a faulty card in the exchange which was dealt with. No refunds were offered.

Cllr Wren says the problem has recurred, affecting many of the previous customers, and once again BT’s default response is to send an engineer followed by a bill for £130 if no fault is found when they attend. This is despite the fact that problems are identical to those of 18 months ago.

Cllr Wren says the BT automated fault system is incapable of acknowledging this and persists in offering engineer visits to homes with the threat of a £130 bill and no prospect of resolution.

Residents have resorted to accosting BT’s Open Reach engineers when they are seen in the village – and they have been helpful – but the problem keeps recurring.

“The most worrying aspect is that, with an intermittent fault, a householder with a low call volume may not realise there is problem, with the risk that the phone could be unavailable if needed in an emergency,” Cllr Wren added.

“I am particularly concerned about elderly and vulnerable residents who have alarm systems routed through their landlines, as they are potentially at significant risk. This whole situation is as ridiculous as it is iniquitous. BT is abusing its effective monopoly and milking customers for payments unfairly. Most customers have direct debits, so the money is extracted easily and is almost impossible to reclaim.”