Boss challenges BT over broadband loss
A COMPANY boss who estimates he lost up to £30,000 in revenue when his broadband connection failed is in dispute with British Telecom after the telecoms giant offered just two weeks free internet access in compensation.
Murray Boss, who owns Worcestershire-based quad bike company Ace ATV, was left without internet access for nearly a week after the broadband service was cut off in January.
Boss relies on the internet for generating customer enquiries, ordering goods and stock and making payments to suppliers.
He said: 'The internet is our lifeblood. We are a very specialised business and get customers from around the country, who usually find us through the web. Most suppliers only allow you to view their catalogues and order goods online these days, so it meant we didn't have access to those either.
'We've been tearing our hair out and looking at our accounts against last year, we believe we have lost £30,000 worth of business because of this.'
BT originally said the connection problem was due to his computer equipment, but Boss brought in an engineer who confirmed it was a problem with BT. When the engineer contacted BT regarding the problem, the company admitted it had given Boss' IP address to someone else ? the unique code which enables a user to access their own part of the internet.
BT admitted 400 other customers had lost their broadband connection over the period due to a technical error while upgrading the system.
Boss added: 'We were tearing our hair out over this, we were constantly on the phone to BT to sort this out and the couldn't have been more unhelpful. It's not only the fact that we lost our access to the internet and the website was down, who had access to our information during that period?
'BT cannot tell me how many emails have been lost. I don't operate from a garden shed, this is a serious business that can't afford that fall in revenue. The offer of two week's free internet access is a disgrace and I'm in the process of consulting my lawyers.'
BT apologised for the inconvenience and said it would be contacting Boss to discuss the case.
