A BUDE business was left without any contact with customers and has lost out on a significant amount of work, after telephone provider BT (British Telecom) cut off its phone line in an erroneous mistake at the beginning of this month.

Graham and Mary Webb are partners in the family-run company, Webb Electrical (SW) Ltd, and have encountered numerous problems since they first submitted a request to BT to update their phone account last December.

The update was supposed to be a simple transition from a sole trader to a limited company account, but a year down the line they have received nothing but problems.

After initiating the change in December, Mary contacted BT to confirm that it had gone smoothly, which it had, according to the BT employee.

It wasn't until the business received the first bill since the change, on February 25, that the amount was almost double what had been expected. After calling BT several times and being 'hung up on' by the provider, Mary managed to get hold of an employee, who could identify the problem, and put everything in order — tariff and contract length as originally agreed.

She believed this would be the end of the problems, until the end of March when an amount was withdrawn by BT through direct debit.

For the full report, and a round up of the area news and sport, please see this week's edition of the 'Post'.