AN ANGRY shop owner has slammed telecommunications company BT after it left his store without internet or phone service for more than a week, costing him hundreds of pounds in lost trade.

Tim Barrett, who owns Tim’s Cycle Shop on Abbotsbury Road in Weymouth, said he has been left out of pocket after BT took more than a week to send an engineer to fix his internet and phone connection problems.

He is wondering if other residents or businesses have been experiencing similar problems.

Maggie Roeder, who retired from the store seven years ago but remains as the company secretary, said: “We have been totally offline for more than a week.

“I don’t know if anyone else has been having problems in the area.

“My home is only 200 yards down the road and we are fine.

“It is just frustrating to lose business over something that can so easily be fixed.

“We haven’t been able to access any of our records and people haven’t been able to ring up and make appointments.

“The phone line is just constantly engaged so people are probably wondering what is going on here.

“We rely a lot on our phone. A lot of people ring up on their way back from work to ask to pop in and obviously they have not been able to do that.

“BT told us they were coming one day, then it was the next and then they said Friday.

“Someone told us that there is a lack of engineers for the company in the area but it’s just frustrating that we have to wait so long.

“Things like this are vital for a business.”

Mr Barrett said: “It has costs me hundreds.

“I’ve had no internet connection or phone line for eight days.

“BT has been hopeless.

“Engineers should have been in to pick it up and fix it on the same day, not more than a week later.

“My internet connection at home has been a nightmare too and the landlord who owns this place has exactly the same problem in Wyke.

“I think there is a serious problem with BT in the area.

“An engineer came to fix it on Thursday night and it didn’t take long at all.

“I don’t understand why it took them eight days. I’ve lost so much business because of this.”

A spokesperson for BT said: “One of our engineers visited the customer and the line was found to be working OK.

“The problem appears to have been caused by two wires touching.”