A DIABETIC businessman who waited more than a month for his phone line to be repaired claims British Telecom put both his life and livelihood in danger.
Leigh resident Freddie Scovell relies on his landline to run his horticultural and online pet supplies businesses from a farmhouse in Shellwood Road.
But he said BT's failure to restore phone and internet access quickly meant he had to make regular half-mile trips to connect to wifi and also had a huge mobile phone bill.
As a Type I diabetic, he also needs ready access to medical assistance, should a drop in blood sugar levels cause him to fall into a coma.
Mr Scovell said he and his two young children – who live with him at weekends – had also been put at risk as a result.
The 45-year-old told the Advertiser: "My children – who are only 5 and 7 – are trained to dial 999 but they can't work my BlackBerry.
"You have to have every precaution in place and this situation worried me, because they couldn't ring anybody. That would be it – I would just go and they would be left here.
"We often go 24 hours without seeing anybody because we are surrounded by fields.
"There are no neighbours at all and you do feel very vulnerable.
"I told BT this every time I made a call but they just didn't do anything about it."
He added: "If it had been three days or something, that's fine, but it was over a month. They put my life at risk."
BT engineers attempted a temporary fix on the frayed overhead wire shortly after Mr Scovell first reported the fault on February 18.
When that failed, he was given a series of promises that the problem would be solved the next day, each of which was missed, leaving him in despair.
"I reached the stage where I didn't want to speak to BT because I didn't believe anything they said. I was just sitting at home in limbo," Mr Scovell said.
"It was hell and what hurt more than anything is I felt that they really didn't care.
"You tell them that you have what is classified as a disability and they just leave you high and dry."
BT engineers returned to carry out a full repair on Friday last week and, as the Advertiser went to press, Mr Scovell's phone line was still working.
