Firms call for action on dead phone lines

ROAD to nowhere . . . flashback to Friday’s Oldham Evening Chronicle when we featured Borough Taxis

Firms are considering joint legal action after the collapse of telecoms company Global led to hundreds of phone lines going dead.

They include a Royton engineering company which lost business and home phones, fax and broadband services.

Sue Booth, joint managing director of MB Precision Engineering in Shaw Road, said the company signed up in May, 2007, with Bury-based Global.

Companies were sold the equipment and calls deals as a package, but the lease of the equipment was to another company and separate to their calls charges.

Eight weeks ago the company realised it could only receive incoming calls, then all phone lines went down.

Mrs Booth said: “We have managed to get services from another company for three months, but in April we have to decide what to do.

“All this time we are still having to pay £260 a month for seven years for the lease of the equipment. If we stop paying it we could be taken to court.

“We now realise the equipment is only worth around £700.

“Solicitors in Manchester are trying to get a joint claim, and we are trying to get a group together.

“We have a staff of 14 and our phones are our lifeline. We don’t know how much business we have lost.”

Prestwich based businessman Barry Taylor, who runs a loans company, has also been cut off and has begun the online action group which is on http://grou.ps/givememymoneback

He said: “We are also paying a £40,000 lease for equipment which is only worth £1,000 at best.

“There are around 4,000 companies affected nationwide, and we want to get as many together as possible. At the moment there are 60 to 70.

“A single legal action would be very costly but if we can get together it would be possible.”

The lines went down when a winding up order was made against Global by its main telecoms supplier.

The Chronicle revealed on Friday how Borough Taxis, with offices in Royton, and Crompton and Royton Private Hire, based in Shaw, have both been hit by the collapse of Global.

Both were left without landlines, although Crompton and Royton were reconnected yesterday by British Telecom.

Borough director Fazal Rahim, and Crompton and Royton manager Ray Smith said both had been too busy organising new phone lines to check on their leases or whether they would be taking part in the joint legal action.