Six year wait for Rocky man to get phone fixed?

WHEN it comes to telecommunication providers failing to resolve an issue for their customers, Geoff Beal's story has to be one of the worst.

FRUSTING SITUATION: Jeff Beal displays the dodgy wiring going into his property from the stop gap measure to fix his phone line. Picture: Chris Ison ROK020218cline1

WHEN it comes to telecommunication providers failing to resolve an issue for their customers, Geoff Beal's story has to be one of the worst.

Grabbing onto the cable leading from the manhole on the footpath, retired teacher Mr Beal, 60, follows it across his lawn, through the garden, over the fences until it connects in a mess of wires to the Park Avenue house that he's lived in with his wife Karen for the last 35 years.

The cable was installed six years ago as a stop gap measure by a Telstra technician when they determined that his underground telephone cable was faulty.

They were supposed to return to dig a 10m underground trench to lay a fresh cable.

They still haven't and Mr Beal has been mowing around it ever since.

"It's just not acceptable," the North Rockhampton man said.

He believed the exposed cable on the footpath, which as survived cyclones and floods, was a trip hazard and a "law suit waiting to happen".

After six "very, very frustrating years" of repeatedly trying and getting the run around from his phone provider and Telstra, the problem is still yet to be fixed and he's got the emails to prove it.

Mr Beal said in desperation he's reported his situation to the Telecommunications Ombudsman and so far they have been unable to resolve the situation.

"We've contacted (his provider) once a year since then, you've got to go through to an overseas call centre, you tell them the problem, they don't know what you're talking about because they don't seem to keep any records of faults," Mr Beal said.

"So you have to go through the whole process and all we're saying is when is Telstra going to come and fix it?

"And that went on for five years and when NBN came in, Telstra leased all their phone lines to NBN so they've passed the problem onto the NBN."

FRUSTING SITUATION: Jeff Beal has lived for the past six years with a temporary fix to his phone line with a cable which runs from the manhole, across the lawn and along a fence to his property. Picture: Chris Ison ROK020218cline3

He has contacted the NBN and made an appointment for a switch over but believed they wouldn't come in to fix his problem, opting to do the changeover externally without venturing near his property.

In desperation he reached out to The Morning Bulletin to champion his case and we can reveal that there is already traction with Mr Beal's case.

Telstra Area General Manager Rachel Cliffe responded saying Telstra understood this situation was not acceptable and they apologise.

"Our priority was to provide a working service and we regret that the permanent solution was not implemented," Ms Cliffe said.

"As they are now living in an NBN area where the network assets have been transferred to NBNco, we will speak with their provider and NBNco to request that an appropriate solution is found."

An NBNco spokesperson said from an nbn™ perspective there is no hold up regarding the Beal's switch to the nbn broadband access network.

"An order to connect was placed on Wednesday this week and an appointment has been booked for connection on Monday 12th February - that's less than two weeks," the spokesperson said.

"They still have a working legacy service. Park Avenue is not due to be disconnected until November 2018."

When they were forwarded pictures of Mr Beal's cabling situation, they responded saying they had inherited the responsibility from Telstra and would need to act.

"As with all legacy issues, nbn will seek restoration as soon as possible," they said.

It is understood it may take several weeks yet for the situation to be resolved but when Mr Beal learnt there finally was progress for his situation, he responded appreciatively.

"Talk about dragging people kicking and screaming to get things done," he said.

"Thanks again for your help, you have done a great job."

Originally published as Six year wait for Rocky man to get phone fixed?