Hi There!

John Filmore Contractors have been down our street for the last 3 weeks, working on new footpaths.

In that time they have cut the cables to our phones and internet no less than 5 times, and since then we have had crappy internet speeds sporadically, our lines drop off and need to be reconnected and we have crackling/static on varying lines at different times. This has been almost constant since they arrived.  Chorus have been pretty responsive to the cut cables and every time we log a call they come and "fix" the problem, for us to have another problem or the same problem come back again, hours or minutes later. At one point the problem was so bad I relocated our servers to another location to continue to be operational.

Vodafone have been pretty good, but they are saying there is nothing they can do to get these problems resolved properly until the work has been completed which is 2 months away for our street, and perhaps 12 months for our area.

The issue primarily is the age of the cables and the depth they were originally buried, which is 1cm below the concrete.

I have been contacted by Chorus who say they can only fix reported issues as they come in (Despite being out twice a day most days since work begun), and that they won't properly replace the cable, or lay it deeper or put waterproofing around it, unless authorized by Telecom. Telecom won't talk to me since I am a VF customer, and VF are saying they can't do anything until Telecom repair the lines.

Whilst not likely, this day to day disruption could go on for another 12 months! There are eight businesses in our building alone who have been affected, and I know other businesses on the street are having problems too.

There must be some way to get this working better than this!

John Filmore keeps saying "sorry,can't make an omlette without breaking some eggs", and suggest I call the council if I am not happy. I can't find a single person at the council who knows who to raise the issue with.

I am at my wits end, what can I do?