Anger after Gainford left without mobile signal for ten days

Residents in Gainford have voiced their frustration after being left without a mobile phone signal for ten days.
O2 customers in the village were left angered by a “lack of communication” from the provider after they were unable to get any answers as to why they had no signal on their phones from Tuesday, November 1, until Friday, November 11.
Nick Raper, who lives in the village, has a personal mobile phone and a business mobile phone, which are both operated through O2. He first reported the issue on November 1. Despite calls in an attempt to get to the bottom of the problem, Mr Raper was one of many in the village still without signal more than a week later.
He said: “They had no clue what was going on. There was a lack of communication. I got an update which said there was a problem and that they were working on it and it would be up an running again in 48 hours but it wasn’t.
“They had no information about what the problem was and had no idea about the rectification.
“Virtually everyone I know in Gainford seems to be with O2. Their customer service has to be the worst I have ever encountered.”
Despite receiving a letter offering him £30 off his bill, Mr Raper said it still did not
indicate what the problem was or when it would be resolved.
Mr Raper was then told by O2 that the issue had only just been reported on November 7 – a week after he had actually first called to complain.
Mr Raper, who works as a senior recruitment consultant, has been an O2 customer for many years but felt that his voice was not being heard.
He said: “I had a work phone that was not receiving calls. Even if we had known what the problem was people could have made contingency plans. I could have arranged to work from the office.
“If this had been a city centre we would not have been left for ten days without mobile phone signal. There was a real sense of frustration.”
Other residents also took to social media to voice their opinions. Ron Gowling wrote: “I too have wasted my time speaking with O2. No information whatsoever coming from them.”
Heather Gibson also wrote: “I complained five days ago and they said their engineers were working on it and would only take a couple of days to fix.”
Nat Ariel Rose commented: “I want a refund. I’m paying for a service that doesn’t work.”
O2 confirmed that engineers had been carrying out work to upgrade a mast. They explained that customers might have noticed some intermittent issues from November 3 before the installation of the new equipment. which started on November 8.
An O2 spokesperson said: “We’ve been carrying out upgrade work to a mast in the Gainford area to bring O2 4G service to the area so our customers will be able to experience faster mobile data speeds on their mobile phones.
“The work was due to finish Thursday with full service being restored from Friday. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.”
Mr Raper added: “If we were to get a text telling us they are experiencing problems and what the problem is then fantastic but there was nothing.”