Fife Council has issued an unreserved apology for failing to answer the phone to hundreds of frustrated customers.
The local authority has acknowledged it is letting people down and will now bring in more staff in a bid to fix the problem.
It said residents should start to notice a difference within the next week.
The pledge comes after The Courier and Evening Telegraph revealed Jenny Reid, 83, from Dunfermline, wanted to throw her phone through a window as she tried and failed several times to get hold of a human voice.
And Fred Laing, 67, of Kinglassie, told how he had been trying every day for a week to get an answer.
They were among scores of angry residents to complain about the lack of service, with Fred saying: “It’s absolutely ridiculous. You’re left on the phone with nobody to speak to.”
Fife Council is ‘becoming a joke’
Meanwhile, our article also prompted action from Labour MSP Alex Rowley, who wrote to Fife Council to demand immediate improvements.
He said: “Fife Council is becoming a joke. It’s the council that can’t answer its phones.”
Mr Rowley said the numbers complaining were “quite extraordinary”.
And in his letter to council chief executive Steve Grimmond, the Mid Scotland and Fife MSP said: “Are you aware that calls to the contact centre can take up to 60 minutes to be answered?
“And do you recognise that many members of the public do not have access to the council online, don’t do email or have a mobile smart phone?
“If you are aware of this then I would suggest you are knowingly excluding a large percentage of the people of Fife from being able to have reasonable access to the council.”
Mr Rowley made it clear that workers were helpful once the phone was answered but suggested the call centre was “woefully understaffed”.
“As a result, the public are being badly let down by Fife Council,” he said.
‘We’re really sorry’
The council’s head of customer and online services Diarmuid Cotter has apologised for the issue.
“We understand that customers have been frustrated and disappointed and we’re really sorry that our service has let people down,” he said.
Mr Cotter has asked people to bear with the authority as it works to fix the problem.
“We’re recruiting more staff to help ease the pressure on phone lines which have become busier as services come back on stream and we deal with the backlog that’s built up throughout the pandemic,” he said.
“When more staff are in place customers should find it much easier to get in touch, and we expect things to improve over the next week.”
In the meantime, the council is fast tracking emergency calls and prioritising urgent contact from vulnerable people.
These include community alarm responses, calls about health and social care or queries from those who need crisis grants.
“In response to those calls that are not quite so urgent, we’re explaining to customers the reasons for delay and explaining that there are alternative ways to get in touch and access services,” Mr Cotter said.
“Our website fife.gov.uk is a convenient way for many people to access services as well as helping reduce the number of calls we need to take.
“And seven customer service centres are also open for appointments in Dunfermline, Cowdenbeath, Inverkeithing, Glenrothes, Cupar, Methil and Kirkcaldy.”