A Newburgh man who waited 10 days for engineers to respond to a reported fault on his phone line has now been told that it could take two months to repair.
Rab Stark said that he was being “given the run around” by BT until he phoned The Courier.
Mr Stark, 67, a widower of East Shore Road, realised he and his neighbours had a problem with their phones a week past Sunday.
He said that, despite repeated calls via his mobile phone to BT, he was “left hanging”, with no proper explanation as to what the problem was.
The retired head clerk of works with Perth and Kinross Council, said: “They kept sending me texts, saying they couldn’t fix it. First they said it was an underground fault, then they said it was up a pole.
“At first they said it wasn’t weather related but then they said it was storm damage.”
Mr Stark said that within hours of contacting The Courier, BT phone engineers were at his house.
However, on Tuesday afternoon, after more than a week of uncertainty, the news was not good. He was told that it might take a further two months for the fault to be identified and repaired.
Neighbours Martin and Wendy Ranwell, who are dependent on the phone having had two heart by-passes and bowel cancer, respectively, say they have spent around £200 on mobile phone calls to BT.
Mr Ranwell, 67, believes engineers laying fibre optic cables are responsible for the fault.
He said: “BT just don’t seem to care. Now they say they can’t do anything until a gully is cleared. All we want is to be told the truth.”
BT Scotland told The Courier it is investigating.