麻豆社

Openreach 鈥� the company which runs most of Britain鈥檚 landline and broadband connections 鈥� is back on X-Ray's radar after complaints continue to pour in.

Since we featured them back in 2013, we have received more than 40 complaints about engineers turning up ill-prepared to fix problems or not turning up at all. The result is long delays in getting broadband and landline services repaired or installed.

Keenan Lewis, a chef from Treorchy was without landline and broadband for seven months after he tried switching providers in August last year. 聽He was told that Openreach had connected him to the wrong exchange point; a problem he thought would be easy to fix. However six engineer visits later, Keenan still wasn鈥檛 connected until the beginning of March this year.

鈥淚f you're switching providers I thought it would be without it for two weeks, if not three鈥�, says Keenan, 鈥淚 never thought I would be restricted for this long.鈥�

Edmund and Diane Cartwright from Pwllheli lost their broadband and landline after the house across the road was struck by lightning in October last year. The force of the strike was enough to blow their router off the wall.

The couple say their provider, EE, sent out a new router within 48 hours, but it was another six weeks before Openreach reconnected their lines. Out of seven appointments made, one was cancelled, two engineers didn鈥檛 show up and three of the repair jobs only lasted a couple of hours.

鈥淚t was just so frustrating, unbelievable,鈥� says Diane, 鈥渋t seemed that our lives were revolving around trying to get someone to come out and just fix the line.鈥�

Both Mr Lewis and the Cartwrights spent hours on the phone to their providers trying to get the problem fixed; they say they found it frustrating that they were unable to contact Openreach directly.

Last Summer Ofcom gave new targets to Openreach. They say 70% of faults should be repaired within two working days and appointments for 55% of new line installations should be given within 12 working days.

Openreach say they are meeting Ofcom's official targets but say they want to improve further and they're hiring more engineers to help them. They say sometimes in cases like the Cartwrights in Pwllheli - lots of work is needed over several visits to fix serious damage.聽

In Keenan's case they say "data inaccuracies" led to unnecessary delays. They have apologised for any inconvenience - and so have their service providers Sky and EE.

Codie Cullis and her partner were in the market for an inexpensive motor and found a dealer on Facebook.聽Christopher Dean Jenkins - known as Dean - responded saying he had a cheap runaround for sale. 聽

Codie says: 鈥淗e said the car's pukka, drives spot on, as soon as we drive it we'll buy it.鈥澛燭hey bought the 2004-plate Astra for 拢1,000 on 9 January, 2015.聽

Codie said she was expecting a few slight problems with the car given its age, but less than three weeks later the car broke down. Codie says: 鈥淲e were driving up to Neath to go to dinner, we were on a little hill and the car just broke down and it wouldn't restart.鈥�

At first Dean said he would fix her broken car but he failed to do so. The Astra hasn't been driven since.聽

Codie advised Dean of her legal rights under the Sale of Goods Act 1979 - that an item should be of satisfactory quality, which means that the goods should be free from faults; last a reasonable time; be fit for the purpose they were made for; and should be safe.

The Astra meets none of the above criteria but Dean will not refund Codie鈥檚 money. He says the couple bought a sold as seen 鈥渘o warranty鈥� car.

X-Ray had motoring expert and vehicle inspector Gareth Rees look at the car. His verdict: "it's a death trap鈥�.

Codie says: 鈥淚t's been a nightmare, an absolute nightmare and I've never had an experience like it in my life and I hope I don't get another one.鈥澛�

Dean Jenkins disputes Codie's version of events. 聽He says he knocked down the price of the car because there were faults and that he'd not had a chance to check the car before he sold it. He claims she had accepted it "as seen". He also claims they didn't take the car to back to him as soon as the problems arose.聽