A YORK taxi firm has claimed a string of blunders by a telephone company cost them thousands of pounds over one of the busiest weekends of the year.

AnD taxis, based on Blossom Street, York, was left without a phone line after asking BT for a quote on upgrading its analogue lines.

Driver Gareth Rees said the problem started when the company realised its computer systems were not compatible with BT’s ISDN lines.

He said: “We asked BT to cancel the job and they said they’d take care of it. Then we received an order saying they were sending an engineer to install the new system. We contacted them again and they said the job was cancelled, but on Friday morning an engineer turned up to switch the systems.”

As they prepared for the bank holiday weekend, dispatchers realised the four phone lines were dead.

“We couldn’t understand why we weren’t getting any calls.

“We called BT from a mobile at about 5.30pm and were put on hold until their offices closed at 6pm,” said Gareth.

“After being passed from pillar to post and back again we got our fax number diverted so we had one line working with a new number.

“We had to print up leaflets and call all our regular customers advising them of the problem.”

A spokesperson for BT said the firm’s phone lines were reconnected on Friday, and had been disconnected in error.

He said: “We apologise unreservedly for the length of time they were without phone service.

“Service has now been fully restored and a case handler will be having further discussions with the customer regarding compensation.”

Gareth confirmed BT had contacted AnD regarding compensation, but the firm felt they had lost more than BT was offering. “We’ve been told we can potentially apply for £6,000, but we had 30 drivers on call that bank holiday, and just one phone line for the week,” he said.