Postbag bursts with Post Office broadband woe

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Complaints over recent failures with the Post Office's broadband offering continue to swell our mailbag

I have just read the letter from JB of Dunster, complaining they were unable to contact the Post Office's home phone service – they have my sympathy. I am with Post Office home phone and broadband, and on 1 September it decided to upgrade the system, with disastrous results.

I, and I imagine thousands of other people, had no email account for 14 days. I was so fed up that I wrote to the chairman of the Post Office, and received a reply within two days. Not that it did much good, except I received numerous phone calls apologising for the problems they were having. Trying to call the Post Office was a complete waste of time – on one occasion I left it to ring and it was 2hrs 20 minutes before I got a reply. My answer is to change to another phone and broadband supplier. MA, by email

• My local sub-Post Office in the St Werburghs area of Bristol has been shut for a fortnight due to an ISP/broadband line failure. This has impacted severely on the whole community, in addition to the livelihoods of the two cashier employees. I wondered if you might help free the gridlock, as it seems incredible that whole communities can be made to suffer when private "communications" companies deal out their own process of justice. SC, Bristol

• My mother- and father-in-law's Post Office phone line hasn't worked for more than a fortnight now, and when they try ringing customer services they can't get through, which is ridiculous. They are both in their seventies. MS, Stoke

The meltdown at the Post Office's home phone division continues, although its telephones are now being answered again. We have many other letters similar to these, and it appears to have been caused by the company switching its wholesale supplier from BT to TalkTalk.

We forwarded these letters on, and the Post Office told us it is doing everything it can to get MS's parents-in-law reconnected. However, it says that following an investigation the problems SC is experiencing in Bristol are unrelated to the main problem. This was caused by a switch between other unrelated suppliers.

"We are extremely sorry to hear of the problems our customers are experiencing with Post Office's broadband and phone service," a spokeswoman say. "We fully accept that our current levels of service have fallen below our usual high standards, and this is unacceptable. We would like to reassure customers that we are committed to resolving these service issues and are working hard to rectify these problems swiftly."

This looks like a case of a firm switching supplier to save some money, only for it to end up costing more than the savings made in lost customer goodwill. If you were thinking of signing up to the Post Office's home phone/broadband service, you may want to want to wait a while.