Murch Lake resident Sheila Crozman got her home phone service back on Thursday - after waiting since Aug. 13 due to a series of human errors by utility provider Telus.
A piece of heavy equipment knocked down the phone line on her rural property - cutting off her only phone service from the area.
"We don't have cell phone service in or around the house. Neighbours are quite a distance away," Crozman said. "My husband had cancer he's living with chronic pain issues. If anything happened, we'd have had no 911."
In addition, Crozman said, her elderly mother-in-law is in the hospital in Prince George and the hospital had no way to get in touch with them. Although they have a cell phone, it only works on parts of their property.
"I called them on Aug. 16 and they said they'd come on Aug. 24. We were both home on Aug. 24, but they never came," she said.
When they called Telus back, they were told a technical would come out on Aug. 31. Again the couple waited for the Telus technician - by 3 p.m. they called and were told no one was available until Sept. 28.
"They said the crew only comes out here once a month," Crozman said.
After multiple attempts to talk to a service manager to try and resolve the situation - including going in person to the Telus service office on Cowart Road - Crozman said she hear back from a manager on Sept. 12, who said they couldn't do anything to help.
"It's frustrating. The only recourse I have is they told me they wouldn't charge me for the repair," she said.
When the Citizen contacted Telus on Thursday, company spokesman Shawn Hall said the company address the problem the same day.
"What it comes down to is really human error at Telus. The job was booked incorrectly at Telus. It wasn't then rebooked properly," Hall said. "Recognizing that phone service is so important we have a crew heading out today."
Hall said a regular technician was booked for the job, rather than a specialist capable of doing the line repair.
On Friday, Crozman said she had her phone back - but would still like an apology from Telus.
"It took a lot of time and a lot of stress on us," she said. "We deserve an apology from them."
