AN OSWALDTWISTLE businesswoman claims she is £700 out of pocket after her telephone lines went dead for a week.

Suzzan Gilbert, of Pampered Pets, changed her service provider last Monday – and has not had a call since.

The grooming parlour, which has been based in Union Road for 10 years, switched to Go4 Communications, saying her bills were rising.

She later discovered potential customers had been left listening to rings which were not heard in the shop – and a divert to her mobile phone was only set up after three days of silence on Thursday.

She said: “Mondays and Tuesdays are our busiest days but we rely on customers calling us for appointments. I must have rang Go4 about 17 times.

“People have actually walked in and said they thought we had closed down because no-one was answering the phone.

“I rang the service provider on Monday at noon and they said I was in transfer and I would be connected by 5pm that night.

“But they didn’t inform me in the first place that the phone would be inactive at all.

“It wasn’t back on at 5pm so I rang back and they said there was a problem but it would be on by the start of work on Tuesday – it wasn’t.”

The salon offers professional grooming, brushing, bathing and nail clipping and also sorts boarding, offers behaviour and nutrition counselling and even playgroups.

Suzzan said she is starting to suffer the knock-on effects.

She added: “Usually by Wednesdays we usually take bookings for the next week.

“So those days before the diversion was set up saw my takings down by £700.

“One of my members of staff didn’t work on Friday because there was no work but I still have to pay her.”

“We are now getting back to normal because the calls are coming through to my mobile number but I am disgusted really because every time someone rings me I pay for the call.

“I had a message saying it has been passed on to the engineers.”

A spokesman for Go4 Communications said: “We are aware of the issue with Pampered Pets and are currently in discussions with our wholesale partners to resolve this issue.

“I can assure you that we are doing all we can to resume this service and are aware of the consequences of this down time within the switch over process.

“We are treating this with the urgency that it requires and are in contact with the business regarding this.”