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An Auckland man may have thought his number was up after footpath contractors repeatedly cut his phone connection.
Bruce Blair of Westmere thought it odd when he saw a telephone pole had been disturbed by contractors working on a footpath in his street.
"They must have knocked it and it went up about two feet out of the ground. The wires looked like banjo strings and were nearly resting on a neighbour's roof," he said.
It was then that the retired 62-year-old's problems with his phone and dial-up internet connection began.
"The phone went off, and I thought it was probably because of the pole, so I called service faults.
"They told me that the problem was being looked at, but there was nothing they could do about it ... At the time I thought they couldn't care less, which is something I was quite peeved about."
And so went a process which had Mr Blair going "around and around in circles all the time" with Telecom.
He said he was without a phone for five days of the past fortnight.
"Sometimes the phone would come back on for about an hour and a half and then it would go off again. Connecting to the internet was impossible because there was this horrible buzzing noise," said Mr Blair.
"It was pretty infuriating."
Telecom spokeswoman Sarah Berry said Mr Blair's service had been accidentally disconnected by pavement workers contracted to the Auckland City Council, who were upgrading footpaths in the area.
She said up to 200 Telecom customers might have been without their phones for a day at one stage.
"It's a work in progress between us and the contractors and we apologise immensely for the inconvenience to our affected customers," said Ms Berry.
"We are working with the contractors and showing them how to work carefully around these cables."
Ms Berry said those affected had received credits to their monthly phone bills, including Mr Blair, who received about $40.
