Business owner fears park café at risk after BT glitch leaves her without phone line for weeks

A business owner from Preston fears she is losing business every day due to a problem with her telephone provider.

Kelly Davies, who lives in Warton, opened Rosemary in the Park on Moor Park Avenue in 2018. The café is named after her mother, who died in January 2017. The death of her mother and her brother in the space of a few months prompted Kelly to follow her ‘lifelong dream’ to run a café with a family feel.

Now, a ‘technical glitch’ that has dragged down her landline means another significant challenge at a time when the hospitality industry is already hit by severe pressures.

“As we all know, hospitality is a struggling business for many. We are very small and depend on our regulars,” Kelly told Blog Preston.

“Our landline is vital to the business as we get many calls enquiring on opening times, specials of the week and so on. “We have food takeaway orders, but mainly our customers and new customers call to book a table. When our number was initially lost the phone simply rang out, as though we were not answering or even worse, our customers thought we had closed down.”

Kelly Davies outside Rosemary in the Park. Pic: Blog Preston

The issue was reportedly caused by a technical glitch. The closure of Plusnet Business resulted in Kelly being advised to transfer to BT – which is the parent company of Plusnet. They were advised this would be a simple process but both BT and Openreach have been unable to retrieve the number since January 9.

Adding to Kelly’s frustration is the knowledge that the business was able to adapt and survive after the ‘extreme challenges’ caused by the pandemic, but is now being harmed through another problem outside of her control.

Kelly said: “We are losing business and customers and have no way of knowing who has called and how many. I have advised on Facebook however a lot of our customers are not on there.

“BT’s customer service has been frustrating at the least. It is causing myself and my husband so much stress and anxiety along with so much of our time.

“I emailed the CEO and because of that my complaint is at the highest level – however this has made no difference and every day we chase we simply get – there is no update.”

Blog Preston contacted both BT and Openreach for comment. Openreach advised us BT would comment on behalf of both companies.

A BT spokesperson told Blog Preston: “We are very sorry for the issues Mrs Davies has had with her phone line.

“When she moved to BT unfortunately a technical issue meant her phone number did not correctly transfer across and we are working to resolve this issue.”

Rosemary in the Park is open six days a week, from 9.30am-3.30pm Tuesday to Friday and 10am-4pm Saturday and Sunday.

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