IN THE NEWS
PLYMOUTH TAXI AND PH FIRM LOSES HUNDREDS OF FARES AFTER PHONE LINE STOPS WORKING
A Plymouth taxi/PH company has been hit with a devastating loss of business after a bizarre phone glitch meant hun- dreds of calls could ’t get through to it. Anytime Taxis has seen journeys shrink dramatically after its phone line stopped accepting calls from anyone not on the BT/EE network. The Plymouth Herald reports that the highly unusual problem appeared to be because the company’s landline number - 247365 - was given to it by mistake, and may be being claimed by a business elsewhere in the UK. Phone provider BT has launched an investigation and said it is doing every- thing it can to resolve the problem. But it has left Anytime Taxis, a growing business that only launched in Decem- ber 2021, without full phone access for
a week now and with no idea of when the nightmare scenario will be rectified. It has already cost hundreds of lost fares and a potentially huge future issues as all its vehicles and premises are branded with the phone number and, indeed, it had chosen the 247365 number because it represented it being open for business 24 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year. The crisis started at 5.30pm on Friday, June 17, when calls from any provider other than BT or EE, which merged with BT in 2016, stopped being con- nected to its office landline. At first the company didn’t realise why the usual volume of Friday night book- ings were plummeting and Mr Burgess said: “From then until midnight we received 31 calls - normally it would be
in excess of 200.” It was only when the company started getting messages from customers ask- ing if it had gone out of business that it realised something was wrong. Mr Burgess said: “Our calls are down drastically, 90% of our work comes this way. All our drivers are self-employed and are losing earnings as a result.” If the company ends up needing to change its branding it will be very expensive, and Mr Burgess said a claim for compensation could take months to resolve. Anytime Taxis has eight PHVs, two hackney black cabs and an eight- seater minibus. BT said it is trying to sort out the situa- tion but admitted it is complicated and unusual. “We’ve apologised to the cus- tomer and we’re keeping them updated.”
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JULY 2022
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