RESIDENTS in Verwood are furious after their phones were cut off for 10 days without prior warning from BT.

It is believed that as many as 200 people from Verwood and Woodlands were left without landlines, as well as TV and broadband in some cases, when they lost power to their lines.

Many took to social media to complain about the issues, one of whom said that, because of a lack of mobile phone signal, she was left unable to communicate with anyone.

Had it not been for her carers line she said she would have had no contact whatsoever with the outside world.

Laurian Sherwood, of Verwood Road, said: “We have been without the phones for 10 days and it’s affected between 50 to 200 people in the Verwood area. The major issue here is no body can do anything about it and Openreach wouldn’t give any information to anybody and they are a monopoly.

“You can’t do anything about it. One day, maybe but not 10 days!”

She claimed that because she is a Sky customer she was “given the runaround” by BT.

“They take us all for fools,” she added. “They offered me compensation by way of £38. They have a £5 billion deal and £30 for me? That’s a spec of dust.”

Though the phone lines are now back up and running, Mrs Sherwood, her husband Rodger, and their neighbours Brandon and Alexandrina Styles, said the situation was just not good enough.

A spokesman for BT said: “We are sorry for the delay in restoring service. This was a complex repair to an underground cable involving new cable and ducting and traffic management on a road. Service has now been restored. Eighteen customers reported a fault.”