A Co Armagh trucking firm, which employs 40 people is “in crisis” due to an internet outage which has now stretched into a second week.
Toal Truck Services, which is based in Middletown, saw its internet service go down last Monday lunchtime – it has been down ever since!
Despite Openreach – who supply the damaged infrastructure – being contacted there has been almost radio silence, leaving the company – which relies heavily on its phone lines for sales – haemorrhaging custom.
John Toal, Managing Director, spoke to Armagh I in an attempt to highlight the severity of their situation.
“We’re in crisis now because we have no internet,” said John. “Our sales were down nearly 80% last week. We can’t do wages because our system is down. We have a temporary internet running off SIM cards and it only powers a few laptops.
“We have 40 working in this wee rural place in Middletown, believe it or not. We have a payroll of £1million a year and this internet outage is crippling our operations and putting the livelihoods of those hardworking employees at risk.”
John said Openreach has taken little to no action to resolve the issue, which has left him desperately seeking alternatives to help highlight the damage this is causing.
An initial inspection on Friday, by Openreach engineers, confirmed that there was damage to the infrastructure but there has been no action taken since. It has now been a week since the outage and the company is desperate seeking a resolution.
John continued: “Our sales are from all around the world; telesales is a major component of our business and that has been wiped out overnight because of this issue. I have countless mobiles on the go but nobody knows all your mobile numbers. We’re trying to divert numbers, but that’s not working, and temporary internet which isn’t fit to do the tasks we need doing.
“We have to pay people this week and it’s crisis time if they can’t get paid.”
Armagh I has approached Openreach for a response.
