AN alleged BT error left Porthcothan Bay Stores without WiFi and plummeting sales as the crucial Cornish retail summer kickstarted.  

Just as sales were expected to go through the roof, owners David ‘Barney’ and Emma Barnett, had to take to the roof to get signal for their card machines. Porthcothan is a beach with little to no signal, which is why the shop entire takings rely on the strength of BT’s wifi.

“Like many other independent businesses in Cornwall, we have a three month window to make our income for the entire year,” said Emma. “This BT failure has left us unable to process payments and severely down on takings already, we can’t believe it”.

At the beginning of July, BT contacted the shop about terminating their current contract as they needed to change an analogue line to a digital line - an apparent roll-out procedure happening for all lines.

Emma, exclaimed to BT that this definitely can’t happen in the height of the summer season. The business relies solely on WiFi for its phones and card machines to take payments.

Emma’s pleas went unheard and BT reportedly refused to change the date. After a week of back and forth, BT agreed to postpone the termination until October 1 — this was deemed a better, yet not ideal, solution as the shop’s high-season would begin slowly winding down.

On July 31, PBS’s WiFi was terminated as a result of a BT employee not logging the date change; leaving the shop without connection on the hottest weekend of the year. An ongoing queue of customers wanting to purchase refreshments were left stuck as payments were unable to be processed.  

Barney refused to take this sitting down and took to the roof with one of the shop’s fishing nets, where there was limited 4G signal, to take payments by lowering the card machine in a net down to customers.  

Emma and Barney say they are still in the throes of conversation with BT, who are now due to send an engineer on August 9.

Emma said: “I can’t actually believe it. For a small business like us whose yearly income relies on the small window of summer months, not having wifi is killing our business.

“Not only did BT terminate our contract without warning, but they’ve now pushed our engineer visit after the bank holiday. We are beside ourselves, but can’t thank the local community and customers enough for their support and patience during this stressful time.” 

Emma and Barney, who are still in the process of trying to find ways to boost their 4G, say they have forked out £300 on a star link booster device as an attempt to solve the mistake. 

A BT Group spokesperson said: “We're very sorry for the problems Porthcothan Bay Stores have experienced with the transfer of their service. An engineer visited over the weekend and successfully connected the new service.

“We've apologised to the customer for this error and we'll discuss compensation with them due to the impact on their business."