Fresh details have emerged about how hundreds of homes and businesses in Carlisle have been left with no working phone line – including one elderly couple whose landline has been out of action for three weeks.

Angry customers have accused Virgin Media of fobbing them off and failing to properly explain what has gone wrong.

The firm has insisted its engineers are working hard to fix the problem, and confirmed yesterday that about half of the 800 or so Carlisle customers affected have had their landlines restored.

But Carlisle man Craig Scott told the News & Star that his parents Joseph, 89, and Stella, 82, of Naworth Drive, Lowry Hill, have been without their landline for the last three weeks.

“It was my birthday on September 13, and I tried to ring them up to thank them for their present and card – but I couldn't get through,” said sign-writer Craig, 56, of Lowry Hill Road.

“Fortunately, they have a pay-as-you-go mobile but it's expensive. They've had to keep buying £20 top-ups.

“They wanted to speak to somebody about it but most of the time you can't get to speak to anyone; and when you do they promise it will be sorted, and give you a deadline. A minute after that's passed they give you a new deadline."

“They're at an age now when my mum likes to keep in touch with people. She has an elderly aunt in Dewsbury, my great aunt Isabel.”

Craig said his wife had accosted a Virgin Media engineer who she spotted in Lowry Hill and he told her that he was sick to the back teeth of people tackling him in the street about the phone line problem.

“We've been trying to sort it out,” said Craig.

“I've made numerous calls but we don't seem to be getting anywhere with them. They just fob you off. You end up waiting in a queue for 20 minutes. Nobody at Virgin Media has explained anything to us.

“When I did get through I asked them if they'd transfer all of their incoming calls on their mobile but they said they'd charge for that. I told them they should be offering that as a free service. The customers affected should be compensated.

“It's ridiculous.”

Patrick Tracey, 73, from St Edmunds Park, Carlisle, said an engineer had told him that one of the local customers affected was aged 104.

Mr Tracey also spoke of the problems he had contacting Virgin Media. His phone line was finally restored late on Tuesday afternoon, eleven days after it went dead.

A Virgin Media spokesman said that the firm's engineers were working hard to fix the problem and apologised for any inconvenience.