SPENDING hours of his time waiting for a 24seven operator to answer his call is not John Blake's idea of an ideal morning.But the honorary treasurer of Woodbridge Rugby Club had to do just that on Friday as he tried in vain to get through to 24seven to report a fault affecting the club's electric meter.

SPENDING hours of his time waiting for a 24seven operator to answer his call is not John Blake's idea of an ideal morning.

But the honorary treasurer of Woodbridge Rugby Club had to do just that on Friday as he tried in vain to get through to 24seven to report a fault affecting the club's electric meter.

Mr Blake, of Orford Road, Bromeswell, said he spent more than two-and-half hours trying to get through to the power company before getting "pig sick" of waiting.

He said: "You call up and you get told 'all of our operators are busy, please hold the line'. This repeats every 30 seconds for about as long as you can be bothered to hold on.

"I spent a considerable part of Friday morning trying to get through to them until I was pig sick of it. There has got to be slightly better things to do than sitting around waiting for them to pick up a call."

The saga began on Thursday when Mr Blake realised that the rugby club's electric meter was falling down from the post it was attached to. So he called out an electrical engineer, who advised him to call his power supplier.

He contacted TXU Energi, who then told him that a problem needing to be dealt with by 24seven.

Mr Blake said: "I looked up the number of 24seven and got through to a lady at 24seven, who was very charming – she couldn't have been more helpful.

"She told me what I had to do but said I had to call 24seven's offices in Fore Hamlet in Ipswich. I had no complaints with her but I just couldn't reach Fore Hamlet."

Having made the first attempt to get through, at 8.30am, Mr Blake tried "on and off" until 11am to get through before giving up.

He said: "We had problems with them before when there was the gales but they aren't even answering now.

"What is worse is that we are a rugby club and we have youngsters running around all the place. If they ran into it I don't know what would happen."

A spokeswoman for 24seven said that the matter was being investigated and she apologised to Mr Blake.

She said: "We were concerned to hear that Mr Blake had problems contacting us.

"We have looked at the power cut helpline and there were no reported faults on Friday and there were no long call queues."

The spokeswoman said that a 24seven technician had visited the site and found that the housing of the electricity meter was unstable.

She said: "Although the customer is responsible for this our technician has carried out temporary repairs while Mr Blake has to arrange for an electrician to carry out permanent repairs."