PHONE company chiefs today apologised to a Felixstowe family after cutting off their line twice in four weeks.Sonia and Nuri Taghdi are seeking compensation from ntl for the inconvenience of being without a phone after an administrative mix-up.

PHONE company chiefs today apologised to a Felixstowe family after cutting off their line twice in four weeks.

Sonia and Nuri Taghdi are seeking compensation from ntl for the inconvenience of being without a phone after an administrative mix-up.

They were told after the second time their phone at their home in Seaton Road, Felixstowe, was disconnected that it would take ten days to put back on.

However, after the family contacted The Evening Star, ntl immediately sent a team of engineers to deal with the problem.

The couple, who have two children, Hannah, aged five, and Aisha, one, first had their phone disconnected four weeks ago after a dispute over their bills and threatened to move their phone to another provider.

Mrs Taghdi said: "We pay our bills by direct debit but they were taking too much again and again and the bills were always wrong - we told them we had had enough and would move to BT.

"The phone was cut off, but then we managed to sort out the problems - they made us an offer to stay with them and the phone was reconnected.

"Then four weeks later, with no reason at all, the phone is cut off again.

"It has been an absolute nightmare. With two young children you never know when you might need the phone in an emergency.

"When we spoke to ntl they told us they didn't know why it had been disconnected but it would take ten days to put back on. That was not good enough - how can it take that long?"

The family now hope to be compensated for the inconvenience and the line charges for the days they were without a phone.

It appears the reason for the second disconnection stemmed from the first problem.

ntl officials put in place procedures for the family to transfer their telephone number to another service provider and this automated process kicked in before the Taghdis decided to stay with ntl.

A spokeswoman for ntl said: "Unfortunately there was an overlap between the automated disconnection request being processed at the customer's request and the customer deciding to keep their service with ntl which has resulted in the telephone line being disconnected.

"We have arranged for a team of engineers to reconnect the line today and apologise for any inconvenience."