The pole was eventually fixed on December 4 after BT engineers were called in - by which time Marie said her firm had gone 59 days without broadband or phone access.
17:05, 09 Dec 2025Updated 09:09, 10 Dec 2025
Owner Craig McInally and his son is Kyle(Image: )
Owners of an family-run Edinburgh garage fear their business may be under threat after a broken telephone pole prevented them from taking bookings for nearly two months. Marie, 46, who works at The Garage on Turnhouse Road, claims the wire on the pole was snapped by machinery on October 6.
The damaged pole is on a Miller Homes construction site opposite The Garage and was eventually fixed on December 4 after BT engineers were called in - by which time Marie's firm had gone 59 days without broadband or phone access.
Marie claimed she attempted to contact Miller Homes and BT throughout the whole process but there was a 'lack of effort' from both sides. Due to the small business being based in an isolated location, they rely on internet and phone calls for their bookings.
Despite the issue now being fixed, Marie said her business has lost around £10,000 in trade - putting their future in doubt.
Speaking to Edinburgh Live, Marie said: "The wire was snapped back in October. BT said they needed to replace the entire pole but had to wait for permission from the builders to get in.
"While all of this was going on, we were without service from October 6 to December 4 - 59 days to be exact. I have contacted Miller Homes a lot about this.
"BT eventually fixed the issue and came back with an offer of compensation of three months line rental which we declined. We have lost around £10,000 in business over this.
"Because we are an isolated business, we completely rely on our phone and our internet so people can book in with us. For the whole of November, our phones were completely dead. We are at the point where we can’t pay our rent and we are talking about closing down."
Due to the ordeal, Marie and the owner, Craig McInally, say they are "desperate" and are hoping to receive some financial compensation in a frantic bid to salvage their family-owned business. The Garage has been open since 2019 with the team moving to Turnhouse Road in January this year.
Marie added: "It's just all so upsetting and so stressful. We are honestly desperate. It's possible that by January 1 we aren’t going to be here.
"Because we had no bookings for the whole of November, we lost about half of our customers and we are now facing a massive financial burden."
A spokesperson for Miller Homes said: "We are aware of an issue involving a telephone network pole located on our site that required maintenance by the network provider due to being in state of disrepair.
"We cooperated with the network provider to ensure they had immediate access to carry out the necessary maintenance as soon as they requested it, as the pole forms part of their infrastructure and the responsibility for its upkeep and repair rests with them."
A BT spokesperson said: “We’re aware of some disruption affecting a local business which has now been resolved. This was caused by damage resulting from third-party building work and subsequent access issues led to a delay in resolving the matter. A temporary solution to divert calls to a mobile number was put in place during part of the disruption.
"The business has since been credited for the full period they were without service and in addition to this, they’ve been offered compensation of £140.85 which they have declined.
“We apologise for the inconvenience caused and that this could not be resolved as quickly as we would have liked. Though the fault and subsequent delays were outside of our direct control, our priority was working with all relevant parties to restore service at the earliest opportunity.”