Tim Arthur, of Arthurs Antiques, was without the services he called essential to his business from first thing Monday, when he alerted his service provider Spark to the issue, till Thursday.
After speaking to the Otago Daily Times on Wednesday, which then put questions to Chorus, which maintains the infrastructure, about the fault, he said his services were restored that afternoon.
"I have not doubt it was because of the media," he said.
That was despite communication from Spark that said the issue would not be resolved until December 3.
Chorus did not respond for a request for comment on Mr Arthur’s situation by deadline yesterday.
Spark corporate relations partner Samantha Smith said the company had done its best to keep Mr Arthur in the loop.
"I can confirm Spark has been in consistent contact with this customer over the last few days, ensuring he was kept up to date in regards to the copper fault. We have also discussed options with the customer that will help prevent this from happening again in the future, and the customer has sought to implement one of these options."
After having no luck on Monday, Mr Arthur tried again the following day.
"On Tuesday morning I rang back [from a cellphone] and said: ‘This isn’t good enough’. I run a shop and can’t use my eftpos."
That was after he was sent a text message that said a technician would visit him on Tuesday, which was then changed to Wednesday, then Thursday and finally December 3.
On Monday, he called Spark twice and was told the issue would be looked at that day.
Mr Arthur approached a Chorus contractor on the street, who told him the issue was related to water seeping into a lead cable and that 1100 customers had been affected.
Spark referred questions from the Otago Daily Times about the fault to Chorus, which owned and maintained the infrastructure.
Chorus stakeholder and communications manager Steve Pettigrew confirmed on Wednesday a "1200-pair copper cable fault" was found in north Oamaru on Tuesday and was "affecting telephone services for some 70 or so customers in the area".
"We have technicians working on replacing the damaged copper cable and phone services should start restoring as soon as lines are reconnected.
"I realise that the date of Tuesday, 3rd December, given for the repair to complete is confusing and can lead to frustration from customers. In our system this is the ... worst-case date for the repair to complete. We’re exploring ways of making this clearer in future."
