Clean your phone boxes and fix your payphones!

[nick_london]

Ok, so I spoke to someone at BT Payphones and they tell me nobody cleans or checks payphones and street kiosks unless someone reports them.

Now even the heavily used ones are never cleaned or checked. The phone box near my house which I made a call from the other day is very well used, I always see lots of people talking on it, it even has advertising on it, so how is it expensive to clean it once in a while.

I'm not even talking about vandalism or grafiti, they have usual wear and tear and grime. There was a story about how thieves managed to steal thousands of pounds from phone boxes across 70 kiosks. That tells me nobody bothers to clean,check or even collect cash from them.

Less people use them not only because everyone has a mobile because they are not pleasant to use or because they aren't working properly and so much can be done with them.

Wifi hotspots

Micro cell masts to boost mobile network coverage

Smart car charging

Mobile phone charging points with sponsored advertising

All those things on top of having a working payphone in a clean kiosk.

We still need phone boxes, they are usual for when your battery runs flat or if your phone has been lost,stolen or damaged.

I'm just tired of reporting the kiosks to BT payphones, when they could be checked now and again.

[gvb]

In our village we bought our kiosk from BT and volunteers look after it.

[gg30340]

May be there is a job/business opportunity for some one.

[nick_london]

They don't visit the payphone and because nobody reports faulty ones, they remain like that and then it will show 0 usage and then they will remove it saying it is not used enough. They also make some cashless, funny how they don't sell phone cards, credit and debit card option is provided by a third party that charges a fortune and you could be stuck!

The reason for people not using payphones anymore is BT's closure by stealth approach. They claim it costs between £300 and £600 per year to maintain a public phone box, yet when I spoke to someone at BT payphones, he said 'To be honest with you, they are never cleaned or visited unless someone reports them'. so where do they spend this money?