STAWELL - Stawell Steel Fabrications has moved to reassure customers it is open for business despite the telecommunications provider responsible for its phone and fax lines being placed into court ordered administration.
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The Stawell based business was one of thousands of Conec2 customers Australia wide, who without warning, lost access to phone and fax services a week ago.
Steel Fabrications', Sue Shuttleworth said phone sales account for 95 percent of the Griffiths Street business.
"We are one of about 10,000 customers affected by this collapse, most of these being business customers," she said.
"Anyone trying to phone us will get a message saying the service has been disconnected.
"This is disastrous for a business like ours which relies so heavily on telephones for sales.
The Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman (TIO) has received a large number of calls as a result of companies iBoss, AsiaPac and One Telecom entering administration.
Customers of service providers that resold services from those companies, including ONESeniors, may have also had their services disconnected.
The TIO has contacted administrators, Ferrier Hodgson to determine if any transition arrangements will be put in place to restore services.
Where services have been disconnected, consumers phone numbers may have been placed in quarantine, which means they can request, but are not guaranteed to have the number reassigned to them when they are reconnected.
Mrs Shuttleworth said initial attempts by the business to set up an interim phone connection with Optus or Telstra had fallen on deaf ears.
"We are now being told that even if we are able to transfer to another provider in a timely manner we probably will not be able have the same phone numbers," she said.
"We are now left wondering how many enquiries we have missed due to this collapse and what the long term affects will be."
Mrs Shuttleworth said she is concerned there could be other customers of the phone service providers in the Stawell area unaware of the situation they find themselves in.
She said it was important clients of Stawell Steel Fabrications were aware they remain open and can be contacted via mobile phone 0428 582 131.