OWNERS of two Darlington firms who say they are losing business as a result of their faulty phone service have complained to Ofcom.

Accountant Sue Blaeford, of Blaeford Richardson Ltd, contacted the industry regulator in August after she says she went through a frustrating and unsuccessful complaints procedure this year with Daisy Communications Ltd, based in Nelson, Lancashire.

Mrs Blaeford says she has had problems with her phone service nearly every day since she began a five-year contract with the company in November 2009, and fears she may face another three years of problems.

Jason Byers, owner of EA Outsourcing, based in the same building as Blaeford Richardson, in Elwin Lane, off Victoria Road, says he has had the same problems with his Daisy Communications phone line since he moved into the building two months ago.

"It either cuts off incoming phone calls after 20 minutes or the calls just don't come through - it is not fit for purpose, " said Mr Byers, whose company deals with surplus calls to estate agents.

"The businesses that I work with get really angry when they think we're not answering calls."

Mrs Blaeford says she fears her accountancy firm is also losing business.

"It's an on-going problem for us, but they refuse to admit this, " she said. "They have never send out a technician to sort out the problem."

A spokeswoman for Daisy Group Plc said: "Since January, the customer has logged six faults with the business, all intermittent and all of which were resolved through remote fixing capability.

"In addition, the customer has in that time taken on additional services from the company.

"Following an inquiry made to the business last week, Daisy's customer experience director, Clare Martin, has personally contacted the customer to arrange for a site visit in order to conduct a full system audit.

"This will allow us to understand and resolve any outstanding issues the customer may currently be experiencing."

A spokeswoman from Ofcom said: "We have heard from Ms Blaeford and have pointed her in the direction of an independent ombudsman service that resolves disputes from consumers about communications.

"We monitor complaints and if we think that there is a wider problem, we can take action with the provider.

"However, we are not investigating Daisy Communications Ltd."