Dunstone: Broadband launch was a ‘bruising’ experience

Dunstone TalkTalkCharles Dunstone has admitted that launching Carphone Warehouse’s broadband service has been a “bruising” and “painful” experience for the company.

Dunstone (pictured), founder and chief executive of the telecoms group, has acknowledged in the latest posting to his blog that the company has suffered from the negative publicity, which it has not been used to dealing with before now.

He says: “It’s been a bruising experience for everyone at Carphone Warehouse; we are used to being ‘the good guys’ and it’s tough when things don’t go as well as we’d hoped.

“Whilst giving birth to free broadband was painful, it is now turning out to be a beautiful child.”

Dunstone claims that the problems surrounding the lack of capacity in its call centres have been resolved. Although he had previously predicted his company would be able to eliminate queues at the call centres by mid-August, he has acknowledged there are still problems. He explains: “We still get a bit stretched in the evening after 6pm and continue to add more resources to our late shifts.”

Carphone Warehouse has been hit by fresh criticism in the past week, with allegations that it has excluded people over-70 from signing up to broadband contracts in some instances. The company has denied it has such a policy, saying it tells its staff to “use their discretion” when signing up customers of any age.