IT IS no surprise that television programmes like Watchdog are never short of material when we hear stories like that of Steve Hickman.

The Worcester man, as we report on page 3 today, has been battling telecoms giant BT for a year over the botched installation of a broadband line at his home in Fort Royal Hill.

His new telephone and internet system failed to work properly and after his complaints got him nowhere, he refused to pay BT until the fault was fixed. BT cut him off as a result.

Mr Hickman took his complaint to Otelo, the telecoms Ombudsman, which backed him, found BT guilty of poor customer service and ordered it to send a letter of apology to the builder.

That was nearly four months ago. And it took a telephone call from your Worcester News to BT to resolve the issue.

The company has now admitted it was in the wrong, apologised to Mr Hickman and waived any charges he might have owed.

It does make us wonder how much power watchdogs like Otelo actually have when a company like BT can effectively ignore one of its rulings for months and only adhere to its instructions as a result of media pressure.

We hope Mr Hickman's troubles are now over.

It is clear, however, that BT - operating in a hugely competitive market - needs to take a long, hard look at the way it deals with customer complaints.