Garage owner angered by phone book double listing
Reggie Raynor is crying foul after the telephone directory listed his business under the wrong address and has it sharing a telephone number with another company.Mr Raynor says that besides confusing the public, the mix-up could cause him to lose money.“It’s not only an injustice but poses a very confusing element,” said Mr Raynor.But the dispute is more than just a complaint against the phone company, and has elements of a landlord/tenant relationship gone awry.His troubles started, he said, when he leased part of the premises of Raynor’s Garage and Service Station in Southampton to a couple to operate their own company under his business’ name.The understanding was that David and Darnette Kellman would not take the business name and number with them when the tenancy ended.Mr Raynor took a copy of the lease, which documented the agreement, to BTC a year ago before terminating the lease some months later.But after this year’s Cup Match holiday, he was “somewhat flabbergasted” to find that his business was listed as having the former tenants’ new address.The phone book also lists Raynor’s garage as having the same number as K&D Paint and Auto Body Repair, the Kellman’s new business name.Clients calling Raynor’s Garage now get a competing business.Mr Raynor said he was initially refused a face-to-face meeting with BTC when he called up seeking an explanation this summer.“I want to know why they’ve done what they’ve done,” he said.“They’ve made this error and caused a lot of confusion.”He said that while he had not operated the garage side of his business for some time as he was waiting on Planning Department approval to renovate the premises and had been hoping to start it up slowly in the meantime.BTC did not respond to a request for comment when contacted by this newspaper.But Mr Raynor says he has finally been told by the telephone company that they had merely followed instructions given by his former tenants.That, says Mr Raynor, is not good enough as he had given the telephone company a copy of a legal document supporting his position and BTC had an obligation to establish the truth.For her part, Ms Kellman says she is also at a loss as to the reasons behind BTC’s actions.“I’m wondering why they did that,” she said when contacted in August.“They made a mistake and put Raynor’s Garage with the same number.”She confirmed that her business operated at Raynor’s Garage and they had moved and changed the name of the business but took the number with them to the new location.“That’s the number we got when we moved onto the premises,” she said. “I think you are entitled to take your number with you.”But Mrs Kellman says that she was “shocked” when she saw that the telephone directory had listed Raynor’s Garage at her new address.“We don’t have anything in the name of Raynor’s Garage anymore. Why would you want to put the old name another address? It doesn’t make sense.”Mr Raynor sees it differently. He has instructed his lawyers to apply for an interim injunction to attempt to recover control of the telephone number and prohibit the Kellman’s from using the name “Raynor’s Garage”.