The Leader has received numerous complaints from residents, who reported the whole town was plagued by patchy service, with calls constantly dropping or not going through at all.

Werris Creek resident Natalie Guthrie said she first noticed problems at the start of May and was left “very frustrated” by the situation.

“I called and they ask me to do troubleshooting with my phone – they didn’t seem to understand it’s the entire town,” Ms Guthrie said.

“Even train drivers are missing shifts because their wake up calls don’t go through.”

Ms Guthrie recently received a full-priced bill and spent “an hour of arguing on the phone” to receive a discount.

“No one should have to pay for a service they can’t use,” she said.

Telstra’s area general manager Mike Marom said the company’s mobile site at Mount Terrible “experienced some intermittent issues” between May 9 to May 23. The Leader raised the issue with Telstra on May 24.

“This impacted some 3G and 4G services in the Werris Creek area,” Mr Marom said.

“The issue has now been resolved and services should be returning to normal. We apologise for the inconvenience and frustration this has caused the community.”

A number of complaints were made to Telstra’s Facebook page.

Emma Simpson, who couldn’t talk to her parents for more than a couple of minutes without the call dropping out, was so frustrated with the situation she posted a photo of two tin cans on a string with a sign reading “Werris Creek Telstra shop, latest iPhone in stock”.

“It’s beyond a joke, I can’t call to have a decent conversation,” she said.

“It’s just ridiculous. There are tradesmen who rely solely on their mobiles for work, everyone is losing business.”