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A few years ago at this time of year I had a problem with my Virgin Media landline. After they said they couldn't fix it for two weeks I emailed the chief exec of Virgin about the problem explaining that the phone was essential for receiving calls at Christmas. Amazingly I had a reply from his PA saying they were going to get it fixed post haste. An engineer turned up within 48 hours and said they would have to pull through a new cable to my house. This made no difference to the problem so after about two more visits they eventually sent someone more senior who changed an amplifier in the green box in the street. I'm guessing this was more expensive than the cable so they tried a cheaper fix first and only the more senior eng had the authority to change the amplifier.