Cancer patient holds protest sign outside Spark's Sylvia Park store

Cancer patient Charles Olmstead, 70, protests against Sparks' poor customer service levels outside its Sylvia Park store. Photo / Supplied

A terminally ill Auckland man unable to get a landline phone connected to his new apartment has taken his protest to Spark's Sylvia Park mall store.

After eight days of failed calls to Spark's helpline, Charles Olmstead decided to sit outside the front of the company's store at the shopping centre in Mt Wellington yesterday and today holding a sign saying: "Terminally ill cancer patient refused service by Spark".

The protest led Spark to contact the 70-year-old today and promise to get his phone line connected as soon as possible.

But the promise has not come soon enough for Olmstead after he and his wife endured about 10 days of stress.

Charles Olmstead make his stand - or seat - at Sylvia Park. Photo / Supplied

It began when they recently moved into a new retirement apartment in Greenlane.

Before moving they had paid Spark to transfer their landline and internet services from their old address to the new apartment.

Yet despite being assured the services would be good to go when they set foot in the door, Olmstead found they weren't.

While his son managed to get the internet services working, repeated calls to Spark using his wife's cellphone failed to get the landline switched on.

He said staff promised a technician would fix the problem, but the technician never showed.

The need for a landline was also more than just a cause of frustration.

Olmstead said he didn't know how to use a mobile without his wife's help and so needed the landline to call for help in an emergency.

"I might be the last person without a mobile phone in New Zealand, but I don't like them," he said.

"I love it that my grandkids have got them and can contact me, but for me I don't use them."

That left Olmstead and his wife no choice but to make their stand.

Then, while sitting outside the Spark store, security arrived and told the couple to leave. When Olmstead's wife took photos of them, they tried to force her to delete them, reducing her to tears, Olmstead said.

"Then the police came, they were very good. They didn't want a bar of arresting someone who was sick.

"I said: 'You will have to arrest me with all my medicine and I will need a fridge in the cell to keep all my insulin cool as well'."

The couple only stayed an hour yesterday but then went back this morning.

Security didn't try to remove them today and the Spark store's manager gave Olmstead a mobile phone with free talk minutes to use until the landline was connected.

Then about 4pm today a Spark employee called the couple and promised the company had "escalated" their complaint to make it a top priority.

A Spark spokeswoman said Olmstead first contacted them on August 23 and the team worked out his number had not been "completely transferred to his new address".

"Unfortunately, the ticket that was raised was not correctly actioned, which led to the delay in getting Mr Olmstead's phone connected," she said.

She said an experienced staff member would now work to ensure the phone was connected as soon as possible.

"We acknowledge how upsetting it would be to have been without his landline and sincerely apologise to him," she said.

Olmstead for his part said he had got the impression when Spark called him that they were saying: "Gosh, here we are helping you out, thank us".

"But I feel like I paid them to do this service and I'm still waiting for it - I'm not grateful."

And while he has been told his phone should be connected tomorrow, he said he's heard that before.

"For me, I'm waiting to see, show me the money - let me see it's fixed," he said.