Sky customers have been offered compensation of as little as £1.61 despite being left without a phone line and internet for 19 hours.

Homes across Burton and South Derbyshire were left with no connection after an underground fire damaged fibre network cables on Monday, July 10. The lines were down for some people until the afternoon on Tuesday.

As a way of apologising for the problems, Sky invited people to get in touch to be reimbursed for their troubles but customers found they got a little less than expected.

One Hilton woman, who asked not to be named, said she arrived home from work on Monday evening to find her family desperately trying to fix the internet connection problem.

After failing to repair the fault, the mum-of-two called Sky later that evening and heard an automated message reporting a widespread fault across the East Midlands.

She said: "The connection was down all night which is hugely inconvenient when you need to work from home. It obviously didn't go down well with the children who had schoolwork to complete online."

The customer, who has been with Sky for a decade, said connection was restored the following morning and she rang to see how much she would be recompensed.

"I was appalled when they said £1.61," she said. "I asked why it was such a low sum and she said it was equivalent to one day's phone and internet service. I asked how that could possibly cover the cost of the inconvenience. She had no answer. I'm not happy."

Another resident, who works as a human resources adviser from home, said his broadband had still not been restored on Wednesday.

The 26-year-old, who wishes to remain anonymous, has been travelling to Burton Library to use their free internet instead. He said: "How am I supposed to do my job properly if I can't access my internet? I've been travelling to Burton which is costing me extra in fuel and I've had to use my 4G a lot too which is another bill.

"My phone is down too so I can't call Sky and I'm not using my mobile because it will cost me a fortune. I've had no contact from Sky whatsoever and it's not on."

People in Burton, Tutbury, Barton under Needwood, Etwall, Repton, Derby, Chellaston, Allestree, Breadsall, Duffield, Alvaston, Sandiacre, Ashbourne, Mickleover, Pear Tree, Long Eaton and elsewhere in the East Midlands were affected by the outage.

Sky – just one of the service providers affected by the fire – said engineers worked overnight to fix the issue and connection was restored to all homes by 12.30pm on Tuesday.

People are asked to call Sky customer services on 03300 413000 to discuss compensation claims. The company said these were usually decided on a case-by-case basis.

Burton Mail readers have contacted us via our Facebook page saying they had mostly been offered around £1.94, with some people getting nothing.

Michelle Whittaker said: "I wouldn't waste your time I've phoned and £1.94 is what they gave me so that's just paid for the call I just made."

Sue Wilkinson said: "They know who has been affected, should be automatic."

Celia Ann Marshall said: "I can't wait when my contract up. £1.94 for compensation, cost me that and more to ring them."