Molly Martin suffers from arthritis and is unable to bend down

by Lynn Cox

Pensioner Molly Martin received a bumper bill from BT – just for plugging her phone back in.

The company sent an engineer to the 80-year-old's Strood home when she reported her phone was not working.

The pensioner, who suffers from arthritis and has great difficulty bending down, used a neighbour's mobile to report the fault.

When the engineer arrived, he found the telephone plug had slipped out of the socket on the wall.

He plugged it back in and left. A week later, Mrs Martin received a bill from BT charging her £99.

"i've been with bt since i got a phone some 50 years ago, but not any more…” – pensioner molly martin

Mrs Martin said: "He was here less than 10 minutes. I was astonished to get my bill a week or so later. It is outrageous how they can charge that much just for that.

"I've been with BT since I got a phone some 50 years ago, but not any more. I have now changed and will be going with Virgin from now on."

Mrs Martin said when she called to report the fault, she was asked a series of questions about how much of a priority she was - and stated she had some disabilities and would need an engineer to help her.

After receiving the bill, Mrs Martin called BT's customer services but was told she would have to pay the £99 as she had asked for an engineer to come out and the fault was with her equipment not a fault on their line.

Mrs Martin said: "It made me feel ill - it's just incompetence all round. They knew I had disabilities and can't bend down. I would not have been able to plug it back in myself."

Last year, the telecoms group reported a sharp rise in annual pre-tax profits which were up 42% to £2.4 billion. This means the company made a profit of more than £6.5 million a day and more than £4,566 a minute.

Mrs Martin added: "I was staggered by how much they charged for just a few minutes, no wonder they make so much profit."

After we approached BT, the company said it would no longer be charging Mrs Martin the £99 fee.

A spokesman said: "BT does charge for an engineering visit when the fault is not on BT’s network. This is explained fully to the customer before the visit is booked.

"However, we are now aware that Mrs Martin was unable to do these checks herself, and we have refunded the charge. We apologise for any stress caused."