Telecoms company gets wires crossed over Channel Islands

Tuesday 07 March 2017

It might be a truth universally acknowledged that non-locals will struggle to place island locations – but one telephone company’s Channel Islands' confusion resulted in a costly mistake.

Telecoms giant BT maintained that Jersey and the other Channel Islands might have a long-lost sibling – the Isle of Wight.

Despite being informed no less than six times about the error, BT continued to charge retiree George Mortimore (84) for Channel Islands' rates for his Isle of Wight calls.

While the former Royal Fleet Auxiliary Chief Officer should have been charged £6.50 per month for calls within the United Kingdom he realised that he had, in fact, been charged £12 – even though the Isle of Wight is part of the UK.

When contacted, they said that he would only get a refund if the company concluded that the Isle of Wight was not a Channel Island.

He told the County Press: "Charming but clueless, is the phrase I would use to describe those I have spoken to both in Northern Ireland and Bangalore," said Mr Mortimore.

"They are only as good as the song sheet they are singing from and it appears to be not a very accurate one."

Luckily, however, a BT spokesman later waded into the debate. He confirmed that the error was not widespread, adding:

"BT customer services has contacted Mr Mortimer and apologised for the call charges that appeared on his bill in error.

"We have removed the call charges and made sure this won’t happen again. Mr Mortimer has our contact details for future reference."