BT billed a seriously ill customer £32.99 a month for over a year after its engineers severed her landline wire

BT left a customer on the priority register without a working landline for 16 months after its own engineers cut a wire during a Digital Voice upgrade and failed to return to fix it. The line went dead in May 2025 and was only restored in September 2026, yet BT kept billing £32.99 a month throughout. When challenged, BT repeatedly closed the case — at one point because it had removed the landline from the customer's account while still charging for it.

BT's initial offer of compensation for the 16-month ordeal was £6.46, described as money to 'make up' for its failings.

BT said the fault had not come to its attention before December 2025, a claim the customer disputes, saying she had flagged it earlier.

Meanwhile, from October 16, long-standing BT broadband customers who have received free TNT Sports since 2013 will be charged an extra £15 a month after BT quietly ended the decade-old perk.