A VALLEYS couple were left frustrated when a mix-up by telephone engineers during works outside their home left them with their neighbour’s number.

William Gay and his wife Maureen, both 62, saw BT workmen arrive by their property in Cwmcelyn Newydd, Blaina, on Monday morning and replace an aluminium telegraph pole with a wooden one.

On the site for around five hours, Mr Gay said one of the workers came in and checked his phone had a dialling tone before leaving.

But when his wife went to reset the 1571 answering machine, the number which was read back to her as her own, was her neighbour’s across the road.

When the couple dialled their own number, Gwen Shannon from the house opposite picked up the phone, and they explained what had happened.

Pensioner Penny Trigg, 84, was left with no connection at all, and says she has had to fork out for calls on her mobile.

"It’s expensive and as I live on my own I need a phone," Mrs Trigg said.

By Tuesday afternoon, Mr Gay said contacting the Argus had sped up the complaint process and was advised someone would be coming to fix the problem.

After phoning the main line he eventually spoke to a representative, and later received a text message from BT saying they would aim to fix the fault by May 19.

It warned them if it was not a problem with BT equipment, they might have had to pay a charge of £130, which left Mr Gay fuming.

"What really annoyed me is you end up speaking to machines and then they threaten to charge you for their mistake," said Mr Gay.

"And if we hadn’t dialled 1571 we may not have known any different. Our poor neighbour could have been getting charged for the calls we made."

A spokesman for BT said: "BT would like to apologise to Mr Gay and his neighbours for the inconvenience caused by an error connecting up lines on the new pole".

He said an engineer resolved the problem on Tuesday.