Curious case in Upper Austria

Woman declared dead after changing her telephone number

Gertrude S. can now smile again.(Bild: Team Fotokerschi/Klaus Mader)

A curious chaos at A1 Telekom Austria caused trouble for a customer: after the death of her husband, a widow from Upper Austria not only had all her contracts terminated by mistake, she also received a letter that made things even worse.

As if the death of her husband in July wasn't bad enough, Gertrude S. (74) from Leonstein also had to deal with her telephone and internet provider A1. "I wanted to transfer the internet and landline to me. Because my husband had always paid for that before. I then went to the A1 store in Steyr and signed everything. I even had to present my husband's death certificate. They assured me that everything would be fine. That was on August 9," the sprightly pensioner tells the "Krone".

Cell phone also deregistered
So it's no wonder that she was somewhat surprised when she suddenly received a text message on September 25 informing her that her cell phone would soon be deregistered. "I called the hotline immediately, of course, and was assured that the error would be rectified," says Gertrude S. But the next day another text message arrived. "I called again and was told that my landline and Internet had also been disconnected," says the Upper Austrian.

But it got even worse. On October 2, she received a letter from A1 addressed to the "relatives of Gertrude S.". "I was practically declared dead," says the pensioner, still stunned.

The ominous letter.(Bild: zVg, Krone KREATIV)

A1 apologizes
The "Krone" inquired with A1: "Several colleagues worked a little too hard at the same time and caused a bit of chaos. We have apologized to the widow," explained press spokesman Jochen Ohnewas-Schützenauer. The cell phone, landline and Internet have now been re-registered and are working. Gertrude S. has also been credited with two basic charges.