NTL has apologised for the message

Phone operator NTL admitted a recorded message was changed on Sunday, possibly by a malicious hacker or disgruntled employee.

The problem affected a faults line in the North Eastern area, which includes Middlesbrough, Notts and Leicester.

The message was added to interactive voice recordings and stayed active for an hour until staff were alerted.

'Get a life'

Callers to the complaints were greeted by the abuse from someone using a north-eastern accent.

The message, littered with four letter words, ended with the claim: "We are not going to handle any of your complaints... leave us alone, get a life."

The firm was named in September as one of the UK's worst companies for customer service.

Customer Richard Studeny, 43, of Nottingham, told BBC News: "I can laugh about it, but it wouldn't have been so funny if a kid had got through.

"Perhaps NTL stands for Nothing but Terrible Language."

NTL said: "Obviously we would like to apologise to those customers who heard the rant, but we do not yet know how many people that is."

Earlier this month, NTL came second bottom in a report on handling complaints compiled for the Institute of Customer Service.