of Pessac, a Bordeaux suburb, had just lost her job and wanted to end her phone subscription, when the final bill arrived.
She told her local paper, Sud Ouest: "I nearly had a heart attack.
There were so many zeros that I couldn't even work out how much it was.".
She called Bouygues Telecom, the phone company headed by Martin Bouygues, a friend of Nicolas Sarkozy, but was told by shrugging staff there was nothing they could do.
Several calls later, an adviser admitted it was a mistake: San Jose owed €117.21.
The company has apologised and let her off the real bill. »