Vigilance and paperwork can be your friends

I'm near the end of my O2 contract and as usual I went through all my bills to see what my usage patterns have been like before starting the negotiation for a new tariff. Whilst totalling up, I noticed some strange discrepancies on my bills, such as my number of texts and minutes availble for the next month varying wildly. After calling the Select customer service team, it turned out that the last time I renegotiated my contract back in November 2007, none of it was applied correctly to my account. The result? Next month O2 will be refunding me £170. Yep, one hundred and seventy pounds.

Getting it sorted out is great, but the fact that it was wrong in the first place is a huge breach of trust. When I asked the agent for compensation, she said that the refund was the compensation. Nice try, but as I quickly pointed out, therefund is simply O2 delivering on their contractual agreement with me, which they've failed to do since last November. The agent wouldn't budge however, so it looks like I'll be writing in.