Nailesh Gokani, who runs Empire Service Station in North London’s Enfield, has had a bit of a saga with O2 top-ups. Early on May 9 he took £10 from a customer, swiped the card and got the receipt through. Soon afterwards the customer got two text messages saying there was a problem but the credit would be there shortly.

They phoned customer services from their mobile, and were charged £2. The customer returned the following day to say that he still hadn’t received the £10 credit. This time they rang customer services from a landline and a woman apologised and promised to put the credit on immediately, plus another 10 quid as a goodwill gesture.

Well, the goodwill got there, or maybe the credit. Only £10 by May 30, at which point Nailesh wrote to the phone company. When he rang me on June 6 he still had had no reply. “I’ve earned 40p commission but I’ve chased it to keep the customer coming back for petrol and shop sales,” says Nailesh.

Just look how his customer service compares with the infinitely bigger O2.