O2 gives all customers £10 after network disaster

O2 is giving £10 to all its customers to say sorry for last week's 24-hour network disaster. Some customers will also get 10 per cent off their bill -- but only if you stick around.

The network provider told us: "we recognise that this caused inconvenience and frustration for those who had a disruption in service. We have now identified all those customers directly affected (those whose devices could not connect on our system) and are giving them the equivalent of three days back for the disruption as a gesture of goodwill and to say sorry." 

O2 has identified those customers who were directly affected. If you're on a monthly contract and you lost service, you'll have 10 per cent knocked off a bill.

Pay as you go customers affected by the network failure will receive 10 per cent extra on your top-up. O2 points out a 10 per cent refund is equivalent to three days -- last week's network outage, which saw random customers cut off from calls and data, lasted a day.

The 10 per cent discounts will be applied to your September bill or your first top-up in September if you're pay as you go. 

And all O2 customers -- even those who weren't affected -- get £10 to spend on stuff in the O2 Priority scheme, such as concert and event tickets, restaurant vouchers, and other deals and offers. The £10 Priority credit must be redeemed in September against one of the Priority offers, before you print your voucher or ticket and take it to the restaurant, shop or venue.

Neither of the refunds kick in for over a month to prevent disgruntled customers jumping ship in the wake of the network failure. That's a very real worry for O2: a survey this week suggested that as many as a third of O2 customers are considering leaving the network.

Some GiffGaff and Tesco Mobile customers were also affected by the problems on the O2 network, which those companies use for their infrastructure. GiffGaff -- which is owned by O2 -- is offering 10 per cent extra credit on all customers' top-ups between 19 July and 25 July.  

Is £10 in O2 Priority bucks fitting compensation, or an empty gesture? What will you spend your O2 money on? Tell me your thoughts in the comments or on our Facebook page.