MOBILE phone giant Orange has acted swiftly to compensate a user who found the firm had drained units from her pay-as-you-go phone.

But the furious County Durham customer said the mistake was only corrected after the case was taken up by The Northern Echo and industry regulator Oftel.

Patricia Bemmer, a market researcher from Gainford, topped up her phone with a £10 card last month.

But after just a couple of short calls, the 61-year-old came to make an urgent call but found a text message warning her the units had run out.

"It's caused me a hell of a lot of inconvenience," said Mrs Bemmer.

But after spending an estimated two hours hanging on waiting to speak to a company representative, she was eventually told the units had been deducted because she had been under-charged for earlier calls.

After requesting an explanation in writing, she heard no more.

But after inquiries from The Northern Echo and Oftel late last week, the issue was resolved over the weekend.

"I can't believe I'm the only one it's happened to," she said.

An Orange spokeswoman said it regretted any inconvenience caused.

"Orange considers its relationship with its customers to be of paramount importance," she added.

"As such, we have followed up this unusual situation with customer services. They have contacted Mrs Bemmer, and resolved the situation to her satisfaction, including a gesture of goodwill for any inconvenience caused."

Last night Mrs Bemmer said Orange had promised to refund the lost units, refund the cost of calls made trying to resolve the problem and pay £15 compensation.

"Without The Northern Echo and Oftel absolutely nothing would have been done," she maintained.