disagree mate - I used to run a team in a call centre and seen it day in day out... yes the sale of goods and services act is quoted by me on occassion but I prefer not to do that unless it is required. Keep it civil and use manipulation of the person on the other end of the phone and you will more often than not get the result you want.
Also my approach has generally gotten me a goodwill gesture from the company I am dealing with. I would be pushing for a different handset, possibly a more expensive handset, without me paying the difference.
Obviously it depends on who you get on the phone as I am sure you will agree not everyone is equally helpful but that is why I always ask for a manager as they will usually have the ability to perform credits and are a decision maker rather than talking to a guy who has to stick to the book.
A recent example for me was with national car hire in the states. They have a loyalty programme called emerald club. This allows you to pick from higher class cars and only pay for a midsize and also gives free rental credits. As I hire cars for 60 days at a time I should be clocking up free rental car days and driving something decent. I tried joining on their site but it wouldnt take my license number as it is not a US license. I tried joining at one of their counters in the airport but the guy had no forms! So I called up..
Got the rep and immediately asked for a manager, my thinking behind this is why speak to someone who is reading lines from a manual when you can talk to someone that can actually do something for you. I spoke to the manager and basically said "I have attempted to join this loyalty club your way and it is not working.. I can go to hertz or any other car hire company and they will gladly take my money so how do you propose we sort this out?"
They added me there and then to their system, they waived the $50 joining fee and they gave me 2 days free rental as an apology. If you act like a victim you get treated like one. If you act like you played ball but things aint worked out.. they are more inclined to accept you as someone who just wants to get sorted. If you break into song about the sale of goods and services act they will go on the defensive.
Ultimately it is your deciion.
EDIT: just remembered this one too. My parents got broadband installed and it hadnt worked for a month. They had called and were told about 5 times that someone would call them back and they never did. I called and they told me someone would call me back so I said "thats fine Ill hold for someone" I was told there was wait time of an hour so I said "Ill hang up and if I havent heard anything within the hour I will call back" ...never got a call.. called back "Welcome to company X how can I help you" "Manager please"... "how can I help you sir"... "manager please" ... they put me onto a manager and I explained the situation. I said "we have attempted to get this resolved using your support team but there seems to be an issue with your support process. We have been told we would receive a call 6 times now and so I now do not trust your guys when they tell me this. How do you suggest we fix this problem?"
ball back in his court... he is not going to suggest a call back after having tried that 6 times... they actually replaced the router and as I was not going to be around when the new one arrived they had an engineer call to talk my parents through setting it up. Thats good service - unfortunately people dont expect it these days... they settle for poor service.
