I used to work in credit management for a well known telephone company. In general we would always try to put a payment plan in place, but if a person defaulted twice then it would depend on who answered their phone, but a new arrangement would generally not be put in place. A lot of the time it is dependant on how bad a day the person you speak to has had, and I am sorry to say that whilst they may be able to be more lenient, they are under no obligation to do so.

Also if a person got snippy on the phone with me or one of my colleagues (and I know you say you were not angry but just for arguments sake) then it would be quite normal for a note to be put on their file "customer abusive" which would pretty much halt the next person from doing them a favour.

It is always worth appealing to the ombudsman though, because although they might say no, they might also say "yes, make a payment arrangement". You don't ask, you don't get.

Good luck

T
xx