I sit here typing this post thinking about the good & the bad experiences I've had with Vodafone. So 1st the positive. I live in the Sydney Metro area.I've been with Voda & Nokia since 1992. In that time I've always had a reliable mobile phone service with them. I've paid my bills & the reception was mostly ok with only a few grey areas of poor signal strength. Went to Cobar a few times (far west about 7 hours drive)& absolutely zero signal. Part of the 6% & 132,000 people that don't get Voda service (that's left to Telstra).In 2008 I bought a new PC & went with Vodafone with a broadband modem. On occassions I have had the need to converse with customer service. Enter the much dreaded Indian call centres.The waits on hold have often been beyond belief? That recorded voice LARA soothingly saying "won't be much longer we're flat out at the moment"? Somewhat hard to take after being in the Queue for 65 minutes. Sometimes I would do Basil Fawlty pround, swearing at LARA in frustration. Eventually my problems were sorted. Then came BLACK Tuesday 7/12/2010. Internet OUTAGE?(although my mobile ph. service was fine?) Oh no, I've got to deal with that LARA again. In total I consumed over 7 hours of time = Tu/Wed/Th/Fr. Occasionally I got through only to be told just a small technical problem & all should be ok SOON? I later found out, via IT media, that Vodafone was changing over to another main network provider & had struck major technical difficulties. The SMALL problem only affected the Eastern Seaboard States of Australia. I.E. Qld.,NSW, Vict.& Tas. ONLY? Well by Friday I'd had enough & went to Allphones & signed up with Virgin Broadband (Optus network)for 12 mths. Same 8GB deal & same price $39pm = $468 pa. One vital difference is with excess usage charges. Vodafail charge (sneekily) 10c a KB. Only 10 cents one thinks, big deal. Not so if you go a GB or two over in any month, which I did in Oct. & Nov. 2010. Also keep in mind that on the 8GB plan = about $5pm/GB return to Vodafail. Well I remember gasping on the total bills for Oct.& Nov. of $484 incl.GST. This was more than my total normal 12 mth broadband bill. Difficult to accept but as it was in the contract I was obligated to pay it. In contrast Virgin charge $15GB for excess useage abt 1/7th of vodafails. Then fear crept into my mind as I had to try & contact Vodafail & LARA in India again. This was to cancel the Broadband service(the contract period had expired) Well, another hour of my life was consumed & their on hold music is crap, distorted & repetitious. With LARA constantly assuring me once more "won't be long ....etc". If I ever meet any Laras in real life I'm not sure how I'll react? No doubt the real live laras would all be nice girls? Anyway I get through to someone,hooray at last. After getting grilled about the problem (5 minutes)it's sorry wrong section. Next section same thing another grilling & on to another department.Then Jackpot someone authorised to make decisions. Their attitude changed on the fact that I was cancelling one account & could also flick the off contract ph. a/c too. Maybe a lot of cancels were happening that week? In the wash up I was sweetened up with the full waiving of the Oct./Nov broadband bill & I was put on a 12 month $29 cap plan. The waiving of the fees,I feel, compensates me for all the pain & suffering I went through with LARA etc. The Virgin/Optus broadband works better = stronger signal & my VODA phone is good now too. Other things I note. Vodafail have increased their call charges. For me the old was $1min. now $1.35min. On my old service the bill showed 1,000 minutes of voda2voda calls. I was ineligible as was not on qualifying plan? Vodafail forget about loyal long term customers? As market forces see better plans evolve = more GB I found I was on the lower shelf. 2 years ago I was on 5GB for $39 internet. Then they were offering new deals of 6GB for $39. It was only when I asked (via THAT LARA AGAIN) that they gave me an exta FREE GB/mth. They sent me back slapping emails about how generous they were. It was the same deal when they upped it to 8GB. What I'd like to see is some sought of credit system on the monthly allowance that factors in well below cap usage. Like last year in total I used around 45GB out of a total allowance of 96GB. Acually that underusage is a bonus to them as they can resell my unused, 51GB, space again & therefore get a double dip? Australians pay through the nose for mobile services? I'll certainly be looking at better deals in 12 months or so. As with a lot of things you don't know the true value of service until something goes wrong. 2 cases here,1 is recalls with cars & their CEOs refusing to admit there is a problem? 2. Vodafail Aust. CEO playing down problems. Like I saw no announcement from Vodafail about their broadband network had failed in December? CEO speak always tries to play down gross operating problems. I think Vodafails quest for extra profit (cheaper operating networks & 3rd rate 3rd world call centres) is the root cause of most the problems users are discussing here. More oversight & regulation is needed.