Apart from one blip a few weeks back I have always had an excellent, trouble-free service from VM. Even with their 10Mb service over 5 years ago I got the speed it said on the box. Naturally I am disturbed by all the poor reports about the SH, but since my router is better than the SH I have always used modem only mode.
Customer services have generally been adequate, in my case, although I have trouble understanding some off-shore operatives. Problems have been dealt with, eventually, and by friendly helpful operatives.