[heero_yuy]

Vodafone. For changing the details of my 3G dongle so you have to buy a data package rather than just a top-up.

Checked I had credit on it before going down to Cornwall but nothing connected. Even took the lappy into Penzance to be in range of the 3G signal rather than the useless 2G elsewhere but the thing kept going to the top-up page but it's so slow that in 1/2 an hour it never actually loaded up enough to tell me about the credit.

Back home I bought a top-up voucher because I thought the credit had expired, turns out it hadn't but now you have to buy a data package that expires after a month even if you haven't used the credit. At least the nice scots guy on the help line (Answered in about 3 mins) topped up my balance to a full £30 for free and set up the packages (1 Gig each) to run on the next three months.

I asked how long it would take for the dongle to become active and he said just re-boot the PC, and lo! it worked. So a + for Vodafones telephone support and a - for not telling me about the changes.