johnr: Wait till you try American express!
I'm not sure where their contact centre is but my experience with american and canadian call centres is that their staff are very polite, well trained and take business seriously. a Stark contrast to your average large ISP helpdesk
In relation to the OP though, I used to have to call the Telstraclear select faults Premium team regulary, they were usually good when you got through to them so I hope they are not affected by this.