We lost our beautiful old Rotti, Winnie, almost three years ago, and Pets In Peace were recommended by Greencross Vets.

Within half an hour of our phonecall that Winnie was being put to sleep,a gentleman came to the vet, shook our hands, talked to us about what we wanted for our girl, and then he took her.

We got a call a few days later saying that our girl was ready to be picked up.

When we arrived, there was a lovely lady at reception who was expecting us, and who told us she had seen our girl and that she was beautiful. She handed us our urn, a certificate of cremation, and a lock of Winnie's hair for us to keep.

Absolutely brilliant.

Approximate cost: $400

We bought a hand reared parrot from here a couple of years ago, and the service we received was excellent. We were able to visit our baby before he was old enough to come home, and we were given really good nutrition advice.

They also stock a pretty good variety of fish, pet food and flea treatments etc, reptile food, and chook pellets.

The big drawcard is the GORGEOUS cockatoo who lives there and talks to you. Kids love him but he can be snappy. lol

Overpriced, bad quality fuel. When we first moved there, we had lots of locals telling us to NEVER use the servo but to buy our fuel from the mainland as the fuel quality was bad and caused problems with their cars. I learned that this was true the hard way.

They don't sell much other than oil and other car stuff.

Russell Island Taxi Service is a good value company. They don't put on a meter as such, but have a flat rate to each section of the island. This is very important, as there is no public transport on the island.

Drivers are friendly and timely and I have never had a complaint to make about them!

As an ex Bay Islander, I have not a lot good to say about Veolia. The buses rarely meet the ferry as scheduled, and the drivers can be quite rude. I do understand they have a horrible time with some of the more..........unruly Island kids, but that does not mean that everyone who lives off the mainland is scum. That is how I felt I was treated, and I worked full time the entire time I lived on Russell.

We are ex Russell Island residents and have used this service countless times.

THE GOOD: staff onboard the vessel. The vast majority of them are friendly and helpful with getting your shopping on and off the ferry.

THE BAD: The cost!!!!! No wonder rent is so cheap on the island. We both worked on the mainland when we lived there and it cost us a giddy fortune to travel each day!

We have tried, several times with no luck, to obtain frozen rats for our snakes from here. They just don't have the size we need and will not order them in larger sizes for us.

That being said, going in there has given me ample opportunity to look around at what they DO have and their prices.

They don't seem to have a big variety of general pet goods, but their produce side of things is good. We bought some chook feed for a mate and he said that's his usual place because their prices are better than others.

All in all fairly average.

The Bendigo APCO always has very competitive fuel prices and plenty of working pumps.

A large variety of groceries are available as well as fresh coffee, fresh bakery treats, sausage rolls and pies, sandwiches, yoghurts, fruit.............you name it, they have it.

Their prices are pretty good for a servo!

I have had cause twice over the last month, to call NAB's call centre. One of these times was because money that was transferred from one NAB account which is a regular payer into our account, was not showing in our account after two working days.

The guy I spoke to was actually quite short with me. I explained that this transfer was a fortnightly one and has been regularly hitting out account immediately after transfer from the other account, and his response was pretty much "Oh well, it can take up to three days".

I was unimpressed to say the least. There was no attempt at problem solving on his part,

I have recently changed banks from Westpac to NAB, as NAB's fees are lower and their charges are more transparent.

That being said, I banked with Westpac for years, and other than the usual excessive bank fees, I didn't have any negative experiences.

The customer service in the branches is excellent. I was never left waiting around. The staff treat you like your time is valuable, which I really appreciated.