Vodafone? No da fone!

I wanted to take my little Nokia cellphone with me when I go to the US of A in September. Easy to do? No way!
I ring the Vodafone customer service number. The girl didn't know much about that she said, I would have to go see someone at my local Vodafone shop.
So along I trot to the one in the town. Oh no, says the girl there, your little Nokia one won't work overseas, you will need to buy a Tri-band one. Oh, says I, can I rent one? Oh yes, says she, you can rent one, but not from this shop. When you get to Auckland for your flight you can rent one at the Vodafone shop at the airport. She also tells me that I have to set up a thing called Global Roaming on my prepay account 2 days before I travel.
Well, as she was unable to tell me how much a phone would cost to rent and I would have to find that out when I got to the airport, why would I want to pay $10 to set up Global Roaming when I didn't know what the rental cost would be. I left the shop no wiser and thinking maybe I will just forgo the phone thing and write letters instead!