back to article GiffGaff mobile network goes titsup for 3 weeks

People-powered phone network GiffGaff left some of its punters without a mobile connection for three weeks and mixed up customers' numbers for several days. Others also complained that they were unable to move their numbers to new SIMs. Some fixes promised by support staff took longer to emerge than promised - some customers …

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  1. Jacqui

    no outages here.

    We and friends have three or four GG phones and I have a Voda PAYG mobile for emergency use.

    No problems and a couple pf phones are used for texting/calls almost all day every day.

    Even with the recent web issues I still recommend this service (O2 owns GG).

  2. CrimsonAvenger
    Thumb Up

    I got in early....

    I must be one of the lucky ones - I joined GiffGaff shortly after it first started and have never had a problem. Perhaps they grew too fast, because I did notice an marked increase in complaints around six months later.

  3. Ale

    Unlimited data

    "GiffGaff, known for its cheap contracts and "unlimited" data allowance"

    Why the quotes around unlimited?

    1. diodesign (Written by Reg staff) Silver badge

      Re: Unlimited data

      See: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/01/11/giffgaff_unlimited/

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Devil

        Re: Unlimited data

        Yes that is another issue attracting a lot of moans, comments and defensive flames on there.

  4. HP Cynic

    GG GG

    No problems here, in fact I bought a couple of Goodybags during the period affected but then of course it's not universal.

    After having spent months pondering contracts and phones I'm confident their deal is still absolutely unbeatable.

    I pay £10/month for each Goodybag, get loads of free calls and SMS and Internet ARE unlimited.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      @HP

      No. Internet is not unlimited.

      And to make matters worse - they won't even tell you what their secret limit actually is.

      1. Ian Yates

        Secret limit

        I can tell you that it's over 5GB, since that's what I've hit on a couple of months.

        I regularly do 2GB+ a month, and they've never said anything about it.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          re secret limit

          One got done for 2.7Gb in 24 hours

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        soft limit was 20Gb

        "they won't even tell you what their secret limit actually is"

        It used to be 20Gb to trigger a 'what are you doing' message. Give the right answer and nothing else happened, ignore it or say 'I'm tethering' and data got terminated.

        Now they seem to be a bit more aggressive, actually trying to guess if you've been tethering and cutting off some at the time that question gets asked. Again, answer right and you're reconnected. Don't know if the 20Gb still applies but managed about 3.5Gb over Xmas without any problems.

        A big problem is a widely accepted belief where 'bargain hunters' gather that tethering is included in the unlimited offer, a meme that never seems to die. Probably because the ones that do know it's forbidden aren't slow to state they'll do it anyway and don't believe they'll be caught! Every time giffgaff get's mentioned on HUKD you see it and everywhere else I've stumbled across.

        It's why I don't pay much attention to whiners complaining they've been unfairly cut off, odds are they've been completely fairly dumped after getting away with it for too long. There must be false positives, giffgaff are pretty incompetent at anything technical, I just don't believe there are many.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          @AC

          I'm perfectly happy with GifGaf having a limit - even as low as 1GB/whatever.

          The only problem I have with them is that they don't actually tell you officially what that limit is, and *still* get away with calling unlimited.

          The sooner this industry is put in a bag and hit with a big stick the better.

          Mumble, changing the meaning of words, mumble, moan, grrr.

  5. Mark Browell

    This is what happens when you're a cheapskate.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Joke

      I bow to your supperior interlect upon being a cheap skate.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    been fine myself

    Been fine myself, did read into this and no problems. Indeed first I heard about it was here, but checked GG forums and it's mentioned, so least they aint hiding anything - beyond they owe me an outage :)

  7. Pigpen

    Been there, done that

    I went to GG last September and while they are certainly cheap, £10pm for what I was doing, the data network was flaky at best. I moved back to Three recently.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    My experience with GG has been quite interesting. The telephony service and data-access has been rock-solid but the website often leaves something to be desired. One example is message exchange with agents whereby submitting a response to an agent ticket results in a 404 error rather than a "your message has been sent" redirect. Something that should be something to fix but hasn't been.

  9. psysjal
    Unhappy

    Sounds like I made a good choice

    I was going to port my number to them before Christmas. The website was performing so badly that I couldn't complete the activation and top up process and just stayed where I was.

    Sounds like a lucky escape.

  10. Paul Shirley

    nothing changes at giffgaff, they never rush to fix customers problems

    Compared to the 12-15months it took them to *start* investigating why some credit cards wouldn't work/work more than once, this is a lightning fast response! AFAIK they've still never revealed what they found but the reports stopped at the same time they allowed us to delete stored cc details... which were visibly wrong on my account but not editable.

    I'm not really sure why the problems have got this much worse recently, dropping BB support and advertising to slow the flood of new users happened well before this current bunch of problems. Did they just sit on their arses instead of frantically upgrading? They rather conspicuously didn't hire enough new support staff, they've been almost absent from the support site ever since then.

    This is the normal state of giffgaff though, complete absence of forward planning keeping the service firmly flaky. It's cheap for a reason...

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Get what you pay for

    I've been with them for a while, cheap and just this side of not too nasty...

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    I'm one of the few users who still have no service. Have been with them for about 8 months and never had any problems until I lost my phone in December. Took over 2 weeks to get a replacement sim out to me and have now been waiting 2 weeks since I tried to activate the sim.

    The community is a load of sh*t (basically patronising ar*ses who start a flame war against anyone who complains about the service).

    The agents take at least 2-3 days to respond and even then its just a boiler plate answer.

    I'd walk away and give up it wasn't for the fact that I cant port the number out as I dont have an active sim (nice catch 22) and its a number I've had for years (so business contacts have it).

    Its like bulldog in the old days, decent and cheap (technical) service but if anything goes wrong you're f*cked as the customer service is appalling

  13. Andrew Macrobie
    Unhappy

    Been going on since November...

    Been trying to get number ported to 'Gaff since mid-November last year. That's two months ago, more or less and each time a service agent picks up the issue they promise to sort it. After a few days, the open ticket disappears and they are never heard from again.

    Frankly, it's all well and good being "run by the people, for the people" but "the people" have demonstrate some commitment to each other. This commitment seems to be (unsurprisingly) lacking.

  14. Terry Barnes

    Err

    Not just using O2's network, but actually owned by O2 I think you'll find.

    1. FutureShock999

      yep...

      Having worked for O2's Media division, I can say without reservation that you are indeed totally correct. Their execs sat near us, and attended the same meetings.

      Having said that, they did seem less evil that the O2 Media execs...as do Be's management, who are also O2 owned.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    My experiences

    I must be lucky to have service since I joined giffgaff in November!

    No problems here, I get 3G where I need it, and I don't have to worry about data limits. I don't tether and neither do I continuously download stuff for the sake of it. I used just over 3Gb last month without issues.

    I have no sympathy for those taking the mick by tethering, etc... in which case get on 3's one plan.

    1. CharlieG
      Pirate

      Ok here

      "I must be lucky to have service since I joined giffgaff in November!

      No problems here, I get 3G where I need it, and I don't have to worry about data limits. I don't tether and neither do I continuously download stuff for the sake of it. I used just over 3Gb last month without issues."

      This is pretty much my experience. Joined in November, transferred my old number no problem, been very happy so far.

      Everyone knows by now that "unlimited" data at this price is a lie, and the service shouldn't be allowed to be describe itself as such. They should be forced to state the cap by law. But I have very little sympathy for people getting kicked off for abuse, they know the score.

  16. Emj

    Just because they're small...

    GG may have website problems, but Vodafone certainly aren't without their problems. Their "My Account" is either down, slow or flaky often enough that it is expected to just be shit. Just shows that small companys are just as likely (although often it seems less so) to screw up as large companies.

  17. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Seems pretty good to me compared to T-Mobile

    My missus and nipper are both GG users and haven't had too many issues in the 12 months that they've been with GG. Only real gripe they've got is that you can't set up a direct debit to automatically buy a goody bag at the start of each month, you can only automatically add credit your account (which is different to the goody bag deals). You can buy a goody bag one month in advance to be automatically activated when the current one expires, but that's not the same thing as a recurring goody bag which is what I'd really like as I'm a pretty forgetful kinda person.

    I've found that I get more problems with T-Mobile - especially since their merger with Orange - than my missus and nipper get with GG... and O2's coverage seems to be better than T-Mobile's down here in deepest, darkest Wiltshire. When my contract expires with T-Mobile then I'll be seriously considering whether to join the GG massive too, cause a tenner a month seems a bargain for what you get (as long as it works).

  18. bushbrother
    Thumb Down

    I am "bushbrother"

    Ha - that is my quote on there from the forums :) (the first one in BOLD).

    I am now 24 days with no service, even with the big boys on the case I am still left with nothing :(

    As others around the forum have pointed out, the response printed in the article from GiffGaff are poor, I was not porting, topping up or trying to make any changes. I had ported successfully 3 weeks before I lost service. It was there one day, gone the next. So their excuse of problems with porting does not relate to me ...

    I now know the other meaning to the word "Gaff" in their name ...

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