Is Giffgaff going under?

stucuk

Folks,

Ther appears to be an ongoing issue with Giffgaff that has been taking place for a number of weeks and I am beginning to wonder whether there is an issue with the finances of the company.

They provide 'goodybags' which allow a limit of texts, data and calls and, as stated here, provide just about the cheapest possible packages you can get. But for the last couple of weeks it has been impossible by an ever increasing number of people to purchase new goodybags and therefore their use is being charged at standard rates from their credit on the account - or, if they have no credit, they can't use their phones.

There is a lot of talk about it on the Giffgaff forums and very little response from the company itself but it would appear to have been going on for three weeks which, personally, I find difficult to comprehend as an internal technical issue.

Does anybody know anything? Is it time to bail out??

Thanks.

MattLFC

They're owned by Telefonica o2, so there is no chance they are in financial !!!! (forget this bollox about the network being run by its customers, its nothing more than a marketing exercise (experiment even) by a multinational company in a bid to make more profit).

It could however not be making enough money, or losing money, to the point whereby o2 have decided enough is enough, and pulled the plug, either on staff (hence lack of response) or are planning to phase out the brand/service (hence the inability to get new goodybags and other elements).

But o2 are already in !!!! in this country through a dire lack of competitiveness (very willing to let customers walk away without a fight), declining "positives", cutbacks on their services and a network that is getting worse by the day. The last thing they need to be seen doing, is closing down giffgaff and running off with everyones money, putting two fingers up in the process; at worst, they will migrate customers (and credit) over to standard o2 paygo tariffs.

timberflake

The short answer is no, they're not going under. People have trouble buying goodybags a lot of the time through their own fault as if you don't queue up a new goodbag to start immediately after your current one expires, you have to wait until after 8am (I think) on the day it expires.

Hence the constant stream of thread on the GG community saying "Why can't I buy a Goodybag!?".

I've only been with GG since November, but so far I've had no problems buying Goodybags. I've even moved my Uncle over and have been able to queue his up no problem aswell.

I will admit there are some people that do genuinely have problems buying a GB, but this is down to good old fashined technical problems, nothing more.

As for GG ignoring the "problem", I follow them on Twitter, and every time there are any issues they put a tweet out.

stucuk

Thanks MattLFC - useful information.

Timberflake thanks for your thoughts too. My son has been trying to purchase a goodybag for nearly a week now and there are plenty of examples on the Giffgaff forums of people trying for weeks. Personally, as a person with 20 years in ICT, I struggle to see how all these technical problems could be 'different' enough to take weeks for each one to sort out.

So if it's not financial and it's not technical I guess it's just bad customer service then??!

timberflake

stucuk wrote: »

Thanks MattLFC - useful information.

Timberflake thanks for your thoughts too. My son has been trying to purchase a goodybag for nearly a week now and there are plenty of examples on the Giffgaff forums of people trying for weeks. Personally, as a person with 20 years in ICT, I struggle to see how all these technical problems could be 'different' enough to take weeks for each one to sort out.

So if it's not financial and it's not technical I guess it's just bad customer service then??!

It could be any one of a number of things. Bad luck? You're only ever going to see threads on the community about people struggling to top up, no ones ever going to post to say they've topped up successfully, so the problem looks worse than it is.

For all of the 1000's of people using GG what % actually have problems topping up? Judging by the community a very small %

It could just be down to bad coding on the site, a problem with processing the payment, bad customer service, etc. You're assuming everyones having the same issue when in fact it could be different issues with the end result that the user can't top up.

Every single mobile operator out there has problems, just look at all the billing problems in this forum! But with GG it's up in lights as the community is so active and it's the only real place to get help if you're getting no joy from an agent.

Bongedone

I had a Goodbag lined up for last month and it did not apply. Had to spend an entire weekend using normal credit then I cancelled the Goodybag and bought another manually

steveE2

I only joined giffgaff in January and have had no problems so far,
Activated with £10 06/01
£10 Goodybag 06/01
£10 Goodybag 03/02
£5 Goodybag 19/02 queued for March

There was additional capacity added on Monday so telefonica are still investing

What's going on?

We're going to be adding capacity to our network infrastructure this evening in terms of some fancy new kit. This is apparently expensive, shiny (I'm not a massively technical person..) and will have the practical upshot of adding 3x the capacity for key services like handling volumes of calls, texts, and other transactional pieces.

While this upgrade takes place, we'll have to bring down the website and account services between 11:30pm tonight and 2am tomorrow morning.

Guys_Dad

Surely the mobile phone industry is mature enough that networks run like amateur co-ops have no real place for serious communications?

Queuing up for goodybags? Sounds like a kids' party.

Not being able to get these packages and then having to use more expensive credits? Give us a break !

If saving a fiver a month involves this sort of uncertainty and dodgy technical sites, then I am glad I am on a mainstream, grown up network!

(There's the cat - now I wait for the pigeons) :rotfl::rotfl:

grumbler

Guys_Dad wrote: »

Queuing up for goodybags? Sounds like a kids' party.

You keep misreading the posts and making assumptions. "Age thing" again?
Nobody said 'queueing for'.
The term 'queueing' is used for a next goodibag bought in advance, before the active goodibag expires.

That said, I am on Orange contract and have never been with giffgaff.

peachyprice

More scaremongering? I topped up two phones yesterday with goodybags, one £10, one £10 + BB, not probs at all.

As said above, people only complain when there's a problem, the number of people posting on the community with problems in miniscule compared to the number of people without.

ALL other networks have problems, it's just that their dirty linen isn't aired in public for all to see as it is with GG.

poundsinbucks

No probs with goodybags here, 3 of us have used GiffGaff for a good few months now, waiting for 4th person's contract to finish, than he will be moved over too. Like the simplicity and prices of GG and the use of the O2 network.

Poundsinbucks x