Is Giffgaff going under?

Manpie

I've asked 02 about GiffGaff a few times and each time they say that it is a different company and has nothing to do with them ?!

dazza.mk

Manpie wrote: »

I've asked 02 about GiffGaff a few times and each time they say that it is a different company and has nothing to do with them ?!

From their 'About Us' page:

"we are a fully independent company but we are part of the overall Telefonica O2 family, and we run our service on the O2 network."

Guys_Dad

grumbler wrote: »

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.

Not age this time, Grumbler. I responded to the giff-gaff supportive post that read " 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."".

Now, whereas I agree that this isn't actually queuing up for -(I used a bit of poetic license), the idea of waiting to 8am seems a bit Heath-Robinson

And then there was "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.".

I stand by my original comments, albeit that there was a spurious "for" in the text. Best be watching your own post in future, Grumbler, I'll be looking to even the score. :rotfl::rotfl:

neil40

Hope it does not.I have ££££ to collect in payback in June!

Ikebella

There's more people on Giffgaff who have a good experience than the ones we hear about who have difficulties. Giffgaff are not and won't be going under, they're owned 100% by Telefonica 02. And by saying the company is run by it's customer what they mean is that it's customers run the help forum, if you have a problem and go to their web site you'll get an answer from one of it's customers. The total people directly employed by Giffgaff is 14. There are no call centres or massive advertising campaigns hence the cheap bundles someone has quoted on here.

Ikebella

Manpie wrote: »

I've asked 02 about GiffGaff a few times and each time they say that it is a different company and has nothing to do with them ?!

It's a stand alone business. The guy running it used to work for 02, apparently. He dreamed up the idea of Giffgaff and approached his employers to help set it up, hence it's 100% owned by 02's parent company.

kondormid

Ikebella, welcome to the forums

Just for your info, did you know you are typing everything you write in bold letters?

MattLFC

dazza.mk wrote: »

From their 'About Us' page:

"we are a fully independent company but we are part of the overall Telefonica O2 family, and we run our service on the O2 network."

A setup just like ondigital/ITV Digital and ITV

The reason o2 won't allow either side to admit they are part of the same company, and thus essentially, one and the same, is because they don't want to tarnish or kill the o2 brand in this country. Giffgaff is an experiment, customer service is !!!!-poor at best, non-existent at worst, the network has suffered allsorts of intermittent outages and faults, and tends to be very slow to adopt new technologies and standards. This would not be a good advert for o2, who like to portray their brand (and excuse their pricing) as offering a premium service (a claim which in itself, is moving further from the truth every day).

The flipside of the coin, was if Giffgaff suddenly became a really popular, we respected and well-run enterprise, then o2 would have serious problems holding on to customers (who generate far more revenue and profit) via their premium brand, if suddenly everyone became aware that you would get the same, for less.

This happened with Genie (originally a BT Cellnet service, an experiment even more ground breaking in its day, than Giffgaff is), because the service itself was as solid as a rock, and despite the £1 per minute customer support and lack of contract options, people became so happy, and it gained such a reputation, that they had to start cutting the amount of "free texts" (from 1000 to 300 iirc) and trying to limit WAP usage etc, and eventually just amalgamated the service into the o2 brand as "o2 online" to build on the popularity, and to try and move away from the aims of the original service.

So atm, o2 are probably content with the fact that Giffgaff is doing okay, but not exactly building a good reputation, it keeps the peasants happy (those who can't afford or don't want/need a premium service/contract and are happy to put up with a second-class service to save a few pennies/avoid a contract), but it also means the people who pay their bills and generate their profits, arnt overly interested in being treated as a second-class citizen.

bob_bobson

The service I've received from Giffgaff has been exactly the same as I've received from Vodafone or Tmobile in the past. Nothing has ever gone wrong to make me contact any of them. Paying high charges on the off chance that something goes wrong is daft.

peachyprice

MattLFC wrote: »

A
The reason o2 won't allow either side to admit they are part of the same company, and thus essentially, one and the same, is because they don't want to tarnish or kill the o2 brand in this country. suddenly everyone became aware that you would get the same, for less.

Nice theory, except they both sides do admit it. Quotes from various placed on both o2 and Giffgaff websites:

giffgaff is something new. It's a mobile business owned by O2 but run like a start-up

As a subsidiary of O2 there is also the prospect of career progression internationally within O2 or its parent Telefonica.

we are a fully independent company but we are part of the overall Telefonica O2 family