Stay Well Clear of GiffGaff

cinereus

a.ferra wrote: »

I have been a loyal GiffGaff customer since I returned to the UK last summer, it was perfect for me as I travel, so it meant I had all the perks of a contract customer but with a pay as you go deal!

Well so I thought, I started a small business last year and as many people know in the first year every penny is tight, so GiffGaff was great for me, just £25 a month for 1500 mins, what could possibly go wrong?

I placed my mobile number on all my marketing materials and forked out £500 for it all. As my business is software the iphone internet tethering is perfect for me, as it means I can complete installations on site and if I get into problems I could just use my iphone as a wifi adaptor, right?

Wrong! I couldn't find the internet tethering on the phone so I contacted GiffGaff through their ask an agent service as you can't contact them any other way! Eventually they came back to me saying that I wasn't allowed to use internet tethering on my tariff and that I had to buy a gigabag, so I did but the gigabag started when my goodybag ran out, so I kept writing to them but I kept being fobbed off, no one giving me a real answer, and imagine having a conversation that lasts days/weeks instead of minutes, as when they replied it created another question which then took them days to come back to if at all!

Well the time was now approaching that my goodybag was running out (4 weeks this conversation had taken so far!), I was now begging them to sort this out as any day now I wouldn 't be able to use my phone without paying a fortune (and for a struggling small business this means the end!), I suggested that I return the Gigabag and instead purchase a Goodybag, they agreed but again wanted confirmation that I was sure, immediately I said yes change them the bags over urgently!! Well you can guess what happened, they took so long to come back to me that the kick in date passed, and the gigabag become active and I then had no phone, I was furious I wrote them and the Ombudsman (who by the way has to wait 8 weeks!!), their answer was this:

I am sorry to inform you that we cannot cancel your gigabag because it is already live.
I can see from your responses you were trying to make us aware of this before it went live but unfortunately we are only able to respond now.
We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused here.

I now have no phone, I can't afford to pay £10 per day credit to use it, the number is on all my marketing materials and its completely destroyed me, and the worst thing GiffGaff couldn't give a crap!!!

DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME WITH THIS MICKEY MOUSE COMPANY!!!!!!!

You could have resolved this all in one day if you actually read what a goodybag is (i.e. no tethering) or if you were unsure you would have got the answer within 30 mins on the forums. If you need to tether, your best bet is probably 3 on the One Plan.

You can easily get your PAC and port your number out.

Plushchris

I've not had any dealing with Giffgaff myself but would be surprised if there wasnt something in the Ts&Cs about using it for business anyway..

piza_dave

:beer:

a.ferra wrote: »

I have been a loyal GiffGaff customer since I returned to the UK last summer, it was perfect for me as I travel, so it meant I had all the perks of a contract customer but with a pay as you go deal!

Well so I thought, I started a small business last year and as many people know in the first year every penny is tight, so GiffGaff was great for me, just £25 a month for 1500 mins, what could possibly go wrong?

I placed my mobile number on all my marketing materials and forked out £500 for it all. As my business is software the iphone internet tethering is perfect for me, as it means I can complete installations on site and if I get into problems I could just use my iphone as a wifi adaptor, right?

Wrong! I couldn't find the internet tethering on the phone so I contacted GiffGaff through their ask an agent service as you can't contact them any other way! Eventually they came back to me saying that I wasn't allowed to use internet tethering on my tariff and that I had to buy a gigabag, so I did but the gigabag started when my goodybag ran out, so I kept writing to them but I kept being fobbed off, no one giving me a real answer, and imagine having a conversation that lasts days/weeks instead of minutes, as when they replied it created another question which then took them days to come back to if at all!

Well the time was now approaching that my goodybag was running out (4 weeks this conversation had taken so far!), I was now begging them to sort this out as any day now I wouldn 't be able to use my phone without paying a fortune (and for a struggling small business this means the end!), I suggested that I return the Gigabag and instead purchase a Goodybag, they agreed but again wanted confirmation that I was sure, immediately I said yes change them the bags over urgently!! Well you can guess what happened, they took so long to come back to me that the kick in date passed, and the gigabag become active and I then had no phone, I was furious I wrote them and the Ombudsman (who by the way has to wait 8 weeks!!), their answer was this:

I am sorry to inform you that we cannot cancel your gigabag because it is already live.
I can see from your responses you were trying to make us aware of this before it went live but unfortunately we are only able to respond now.
We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused here.

I now have no phone, I can't afford to pay £10 per day credit to use it, the number is on all my marketing materials and its completely destroyed me, and the worst thing GiffGaff couldn't give a crap!!!

DO NOT WASTE YOUR TIME WITH THIS MICKEY MOUSE COMPANY!!!!!!!

:beer:
I totally agree with you mate, they have nothing but DOS, failed calls, failed texts etc etc, the list goes on..

WolvesAreStayinUp

Im on giffgaff, paying £10 p/m for 250 mins, unlimited internet and texts, more than enough for me as im not trying to run a business.

I've never had a problem with them, only when first joining them it took 3 days to transfer my number but that was due to an error on my part!

Apparently there was network problems last friday, didnt affect me but they sent me a text to say theres problems with the network and they're very sorry, thats the first I'd heard of any problems as I was able to ring/text freely.

I also received the following email:

You may have experienced loss of service today (Friday 16th March), we're sorry for the inconvenience this may have caused you.
This was due to a burst water pipe which took out the power at one of our 3rd party suppliers. Engineers have been working on this and have put a fix in place which we are now monitoring for stability. During the period where service is restored you may notice that your service is intermittent.
We're continuing to work on this issue and regular updates will be provided in the community Noticeboard. Additional information is also available via our Blogwhere our CEO Mike Fairman has popped up a quick update.

[FONT=arial, sans-serif]Once we are sure that full and stable service has been restored for all members we will look at ways to make it up to you.[/FONT]

Again, sorry for the inconvenience.
Regards,
The giffgaff team

AND then I received another text saying the problem is sorted, they're sorry again and they're going to donate money to charity as some sort of an apology.

Wether they did this or not I dont know but I dont know of many networks that keep you informed about problems like giffgaff have.

There is also a forum on the giffgaff site if you need advice from other people, the replies are almost instant and they might be able to help quicker or better than emailing giffgaff themselves.

All in all im happy with giff gaff.. Theres always someone thats not happy. Its the same with anything, something could be a major problem to one person but to someone else completely fine. Its just different experiences.

2bFrank

Can you use a goodybag and a gigabag at the same time. I have a iphone and I am looking at a pay as you go tariff as my contract is now up. On my contract I can use tethering, however I am struggling to find a payasyougo that allows tethering as well as minutes and texts.

steveE2

2bFrank wrote: »

Can you use a goodybag and a gigabag at the same time. I have a iphone and I am looking at a pay as you go tariff as my contract is now up. On my contract I can use tethering, however I am struggling to find a payasyougo that allows tethering as well as minutes and texts.

No you cannot have a goodybag and a gigabag active at the same time on the same sim.
You can have another sim for gigabag tethering and swap between goodybag/gigabag sims or use the gigabag and have extra credit on your account to use as payg .
A goodybag gives you mins/text/internet but no tethering

Earthworm

a.ferra wrote: »

Duh my clients don't know a random number duh!

Are the people who reply on here so stupid!!!

How was that a stupid suggestion? People can still ring you so your printed material costs have not been wasted you just can't ring out. Get another SIM and use one for outgoing one for incoming. It's one month of problems and it's the tethering that caused it. Get a dongle with Three.

PhenoM

Just jailbreak and tether. Problem solved.