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NonGeographicalMan

marvin wrote: »

I think I know someone who will be really pleased by this .

I don't suppose it could possibly me you are thinking of by any small chance?;):D:T:rotfl:

This is also a huge own goal for Martin Lewis and MSE and confirms their quite uncanny ability to recommend large numbers of the users of their website to products that then almost immediately go belly up (I previously nearly lost all my cash savings in Icesave directly thanks to an MSE recommendation).

If they had recommended Ovivo at the start of the operation back in summer 2012 and MSE's own customers had then enjoyed 18 free months of mobile service then probably nobody could have complained. But to recommend this product for the first time just weeks before it went belly up (when due diligence surely ought to have revealed any impending problems) looks very shoddy indeed on their part. Also at the start you only risked a fiver if the Ovivo hippo (I'm actually beginning to wonder now why Ovivo wasn't actually called Leander;)) rolled over on its back but now most of the recent joiners have lost a full £20 when the pink hippo went belly up.

Also its not all drinking of champagne and rolling hysterically on the floor with laughter here as I also encouraged my mum to become an Ovivo customer a year ago and I actually learnt of their demise through none other than her this evening because she found she had no working mobile phone when she went out today. But at least she has had more than £20 worth of service in 12 months if you compare the next cheapest offering anywhere else.

Also on the minus side I have a cheque in my wallet for £3-48 or so from Ovivo that I have not yet cashed and that resulted from an adjudication by The Communications Ombudsman after Dariush churlishly refused to refund my whole credit balance when he cut me off on no notice. I argued I was entitled to my whole £16.48 or so current credit balance back when they cut me off but Dariush had only had my last credit £10 refunded on to my credit card. Dariush (who handled the complaint with the Communications Ombudsman personally and also signed the cheque that I will now have to frame and put on my wall) claimed I was not entitled to the rest of the money because it came from promotional credit. I argued I had already long since spent earlier promotional credits and he couldn't disallow refunding more recent unused actual real money credits from my credit card to my phone account on the basis of earlier historic promotional credits that had now long since been used up.

In the end the Communications Ombudsman split the difference and refunded me around half the remaining non refunded amount. However I understand a complaint to the Communication Ombudsman by a customer costs a company over £400 to have investigated by the ombudsman. So I don't suppose it was this that finally took them over the edge?:rotfl:

Another amusing andecdote to relate is that I actually got email read receipts from Dariush for the two emails I sent him on December 22nd (the day he terminated my account) and December 26th (after I discovered on Christmas Eve when I was stuck in flooding and could not make any outgoing calls, even though the phone was still working inbound and still showed the Ovivo network name) late in the evening of March 19th and just after midnight on March 20th (he had clearly not read my emails until that point). Now it surely can't just be a coincidence that Ovivo also went bust on that very same day.

So I expect poor old Dariush was sitting there knowing it was finally all over and pondering on what might have been and perhaps in a more paranoid moment he began wondering if I was some how responsible for his lenders pulling the rug.........

I was also going to suggest that I could have provided a mobile number for anyone who has lost money and who wanted to speak to Dariush personally about this but clearly the number he complained about me daring to call him on one Sunday morning was an Ovivo company mobile as tonight it is coming up very firmly with just plain unobtainable...............

grayme-m

NonGeographicalMan wrote: »

I don't suppose it could possibly me you are thinking of by any small chance?;):D:T:rotfl:

This is also a huge own goal for Martin Lewis and MSE and confirms their quite uncanny ability to recommend large numbers of the users of their website to products that then almost immediately go belly up (I previously lost all my cash savings in Icesave directly thanks to an MSE recommendation).

If they had recommended Ovivo at the start of the operation back in summer 2012 and MSE's own customers had then enjoyed 18 free months of mobile service then probably nobody could have complained. But to recommend this product for the first time just weeks before it went belly up (when due diligence surely ought to have revealed any impending problems) looks very shoddy indeed on their part. Also at the start you only risked a fiver if the Ovivo hippo (I'm actually beginning to wonder now why Ovivo wasn't actually called Leander;)) rolled over on its back but now most of the recent joiners have lost a full £20 when the pink hippo went belly up.

Also its not all drinking of champagne and rolling hysterically on the floor with laughter here as I also encouraged my mum to become an Ovivo customer a year ago and I actually learnt of their demise through none other than her this evening because she found she had no working mobile phone when she went out today. But at least she has had more than £20 worth of service in 12 months if you compare the next cheapest offering anywhere else.

Also on the minus side I have a cheque in my wallet for £3-48 or so from Ovivo that I have not yet cashed and that resulted from an adjudication by The Communications Ombudsman after Dariush churlishly refused to refund my whole credit balance when he cut me off on no notice. I argued I was entitled to my whole £16.48 or so current credit balance back when they cut me off but Dariush had only had my last credit £10 refunded on to my credit card. Dariush (who handled the complaint with the Communications Ombudsman personally and also signed the cheque that I will now have to frame and put on my wall) claimed I was not entitled to the rest of the money because it came from promotional credit. I argued I had already long since spent earlier promotional credits and he couldn't disallow refunding more recent unused actual real money credits from my credit card to my phone account on the basis of earlier historic promotional credits that had now long since been used up.

In the end the Communications Ombudsman split the difference and refunded me around half the remaining non refunded amount. However I understand a complaint to the Communication Ombudsman by a customer costs a company over £400 to have investigated by the ombudsman. So I don't suppose it was this that finally took them over the edge?:rotfl:

Another amusing andecdote to relate is that I actually got email read receipts from Dariush for the two emails I sent him on December 22nd (the day he terminated my account) and December 26th (after I discovered on Christmas Eve when I was stuck in flooding and could not make any outgoing calls, even though the phone was still working inbound and still showed the Ovivo network name) late in the evening of March 19th and just after midnight on March 20th (he had clearly not read my emails until that point). Now it surely can't just be a coincidence that Ovivo also went bust on that very same day.

So I expect poor old Dariush was sitting there knowing it was finally all over and pondering on what might have been and perhaps in a more paranoid moment he began wondering if I was some how responsible for his lenders pulling the rug.........

I was also going to suggest that I could have provided a mobile number for anyone who has lost money and who wanted to speak to Dariush personally about this but clearly the number he complained about me daring to call him on one Sunday morning was an Ovivo company mobile as tonight it is coming up very firmly with just plain unobtainable...............

I was quite impressed that you never posted to gloat after all this.... up to now.

I don't think you can take the blame (or credit as it appears you would prefer) for Ovivo ceasing trading. However, there are lots of people looking for someone to get at over this, so you may like to post your role on the various Ovivo threads out there to provide an entity they can abuse.

marvin

Can we be very clear
1. We do not know if the problem is financial/technical/competition related
2. The company has not entered administration, yet, at least no notice has been published. It may go into members voluntary liquidation but to date no request to a court has been made to order an administrator be appointed.


NonGeographicalMan take a photo copy of your cheque put it in the bank it may get honoured as they have not yet declared themselves bust.

Ovivo was starting to get its act together as a business. It had recruited some very big hitters as directors to drive the new channels. It had just completed a small funding round (would like to know if this failed if it did big pointer to running out of cash) with plans for big expansion.

I am sad to see it go, its demise is costing me and lots of others real money (although the offer from GiffGaff has helped here) in having to actually pay for a service.

I think it is time for this thread to be locked.

NonGeographicalMan

grayme-m wrote: »

I was quite impressed that you never posted to gloat after all this.... up to now.

In reality I had just unsubscribed from this thread as I was tired of being given repeated kickings by the endless Ovivo fan boys content to praise something that was £0 per month no matter how ill conceived in concept (which sadly Ovivo always was - I'm also pretty sure the company could have been saved by converting all customers to sat 250 minutes, 500Mb data and 1,000 texts for £2.50 per month if that had happened a long time ago).

I also find it odd that Dariush found it better to just let the whole operation collapse and leave customers with no service. I would have thought one of the other MVNOs would have jumped at the chance to acquire 75,000 customers (the likely number when the company folded up) and could either have offered them something like Three's 1-2-3 PAYG tariff or something good value for £4 per month (eg 250 minutes of calls, 500Mb of data and 1,000 texts).

Dariush must presumably have instead let things run on until something dramatic happened like the High Court Sherrifs beating at the company's door.

NonGeographicalMan

marvin wrote: »

2. The company has not entered administration, yet, at least no notice has been published. It may go into members voluntary liquidation but to date no request to a court has been made to order an administrator be appointed.

As service simply immediately ceased it seems likely that Vodafone said enough was enough due to repeated unpaid bills and simply pulled the plug on further network access. I suppose to them 70,000 customers is neither here or there and they couldn't be bothered to make a special effort to acquire them as their own network customers.

NonGeographicalMan take a photo copy of your cheque put it in the bank it may get honoured as they have not yet declared themselves bust.

I did think of that but I seem to recall banks charge a fairly hefty service fee to the payee of nearly £20 if a cheque you pay in does get returned as unpaid. On the whole I'm not really sure its worth the risk.

Ovivo was starting to get its act together as a business. It had recruited some very big hitters as directors to drive the new channels. It had just completed a small funding round (would like to know if this failed if it did big pointer to running out of cash) with plans for big expansion.

The completely free model was always unsound in my opinion, as was the idea that the business was attracting people particularly receptive to responding to advertising (clearly what Ovivo told its advertisers). A part advertising and part subscriber funded model at a £2.50 per month fee might have worked out.

I am sad to see it go, its demise is costing me and lots of others real money (although the offer from GiffGaff has helped here) in having to actually pay for a service.

What special GiffGaff offer is that? Their base tariff at £5 per month only gives you 20MB. Not enough for basic ongoing background network maintenance type traffic if you don't leave your phone turned off for data most of the time. Virgin Mobile, Three and Tesco Mobile all have possible alternative 1 month contracts that are as good as or better than anything from GiffGaff.

I think it is time for this thread to be locked.

Absolutely not. There now needs to be a long discussion here about people getting their money back and/or which other network they should move on to.

NonGeographicalMan

Also just to say that surely the most obvious suitable replacement network for those obsessed with cheapness at all costs and for anyone who does not mind having to suffer annoying advertisement as the price for being free is:-

https://www.sambamobile.com

They are only charging £5 for a SIM. Less than the cost of one month's service with any of their rivals.

marvin

NonGeographicalMan wrote: »

What special GiffGaff offer is that? Their base tariff at £5 per month only gives you 20MB. Not enough for basic ongoing background network maintenance type traffic if you don't leave your phone turned off for data most of the time. Virgin Mobile, Three and Tesco Mobile all have possible alternative 1 month contracts that are as good as or better than anything from GiffGaff.

It is about moving to a new network and porting the number.
1.£5 credit for both the recommender and the joiner even if they are the same person.
2.£5 credit for porting a number to GG from Ovivo by end of April.

In total worth £15 (have to credit the account by £10 yourself to get it up and running) but then you have to do this with any new service.

So I am currently porting to GG my wife will get the £5 credit for recommending I will then port out one of my GG numbers to 3 when I have used up the credit on one of them.

With a dual sim phone I was not hit by being cut off, it accepted incoming calls and texts, I could call out on another number. I never trust fully, free services, as they owe you nothing at the end of the day always best to have an alternative, a backup plan.

marvin

NonGeographicalMan wrote: »

Also just to say that surely the most obvious suitable replacement network for those obsessed with cheapness at all costs and who does not mind having to suffer annoying advertisement as the price for being free is:-

https://www.sambamobile.com

They are only charging £5 for a SIM. Less than the cost of one month's service with any of their rivals.

and are only for tablets and laptops not for mobile phones so not a replacement for most at all. (presuming they work in a mobile they will provide mobile data but no calls or texts without using another service).

MikeWhite

NonGeographicalMan wrote: »

I did think of that but I seem to recall banks charge a fairly hefty service fee to the payee of nearly £20 if a cheque you pay in does get returned as unpaid. On the whole I'm not really sure its worth the risk.

No, surely it's the payer that is charged. Bit unfair otherwise! I could write small bouncy cheques to any one I was annoyed with and it's cost them £20 a time if they tried to pay them in.

marvin

MikeWhite wrote: »

No, surely it's the payer that is charged. Bit unfair otherwise! I could write small bouncy cheques to any one I was annoyed with and it's cost them £20 a time if they tried to pay them in.

sadly, this time, he is absolutely right, the payee gets charged not the payer.

On the other hand if you did deliberately write bouncy cheques you would be committing a criminal offence.