# Giffgaff down?



## gabi (Mar 16, 2012)

Is it just me or has it been down all morning?


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## fen_boy (Mar 16, 2012)

From their website



			
				giffgaff said:
			
		

> The site is being updated at the moment so some of the transactional pages like login, top-up or activation may not be working. For more news on the update and timings check our ​community notice board​


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## ddraig (Mar 16, 2012)

i have a signal but when i tried to ring my work phone it just beeped and went off


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## fen_boy (Mar 16, 2012)

Actually, yes it's doing the same for me.


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## fen_boy (Mar 16, 2012)

http://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Se...Problems-with-service-16-03-2012/td-p/3424153


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## fen_boy (Mar 16, 2012)

giffgaff said:
			
		

> We have identified the cause of the power outage. A water mains pipe burst at our suppliers causing a power outage. Unfortunately we still do not have an ETA for you.​


​


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## joustmaster (Mar 16, 2012)

having no phone is making my day a lot easier


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## fen_boy (Mar 16, 2012)

It's a bit shit that a burst water main can take a whole phone network down.


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## joustmaster (Mar 16, 2012)

that why they are cheap, I guess.

I noticed it was down, whilst trying to test out a new phone system at work. I kept thinking it wasn't working because I could call my mobile, or call in to it from my mobile.


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## fen_boy (Mar 16, 2012)

I think this and taking into account previous outages (and the fact that my voicemail and hotspot don't work properly on my iphone) might convince me to go elsewhere. Giffgaff is a nice idea, but I need a reliable network first and foremost.


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## Cribynkle (Mar 16, 2012)

So that's why I can't send texts!


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## gabi (Mar 16, 2012)

It's still down. Wonder if we receive a refund for this?


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## RubyToogood (Mar 16, 2012)

I thought it was just the O2  network that they use anyway.


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## DrRingDing (Mar 16, 2012)

Hurry up GiffGaff I don't like poor text etiquette (textiquette?).


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## DrRingDing (Mar 16, 2012)

RubyToogood said:


> I thought it was just the O2 network that they use anyway.


 
It is but someone's made a fuck up at GiffGaff I'm guessing.


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## EastEnder (Mar 16, 2012)

I've been seriously thinking about moving to GiffGaff, but there do seem to have been a lot of reports of problems with them recently. Would be nice to know if they're going to get their act together or whether this will be par for the course with them.


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## gabi (Mar 16, 2012)

It goes down for a few minutes now and then, but never for this long (ive been usin it for about a year)


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## joustmaster (Mar 16, 2012)

they say they that data should be working for some (might need a reboot), and that a voice only work around should be ready soon..


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## whackbangdeadly (Mar 16, 2012)

EastEnder said:


> I've been seriously thinking about moving to GiffGaff, but there do seem to have been a lot of reports of problems with them recently. Would be nice to know if they're going to get their act together or whether this will be par for the course with them.


I've been with them a year and this is the first issue I've had
Unlike other more popular/expensive networks - more issues with them in my experience


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## ViolentPanda (Mar 16, 2012)

whackbangdeadly said:


> I've been with them a year and this is the first issue I've had
> Unlike other more popular/expensive networks - more issues with them in my experience


 
Same here.


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## editor (Mar 16, 2012)

My voicemail is still well and truly borked and I can't send text messages or make calls either.
Not. Impressed.


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## skyscraper101 (Mar 16, 2012)

No service here, via T-Mobile in the US. I thought the problem was on this end. First I heard of it was the wirefresh tweet.

Thanks for the email, giffgaff


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## joustmaster (Mar 16, 2012)

It sounds like voice will be back up in the next hour.


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## DrRingDing (Mar 16, 2012)

joustmaster said:


> It sounds like voice will be back up in the next hour.


 
What about texting?


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## joustmaster (Mar 16, 2012)

don't know..
i jsut received one though..


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## gabi (Mar 16, 2012)

ive been receiving them fine all day but having to call people back from my work phone


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## skyscraper101 (Mar 16, 2012)

Would it really have been too much to ask for them to send out an email explaining the outage?


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## ddraig (Mar 16, 2012)

still can't text
grrrrrrrrrr


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## lizzieloo (Mar 16, 2012)

whackbangdeadly said:


> I've been with them a year and this is the first issue I've had
> Unlike other more popular/expensive networks - more issues with them in my experience


 
Yep, I'm happy with them.


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## DrRingDing (Mar 16, 2012)

ddraig said:


> still can't text
> grrrrrrrrrr


 
Me neither.

I'm going to look rude now.


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## lizzieloo (Mar 16, 2012)

I'm looking forward to all the exasperated texts later


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## fen_boy (Mar 16, 2012)

I just managed to call my house phone, so I think voice is back up.


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## skyscraper101 (Mar 16, 2012)

I bet nobody has texted me. I only do whatsapp and viber these days anyway.


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## lizzieloo (Mar 16, 2012)

Voice has been back up for a while, I got a call just after half 4


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## DrRingDing (Mar 16, 2012)

Thank fuck I can text now!


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## ddraig (Mar 16, 2012)

yay! me too


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## DrRingDing (Mar 16, 2012)

"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 r​egular updates will be provided in the community Noticeboard. Additional information is also available via our Blog where our CEO Mike Fairman has popped up a quick update.​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.
Again, sorry for the inconvenience.​Regards,​The giffgaff team"​


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## ddraig (Mar 16, 2012)

pants


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## Mikey77 (Mar 16, 2012)

I rebooted my phone earlier and that solved the problem for me. Incidentally has anyone else received any e-mails from them about data usage and something called "tethering" ?? . I think they're onto me, but I'm being good at the moment.


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## pinkychukkles (Mar 17, 2012)

Mikey77 said:


> I rebooted my phone earlier and that solved the problem for me. Incidentally has anyone else received any e-mails from them about data usage and something called "tethering" ?? . I think they're onto me, but I'm being good at the moment.


I would love to have the option of tethering but it's not possible on the iphone unless you jailbreak it, non? As in, giffgaff has disabled the hotspot facility on the iphone.

With regards to the outage - a bit pants, luckily I don't rely on my phone for doing my business but I'm sure there's plenty of people who do and when I scanned the (rapidly) lengthening post count on that thread in their community forums, there were quite a few pissed off people. Do you think that their cheapness precludes them from having a Disaster Recovery plan? As mentioned before, it's a bit crap that a burst water main brought down their entire network. If they had an adequate DR strategy in place, the equipment that they use should have been duplicated _at a separate location_ so (theoretically) they could've been up and running again with the proverbial 'flick of a switch'. Duplicating equipment though is duplicating costs and, if my experience in the past from doing DR tests for banks is anything to go by, they were rarely smooth or inspired you with confidence that everything would work if the need came.


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## Mikey77 (Mar 17, 2012)

I guess anyone who has a business should have their own plan, or they should have checked what giff gaffs plans were. After all, a network that relies on its customers to do most of the customer services work probably isn't rolling in it. I don't have an iphone. I was using a dongle, and I wasn't even using that much data, but they still realised recently, despite the fact I've been doing the same for about the last 6 months.


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## skyscraper101 (Mar 17, 2012)

Is it still down for anyone? I'm still getting no service, but I'm also in the US so connecting via another network. I'm still not getting any connection though.


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## monsterbunny (Mar 17, 2012)

The most annoying thing about the outage for me was that I updated my iPhone to iOS 5.1 the night before and unsurprisingly thought that it was the u/g that was culpable.  I then spent half a day restoring the phone to factory settings, wiping my music and videos and generally driving myself mad.  Eventually I went to the giffgaff site.  Meh!  Why did I not just start there?


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## gabi (Mar 19, 2012)

They must be fucking joking..!!



> Hi folks,
> 
> As you might be aware we had a full service outage on Friday 16 March. This was due to a major water leak at one of our third party suppliers.  The outage started around 10:10am and lasted until just after 6:00pm, when calls, texts and data were working again.
> 
> ...


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## gabi (Mar 19, 2012)

Er, no. I want some free credit please. I'm job hunting at the moment and missed two calls.


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## skyscraper101 (Mar 19, 2012)

I only got my service back last night.


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## ddraig (Mar 19, 2012)

charidee!?! CHARIDEE!!!


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## DrRingDing (Mar 19, 2012)

ddraig said:


> charidee!?! CHARIDEE!!!


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## Addy (Mar 19, 2012)

Big ups GiffGaff !!!!
Cheap tarrifs, good service and now a goodwill gesture to a deserved cause.
People are way to dependant on their technolgical toys that a day or 2 without them and they are like lost souls.

Stop fecking texting and look at the road your crossing!
Oi! you nearly ran me over with your shopping trolly cause your heads burried in your phone!
No, I dont ant to hear all about you conquest last night while you chat on the bus! .. and dont give me a funny look for smirking!

..as you were...


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## gabi (Mar 21, 2012)

their 'charitable donation' has kicked up a predictable storm on their forums...



> Let's assume its 100,000 because I think its safe to say that the actual number of people using giffgaff exceeds that amount. As I'm sure you're aware, the cheapest giffgaff bundle is £10: divide that by 31 because there's 31 days in March; and that will tell you that every person using that bundle lost 32p worth of phone usage. And in a way they're the lucky ones. Some people lost up to £1.20 if they had the £25 phone plan and the £12.50 dongle plan. And that's not to mention the potentially lost clients for businesses using the service.​​​But for the sake of being generous, because giffgaff is normally generous to us, let's take the 100,000 people that use giffgaff; and despite the fact I'm almost certain more people use the service than that, let's half that number to calculate for people that don't use goodybags - and even though everybody should probably qualify for compensation, let's ignore this for the purpose of this calculation. And then let's take the cheapest goodybag, which would have cost consumers £0.32 each for the day of lost service. The total consumer cost was £16,000 for that day - and that's being overly nice.​​​So giffgaff saved themselves at the very least £6,000, over 50% more than what they paid out. And if we weren't being generous, how much more would that cost be? Perhaps up to £100,000?​​​In my opinion, I think the fairest option would be to refund everyone in full, plus potentially compensation, with additional payback points / money, and let everyone back an individual choice as to what happens to their money. Or at least to donate an amount which reflects the consumer cost to charity.​​I can picture it now, someone suggesting that giffgaff cannot afford this cost. Well to begin with, its only what consumers have already paid them, and in my opinion, it’s unfair for them to profit on a fault with their service, whether its their fault or not. And let’s face it, the company has built itself on a good reputation, and has got to where it is today through word of mouth. From this injustice, it is damaging their reputation, which I would say in the long-run, would be more costly than a (hopefully) one off compensation fee.​


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## mrsfran (Mar 21, 2012)

Jesus Christ, we just lost our phone service for a day or two. Everyone is still somehow alive. Demanding the £1.20 compensation and bitching about money being given to charity is just being a dick.


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## gabi (Mar 21, 2012)

Er, you clearly don't rely on your phone as much as I do..


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## whackbangdeadly (Mar 21, 2012)

you're clearly too reliant upon you're mobile to be using a 'budget' service provider


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## mauvais (Mar 21, 2012)

gabi said:


> Er, you clearly don't rely on your phone as much as I do..


Maybe you should have a disaster recovery plan.


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## Santino (Mar 21, 2012)

mauvais said:


> Maybe you should have a disaster recovery plan.


He needs a whole fucking Business Continuity Strategy.


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## mauvais (Mar 21, 2012)

Santino said:


> He needs a whole fucking Business Continuity Strategy.


Let's leverage some synergies and going forward do this!


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## Santino (Mar 21, 2012)

Why won't he publish his risk register?


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## mauvais (Mar 21, 2012)

Whoop, whoop! Sound of ISO 27001.


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## Citizen66 (Mar 21, 2012)

What the hell is giffgaff. Their marketing technique must be working as i see it mentioned a lot on social media of late. In a way that i dont see other brands. The name is quite annoying. Maybe thats the secret?


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## skyscraper101 (Mar 21, 2012)

My service is still cutting out in the US and I have to manually keep re-registering on T-Mobile. This didn't start happening until the recent problems. Sort it out GiffGaff.


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## Citizen66 (Mar 21, 2012)

I'm intrigued now. What has gifgaffe got to do with t mobile?


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## wemakeyousoundb (Mar 21, 2012)

Citizen66 said:


> I'm intrigued now. What has gifgaffe got to do with t mobile?


piggybacking


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## ddraig (Mar 21, 2012)

it's O2 ffs


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## Citizen66 (Mar 21, 2012)

The reason why i ask is because im with t mobile and ive been having some disconnection issues of late and wondered if they were connected. Not with giffgaff though. Shit name.


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## whackbangdeadly (Mar 21, 2012)

Citizen66 said:


> What the hell is giffgaff. Their marketing technique must be working as i see it mentioned a lot on social media of late. In a way that i dont see other brands. The name is quite annoying. Maybe thats the secret?



giffgaff is a phrase that means the same as chitchat - not a bad name for a mobile phone network I reckon


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## Citizen66 (Mar 21, 2012)

whackbangdeadly said:


> giffgaff is a phrase that means the same as chitchat - not a bad name for a mobile phone network I reckon



On which planet? If someone said to me 'fancy catching up for a giffgaff' i'd assume they meant a large ugly kitkat looking house for bad clothes like naffnaff for giraffes.


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## whackbangdeadly (Mar 21, 2012)

i didn't say it was (still) popular


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## Citizen66 (Mar 21, 2012)

Sorry. But i've never heard that term before. Is it an Australian company?


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## whackbangdeadly (Mar 21, 2012)

Neither had I until the mobile phone co. came about

i think they're english

also, giffgaff means summat else in Scotland, but i can't recall what


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## Citizen66 (Mar 21, 2012)

Probably a punch to the lower jaw or something like that.


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## whackbangdeadly (Mar 21, 2012)




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## gabi (Mar 22, 2012)

Santino said:


> Why won't he publish his risk register?


 
What do you think about this..?

Giffgaff's service goes out for a whole day. Leaving upwards of 100,000 people without service. No email is sent explaining this until after it's fixed. A few days later we get another email saying as a gesture, they're donating £10,000 to charity. 

If you can be arsed read the quoted text above (from their boards) - the outage actually resulted in a fairly hefty hike in profits for them on the day, due to their structure (buying minutes from o2). Much, much higher than a usual day for them, and much much higher than £10k.

So why not, at least, give ALL the extra money they made to this charity...? They fucked us over and made money out of it.... and then pretend to be good corporate citizens. i appreciate a day out of service is a minor thing, but its the whole 'Hey! We're GiffGaff! We're so cool, and we caaaaaaare man...' that fucks me off most...


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## joustmaster (Mar 22, 2012)

gabi said:


> What do you think about this..?
> 
> Giffgaff's service goes out for a whole day. Leaving upwards of 100,000 people without service. No email is sent explaining this until after it's fixed. A few days later we get another email saying as a gesture, they're donating £10,000 to charity.
> 
> ...



it wasn't down for a whole day. it was down something like 7 hours.
they couldn't email everyone because the servers were under water.
they will have had a lot of extra expense in replacing and fixing things fucked by the flood as well as man hours to put it right.

perhaps a budget company isn't for you?


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## gabi (Mar 22, 2012)

They turned a profit on that outage, with no compensation to customers. That cool with you?


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## Santino (Mar 22, 2012)

gabi said:


> What do you think about this..?
> 
> Giffgaff's service goes out for a whole day. Leaving upwards of 100,000 people without service. No email is sent explaining this until after it's fixed. A few days later we get another email saying as a gesture, they're donating £10,000 to charity.
> 
> ...


I don't give a shit about their Innocent smoothie style image. It's just a phone company. Did you join because of their corporate branding?


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## gabi (Mar 22, 2012)

their site still won't let you top up either..

*We couldn't find that page.​​*
The page you were looking for could not be found. Please check and try again.

Go to the *giffgaff home page* .​​


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## Santino (Mar 22, 2012)

They're a bunch of capitalist shits running a company for profit. What did you expect?


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## joustmaster (Mar 22, 2012)

gabi said:


> They turned a profit on that outage, with no compensation to customers. That cool with you?


I am not convinced that they did make a profit after the expense of the day is considered. 

I missed out on just under ten pence worth of service (with my £10 goodybag). If they did make a profit on that then I couldn't give a mighty fuck either way.

Also - The Mrs managed to top up and add a "goody bag " yesterday, no problem.


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## gabi (Mar 22, 2012)

Santino said:


> I don't give a shit about their Innocent smoothie style image. It's just a phone company. Did you join because of their corporate branding?


 
Nope. I joined coz it was a good deal. I hate their loved up marketing tbh.

Look, im not the only one pointing out what shitcunts they've been over this. Their boards have not exactly been full of love, either for the outage, or for their response (or lack of).


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## joustmaster (Mar 22, 2012)

gabi said:


> Nope. I joined coz it was a good deal. I hate their loved up marketing tbh.
> 
> Look, im not the only one pointing out what shitcunts they've been over this. Their boards have not exactly been full of love, either for the outage, or for their response (or lack of).


What do you want from them then?


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## gabi (Mar 22, 2012)

joustmaster said:


> I am not convinced that they did make a profit after the expense of the day is considered.
> 
> I missed out on just under ten pence worth of service (with my £10 goodybag). If they did make a profit on that then I couldn't give a mighty fuck either way.
> 
> Also - The Mrs managed to top up and add a "goody bag " yesterday, no problem.


 
The servers in question were '3rd party'. They didnt pay a penny to have them repaired. They've admitted that. Anyway, pointless first-world argument yadadayada..

i'd just like to top-up, thats all.


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## gabi (Mar 22, 2012)

joustmaster said:


> What do you want from them then?


 
I said. If they're not going to compensate their customers, instead choosing to donate to charity, then fine - donate ALL the extra dosh they made that day, not just 10k.


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## joustmaster (Mar 22, 2012)

gabi said:


> i'd just like to top-up, thats all.



Are you sure its not a problem at your side? it worked for the mrs earlier


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## gabi (Mar 22, 2012)

You try


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## joustmaster (Mar 22, 2012)

gabi said:


> You try


I don't want to actually put any on my phone though.. how far do you get before it fails?


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## gabi (Mar 22, 2012)

You can't even login. Was the same yesterday.


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## mauvais (Mar 22, 2012)

gabi said:


> What do you think about this..?
> 
> Giffgaff's service goes out for a whole day. Leaving upwards of 100,000 people without service. No email is sent explaining this until after it's fixed. A few days later we get another email saying as a gesture, they're donating £10,000 to charity.
> 
> ...


I think the author of your quote needs a basic education in accounting.

If I have some free allowances on my tariff of £10 a month, and the service is out for one month due to equipment failure, how much profit has the telco made?


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## joustmaster (Mar 22, 2012)

gabi said:


> You can't even login. Was the same yesterday.


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## fen_boy (Mar 22, 2012)

gabi said:


> You can't even login. Was the same yesterday.


 
I just managed to buy a goody bag


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## gabi (Mar 22, 2012)

ok, fair enough - im running Chrome and it says the site's down for maintenance... tried thru firefox and seems fine tho


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## joustmaster (Mar 22, 2012)

gabi said:


> ok, fair enough - im running Chrome and it says the site's down for maintenance... tried thru firefox and seems fine tho


strangeness.. CTRL + F5 used to clear the cache and refresh - give that a go


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