GiffGaff/O2 network down?

Soldato
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19 Jul 2005
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S. Yorkshire
Giffgaff has been down since just after 10am today sue to a flood and subsequent power cut in one of their comms centres.
It has been coming back bit by bit over the past hour.
I now have data access, and can receive texts but still cannot call or send texts.
 
Soldato
Joined
7 Apr 2008
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2,655
Yeah, the problem happened at 10 or so this morning, was very sudden actually, service suddenly stopped. Their backup systems aren't working either, which suggests:

a) Crap disaster recovery plan and virtually no testing.
b) Following from "a", the backup is in the same place as the main, which would be...insane, frankly, and very unlikely.

Either way, I've had disconnects and random service drops from giffgaff about twice as often as I should (once every couple of months is too high, sorry), so this is taking the **** a little.
 
Soldato
Joined
21 Sep 2009
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London
Yeah, the problem happened at 10 or so this morning, was very sudden actually, service suddenly stopped. Their backup systems aren't working either, which suggests:

a) Crap disaster recovery plan and virtually no testing.
b) Following from "a", the backup is in the same place as the main, which would be...insane, frankly, and very unlikely.

Either way, I've had disconnects and random service drops from giffgaff about twice as often as I should (once every couple of months is too high, sorry), so this is taking the **** a little.

Totally agree, I have another phone so it's not all bad, but this poor reliability is making me question whether it's worth it? Some contracts are getting close to GiffGaff price territory now, so I will be seriously considering moving. I don't mind losing data or texts for a couple of hours, but to lose the ability to send and recieve calls for over 7 hours is ridiculous.
 
Soldato
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Well, as far as I know, 3 are the only network to offer anything close to giffgaff in terms of price; that's what I'm checking right now. They roam on Orange, giving you one of the best services around, I would believe.

giffgaff is supposed to be cheaper because of the lack of technical support, not because of worse service.

Here's hoping that this will open giffgaff's eyes though. It's a great concept and could really work well, if they worked on their systems more.
 
Soldato
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London
Well, as far as I know, 3 are the only network to offer anything close to giffgaff in terms of price; that's what I'm checking right now. They roam on Orange, giving you one of the best services around, I would believe.

giffgaff is supposed to be cheaper because of the lack of technical support, not because of worse service.

Here's hoping that this will open giffgaff's eyes though. It's a great concept and could really work well, if they worked on their systems more.

I've seen on the boards outside Tesco at Lakeside some pretty comparable Tesco mobile offers, like 500mins, unlim text and web for £14 per month.
 
Soldato
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Ah, yes, completely forgot about Tesco! Thanks :D

EDIT: Provided that Tesco have service that is as good as that of O2 themselves, the deal is okay...£12.50 for 500 minutes, 5000 texts, and 1GB Internet, and BT Openzone on top. That said, there is a 12 month contract...again, not bad if the service is decent.
 
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Associate
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8 May 2007
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This is the first outage I've experienced in my 5 months with GiffGaff.

It happens. O2 and Vodafone both had significant outages last year, though they didn't affect the whole country. About a year ago O2 lost service across the South East for over 12 hours.

I had a 12 hr Virgin broadband outage today as well.
 
Soldato
Joined
7 Apr 2008
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2,655
This is the first outage I've experienced in my 5 months with GiffGaff.

It happens. O2 and Vodafone both had significant outages last year, though they didn't affect the whole country. About a year ago O2 lost service across the South East for over 12 hours.

I had a 12 hr Virgin broadband outage today as well.

I'd say this is a little different...the whole country, and it happens regularly to me (on all the phones I've had with them). I've heard similar elsewhere too.
 
Associate
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31 Jul 2011
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I couldn't make phone calls with them earier but appears to be working ok now. Their systems are pretty bad though I've had so much trouble with them over the last month, still not resolved now. They are cheap though.
 
Soldato
Joined
27 Jun 2006
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Not here
Not on GG myself but had an email come through from an old sim I had.


"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 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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