We are people powered - we involve our members in our business and reward them for their efforts.  True to our word, we kicked off giffgaff’s Tool Hire when we launched in November.  As you know we don’t do mega advertising, so we can pass these savings onto to you.  Tool Hire’s aim was to spread the word about giffgaff and make us famous.

Tool hire is closed for the time being but we have had loads of people hire one of our twelve tools (like The Poo Handler, The Gimp and The Cuddle Monster), and post their videos on You Tube.  In return for taking part they received a V.I.G SIM (Very Important giffgaffer) which gave them free UK calls and texts for a whole year. We believe in the meaning of our name ‘mutuality’, you help us and we’ll help you. 

The results of Tool Hire can be seen here. Some made us laugh, others cry, and some were just, well, a little worrying.

The V.I.G SIM’s are great, but we're also offering 5 x £5,000 prizes and who doesn’t want five grand?  The prize categories are:

1) Highest number of views on YouTube  

2) Funniest, as voted by the giffgaff community 

3) Greatest number of votes from the giffgaff community 

4) Most tweeted on Twitter(#giffgaff5k) 

5) Best use of the tool, as voted by the giffgaff team

We'll be announcing the winners in April, so there is still plenty of time for the video makers and stars to promote their video to bag themselves £5k.

We expect the next couple of weeks to be busy, don't miss out on the action, follow us on Twitter and become a giffgaff fan on Facebook.

If you have taken part in Tool Hire and want to know more information on the prizes click here for full details. Plus if you want some tips and advice from the community about how to promote your video or giffgaff, head to the forum. 

Good luck,

Tom

P.S. just dropped my SIM into a Nokia 3210…retro classic.

A few weeks ago we posted the question to our community to see where we could improve or find any pitfalls we should avoid. And of course to just have a right old rant about some of the experiences we’ve all been having

It was very interesting for us to see some of the comments that came back, because a lot of it was exactly why we set up giffgaff. Beneath are a few examples of what the community hated the most.

Trick202: I hate the fact that they (mobile networks) love shouting about the latest handset they can flog you - but don't bother to support it, or support their customer services people by training them on it.

The lack of technical and specific knowledge of phones was something came up more than once. As t3chy said:

t3chy: screw call centres too, I know more about phones than them.

Obviously as giffgaff we don’t actually sell any phones with our SIM cards, but I guess we do have to support the legacy left by other networks, because people still use the phones they got with their original contracts. But when people buy phones straight off the shelf does the support lie with the network or with manufacturer? A good example of that failing recently is the Nexus One. So, although we don’t actually sell phones, we still try to support all formats by rewarding our excellent community for the many great answers they provide, as well as having our own support database. To me, giffgaff is a shining example of how things should work and how a community can come together to help each other.

A lot of people highlighted the huge number of different call-packages on offer. So much so, it’s simply impossible to keep track of what is the best deal, even at the same provider!

Jpc: Tricksey packages that make your head spin trying to remember all the catches. Top up by so much, get such and such free. Great when it works. Orange, you stink.

t3chy on Orange: Even on pay-n-go, you add a tenner for free texts, but there is a clause that means if you actually send one of those free texts, they kill your cat.

The general consensus is that although packages are not necessarily bad, the sheer amount of different packages on offer is mind boggling and very confusing. This is something we wholeheartedly agree with here at giffgaff. And that’s why we launched with a very simple tariff structure. But at the same time we’ve had many calls for action from the community to provide bundles, or packages; however you want to call them. So I guess the challenge for us is to provide something as simple as our tariff structure and apply that to packages. And I’m pleased to say, this is something we are currently working on.

Customer support is another thing which, unsurprisingly, was commented on a lot, how calls are handled, the waiting queues, etc.

Jameswilson: Call centres, great respect to all those working there, but I just don't want to have to call you, neither do I want you to call me.  A smoothly operated Network should be able and want to run on minimal contact with its customers.  Call centres should only be for major issues and as such should be staffed by knowledgeable experts, rather than poorly trained but well meaning people from overseas.

Ethani99: The most annoying thing is the 30 minute phone calls to 0870 numbers which you end up being transferred to 5 different departments only to go back to the first department and be told that they are right and you are wrong, God I hate that happening!

Thankfully we’ve kept the structure at giffgaff rather simple. If we look at our statistics, we can see that 99% of all issues that our members have raised have been answered by the community. There were of course a few which didn’t, but they were escalated and quickly solved for the most part. No phone calls have to be made, unless it is one of us calling you to sort something out. So no waiting around in long phone queues, tapping in this or that number, and no 15 different departments to get involved. Sorted!

Bigfatbball2: in general companies who don't give a **bleep** because they know they f****ed you over via the T&Cs and they are making bucket loads of cash for there share holders forgetting to ever give a **bleep** about there customers'.

I’d like to just say here that we do give a *bleep* about our members But let’s be honest, I think all companies say that in their marketing spiel. Hopefully the amount of changes we’ve already applied after receiving feedback from the community speaks well for us. Of course, if there is anything else we can do, please let us know on the forums, and you can be damn sure you’ll get a response.

Terrasofta: Rip-off basic tariffs (on-net, geo, cross-net, sms) -- giff making a good start, but could go even lower

At the moment I’m not sure we should go even lower. Aside from what we feel are fantastic basic prices and free on net calls/data, you get the added benefit of being rewarded for your contribution. This is something no other mobile network does. And it gives you the option to not only make great savings, but to actually make cold hard cash. So when you combine those two elements we think we are offering the best value. And if you like bundles, I’m sure you’ll be pleased with what is coming in the near future.

I think overall we’re heading in the right direction with giffgaff, but without the continuous feedback and support from our community we wouldn’t be in the fantastic place we are now. So with that I would like to thank you all for the great contributions and effort you’ve all put into giffgaff and long may it continue!

Many thanks,

Vincent

Ps. should you want to continue our discussion on ‘What you really hate about mobile networks’, you can do so here.

When Matti Makkonen (the founding father of the text message) ‘invented’ the SMS (Short message service), in the early 80’s, I doubt he ever thought it would become one of the world’s most used communication methods, or that 2.4 billion people would send and receive an SMS (text to you or I).

The beauty of a text message, like Twitter, is the restriction in characters. It is an art to communicate any message in a maximum of 160 characters, like a modern sonnet, the text can convey things that you may not be able to say to someone face to face.  But, if the recent press is to be believed, the simple, eloquent and wonderful text message has been hijacked for evil and dastardly means.

The well publicised activities of Ashley Cole, Tiger Woods (who now has a i-phone text app named after him), Vernon Kay and not forgetting the previous misdemeanours of David Beckham and Shane Warne (allegedly) would have us believe, a text is the choice of sportsman and TV personalities who are talented, yet morally loose with a mobile phone.

The Sunday Times Style Supplement, coined the phrase 'sexting' (probably not top of mind for Makkonen’s as he mused over transporting messages at minimal cost) to describe just such illicit textual communication; but our relationship with our mobile and text messaging goes much deeper.  Dawn Porter in today’s Stylist magazine says 57% of men don’t see a problem with illicit 'sexting', that may be because as The Sunday Times comments "...(the) mobile phone is a totally dedicated personal communication device"  so why not send a ‘risky’ pic of yourself to a women who just happens not to be your wife…oh because it is WRONG.

But all is not lost for the humble text.  That girl with the lovely hair from the L’Oreal adverts, Cheryl Cole,  is carrying the torch for correct use of the text message (I guess…). Cheryl reportedly used less than the 160 character limit to inform Ashley that maybe, it was love on the rocks with no ice, and that he probably should book the nearest Travel Lodge.

All is not lost for Ashley and co either, after the Bentleys, Cristal and (possible) expensive divorces, why not get yourself and your text 'friends' on giffgaff, at least that way the texts will be free...Ashley, you can thank me for this advice by giving me World Cup tickets.

Let's end on a rallying cry, to reclaim the text message for good and noble deeds, and while we are at it, picture messaging.  If you can say it in only 160 characters then it is an art in itself and after all sending a colleague a photo of the beautiful beach you’re sitting on, knowing they are in the monthly finance review, is priceless.

So fight back against those trying to ruin the text – after all I received a text I received at 3.12am on Sunday morning:

“Using a crisp bag as a duvet , a shoe as a pillow and I think the Penguin army will eventually attack”.

I have no idea what it meant but it was bizarrely funny, and it (probably) won’t end up splashed all over the front pages.

Here at giffgaff we're we're passionate about many things - one, which we don't shout about much, is our impact on the environment.

Since moving into our new (actually a very old and second hand) office we've been busying ourselves putting in recycling bins, installing smart electricity meters - we're even going to be installing smart heating so that office space that isn't being used won't be heated.

So it was indeed challenging to read the second to last chapter in Levitt and Dubner's sequal to their fantastically popular book on the freakier side of economics called Superfreakonomics.

Hear are some interesting (and very well researched) facts from the chapter on climate change....

• Human activity accounts for just 2 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions - the remainder is generated by natural processes like plant decay.

• The worlds ruminants are responsible for 50% more greenhouse gas than the entire global transportation sector.

• CO2 is not the major greenhouse gas - its water vapour instead. Current climate models don't know how to model this and various types of cloud.

• A doubling of CO2 in the atmosphere (of which remember humans only account for 2% of) traps less than 2% of outgoing heat from the planet.

• Atmospheric CO2's half life is roughly 100 years - so even if the world stopped producing CO2 it would be many hundreds of years before it returned to lower levels.

Although they don't deny that warming is actually happening or that it is likely that somehow humans are influencing what's going on the general thrust of the argument is that we really don't know much about why warming is happening and there is quite a bit of evidence to suggest CO2 may not be the main driver.

Indeed, it seems that the recent suggestion from one UK government dept that we could all do the climate a favour by stopping eating red meat and diary products could have hit the nail on the head. 

So where does that leave giffgaff and other companies that want to be good global citizens? Should we aim to reduce our CO2 footprint or not? I think the good news we can hedge our bets - if humans are generally thought to be negatively impacting the climate then minimising the impact of humans has to be a good thing - and aiming for a low CO2 footprint goes a long way in doing just that.

Fortunately, the mobile industry is a relatively benign one from a CO2 point of view - especially if you factor in the benefit of journeys replaced by calls. On top of that giffgaff has always tried to take a minimalist approach to how we operate our business - so we don't have shops, sell handsets, run huge data or call centres or have a large management team - and of course we piggy back on the back of O2's existing mobile network. 

So we'll continue to be frugal even if CO2 turns out not to be as evil as many people think - now,  where's my chicken dinner and soya milkshake gotten to......?

We have been listening to our members and received some feedback on the forum, through Twitter and e-mails.

giffgaff SIM cards have always been free but previously you had to top up when you ordered the SIM.  Through feedback it seems this didn’t suit everyone, so instead you can now order a SIM without having to top up first.

So from today you can order a SIM, here and you don’t have to part with any cash, till you have the SIM card and are ready to get started.  Sometimes little changes go a long way so if you have a friend who’s thinking about joining giffgaff, feel free to give them a nudge and get a free SIM.

Thanks

So, we're happily gaffing around in our new Beaconsfield offices for a couple of weeks now. And while we are as happy as little puppies with a new squeaky toy, it seems we've already managed to upset our neighbours a bit...

Whoops, I guess creating the hallway slip 'n slide was taking it one step too far (cardboard boxes from the move come in handy after all... great fun though!)

And so we've had a complaint come in that we make a lot of noise stomping around in our office and the downstairs neighbour would really like it if we could... well... not make so much noise while walking around!

Well, the person in question might just have a small point and here's why:

Aside from our fantastic slip ‘n slide, we had a coat rack assembling competition, after five flat pack assembly coat racks came in and ‘the men’ of the office had to pretend to actually understand the instructions. Seeing as they were made of metal, they made a satisfying clanging noise each time we dropped a piece on the ground… which was a lot.

Us stomping along with 'We will rock you' by Queen, while singing at the top of our voices probably didn't go down too well either. We just might have to adjust our fancy footwork with that one.

Talking about fancy footwork... you just have to see Robbie's impression of Beyonce! Man, he is gooood (perhaps aggravating the situation because he had tap-dancing shoes on...)

Hmmm, just writing this short list, and I haven't even gotten to the end of it by far, does give me an inkling of why we got the complaint in the first place.

Ah well…

As we’re incredibly compassionate, something obviously had to be done about this, as we’d hate to upset anyone! Oh yes, very unlike us, upsetting people ^^

So we came up with the idea of wearing slippers in the office. Sure why not, slippers will help when we finish setting up our American Wrestling ring for daily lunch break bouts! Okay, that last one might not be strictly true, but it would be great fun though Ewww, I just had a flash of my co-workers in those spandex wrestling outfits… maybe not such great fun after all…

Quick, back to slippers!

So, yes, slippers. Great idea, why not get some original slippers? Better yet, maybe the giffgaff community fancies designing some cool or silly footwear for us to wear while we’re in the office! So that’s what we decided to do. You lovely giffgaffers can decide what we wear around the office. Well, not completely, just our slippers, but that should be enough for now. You can decide how crazy, wacky or designer-ish our slippers will be. You design them and we will get them made and wear them here. Of course the winning designer will also get a pair of slippers made for them. So be aware of that when you design them. You have to walk around in them too!

I posted the competition up at the end of last week and already we’ve got the first designs in! So a big thank you to stephicino87, ukrides and ethani99! If you also want to get stuck in, please post your artwork here.

We can’t wait to see the results

Cheers,

Vincent

Some good news, from today you can spread the word about giffgaff by ordering multiple SIM’s to give to your friends.

Once logged in, just click on Spread the word and Order more SIM’s, here you can get up to three lovely SIM’s to be sent to you, so you can pass them onto mates.

What’s in it for you?  You'll earn 500 payback points when your friend activates and they will get £5 free credit to spend on UK calls and texts.  And of course you can call and text all your friends on giffgaff for free, when you top up every three months.

Don’t forget you can also send friends a single SIM in the post or send an e-mail to let them know about giffgaff.  Both will earn you payback points as a thank you for spreading the word about giffgaff.

Tom

We've had hundreds of films from giffgaffers wanting to get involved in our marketing thanks to our  Tool Hire promotion. Bearing mind that everyone who meets the criteria and successfully uploads a video will get free calls and texts to UK mobiles for a year, its not surprising really.

In case you haven't seen any of the tool hire films lately, here's just a flavour of the many great films to have been added recently.

For those LadyGaGa fans out there, the Film Noir outfit appears on a dimly lit and atmospheric street. What starts off as a moody-classic soon evolves into a dance-off and a little argument with an angry security guard! See it here

'Les the Pigeon' features a student from the Saint Martins School who took the initiative to produce their own outfit and add a character, who now even has his own Twitter page. We love it and it has given us a new-found respect for the winged-wonders.  See it here

Or are you out shopping and want a cuddle from these lot!?  See it here

Watch more of these great videos here...enjoy.

So we’ve had all hype and the pundit’s views on the iPad this week but the giffgaff team have just had a fish and chip lunch and announced their non pundit  verdicts…..and they’re not good.

So here are some of the downsides that were circulating round the table….

Poor memory capacity, no Flash player (what? You can’t claim the best browsing experience without that surely?), a SIM card format no one has heard of, not as good for reading books as a “proper” e-reader, locked to the Apple book store, locked to Apple’s chosen network partner,  no camera, no USB port and an inability to upgrade hardware and replace the battery.

There are of course the unsaid upsides of “being cool” and the neat UI eye candy. The price would be an upside too if the dollar price translated into pounds using a real world exchange rate – but the likelihood of that is about as high as Apple ever  conducting market research.

The concept is spot on – an easy to use, portable, big screen computer – but it only comes just the way that Apple want it to, serviced by a book store and network provider they choose.

It’s much the same with many other smartphones - Blackberries, Palms etc but what is smart about it? Hasn’t the web itself – the thing all these devices purport to access in the best possible way – taught the world that open standards and customer engagement are the best ways to breed the best services – would Wikipedia, Tripadvisor and the like be here now if the people that built the web tried to control what went on it?

Many of these companies would argue that bundling the applications with the device gives them extra revenue streams that ultimately allows them to sell the device at a cheaper price – they may well be right but that doesn’t erase the fact that what they are doing, in a small way, is limiting personal freedom. Why shouldn’t we all have the right to be able to use a device which we have paid for in the way we want to?

An alternative economic argument is that bundling services and devices in a restricted way reduces competition and that in turn helps to keep prices higher than they would otherwise be.  That’s clearly the argument that has won the day in some countries such as France where only selling locked devices is illegal.

So why don’t you tell us what you think and vote on whether device manufacturers should be allowed to restrict how we use their wares – just click here.

On Monday, the giffgaff team moved into new offices in the picturesque town of Beaconsfield, Buckinghamshire. The building we’re in is a beautiful timber-framed converted rectory, in the heart of Beaconsfield Old Town and dates its origins back to the 16^th Century.

We were previously based in O2's offices in Slough and the new environment will help us continue to develop our own strong sense of culture and identity. The biggest change is that we’ve gone from a large open-plan arrangement, to a number of creative spaces throughout the building. There are many excellent reasons for choosing Beaconsfield as our location, just look at our wonderful new neighbours such as Angelina Jolie, isn't that reason enough?

In the building there's a communal meeting room, kitchen (complete with awesome new coffee machine) and a welcome area where guests can work on sofas, in front of a grand fireplace. There's a very open and warm feel about the space and there's a real sense of how exciting it will be to work here. The team has been settling in and getting to know the town well, including the local pub (we can strongly recommend the food).

I’ve uploaded some pics, so you can check out giffgaff’s new home for yourself. As you'll see, we still need to 'giffgaff' it with branding and get some art on the walls, but at least we're in!

So, what do you think of our new digs?

Feel free to send us any housewarming presents.

Rob