Submit: Great giffgaff Ideas

Premium SMS Bar

Status:

on 18-March-2010 18:06 - last edited on 18-March-2010 18:43

Could we have the facility to bar Premium Rate SMS messages from our accounts? Then hopefully there will be no more lengthy threads about who is to blame for charges.

So there's no confusion: I'm asking for an optional bar

mobile giff gaff

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by on 14-March-2010 19:53

can we get a mobile verson of the website so we can use the forums all the time...

Status:

Hi all, We are considering this, but it's the price tag attached to it, which is holding it off at the moment. At the moment it is too expensive for the amount of use it would get. If there are many people out there who would like this, then give kudos to this idea, so we can better gage the usage numbers. Cheers, Vincent

Change VoiceMail number

Status:

by on 16-March-2010 14:57

Hi,

Given that the Nexus One redirects GiffGaff voicemail calls (111) to the emergency services can GiffGaff please change their voicemail number to something that won't get redirected? At the moment it is only Nexus One owners who are affected by this but I suspect that once other Android handsets upgrade to 2.1 there will be a whole lot more people with this issue. See this thread for more details.

The following number will get redirected to the emergency services so are no good for Nexus One owners:

000, 08, 118, 111, 120, 122, 110, 119, 995, and 0800

If that is not feasable can we get dialing your own number working to access voicemail?

Cheers,

Adam.

Status:

Hi all, We expect this change to be implemented by the end of May. We're trying to get more than one number so you can choose which one you like best. Not sure if it will be possible as these kind of numbers are quite scarse, but if we don't try, we'll never know

Cheers, Vincent

Disable Balance Pop-ups

Status:

on 16-February-2010 12:26 - last edited on 16-February-2010 14:40

While for some users, having your giffgaff call balance pop-up after each text or call is really handy, for others it can be a real pain - especially on some handsets where the pop-up is quite intrusive.

Unfortunately this cannot currently be set on or off individually - it is either on for everyone (as it is now) or off for everyone. Personally I don't mind too much either way, though I can appreciate that it is probably more of an issue for those who don't like it than those who do, so I wouldn't really miss it if it was turned off (especially as you can request an on-demand balance by sending *100# anyway).

If you would prefer it to be off for everyone then please Kudos this idea, if you would prefer to have them left on then please add a comment. Ideally I suppose we could have the option to turn off and on individually - but that would be a longer term goal as the system would need to be changed to incorporate that.

Status:

Hi all, We will be implementing this as a feature for people to set a personal preference. This way you can individually turn the notifications ON or OFF. We hope to have this implemented by the end of June. Many thanks, Vincent

Email to SMS

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by on 03-March-2010 11:21

Any chance of some email to SMS support? Free would be awesome ^_^

For example, 07712345678@giffgaff.com -> SMS to 07712345678

Status:

Hi all, We need a bit more feedback on this idea. We're not quite sure why you would want to use this and what you would use it for. Would an application on our website, which allows you to send a text message to a number be a solution as well? Or am I thinking in the wrong direction and you actually use it for something completely different. Many thanks, Vincent

Automatic Solution

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on 09-March-2010 17:40

I been in giffgaff from November 2009, and I love the fact that we are helping each other out. And what a quick response! Much more handier than call centres where we have to call up Birmingham, which then forwards their call to Inida, who then have to call up NASA, who then calls the President ! And finally he replies back to the call centre, who then informs us there is nothing we can do about

So overall, giffgaffers are doing their best to help others, however I feel that they are not getting the reward in the end, as some people tend to be reluctant to press "Accepted Solution". What I am proposing is :

To automatically remind them to accept the solution if there is an answer provided, and they left the tread and not responded to it for a long time.

And/Or to adopt the method which Yahoo Answers use, which is opening the voting to the public (other giffgaffers).

All this is to bring up the self-esteem a person gets for answering a question, and answering it right.

Status:

Hi all, Rather than spamming our members with the question to please, please, pretty please mark your answer as the 'accepted solution', our lovely support team will now look at these topics and mark the correct answer as the accepted solution if the original person didn't do so. This will only happen in the 'Ask the community' section. I hope you feel this has solved this particular issue

Cheers, Vincent

Femtocell(mini phone mast)

Status:

by on 10-March-2010 20:19

For all GiffGaffs talk about being a people powered network O2 and the GG staffers seem to do all of the heavy lifting. I it would be great if GG sold femtocells like Vodafone does to allow us to provide better coverage and 3G in areas where it is lacking to make GG a truly people powered network.

Status:

Hi all, I set this one to not suitable because we feel it should be a network investment to make it better rather then asking our members to pay for a service which we should already provide. Thankfully O2 (the network we run on) is already going to build 1500 new network sites across the UK in 2010. O2 has unveiled plans to accelerate growth of its mobile network and build significant headroom for mobile data, in a multi-year programme of investment totalling hundreds of millions of pounds. So we're confident that the network we run on, although already good, will see a great improvement in the years to come, continuing to keep us as the forerunner when it comes to mobile data networks. Cheers, Vincent

Online usage history (itemized billing)

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on 17-February-2010 01:05

This is another idea that has been brought up several times in various forms (see usage-history tag), but

haven't yet made it to these pages. I feel very strongly about this and would like to promote this also here:

the idea is to implement a 'Usage history' or 'Itemized billing' under My_giffgaff on the webpage.

I prefer the 'Usage history', as i think the important aspects is that it enables one to monitor usage

(data is transferred, but of course also calls, and txt messages), not only the bill/balance at the end.

It would be a feature that underpins transparency and is very much in line with the philosophy

of giffgaff as an internet based and community oriented company.

Status:

Hi all, At the moment we are considering the best approach to supply this information you. So it is something we are looking at but have made no firm decision on which way we are going with this. Cheers, Vincent

Wiki and website makeover

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by on 02-March-2010 12:14

The info on this site is already getting a bit fragmented - e.g. info on number porting (do you lose credit on old payg SIM?). It would make a lot of sense to have a wiki with all the info - and people could update this if logged in - then it would all be in one place.

IMO the website and forums and not at all user-friendly. I guess part of the problem may be that it's tied in with proprietary Lithium system rather than open source - e.g. Drupal or Django - which would probably do everything that's needed, only free and probably better.

To kick this off, the suggestion is to have a thread dedicated to suggestions for improving the giffgaff website - design, functionality etc. - after all it's a key part of the giffgaff service.

Status:

Hi all, I have implemented a new design of the forum and also set up a thread in which you can add your feedback on the site and forums here: http://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Contribute-Innovation-Promotion/Forum-feedback/td-p/6079 On top of that we are working on a new design for our site which will incorporate the feedback we've received from all of you. Cheers, Vincent

Provide a VOIP gateway

Status:

by on 21-February-2010 19:12

Simple really, put an outgoing VOIP gateway on the giffgaff network, accessible by normal gsm voice call with a short dialing prefix and routed to one or more VOIP providers. Pretty simple to also gate into Skype once a server is in place.

Should reduce giffgaffs costs more than enough to cover most international VOIP charges and be a win/win: gg preserve profits, we get cheaper calls and if gg bundles in the VOIP charges we can avoid having individual VOIP accounts, true PAYG VOIP. Using a voice call this way is good for call quality and works on any phone.

Though it breaks my 'simple tariff' preference, as a prefix code its something users opt into and I wouldn't have any problem with gg sharing any cost reduction

Sure there's some scope of incoming VOIP calls and even heading towards reduced cost or free gg<->VOIP calls as well

Status:

Hi all, We are considering the possibilities when it comes to VOIP gateways and are currently working with Ja Jah to see what we can do. At the moment we have no set plans however, nor a date of implementation if we ever get that far. Hence this idea has its status set to 'Under Consideration'. Cheers, Vincent

Handling multiple SIMs from a single company/family account

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on 14-February-2010 02:10

This idea was brought up by several posts earlier (see 1,2) and Vincent has even posted

a partial solution, but apparently it hasn't yet made it to this page.

The proposal is to have the possiblity to handle more than one SIMs from

a single account. This would be useful for companies, families, couples

and any other groups, if handling of the SIMs' administration/finances

is performed by one person.

The point is not necessarily to have only a single account for the SIMs,

i understand that at the moment the system requires the creation of an

account for each SIM.

The point is much more to have the possibility to define a master account from

which you can access relevant settings of all the SIMs within the associated pool.

Not only to top-up (this is not a problem as you can top-up any number through

the giffgaff pages) but also to activate/inactivate auto top-up or set speding limits, etc.

Another important aspect of a company/family pool os SIMs would be to handle the

credits more flexibly: to have the possibility to transfer credit from one SIM to

the other. Tthere was some discussion about implementing some form of credit

transfere on giffgaff (1,2) - in my opinion company/family SIM pools would be a good

argument to push such a feature and also an excellent context for the development

and testing.

Status:

Hi all, This idea is currently unsuitable for giffgaff as it is very costly to implement from the backend. Our systems were never designed for anything like this, so to implement it would require a complete overhaul. We are however looking into the ability to share airtime. So that might be a possible solution to this problem. Not as elegant perhaps but but maybe at least a partial solution? Cheers, Vincent

Payback points not only for credit.

Status:

by on 01-March-2010 21:08 - last edited on 01-March-2010 21:09

I think it will be great if we could spend out giffgaff payback points on giffgaff items not only credit for example

1500-2000 points = giffgaff hoodie
600-1000 points= giffgaff t-shirt
- 1000 points= giffgaff slippers
- 500 points= giffgaff mug

etc

So a hoodie would be £15-£20 and mug £5. I personally think this would be awesome and make me want to get more payback points as credits good but eventually I wont need that much credit Also it will spread giffgaff more

Status:

Hi all, We need a bit more feedback on this. Especially the amount of people who would actually be interested in using this facility. As for anything we would make, there would be a minimum order. We would have to store it etc. So although we think it is a great idea, we'd need a clearer indication of how many people would actually use their points to purchase giffgaff goodies. So make sure to kudos this idea if it's something you are seriously interested in. Cheers, Vincent

Voicemail

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on 06-March-2010 10:56

If I ring someone and call goes to their voicemail, I still get charged for a full minute. This seems a little unfair. Is it possible for Giffgaff to work out that the call went to voice mail and if ended withis a few seconds not to charge for it?

Status:

Hi all, Unfortunately we cannot diferentiate between calls going to voicemail or actually being picked up. But we feel with our prices of 8p a minute and no extra charge for the first minute (it stays 8p, unlike for example Vodaphone who charge 20p or O2 who charge 25p for the first minute) it is not really that much of an issue. Cheers, Vincent

Creative Prizes

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by on 08-February-2010 18:59

You should get prizes every 3 months for the person to create the best:

Art/Images
Music
Videos (Which don't have to be GiffGaff related)

This would keep the people interested, and it would be another reason to keep people connected and using GiffGaff; and it would promote how good GiffGaff is at being friendly!

Just an idea. Kudos if you think it's good.

Status:

Hi all, We do like this idea and we are discussing how best to implement it. If it should all be giffgaff related or not, what kind of prizes to give, etc. etc. So we'll come back to this later on. Cheers, Vincent

Summer Sizzle Drizzle

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on 18-February-2010 12:26

On the contrary to what the I have written as my heading, this post is regarding a Summer Time Meet up. This way, it allows GiffGaff staff to come in contact with GiffGaff members, and see the real human face other than the avatar display (although I am quite fond of mine)

It can be called anything, a convention (like Star Wars, although I am not a member *shifty eyes*), and could do anything like a cup of tea and biscuits or a BBQ in this great British weather

Location could also be also decided

Leeds for its upbeat culture and atmosphere
Swindon for its... roundabout

This meet up will also give the members face to face interaction with others, and discuss about the future of giffgaff.

If you like this idea, give Kudos as an appreciation, or a reply to make me know how you feel. cheers, Jermin

Status:

Hi all, Great idea and something we will certainly do this summer! So get your sun hats out, slap on the sunfactor, cause we're going to have a party! Okay, no idea about the date yet, but I'm sure something can be arranged

Cheers, Vincent

VAT Invoices

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on 11-February-2010 19:45

I've struggled to get a VAT invoice for my first top up (thanks for the help Shaun!). This will be an increasingly frequent problem both for me personally and for giffgaff going forward as more companies realise that it is actually cheaper for many staff to go PAYG than be on expensive contracts. It saves my company a small fortune!

There is an easy solution to this for giffgaff IMHO based on the following:

You already have some sort of ecommerce system backend otherwise you couldn't process the payments. This will include some sort of internal unique invoice number
Just display a receipt (or email one automatically) and include the giffgaff VAT and internal invoice numbers somewhere on it . If people want it, they can print it out and if they don't, they save a tree
This saves giffgaff the cost of a stamp and a whole lot of needless pain

HTH

Status:

Hi all, We can't implement this as a feature on our website this purely because the amount of people who need a VAT invoice is very low and cost of developing this is quite high. We are very happy to provide them on a case by case basis. So if you have a need, please contact one of our friendly agents and they will take care of it for you. Many thanks, Vincent

Last Charge Info

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by on 04-February-2010 19:36

On giffgaff its currently not possible to check the last charge to your account.

On T-Mobile and, as far as I know, the other main networks its an option when you call to check your balance.

I think this would be very useful and I'd like to suggest it is considered as an available option in the very near future.

Peeter

Status:

Duplicate of the idea to get usage history. As for getting a text, telling you what your last call cost, we don't think that's a good idea purely because a lot of people have already given us feedback they do not like the text you get informing you of your curent balance, after you make a call/text.

Make the giffgaff website freely available (once giffgaff starts charging for internet).

Status:

on 04-February-2010 17:43 - last edited on 05-February-2010 09:17 by

Hi guys,

I think that the giffgaff website should be completely free for all who have a giffgaff SIM card as long as they have topped up within 90 days. :smileytongue:

This would be very benefical to the whole concept of online customer service and the giffgaff members helping members philosophy. :smileywink:

Cheers,

Ethani99.

Oh and Kudos is a giff and gaff thing! Keep them coming.....

Status:

Hi all, this idea is accepted and will be implemented as soon as we actually start charging for data

Cheers, Vincent

giffgaff user chat

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on 17-February-2010 17:35

why not have a live chat system for us giffgaff users to talk to other members, it might help keep the boards less cluttered?

Status:

Hi all, we've decided not to implement an 'official' giffgaff user chat as there is no way for us to measure helpful participation, which defeats the purpose of having a payback points system. Of course we're more than happy for you to set up a chat system yourself, to which we can link within the forums. As for orbixx's idea of setting up an IRC chat with a bot in there, who you can ask questions (and therefore opening up some API's) I'd be happy to look into that for you, if you can send me some requirements. Cheers, Vincent

Ordering multiple SIM's Make easy.

Status:

on 04-February-2010 17:48

Hi giffgaffers,

I think this would be alot easier if there was an option to choose how many SIM's you'd like to order rather than re-entering the same details over again for each SIM you want, maybe if it was limited to 5 for instance and the option to send to yourself (Fields pre-populated with your details) to make this even easier, or maybe I'm just lazier than I thought as it only took 5 mins to do! lol :smileywink: :smileyhappy:

Cheers,

Ethani99.

Oh and Kudos is a giff and gaff thing! Keep them coming.....

Status:

Hi all, we've now implemented an option to send yourself 3 sims at a time. We're also still working on the packaging of all the sims you send out to your mates or give to your friends, so they have some clearer instructions on what to do to get them activated. Cheers, Vincent

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