Airtime credit billing issue - refunds being issued

t_will

Summary

Some giffgaff members who have bought a goodybag while using their airtime credit for mobile data have continued to be charged from their credit after the goodybag was bought, instead of the goodybag’s data allowance. We've since fixed the issue so that it shouldn’t affect anyone in future, and would like to apologise to everyone who's had this happen to them.

We're getting in touch with members who are due a refund directly, whether they're still with giffgaff or not. You can read more information about how we’re doing this in the thread in the Announcements forum.

This thread will have a little more technical detail as to the cause, and how to help members who may be affected if you see them asking questions in the Help forum.

Most Recent Update

UPDATE - 06 Feb 2019 - 09:11

Hi all, I have a short update for you on this.

Since putting in the fix, we’ve set up a series of procedures to make sure that we’re keeping a close eye on our systems and making sure that issues like this are picked up quickly and resolved. As part of this, we have regular meetings with our suppliers to understand changes that are planned to their systems or have been carried out, and their effects.

At one of those meetings last week, we discovered that a change that had been made in one of those systems had inadvertently allowed this issue to happen again for a short time. This was quickly addressed and was affecting members for under 48 hours.

Between 11:16am on January 23rd 2019 and 17:35pm on January 24th 2019, the fix that we put in place for this billing issue was not effective. That means that some members who bought a goodybag during this time, were using mobile data at the time, and continued using that mobile data session, would have been charged from their airtime credit instead of the goodybag that they had bought.

We’ve identified the members who were affected and we’ll be sending them a text message to let them know. Over 80% of members affected by this will be due under £1.00 credit refunded to their account. We’ll be refunding the amount that was erroneously charged from credit back to their account directly.

We are also continuing to refund members who were affected by the issue in mid-2018. The majority of refunds have already been provided, but there are some people who have since left giffgaff and that we haven’t yet been able to get in touch with because we’re not certain that we have the right details for them - for example, if they have left giffgaff a significant amount of time ago and may have moved. We will be sending out letters shortly to those addresses to ask people to confirm who they are and make sure they get their refund.

We’ll update again once all of these messages have been sent out to everyone - please let us know if you have any more questions.

Thanks,

Will

Update History

01:23 - 28 Jun 2018

Hi everyone,

As you may have read in the Announcements thread, we recently fixed an issue that was causing some members’ airtime credit to be used for their data usage instead of their goodybag.

This would occur when a member had:

Started using mobile data on airtime credit Bought a goodybag that then became active Continued using mobile data on their device

What should have happened in this situation is that mobile data usage should have come from the active goodybag allowance. Due to an error in our billing platform, however, it meant that would only happen if the member started a new data session once the goodybag was active - for example, by disconnecting from the network in some way and reconnecting again.

We’ve since gone in and fixed the problem, so this won’t happen in future - but if anyone is concerned we would of course advise them to restart their device after buying a goodybag as a precaution.

We’ve been able to identify every account that was incorrectly charged in this way, and we are contacting everyone to ensure they receive a full refund. We will be sending a combination of text messages and emails, depending on what is most appropriate for the person in question, and offering the refund.

In the case that someone is due a refund, we will contact them and offer them the option to take it in a method that makes sense for them. Members who are still with giffgaff will be able to take the refund as airtime credit. Anyone who is due £1 or over will be offered the option of taking it as a PayPal payment. If neither of these options are appropriate, members will have the option of taking their refund as a cheque. Members who have since left giffgaff will be offered PayPal in the first instance, with the option of taking it as a cheque as an alternative.

Once members have confirmed their choice, we will pay the refund shortly after. The method of refund that the member chooses will dictate how long it takes for them to receive it as follows:

Choice of airtime credit: Within 3 days

Choice of PayPal: Within 14 days (not including possible PayPal processing time)

Choice of cheque: Within 4-6 weeks (not including banks’ processing time)

Automatic airtime refund: Between June 28th and August 15th.

If they haven’t made a choice by August 15th, we will automatically make the payment via airtime credit to those who have an active SIM card.

This is an issue that affects a considerable amount of people, including some that are no longer with giffgaff. As a result we’re expecting this to be a very common topic in the community, and particularly the Help forum, over the coming weeks.

If you see people asking for assistance on this and would like to advise them further, please make sure that you’ve familiarised yourself with:

the contents of the Knowledge Base article the Announcements thread this thread

We will be contacting members who are affected directly, but it may take until August 15th for all emails and text messages to be sent. In the meantime, members can enter their details at http://giff.ly/refundcheck to see if they're affected and should watch out for an email.

I’d really like to keep this thread for discussion about technical detail and troubleshooting so that members can learn about the issue to give the best help to other members. If you have a question about that, please ask, and we’ll do our best to answer. If, however, you’re affected by this and have a question about how it will work out for you specifically, post it in the thread in Announcements. That way, we can make sure community helpers have the best information possible.

Thanks,

Will

Ask about how to help other members

Update - 11:50 - 18 Sept 2018

Hi everyone, a short update from us here regarding the refund activity for this billing issue.

At this point, we've successfully processed the vast majority of refunds for members who are due one. For those who have requested a cheque, the process is taking a little longer than we had planned. Unfortunately, we have recently encountered some further difficulties that meant that we weren't able to produce the cheques in the way that we were planning. We will make sure you have your cheque as soon as possible.

I also wanted to let you know that as of today, September 18th, Ofcom has announced that their investigation into this issue has now begun. We’re going to work with them to make sure that they have all the information they need, and will be working to implement any recommendations that they might make.

We'll make sure that we update this thread once we have more to share, so please keep an eye on it for further information.

Thanks,

Will

Update - 09 Nov 2018 - 16:06

Hi all, I'm very pleased to say that as of today, the first cheques should be arriving with members who have requested one.

I'd like to thank everyone for their patience while waiting to receive them. We had some challenges that took a long time to overcome, but we're now sorted and sending out these cheques as quickly as we can print them. Keep an eye out in your letterbox over the weekend and the coming week for your refund.

Many thanks,

Will

UPDATE - 06 Feb 2019 - 09:11

Hi all, I have a short update for you on this.

We’ll update again once all of these messages have been sent out to everyone - please let us know if you have any more questions.

Thanks,

Will

t_will

Hi folks, just a quick update - the webpage to see if you're affected is now live at http://giff.ly/refundcheck.

t_will

Hi all, just to confirm - the emails for this are now going out, and will continue to over the rest of the week, and we've already seen a few folks in the Help forum asking about whether they are legitimate. Please continue to point members to the Knowledge Base article if they need more info.

t_will

Hi all, on the advice of our cheque provider, we're changing the advice period for how long it will take for a cheque to be received to a 4-6 week period. This will be reflected in the webpage that members make their choice on, and affect every member selecting the cheque option from now onward.

dotso82

£55.00 Paid via PalPal to GiffGaff says 0.02 Pence left

So NO Fix!!!!!

dez_d

dotso82 wrote:

£55.00 Paid via PalPal to GiffGaff says 0.02 Pence left
So NO Fix!!!!!

@dotso82

Thanks for letting us know about the balance not going in.

Could you check a few things for me? Can you text for free the word NUMBER to 43430.

You will receive an SMS with some account info.

Can you then login to see if the info in the text matches up with the info here - https://giffgaff.com/dashboard

Can you then follow this link to see if a payment has been made - https://www.giffgaff.com/profile/payment-details

The only reason I ask is because it might be possible that you might be logged into the wrong account.

Regards

Dez

marklorna32

Hey, I selected for my £48 refund to be refunded to me via PayPal and received a txt from giffgaff saying it had been paid and after checking my PayPal balance it is saying £0.00. Any clues?

alexmgg2

@marklorna32

marklorna32 wrote:

Hey, I selected for my £48 refund to be refunded to me via PayPal and received a txt from giffgaff saying it had been paid and after checking my PayPal balance it is saying £0.00. Any clues?

In my experience of using PayPal with eBay, they often seem to sit on refunds for up to a week. Even at today's low interest rates, multiplied a few thousand times, it all adds up! :-/

xsupersonicx

that link just takes me to the top up page

harrrrrry

@xsupersonicx

Which link is that?

In some cases you need to be logged in to be able to access the page. If that doesn't work, then try:

close your browser and make sure no other browser windows are open

open a new browser, log in and go soon to the page you wanted

t_will

Update - 16:57 - 21 Aug 2018

Hi everyone, a quick update on the cheque front - following some further work with our cheque supplier, I'm afraid we have to extend the timeframe for you receiving your cheque if you have chosen one. If you have not yet received a cheque, it may take a few more weeks to get to you. If you're affected, we'll have sent you an email this morning to explain.

We're going to make sure you receive it as soon as we can get it sorted, and we'll update when we have a more solid timeframe.

t_will

Update - 11:50 - 18 Sept 2018

Hi everyone, a short update from us here regarding the refund activity for this billing issue.

We'll make sure that we update this thread once we have more to share, so please keep an eye on it for further information.

Thanks,

Will

jaymailsays

@t_will I am not personally affected by the cheque payment delay having received mine by other means.

The cheque delay is not ideal and is expensive to operate.

Has giffgaff considered offering payees additional payment compensation of up to 10% of the refund value, for undergoing the additional delays, since the error was identified?

For the sake of transparancy can we know what percentage of former members have not been traced and therefore have not had or will not receive their due refund?

https://www.ofcom.org.uk/about-ofcom/latest/bulletins/competition-bulletins/open-cases/cw_01230

"giffgaff has provided information indicating that it may have rendered bills that were inaccurate as a result of a billing error that arose from June 2016"

t_will

Right now we're focusing on making sure we can fulfil everyone's requests as soon as possible. I'll ask the team about how feasible providing that figure of members affected is - it's perhaps a little premature before the full refund activity is complete, of course. Should any members or former members believe they're entitled to a refund and haven't been contacted about it, we'd encourage them to contact our agent team to discuss it further so we can get it sorted.

jaymailsays

Thankyou @t_will for responding.

I do understand that the priority is to focus on refunds.

However Ofcom will be focusing on how many members were affected and how much were they overcharged and how much has physically been refunded. The difference between the two figures is critical as is the total of members who were not able to claim. They might have gone abroad or died or left the network or have some other reason for not claiming. So the overall unclaimed member numbers or figure must already be known?

I cannot be alone in feeling uncomfortable with the wording snipped from the original engagement on the subject repeated below in quotes. Setting the deadline of 15 August for one sector gives the wrong impression that members lose their rights to a refund after that date. Clearly they don't, member's rights to a refund endure for at least six years and similar to PPI bank claims, the time limit may even be extended by the Regulator.

For many who have left giffgaff and abandoned their linked email and mobile number, what steps have you taken to reach out in the public domain to raise awareness about the billing issue?

"You'll have until 23:59 on August 15th to tell us how you'd want us to reimburse you, and we'll make sure we send it through to you as soon as possible once you've made your choice. If you don't let us know by that date, we'll default to giving it to you as airtime credit."

andyxhill

thanks

mandi19uk

As it is now October do you have any further update on this? I have been notified I am owed money and chose to receive a cheque but still have received nothing.

aedgar

Hi @t_will

Is there any movement on the cheque front?

Could you let us know what the issues are regarding this? I'm a bit confused. Surely a business like giffgaff has business banking services, and processes financial transactions on a daily basis, including cheques. I understand getting a large number of secure cheques printed might take you some time, but this is getting ridiculous. If there are some other issues I'm not seeing, please let me know.

Otherwise, I'm going to be submitting evidence to Ofcom's enquiry to the effect that giffgaff has not refunded some of its customers, nor communicated effectively with them (you have not outlined what you will do and by when to make good my refund).

Looking forward to some (hopefully good) news!

aghill77

What @aedgar said.

t_will

Hi folks, thanks for the message, I'm sorry I wasn't able to respond before the weekend.

I've spoken to our team and the cheques are still progressing as fast as possible. As we're sending out a fair few of them, we needed a process that could handle that volume accurately and safely, and in a way that we could be confident banks would accept. As we don't tend to do business by cheque, we needed to not only set this up from scratch but also make sure all the correct hoops were jumped through with the bank - the last thing we would want is for them to think something dodgy was going on when a member went to cash the cheque.

At the moment our cheque provider is going through some final checks to make sure we can start printing. Depending on the outcome of their work we've got a few more things to check off before we can get the cheques sent out, but we'll keep you in the loop - we know how important this is to you.

We're keeping the list of members who have chosen a cheque safe and sound, but if you need to update your delivery address or talk to the agents about your refund, the web app at http://giff.ly/refundcheck has personalised information about the best way to go.