Our service outage on Friday.

[gaffer]

As you will be aware we had a full service outage on Friday.  This was due to a major water leak at one of our third party suppliers which knocked out both our primary and backup systems. The outage began at 10.10am and lasted until just after 6pm, when calls, texts and data were working again.

During the outage we worked with our supplier to fix the problem as quickly as possible and made it our priority ensure that all our members were kept up to date with the latest developments.  We are extremely upset to have this happen to our members and are committed to doing our utmost to prevent issues like this from happening again.

I’m pleased to report that things ran smoothly over the weekend and we used the time to fully repair everything and tidy up individual problems caused by the outage. For the more technically minded, Nigel, our CTO , has started a thread in the community which will go into the detail of the outage and what we have done, and will be doing to prevent it’s recurrence.

This year, as we grow as a company, we are committed to making substantial investments in our infrastructure. Due to Friday’s outage we will be reviewing these plans with the intent of bringing forward investment in capacity and resiliency. I’d also like to assure you of our commitment to making the giffgaff experience as good as possible.

It has been amazing to see the messages of support and the suggestions that we should make a charitable donation as a way of making up for Friday’s outage.  We therefore intend to make a £10,000 donation to a charity of your choice.  The charities are ones you nominated for Payback in December  -  to vote just use the polling buttons on the main blog page before the end of the week.  

[dreamer1712]

People demanding personal compensation is wrong!!! Giff Gaff have always been a fantastic company and this outage was out of their control! I've only ever had one other problem with my service and Giff Gaff did their upmost to rectify it and then refunded my money for the duration of the problem! This outage was for a few hrs and although it was inconvenient it was rectified as soon as humanly possible!!! Give the guys a break! Most companies wouldn't even offer to donate to charity!!! Well done Giff Gaff xxx

[een]

I can't not believe I am reading some of these comments! I agree it was a huge inconvenience to not have our service for a day, but do we not allow for mistakes these days? Do we really live in a world where we request compensation for every failure. I was disgusted to read there was so many people requesting rewards over helping charities!!! Shame on you all and I hope you are never in a position of need

[tanyafish]

Personally, I think that the 30p I pay a day for service is better put in one lump along with everyone else's "compensation" and given to charity.

Too many people demand compensation for this, payback for that, without thinking how it will affect companies, for example the claims made to car insurance companies fuelled by personal injury lawyers offering no win no fee deals. There really is no such thing as a free lunch - somewhere along the line the money comes from somewhere, and as a result we are all paying higher insurance premiums.

It's the same with giffgaff - yes, the donation to charity isn't as much as they would pay out should they pay us all individually, but with the money they don't have to pay out to the people demanding compensation, they can invest in proper infrastructure (such as off-site backup) and make a better service for us all without having to raise charges.

Also, I can't find the poll - has it been and gone?

Found it as soon as I posted - the link was on the bottom right for me.

[amy1987]

It was one day in everyones life where people weren't glued to there mobiles and I was glad of it, nobody ringing me or hassling me. We get a great deal from giff gaff and what we get for a money no one should complain! People forget that this is a fairly new company competing with the bigger mobile networks and donating £10,000 is alot of money to be parting with, but they are donating it to charity! It might go to a cancer trust which Im sure everyone has dealt with someone with cancer. Think its a great idea!

[davidphillips44]

Due to it being a major water leak at one of your third party suppliers, I assume Giff Gaff wil be compensated by the third party responsible. Sounds like you might even profit from this!

[somerandomer]

We may be giffgaff's customers, but think of it this way: we can afford it, we have access to clean drinking water, we aren't just out of civil unrest, we have access to medicine, we aren't dying of starvation everyday. Also as you may know it's lent - the time of giving up and giving to charity- so why not help out a good cause and give the (tiny amount of) compensation you'd receive to charity, one like Trocaire, Concern, Oxfam, Cancer Research, etc and help others, who need it more than you do, just saying.

[biggeorge007]

While the charity donation is a good thing but I'm sure I speak for 1000's of us that were effected that work and use the giffgaff network for business and were seriously effected by the outage.

Since I had converted all the family to giffgaff, no phone in the whole house was working (5 phones) so I had to purchase a new PAYG sim and credit so I could make some business calls that could not wait till giffgaff was back working.

While a small inconvience for most people, for those who work and needed the phone it was a major problem and i'm sure like me it cost people time and money to get a solution, Tempory PAYG sim and credit.

The charity donation is a good cause but I would prefer to hear that the money was been better spent on your infrastructure, maybe a backup system that could switch over if you ever get a leak again.

George

[bigmadpete]

I agree to money going to a good cause. But " as a way of saying sorry " no your not saying sorry to any customers. U didn't let the charity down. You let the community down. Not giffgaffs fault maybe. ut a charity?? What.

[joe3873]

I was expecting a very important call . It is good giving things to charity but looks like you oneday will be asking for the the phone... L

[mikethomas]

I am sorry about the problem I really am. Odd that O2 didnt suffer the same problem? It seems a cheap get out at £10,000. It probably cost me more than that in trade, I lost a contract involving the B'ham Indoor Arena &Coventry Rhico Arena for the next two months. £10000 there's a laugh