Today's Service Outage

gaffer · ‎16-03-2012

As you very likely to be already aware, today we've suffered a major service outage - it was caused by major water damage to the computer network in a our data centre and it took nearly 8 hours fix.

Firstly I'd like to offer my apologies for the interruption in service and thank all of our members for their patience whilst we fixed the issue.

The service is largely back up and running now - the exception is new activations which are currently being queued and our service teams are working on a fix.

Some of you have asked about compensation - we're going to focus on fixing the issues we've had and make sure we have a stable service first - and then we'll sit down think of ways to make it up to you.

We'll continue to post updates on the support community so click here for the latest news.

Thanks once again for your patience.

Mike Fairman

CEO giffgaff

Update 21:15

Thanks for everyone's comments - especially those appreciating our way of keeping you up to date!

In response to a few of the issues raised...

Porting - those that were scheduled for today may have been delayed - we're continuing to work on these as fast as we can.

Texts - we think that for most of the outage, inbound text messages should have been delivered. Whether those that failed initially will ultimately be delivered will be determined largely by the re-try policies of the network from which they were sent. In other words, you may or may not get them depending on which network sent them.

Root cause - we will of course investigate this and report on the conclusions. Our data centre does have an uninterruptable power supply and backup generators but its possible that even if these worked the water damage to the network gear was sufficient to bring the service down.

andy0 · ‎21-03-2012

shirleyrose9 wrote:

I could have had a new wig at a bargin price they called 5 times then sold it to some one else ive now had to felt tip my head but i think people can tell its not real hair but what do you think

That wig was better off in the circus

I don't think green and purple suits you

andy0 · ‎21-03-2012

victormpds wrote:

hi ...thanks to this probleme i lost a lot off bisnesse as i use my mobile to buy and sale ....so 1 day that my custumer coud not contact me and i loste considerable amonte off sale so im a bit desapointed as the probleme was not fix faster ....thanks giffgaff

I can easily imagine a phone would be your first preference.

scatty_hatty · ‎21-03-2012

It's nice that you want to donate some money to charity to say sorry for Friday, but is it really the case that giff gaff users are only concerned about charities at home. There are lots of charities who help people who are at risk of poverty, disease and death in countries outside the UK because of lack of clean water, food, shelter... - such as Oxfam, Practical Action, Christian Aid....... Can we have at least one charity in the list to vote for which cares for the people who are living on the edge and who would be helped the most by the smallest amount of money?

mark_18 · ‎21-03-2012

Not being funny but I really do not need giffgaff to donate to charity on my behalf, I can do that myself.

The thing that has annoyed is the fact that I have only been with giffgaff for 2 months, last month I had a problem whereas my goodbags would not update - 3 days I was without the use of my phone, which ok, it didn't appear to be a big problem at the time, I just did without my phone and it was nice and peaceful for a few days. Then this month, this outage happened... so it really doesn't look good.

The customer service is poor also, having contacted them about the goodybag problem on a few occasions throughout the duration of the problem with absolutely no response at all. I had no idea what was going on, if they were aware that there was a problem, and no idea as to when the problem would be sorted. When normal service resumed, I had lost out on those 3 days from my goodybag, with customer services only contacting me afterwards to say it has been resolved.

Don't get me wrong, I really want to believe in giffgaff, it’s cheap and offers everything that I need for really good value. So I have no hesitation in staying with giffgaff, for now, but I can't say that I will continue to stay with giffgaff if something else happens again in the immediate future.

For all those people saying 'get a life', 'it’s only a phone', 'my phone is not my life' etc... Well these aren't really helpful comments at all and I think that people are entitled to complain when a service that they are paying for no longer works. Whilst a phone may not be someone’s 'life', it is to some people a 'life-line' and a commodity for which some people cannot do without.

I will tell you why I found it frustrating, and it’s because my mum has recently been diagnosed with cancer and is in hospital having radiotherapy and chemotherapy. I couldn't call/text her all day, and at one point I really needed to contact her and I had no other means of doing so. She too is on giffgaff and she could not contact me, or anyone else for that matter. Her partner is also on giffgaff so he could not contact her and she could not contact him. Family then started panicking because no one had heard from my mum and nor could they get in touch with her.

I suggest investing the donation in to your own hardware to make sure that something like this does not happen again!

I couldn’t give a monkeys ball bag if I do not get anything from giffgaff in way of compensation, I was not expecting anything and therefore I was not disappointed.

luangpor · ‎22-03-2012

The more I think about it the more ridiculous it is for you to think that a donation to charity is the right response to your failure to provide the service you are paid for for several hours. Yes, you are cheaper than other providers but that's not an excuse and if you can afford to give away £10,000 then it suggests that you're not doing too badly. As many of these posts demonstrate, even if it was only for a few hours it was still for some a major inconvenience and deserving of a more professional and appropriate response.

spindle · ‎22-03-2012

This is unacceptable I have spent over £25 so far on top-ups on another network and still I can't make calls, how much longer is this going to take before its fixed?

jamesd2010 · ‎22-03-2012

@spindle - this issue has been fixed since Friday evening, you'll need to raise a case by going to: www.bit.ly/giffgaffagent Kind regards, James

pjr · ‎22-03-2012

The outage was fixed on Friday. Contact an agent to look into it further for you.

vixtyler · ‎22-03-2012

Was just 1day cant sum ppl cope yea things cud have been dun differently but we all live and learn

afamillie · ‎23-03-2012

I put ten pounds top up,as a goddie bag! Everything went therw as normal.Then it came up as cash amount? Instead of my goddie bag deal....Are you going to refund?Or put my goddie bag on.....