Today's Service Outage

[gaffer]

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.

[flag]

Like many others I do accept that things can go wrong and that it may take time to fix these problems and I see no reason for compensation and will continue to use GiffGaff but I do not think I will transfer my main number to GiffGaff (although I had hoped to do so) because clearly it pays to have a back up and Three (a company I have used since the last century and a company that does have many service related issues) has, in all those years, never left me with no possibility to make call/send texts, etc.  It is a shame but prudence dictates this course of action (for me). 

[junto723]

It was frustrating, and Giff Gaff should consider having a back up plan, JUST IN CASE somehting like this ever happens again (touchwood)

However, it was good having updates a to what was happening, so thank you

[pinklady1988]

I think compensation is too late for many, some of those that lost service yesterday have lost their credit today, myself included. Il be seeking my refund as cash and going to a proper network unless the compensation was too good to turn down, that would include back ups for everything so if something fails it can quickly be sorted and enough staff to keep the 24 hour response promise

[hamishlaw]

That is all.

[morathiuk]

After all the services that GiffGaff supply and at good prices, that people need to ask for compensation is  a sad reflection on today's culture. Yes it was an inconvenience however , at least  we were emailed . Unlike other service providers who are completely unreliable.

Once I realised my new  mobile wasn't broken I quite enjoyed having a day without a constant ping.

The company cannot be responsible for a burst water pipe. 

I wont be switching back to anything, I am in control of my spending, which bag I want , and I emailed people to let them know would not be available yesterday due to my mobile having gremlins.

[mangobed924]

Wow im still left without a working mobile,a full day without,hope this gets sorted soon,read on the blog thats its sorted for everyone looks like im the unlucky one lol

[brucebhoys]

hi av just been on and activated the wifes giffgaff and it took 5mins to work .I activated myn last night got told it would be first thing the smorn after setting wap and mms manualy and am still waiting now am disabeld and need this phone to call if needing help in the house when shes out this is atarting to be a joke .as it took 5min for hers and myns got lost some where.can some one help pls

[pinklady1988]

@morathiuk sadly your new here, burst water main this time, something else last time, something else the time before something else next time. Same problems different excuses, and giffgaff isnt cheap anymore shop around networks with call centres are cheaper.

[knoppixeu]

Thanks for the update, not great news though... 

[arobba]

@jamesd2010

Of course I've raised it with the agents: that's why I've spent the last month posting up how awful the gg agents are.