That day arrived on the 2nd of September, and as I'm currently using giffgaff as my main provider I specifically bought my first 4G capable phone a week or two ago.
In my blog this week I championed giffgaff for providing 4G across their entire (but now reduced) "Goodybag" range (their range of 30 day bundles) - even though their "unlimited" data bundle is now pretty poor value.
This evening I learned a valuable lesson: Giffgaff is still a fledgling MVNO. Their 4G Goodybags are working only for existing customers who have previously purchased a 4G Goodybag.
- New giffgaff customers will find that they are unable to access 4G, though 3G services are working.
- Existing customers who have purchased one of the new 4G Goodybags, who haven't bought one of giffgaff's old 4G Goodybags will find that they too are unable to obtain a 4G signal.
This is something that giffgaff don't seem too concerned about, and they have "A third party working on the problem".
I only came across this issue when I logged on to giffgaff's "community" pages (aka forums).
The Help and Support section is filled with customers complaining that they can't get 4G, and giffgaff have made a minor announcement on their Service Updates page HERE.
What galls me is that the majority of the comments are from diehard giffgaff customers who do really believe that they run the company - many of whom admit that they really don't use data at all.
Giffgaff has been in operation for over five years and has grown to become the UK's third largest MVNO - yet this is a typical problem for this network operator which might have been acceptable in the early "community run" days, but not now that they are charging as much as some of the main networks for services that simply aren't working.
Giffgaff say that the "third party" is working over the weekend on the problem, but for all new customers and those, such as myself, who wanted to finally be able to use 4G at "no extra cost", it's a smiley face and a kick in the groin.
I doubt that there will be a fanfare when/if this problem is rectified, though given giffgaff's previous track record for letting someone else fix their problems I daresay that it will be many days before new and "upgrading" customers can access the services that they have already paid for. Oh, and giffgaff don't do refunds, especially as they will say that you can use 3G instead.
I was only happy about having 4G as the O2 mast in my village is 2G and 4G only; O2 decided not to bother with 3G to force customers onto their more expensive and restrictive 4G data plans.
Giffgaff, get it sorted out otherwise you'll feel the wrath of yet another fleet of unhappy customers. If you spent as much money securing your network as you do on your TV advertising campaign, your network might actually work.
