"Growing Pains" for GiffGaff

In a recent blog we covered how GiffGaff had implemented measures to curb excessive data consumption but its not plain sailing for the company yet. I for one am not sure that GiffGaff truly have a grasp on the low-cost-user-powered business model that they appear to be going for. It appears the the troubles for GiffGaff are closer to home this time, after leaving some of its customers disconnected for over three weeks, as well as repeatedly mixing up mobile phone numbers and not allowing users to top-up. "It seems that GiffGaff have become to popular for their own good" - Gizmodo
GiffGaff say that:

“Due to the big rise in numbers of new customers, this has had some adverse affect on our current customers being able to carry out transactions such as topping up or purchasing a goodybag, as all transactions go through the same channel.”

“Recently, some members have experienced service disruptions caused by our website’s capacity to handle a sharp growth in member numbers. This impacted the site’s overall stability which unfortunately created issues around functions such as topping up, SIM activations and porting your mobile number to giffgaff.”

GiffGaff insist that they are doing everything that they can and I am inclined to believe them, I think that it would be a nice change if they actually succeed with this unusual business model and wish them the best of luck. But currently they seem to be shooting them selves in the foot rather than taking advantage of the massive boom in customers. GiffGaff are offering compensation between £10 and £50 to those users that (as gizmodo puts it) complain enough, I mean "are impacted but the issues."

[The Register] via [Gizmodo]