“I bought a refurb iPhone 12 Pro with 18 month warranty £819.00 because it was described condition VERY GOOD, 18 months and one week it went off for no reason and would not come back on , no drops no scratches and no water contact , I contacted expert community helpers and was talked through different things to get it to come on , nothing worked , I was advised by them to take it to apple shop which I did , what they don’t tell you is apple don’t like doing anything with. Phones from giffgaff because they put in cheap components, but they took a look at it and said that a component inside is dead at no fault of my own and that I should go back to giffgaff after noticing phone was in mint condition,
And that as a consumer I do have rights, an agent called Emma had me sending phone back and forth after I had said I don’t have any money to pay for repair, then told me they want £519.00 which would take the phone to £1,338.00, agent Emma keeps mentioning 12 months warranty and when I correct her she ignores , she also asked for the receipt that I originally had with phone but has not sent it back even thou I’ve asked a number of times,
Glad I took a picture of it , I’m in the process of ombudsman, and hope they pick up on her dishonesty and lies,I’ve also spoken to citizens advice who had advised me loads to do and say which I’ve already done and said so they are passing it on to trading standards, because although my warranty is out by 1 week I still ave rights , it’s not fit for purpose , it should have lasted longer than 18months and one week , a warranty is a voluntary service agreement that a shop or manufacturer chooses to give you over a product it must be satisfactory as described and fit for purpose and last a reasonable amount of time , watch this space because I’m not giving up , Emma at giffgaff will not help you in any way as a consumer!!!!”
“Quite shocked so many have had a bad experience with refurbished phones, i bought a Iphone 11 in excellent condition and it arrived a day later with not a single mark on it...battery is 88% health and so far has gone down 2% from 100% after 90 mins, my old Iphone 8 would lose around 20% in a hour maybe even more.
Only thing that annoyed me was the fact it turned up with a standard usb charger and not the proper Apple fast charger or whatever they're called and didn't come with a plug but for the price i paid i could replace the battery 2+ times and buy a new charger and plug and still be no where near the price of the Iphone 11 new.
Seems it depends on your luck then maybe i just got extremely lucky as i like i say my red Iphone 11 hasn't got a single thing wrong with it and you could even argue its not been used...if the battery health couldn't be checked i would assume this is a brand new phone that's how good of condition its in and its saved me over £150.
Would use them again, lets say i did receive it and it wasn't this good i would just send it back for a replacement until i was happy.”
“Same as other reviews here. 'Like new phone' arrived with a battery that would not hold a charge. It would last an hour being used and just die in standby mode to the extent the phone can't be turned on the next day. They boast the phones are checked. I don't believe this is the case.
Even offered to take it to have a new battery installed at a certified company and for them to pay 40 pounds towards it. Just got asked to send it back regardless. Once bitten, twice shy for sure! Just hope the loan agreement gets cancelled with Klara as it was through Giff gaff.”
“Same as other reviews here. 'Like new phone' arrived with a battery that would not hold a charge. It would last an hour being used and just die in standby mode to the extent the phone can't be turned on the next day. They boast the phones are checked. I don't believe this is the case.
Even offered to take it to have a new battery installed at a certified company and for them to pay 40 pounds towards it. Just got asked to send it back regardless. Once bitten, twice shy for sure! Just hope the loan agreement gets cancelled with Klara as it was through Giff gaff.”
“Worst excuse of a company ever!
I ordered a phone and it got sent back to their courier depot!
Giffgaff were no help whatever, failed to respond to my messages (which is only means you have to contact them, obviously because their service is so terrible they don’t want to speak to customers on the phone, it’s easier to defend a terrible company anonymously.”
“Ordered a refurbished iPhone on 9th it stated delivery 3-4 days. It came the next day but I was at work so I changed delivery to depot pick up. They sent the phone back via their courier’s depot 140 miles. I have contacted them nearly on a daily basis and still do not have a phone or my money back and they’ve not responded. Also, you’ve no phone number or direct email address to contact them.
They are worst “company” I’ve ever dealt with and would not recommend them to anyone as they’re just a bunch of scammers, who don’t care about their Customers.
AVOID AVOID AVOID AVOID AVOID”
“Similar to others leaving reviews here, I was also tricked into purchasing a "like new" phone from GiffGaff which arrived with 84% battery health which means that of 500 possible charge cycles of "peak performance", 400 have already been used. When I raised the issue with giffgaff that 84% battery health is far from "like new" (upon receiving the phone, the battery hardly seems better than my 6-year old iPhone SE 2016), they told me that their only guarantee is that the batteries of all their refurbished phones are "over 80%" (bearing in mind that any battery health under 80% is not worth having). On second look at the descriptors of the tiers of conditions on their site, I realised that "like new" was only applied to the appearance of the phone and not to its technical capacity. I think it is utterly misleading to the consumer to be selling phones under a descriptor of "like new" when it does not apply to all aspects of the phone being sold. I will make a complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority.”
“They are bullies. They have bullied my 79 year old mother. She didn't use her phone much and they threatened that they'd cut her off. She bought credit, but that didn't satisfy them. The sent her a text saying they would cut her off if she didn't use it, so she left her house to use the phone (lives in an area with no signal) and sent 3 texts. Their system didn't pick it up and they won't believe that she sent the texts even though she has screenshots to prove it. They lied and said she used 'imessage' where the screenshots clearly show she sent texts. So they cut her off and have pocketed the £15 credit they made her buy. So 10 years or so of being a loyal customer means nothing. Bullies!”
“Could not get account acccess to stop recurring Goodybag payments: Password resets did not work despite various attempts over weeks and it was on a device not a phone so i could not get a reset link.
This was later exacerbated by the failure of the 2 factor authentication to work. In the mean time I notified the giffgaff team; as I was not coming directly from the account to their help they had to verify I was the account holder. Over the next three emails I provided email addresses, bank details, payment amounts and date as well as details of the device first used on the account including dates when the account was opened.
They advised that I had not provided the relevant or sufficient information in order to verify me as the account holder and terminated further correspondence re same!”
“I would not recommend buying a giff gaff recycled phone. Mine is an OPPO and it is a disaster in more ways than one. Camera doesnt work well and takes pics through a mist. There are various problems with it and I regret having bought it.”
“Bought an iPhone 11 2months ago supposed to be one below the best refurbished one What a joke it’s had a non Apple screen and battery fitted. Went to turn it on no screen display but the phone is live and no the phone hasn’t been dropped. Warranty useless how do you download the info on phone without a screen. I could have bought a new se phone from Apple themselves. Don’t use a company that supplies rubbish”
“I have been texting my husband in the USA and it has cost me £45 over the last week, money which they keep taking from my bank. I am not happy as this is horrendously expensive”
“Came back from Thailand for a holiday and got a GiffGaff sim card for my phone. Once I got back to Thailand I wanted to cancel my account. Tried logging in and got told there was an error at GiffGaff end and try again in a few minutes
After 2 days of trying this I emailed their customer service and they said they had to verify my identity and asked for my GDNR information. This is not like normal identity checking and they wanted several bits of information I've never been asked for before. I tried to provide this info several times but they said some of the information didn't match their records but couldn't elaborate further so that the matter could be resolved
They forwarded me to their complaints dept but they were just as unhelpful
In the end I had to install Giffgaff app on another device and managed to cancel my card details but GiffGaff would not confirm this (so helpful - NOT)
I felt they were just wanting to keep me waiting so that they could take another payment”
“Terrible customer service. My number port from O2 failed due a problem with giffgaff. Was without my number for over 2 weeks. Customer service is via email chat & they're absolutely rubbish at getting back to you. Was told it would take 5 working days to sort it with the engineers which is ridiculous to sort but it was actually 10 working days. Even then customer services didn't know it had been fixed I had to tell them. I raised a complaint and was treated with scarcasm in their email. Have since ported to Lebara ... half the price for the same deal & seamless transfer.”
“Oh man where do I start with giffgaff?
1. REFURB PHONE NIGHTMARE - Don't ever think about ordering one of their refurbished phones. I spent £500 on a 'like new' iPhone 12 (July 2022) and it arrived an absolute state probably not even worthy of the bottom condition grade. Had to mess around returning it and wait for the money to come back. God knows how this happened, either the people employed to package refurb phones are partially-sighted or they just thought they could get away with short changing me.
2. GIFFGAFF RECYCLE SCAM - Before my 'new' (scuffed and ruined) phone arrived from them, I had the misfortune of choosing to trade in my iPhone X using GiffGaff recycle. Quoted £145 on the website for the phone which is in excellent condition. Received a revised quote from them for £29 (!!!) due to 'screen burn'. There was no screen-burn when I had the phone and unluckily for them I have photos taken before I posted it off to prove it!
So currently awaiting this second issue to be resolved, just wasting hours of my life trying to get through to an 'agent' to help me out. Only positive has been the Twitter team who respond quickly and will try to help you. Good luck finding a phone number to call or a direct address to email.
All in all what should have been an easy and quick process has turned into a time-consuming drag where they've not once but twice tried to screw me over.
I certainly wouldn't recommend them to anyone after this.”
“Given then a pristine S20 plus 5G stole my phone and offered me £250 at first then said it’s only worth £80 told them to F…. Off and they refused to send my phone back they are scammers”
“SCAMMERS.I tried to sell a phone with them . it was in Pristine condition ,and the original offer was 250pound they then revised it to 50pound .FOR A BRAND NEW PHONE.INSANE.”
“Battery died after 5 months. Contacted giffgaff..Wanted stupid verification that they supplied the phone. Every time logging on had to get a verification code via email. Got nowhere. Contacted their ceo twice and still waiting on their reply. I found that when trying to get the phone returned via their website it is un-navigable. This must be deliberate IMO. Will never again use these people.”
“Unfortunately I have 2 devices with giffgaff but honestly the signal is an absolute joke to the point you can't even make an emergency call. Not good when you have terminal illness and need an ambulance. Funny there AIs pick up on you saying something they don't like but you can't give people a decent signal. You can't complain and they don't really care because it's happening a lot and they are fully aware. In fact I think it's too get people to get WiFi so they can control every part of our lives. Sounds like conspiracy? Wait and see 2030.”
“Sold my iPhone SE to gift gaff and they quoted £11.33 , it was a poor price as the phone was in good condition, nothing broken but I accepted as I am disabled and find it difficult going out , so sent my phone to them , after 2 weeks of waiting they have said my iPhone was cracked on the case so changed my quote to £5 . My phone case was not cracked and they are lying and if it is broken they have broken it . I wish I had read the reviews for tgis company first as I wouldn’t of sent my phone to them, giff gaff need reporting to trading standards.
I DO NOT RECOMMEND GIFF GAFF”
