Giffgaff have been fined £1.4 million for overcharging 2.6 million customers for mobile phones. An Ofcom investigation revealed the network overcharged its customers by almost £2.9 million.
Gaucho Rasmussen, the director of investigations and enforcement at Ofcom, said: “Getting bills right is a basic duty for every phone company. But Giffgaff made unacceptable mistakes, leaving millions of customers out of pocket,”
“This fine should serve as a warning to all communications providers: if they get bills wrong, we will step in to protect customers.”
Ofcom said the fine could have been £2m but was reduced as Giffgaff owned up to the mistakes and agreed to settle the case. According to Ofcom, Giffgaff customers who pre-paid for “goodybags” whch is a bundles of voice minutes, text messages and data were charged twice as much as they should have.
Giffgaff has already refunded around £2.1 million affected customers and also has made donations to charities with the refunds for customers who have not have been able to be traced.
Ernest Doku, a telecoms specialist at uSwitch.com, said: “Giffgaff deserves credit for reporting the mistake to the industry watchdog Ofcom and acting quickly to refund 2.1 million customers. But the fact that almost half a million consumers are still out of pocket is disappointing.”
In April, Giffgaff was voted top of Which?’s annual mobile survey which showed the best and worst operators. Nearly all Giffgaff customers said it was “good or excellent” for value for money, adding they would recommend it to friends and family.
