"Dear OVIVO Customers,

We are very sad to announce that for reasons beyond our control, OVIVO Mobile is closing down on the evening of Wednesday 19th March 2014.

We'd like to thank each and every one of you for your support and friendship over the last two years.

To keep your OVIVO number, just fill out this form, and we’ll send you your PAC code."

http://www.ovivomobile.com/

It was only the other day that MSE Martin Lewis was recommending them on TV.

"Dispute over network software led to abrupt closure of network yesterday evening (March 20)
Ovivo Mobile was terminated by MVNA Cognatel following an alleged dispute over network software that would have allowed the MVNO to uniquely identify each user, Mobile News understands.
It is believed that Cognatel was contractually obliged to deliver the software but had failed to do so. Uniquely identifying each user was essential to the operator’s service which provided free airtime, texts and data in exhange for agreeing to being targeted by marketing materials.
Furthermore, it also understood that Ovivo Mobile had been withholding cash from the Vodafone MVNA as part of the dispute and it was this that led to the plug being pulled at short notice yesterday.
Customers of the operator are furious at the sudden nature of the cessation of their connectivity although the value of money owed is likely to be very little due to the ‘advertiser-funded nature’ of the service.
The firm said last month it had 50,000 users and was in the process of raising £3 million in financing but the reputational damage means it will close permanently.
Ovivo Mobile and Cognatel were unavailable when contacted by Mobile News earlier today while Vodafone refused to comment on the story"


http://www.mobilenewscwp.co.uk/2014/03/20/exclusive-dispute-with-cognatel-led-to...

MSE has a news item here where it mentions your rights, and I quote:-

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Can I get my money back?

Many users are out of pocket by £20, especially those who bought a Sim card recently as they may have yet to use the service. Some may have also lost cash after buying extra credit.

Here are the steps you can try to get a refund:

Paid on credit or debit card? You may be able to get a refund via a Chargeback from your card provider. This covers purchases if you make a claim within 120 days of buying the goods. There is no guarantee of success, given your card firm may argue you got some use from your Sim, though it is worth a try. MSE forum user coolsteel posted this morning: "Just rang my bank and they said I am entitled to chargeback."

Paid via a PayPal account? You need to claim via its online dispute centre. Its rules state where you don't get the service expected, you must raise an initial dispute via Paypal within 45 days of purchase. Paypal puts the two sides together, but in this case there is no company in existence, so after making the first attempt which must still be made, you have to move onto stage two which is to escalate the claim.

This must be within 20 days of the initial claim. Paypal will then make a ruling itself and may fork out its own cash to cover it, though it stresses there are no guarantees. We have already seen mixed success rates from customers who have posted on our forum.

As each purchase was less than £100, you aren't protected under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act if you paid by credit card, which is stronger protection as it is enshrined in law.

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bigjohn wrote on Apr 21^st, 2014 at 9:10pm:


Speaking as an ex customer of Ovivo (now with Tesco Mobile on a 1 Month Contract but about to move to Virgin Media due to O2's appalling reception at an address I regularly visit) I can fully understand how Mr Zand's company got in to the financial difficulties that led to its eventual demise.  I can also understand why his ambitions to build a network paid for purely by sophisticated targeted Smartphone advertising, when most of his initial customer base were actually value hunting occasional smartphone users, were flawed.

But what I do not understand at all is why it made sense for Mr Zand to simply suddenly terminate the network entirely and leave customers with no outgoing mobile service for several days or weeks on zero notice instead of selling on his customer base complete and intact to a network that could have offered the best possible value replacement proposition for the now defunct Ovivo fee free concept.

One would have thought that the customer base of Ovivo could have fitted perfectly with some new value based package from either GiffGaff or Three or even a small but seemingly growth hungry MVNO such as Lyca, Lebara or White Mobile.

To instead simply cast the former customer base completely to the wind without any attempt to extract the value inherent in having acquired 70,000 budget oriented smartphone users seems to be an act of remarkable and ultimately quite inexplicable folly.

Had Mr Zand managed to do a deal with a competitor who could then have offered us say 150 minutes, 250Gb and 200 texts per month without adverts for £3 per month then I am quite sure most of us would have stuck with any new network provider he had sold the customer base on to.

loddon wrote on Apr 28^th, 2014 at 8:47am:

The Shebang SIM 30 package is only £2.25 per month but only gives 30 minutes of calls, 30 texts and 30 MB of data.  By my calculations on Three's Pay As You Go 1-2-3 SIM only tariff deal (see www.three.co.uk/Store/Pay_As_You_Go_Price_Plans) this would only cost £1.80 if you used all of it so cannot be recommended as especially great value.  For those interested however its at https://www.shebang.net/pages/easy_application

Virgin Media have a £5 per month one month contract deal with 100 minutes, 100MB of data and Unlimited texts that is at least worth the £5 charged at Three 1-2-3 Pay As You Go prices, or at least definitely is for those who text a lot.  They also have a £7 per month variant with 150 minutes and 500MB of data plus unlimited texts.

See http://store.virginmedia.com/virgin-media-mobile/sim-only/pay-monthly-sim.html?b...

However if you are prepared to sign a 12 month contract then Three offer slightly better value with a £6.90 per month 12 month contract giving you 200 minutes of calls, 500Mb of data and 5,000 texts.  But you are only getting 50 more minutes of calls than Virgin's £7 per month 1 month contract deal and the the same amount of data and texts (except for the tiny number of people who can send more than 5,000 texts in a month with Virgin.)

Personally I think Three, GiffGaff or Virgin Media could have offered a 1 month SIM only deal for £2.99 per month with 100 minutes, 100MB of data and 500 texts and then offered fairly attractive run on rates if these allowances were exceeded similar to their One Two three Pay As You Go tariff in nature.

Marketing costs of acquiring new customers are always substantial so if Ovivo had sold on its customers base at a low price then someone like Three could have come up with something that would have retained most Ovivo customers.