The forgiving blade

Well that's odd because I find the standard pink and blue Rapira very fickle. In my Merkur 38R (when I had one) it was sharp, smooth and a joy to use. But in some of my other razors I found it pretty draggy. A bit Jekyll and Hyde for me but that's ok. I'm still in the process of establishing on which razors it becomes evil but so far it's great in my Wizamet W11 and horrible in my Rocket HD. The trying is the fun.
 
I don't think I actually buy into this notion of a blade being good in one razor and crap in another. I'll easily accept a verdict of 'better' or 'not as good' (The Dodgy improved the Treet but it was till crap) but I wonder about all the variables other than the blade and the razor. Each to his own experience, though - but if a good blade is not always good, it blows your spread-sheet out of the water along with all my experimenting to find the blades that suit me. Hm! but I controlled the razor variable out by sticking with a Weber - however, now I use whatever blade with whichever razor, I've had no surprises with known blades.

Probably talking in circles, there (my brain aches from trying to get a giffgaff SIM to work with my netbook) - my contention is that a good blade is 99.9% going to be a good blade.
 
Well the spreadsheet was designed for me to refer to but I posted it here as a few people gave me positive feedback when its potential relevance popped up in a thread. It's subjective and both vague and relative (price - prices can go up and down and should a cheap blade score better than a more expensive one?). I was trying to make the complicated simpler and in that I am in danger of making some generalisations and over-simplifications. But I offer it as is and hope that people find it interesting if not useful.
 
Spreadsheets such as these give general pointers as to what may be good to try though as always, the only way to know is to try them out. I see some differences in blades after some time with them but can get good shaves (not always BSS) from most I've used. As a matter of fact I tried a 'Sharpedge' blade today in a cheap Wilkinson sword razor and got a very good shave but the blade still felt scratchy, though a bit less than my 34C. The shave not quite as close (as the stubble appeared a bit sooner than when using the Merkur) but then again very little irritation to neck or any redness there.

Giffgaff eh Bechet? I too with them but phone only. What problems you having, dongle settings and have you posted on the forum about it or asked an agent?
 
NotTheStig said:
Well the spreadsheet was designed for me to refer to but I posted it here as a few people gave me positive feedback when its potential relevance popped up in a thread. It's subjective and both vague and relative (price - prices can go up and down and should a cheap blade score better than a more expensive one?). I was trying to make the complicated simpler and in that I am in danger of making some generalisations and over-simplifications. But I offer it as is and hope that people find it interesting if not useful.
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An invaluable tool, Carl! For me it was a short-cut to a bunch of good blades - all your 18 and above have proved to be good shavers - in whichever razor. Had two poor quality shaves on consecutive days with blades from who-knows-where and discovered you had marked them quite highly.

geezer said:
Giffgaff eh Bechet? I too with them but phone only. What problems you having, dongle settings and have you posted on the forum about it or asked an agent?
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I'd like to be with them but can't connect. There are a few settings I've downloaded but can't find where to input them. The Community says I don't need to but that does not explain either why they are listed or why I can't connect. I want to use a dongle ex-3G with a giffgaff SIM to connect my netbook when travelling.
 
I was thinking of switching to Giff Gaff when my contract expires but was a bit worried about 3G coverage as I'm on Virgin (T-Mobile, also uses Orange) and the data signal is quite good.
 
Not wanting to HJ the thread but settings are the biggest problem seen on giffgaff. Have been with them since 2010 and hard to beat for price and you get the chance for payback too (real £'s) to help with the razor habit should you have one...

With regards to the 'community' that is the port of call for non-account issues such as settings etc but you will have found various answers to the same question.

You need to use a dongle that is O2 or unlocked, as giffgaff is owned by O2-Telefonica and uses their masts (MVNO). Try HERE for dongle settings and see if that is a little clearer?

If you are using an exclusive SIM for your laptop you can't use a normal 'goodybag' but have to buy a gigabag or use PAYG rates which, after the first 20MB (20p) ramp up (20p per MB).

NTS - yes, O2's data coverage is the worst of the big players and one of my and others' gripes. It's ok offering unlimited data when many people can only get 2G!
Check data coverage here: http://www.o2.co.uk/coveragechecker# though with the digital switchover, O2 were meant to be rolling out more 3G - just in time (no doubt) for when 4G is the norm! ;)
Ironically, I switched from virgin as service from them was very poor and missed important calls.
 
Wouldn't you know it!? Plugged in and connected today without problem, hadn't changed a setting or anything. Very slow connection, asked in the Community, got all sorts of mainly silly answers and nothing that was helpful then suddenly - the green light (go put the kettle on while you wait speed) changed to light blue (don't wander off too far while you wait speed) changed to dark blue light (not zippedy-do-dah but usable speed) - all on unchanged settings.

Just started to get excited with the flush of success when - green again and stayed that way.

Put the 3 SIM back in and got a solid dark blue continuously. £10 instead of £7.50 per 1 gig per month.

Conclusion: GiffGaff is unreliable; poor service; don't touch with a barge pole
 
Probably related to problems with activations? http://community.giffgaff.com/t5/Service-Updates-Notice-board/Resolved-Top-up-goodybag-and-activation-delays-06-08-2012/td-p/5426266

They do have their moments and apart from the not so great 3G coverage, I have very little to complain about and think it's fairly good. Have used the £10 goodybag to get unlimited texts/data and over 4hrs of calls is hard to beat. The community answers can be sometimes less than helpful but many have good knowledge and do their best given limited resources and making certain assumptions. Anyone trying to fix a problem over the phone will know how difficult it can be let alone online. The lack of a call centre is a problem sometimes but helps keep costs down. Horses for courses like many things in life.

If you are unhappy with the service they do offer a full refund within a short period of joining which you may wish to follow up.

Like shaving, choosing a mobile company can be like the YMMV quoted here... I tried Orange and they were attrocious - foreign call centres when overcharging me for a phone purchase and never got the money back to my account after about 2 months of trying. Gave as credit after they couldn't get their systems to work but never used it after moving to giffgaff.
 
Presumably once I get my phone unlocked I can just buy the cheapest goody bag and try it out (going easy on calls, texts, data) to see how it works for me. If no good don't use it? Wouldn't bother telling people the change of phone number till happy and I have a spare phone for my current sim.
 
NotTheStig said:
Presumably once I get my phone unlocked I can just buy the cheapest goody bag and try it out (going easy on calls, texts, data) to see how it works for me.
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You'd think it was that easy, wouldn't you? I certainly did. When/if you get activated is stage one. I think it may be easier for phones - setting up, de dah.
 
NotTheStig said:
Presumably once I get my phone unlocked I can just buy the cheapest goody bag and try it out (going easy on calls, texts, data) to see how it works for me. If no good don't use it? Wouldn't bother telling people the change of phone number till happy and I have a spare phone for my current sim.
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I have had two phones which activated within an hour. There has been an issue with activations that can be view on the linky above or on the notice board on the community forum. I do understand and sympathise with those who haven't had good experiences and have read of their plights on the community. I tried to offer a balanced view and if giffgaff failed then have said so. As I have said before, it's not for everyone but if you need a call centre and it's very important to have service then perhaps not for that individual anyhow.

Put a giffgaff SIM in an unlocked or O2 phone first to check if it would work (signal wise) and also check the O2 coverage page for 3G coverage and if happy then activate with min £10. You don't have to purchase a goodybag with the £10 credit but can use on a PAYG basis (6p text/10p per min calls) but if you do activate a SIM from a member you will get a £5 bonus credit. The member also gets 500 points (£5) payback and you can hand out your own SIMs to earn payback too or earn up to £30/mth helping in the community. If you want to try a SIM out I can get one sent to you if you don't have one.

PAC transfers take one working day not including weekends/public holidays but don't do this until fully happy with service of course. You can still transfer your number out too though (1 day also) and would just dial 43430 option 2 to request your PAC from giffgaff but hopefully it won't come to that.

One thing to be aware of though regarding unlimited data is they will block SIMs for tethering or heavy usage (heavy streaming or downloading of files) for clarity.
 
A lot of good info here - thanks. I've got a couple of months to think about it. I need data more than minutes and texts and get through 1GB a month. a reliable service would also be needed. For SIM only pay monthly >500MB a month on my Virginmobile is £25 a month and included a silly amount of minutes I'll never use.

Thanks for the info.
 
The hell's goin on here?

Man, I go on a couple days cocaine and Everclear bender and come back to find this! Phones? We're now talking about phones?

Martin




Heh, just kidding around. I'm fine with whatever comes up here. Besides, I shouldn't get excited in my fragile condition.
 
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