After couriering 3500 Jump modems and experiencing significant courier delays, we grew to the realisation that there must be a better way to inform customers about delivery progress. I realise many of you, as our delivery partners, have been at the front end of this. Having helped people connect to Jump, the next natural question people have had has been: “when will my modem arrive?”, or even “has my application been approved?”.
Everyone does get an email copy of their application form which advises them that it could take a week to get the modem to them, but inevitably people do want to make sure their application has not been overlooked.
So we have signed up for eTXT, a service provided by Spark, to provide all applicants with a text message, including a link to the Post Haste tracker for their modem. The text will be sent when the modem is collected by the courier, which is generally around mid-day the day after the application has been submitted.
Normal courier times are overnight within the North Island and 2 days to the South Island, and for rural deliveries another day or so. But these have not been normal times, and congestion in the courier world means that it has been taking much longer. At times the modem gets as far as the recipient’s home but for some reason the courier is unable to locate the person the package is for and so it is returned to the local courier depot.
By giving applicants access to the courier tracker, they can monitor the journey of their modem themselves and if they find out it is held up in their local courier branch, they can contact them directly to arrange delivery.
We should have done this 8 weeks ago, but this has been a learning journey for us as well. And it is certainly not too late, as our home deliveries for Jump modems are continuing at around 40 a day.
We expect this to be operational from Tuesday’s courier run (2 June 2020). For those who don’t receive a text confirmation that a modem is on the way within a few days of their application, this probably means that there has been an issue with the address details or Skinny coverage. In this case, we contact all families by phone, text or email to get the missing information or explain why we haven’t sent a modem.
So if partners do get any queries about modem deliveries please ask your customers to contact Shelley on 0800 463 422 and she will follow this up. Please do not contact the Skinny Helpdesk with any issues about modem deliveries – they do not have access to this information. They take over once the modem arrives and provide assistance as required in setting up Skinny accounts and providing any technical support.
Digital Inclusion Alliance Aotearoa 
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