Reset modems – to box or not to box?

Two partners have been in touch this week (and it’s only Tuesday!) about handling modems that have been returned and then reset remotely by Skinny for re-issue.

The dilemma they face (which I am sure is shared by many other partners) is whether to issue the modem without its packaging. As one partner pointed out, it is not very professional to issue a modem and its extras – power supply, ethernet cable, user guide, modem return flyer and ‘keeping your whānau safe’ pamphlet- without some form of packaging. They have used library bags in the past, but these are no more.

Our approach to date has been to encourage partners to issue reset modems without packaging, but we really didn’t think about all the tag-along bits and pieces.

We have raised this with the Skinny Jump team at Spark to see if we could get supplies of new packaging but a good interim step was suggested by another partner – set aside any packaging returned by customers rather than send it back to us.

We are going to do this as well, at least in the meantime – we recover an average of 30 faulty modems every week, and many of these include their packaging; we are going to start retaining the packaging so that we can send some to partners as required.

Couriering a single empty box is probably a bit over the top, but we could possibly package six Smart Modem boxes using the same boxes that the modems arrive in.

If anyone has a better idea, please shout it from the rooftops!