Laurence Zwimpfer

Spark Give JUMP Vouchers UPDATE

Further to my recent advice below, we received new supplies of top-up vouchers today (7 August). Everyone who has submitted speed test result has now been mailed a complimentary voucher, courtesy of Spark staff participating in the Spark Give programme. Thank you Spark team.

A number of partners have requested further supplies of the complimentary $10 JUMP top-up vouchers to assist families retain their JUMP connections. The availability of these vouchers relied on the generosity of Spark staff who contributed $5 every payday for the scheme; this was matched by an equivalent donation from Spark Foundation, which meant that every staff member contributing to the scheme was effectively providing support for two families every month. This support was highly valued by all our partners and hugely appreciated by the families who received the vouchers. Unfortunately, many of the staff contributing to the scheme have left Spark and the volume of contributions have dropped markedly. We are therefore unable to continue supplying complimentary vouchers to partners.

We are hoping to continue supplying a complimentary voucher to every family who completes the online survey and speed test when they get home, but even there we have encountered some problems. Each quarter, the supply of vouchers has been delayed as result of other pressures on the Spark Foundation team. As a result we have not yet received supplies from the quarter ending 30 June 2019. This has caused a backlog in posting out the vouchers, which in turn means that families are starting to ask about when they can expect them. We have nearly 100 families waiting for their voucher. Please ask them to be patient; we will honour our commitment to send them a voucher.

We take our hat off to one of our partners, Te Mana o Kupe in Porirua, who have identified a source of funds that enables their Trust to pay for complimentary vouchers. We have prepared a custom voucher template for them, whereby they can purchase standard Skinny top-up vouchers for local dairies and then transfer the 12-digit top-up code to the voucher and then distribute to local JUMP families. If any other partner has the resources to do this we are happy to share the voucher template and even add your logo, as we have done for Te Mana o Kupe.

Faulty and Returned JUMP Modems

I think we finally have a process that is working for the return of faulty and returned modems; I know many JUMP delivery partners are still holding modems waiting for courier bags to arrive.

The process Skinny has advised is to first and foremost encourage families to contact the Skinny Helpdesk on 0800 475 4669 whenever they any encounter any problem with their modems, whether this be during setup, or if the modem appears to be faulty, or if they no longer want to use it. The Skinny Helpdesk team will attempt to resolve the issue remotely, but where this is not possible, they will instruct the family to return the modem to the partner who helped them set it up in the first place. At the same time, the Helpdesk team will enter the modem details into the Spark JUMP Faulty modems register; this triggers the generation of a work order number that in turn initiates the process to send a courier bag.

When families return a modem, partners are asked to check if families have already reported the faulty or ‘no longer required’ modem to Skinny. If they have, you should proceed to allocate a new modem if required (making sure the family completes a new Kawa of Care). If the faulty or returned modem has not been reported to the Skinny Helpdesk, partners should contact the Skinny Helpdesk on behalf of the family and request that the modem be logged in the Spark JUMP Faulty modems register. Skinny sometimes responds to email requests, but they much prefer phone contacts, as this means their Helpdesk team can log the faulty unit in real time.

So our advice is: if partners are holding modems that have been reported as faulty or returned in a state unfit for re-issue, and no courier bag has arrived within two weeks, contact the Skinny Helpdesk and ask for the modem to be logged in the Spark JUMP Faulty modems register.

This means that you no longer have to complete the Faulty Modem Return Form, although we at DIAA have found this helpful to keep our records up to date. As an alternative, we suggest that you simply add a note in column H of your JUMP Google Register, confirming what action has been taken.

Network Mode light stays red on JUMP modem!

We all know how sky colours determine the next day’s weather “Red sky at night, shepherd’s delight. Red sky in the morning, shepherd’s warning”. Well, we need something similar for JUMP modems, e.g. “Blue light on JUMP, tutor’s pump. Red light on JUMP, tutor’s hump.” In other words, if the Network Mode light next to the white ‘on/off’ light stays red when the modem is powered up (it should change to blue), this means the modem is faulty and I don’t think there is anything you can do about it (apart from reporting this to Skinny, and they will send you a courier bag to send it for repair or recycling). The photo below is what modems should look like within 20-30 seconds of being powered up.

Blue light

Otahuhu Library wins the Spark Foundation Morning Tea

Otahuhu Library has won the staff morning tea, sponsored by the Spark Foundation, by signing up 17 JUMP families during June. Three partners did sign up more families than Otahuhu Library, but as they have already had a free morning tea this year, the prize goes to the partner with the next highest number. But well done to all 48 partners who signed up families during June; 282 more families are now benefiting from an affordable home internet connection as a result of your efforts.

Glen Innes Library	33
Whanganui District Libraries	27
Kaitaia Library	23
Otahuhu Library	17
Mangere East Library	15
Te Matariki Clendon Community Library	11
Whanau Resource Centre Pukekohe	10
De Paul House	9
Sir Edmund Hillary Library (Papakura)	9
Central Hawkes Bay Libraries	8
Dunedin Public Library	8
Whangarei Library	8

My JUMP modem has been stolen!

We do get calls about JUMP modems being stolen, but fortunately these are very few in number. But what advice do you give families when this occurs?

Families must contact the Skinny Helpdesk immediately on 0800 475 4669. Skinny will need to know the name and email address the modem was registered to and preferably the broadband number of the modem (this is printed on the base of the modem, but unless families have recorded this somewhere, clearly they will not be able to provide it if the device has been stolen).
Skinny will immediately block the modem, rendering it useless to the person who has stolen it and de-link the modem from the family’s Skinny account.
Families should contact their nearest JUMP local delivery organisation (usually a library) and sign up for a new modem. Provided the Skinny Helpdesk has received prior notification the family’s email will have been de-linked from the stolen modem and the family can register their new modem to their existing Skinny account using the same email.

Some families are spending too much on JUMP

About 10% JUMP families are spending more than they have to every month. These families are spending between $200 and $250 on JUMP top-up vouchers every month, which is more than twice as much as they need to to get the same level of service.

Skinny’s unlimited fixed line plan starts at $73 per month, so any family using more than 210GB in any one month would be better off with a fixed line plan. We recognise that families often choose JUMP because the service is ‘pre-pay’, there is no term contract nor any penalties for early termination, and there is no cost to relocate to a new location.

DIAA is concerned that families don’t feel trapped without a proper understanding of other alternatives and we are seeking the support of our partners to help explain this. Any family using more than 210GB in any one month, i.e. topping up with the JUMP $10/30GB plan more than once every week, would be better off to migrate to an unlimited broadband plan.

There may well be other reasons why families choose a pre-pay service, but we need to make an effort to alert them to available options. For example, the Skinny website does provide two possible unlimited options for $73 per month:

Sign up for 12 months: $199 early termination fee
No Commitment: Pay for the modem ($99) and a one-off connection fee ($49)

Relocation fee: no charge if relocate no more than once every 6 months; $50 charge if relocate more frequently

Call Skinny for JUMP relocations

In August 2018 I published a blog post about the way to handle things when a family moves houses and takes their JUMP modem with them (which of course they can). This process has now been simplified – there is no need to advise local delivery partners or DIAA. Families should be advised to just call Skinny on 0800 475 4669 and the helpful Skinny team will provide any advice needed on 4G coverage at the new location, as well as update the family’s records. That’s all it takes!

Of course partners can suggest to families that they check coverage at their new location themselves – this could save a bit of time and effort. But the important thing is to ensure Skinny has the updated address. This is especially important for families in temporary accommodation when they sign-up for JUMP – they must let Skinny know their new address when they move into more permanent accommodation.

Families who move to a new suburb or town without notifying Skinny are likely to get their service cut off as they will show up in a location breach report. When this happens Skinny will attempt to contact the family to get their new address, but if for any reason they can’t make contact, the modem will be blocked and internet service denied.

Libraries invited to participate in digital inclusion survey

A new library research initiative by the Equity Through Education Research Centre at Massey University is underway and library managers and staff throughout New Zealand are invited to participate. The research seeks to investigate the role of public libraries in promoting digital inclusion and overcoming the digital divide.

We encourage all DIAA library partners delivering Stepping UP or JUMP programmes to participate in these surveys:

Library staff survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/LXJGTY7

Library Managers’ Survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/HRKDVMK

The research is being conducted by Dr Maggie Hartnett, Associate Professor Mandia Mentis, Associate Professor Alison Kearney, Dr Lucila Carvalho, and Dr Philippa Butler. Any questions about the research or about this survey should be referred to Maggie Hartnett, at m.hartnett@massey.ac.nz.

Update on Kawa of Care glitch

I reported last week about a problem that Dunedin Library was having with copies of some Kawa of Care not being sent to the family or to DIAA. We diagnosed this to be a problem when using Internet Explorer as the browser for completing the Kawa of Care form. But we have now been advised by the form developer that there was another problem – new options had been added around the end of March to the “how did you find out about JUMP” part of the form without the back-end processing part being updated. So any family selecting ‘Salvation Army’ or ‘Computers in Homes’ were ending up in a cyber black hole. Fortunately this had no impact on their JUMP service; it only affected our records for acknowledging receipt of the Kawa of Care. This has now been fixed, but we do ask all partners to complete columns B & C in their JUMP Google registers with the names of participating families and the date the modem is issued in column E (the yellow shaded columns) – this then provides an alert if we don’t receive the Kawa of Care. If you find you don’t have editing rights in your JUMP Google register please contact sparkjump@diaa.nz so that we can give you permissions. You do need a Gmail email address or an email linked to a Gmail account to access the Google Docs world. To complicate matters, many local authorities to not allow council emails to be linked to a Gmail account, so the solution many library partners have adopted is to create a generic library gmail address – the most innovative one we have discovered is imustreadabook@gmail.com. There has to be a prize for the first person to work out which library this is!

Kaitaia Library achieves record number of JUMP sign-ups for any one month

Congratulations to Helen Yuretich and her team at Te Ahu Library in Kaitaia for signing up the most JUMP families ever in one month. 41 families signed up at Te Ahu Library during May, just squeezing Glen Innes Library off the top slot with their 40 sign-ups, and Whanganui District Libraries snapping at their heels with 38 sign ups. This is an outstanding achievement by all three libraries, contributing to a new national record of 359 sign-ups by 56 DIAA partners, 100 more than any previous month.

So how do these libraries do it? 37% of the sign-ups in Kaitaia come through the Library’s Facebook listing. At Glen Innes Library, all the staff have been trained to help family’s sign-up to JUMP; there is rarely a day that goes past without at least one family signing up. And Whanganui District Libraries offers JUMP at three locations – Davis, Gonville and Hakeke Street libraries with a fourth (Rangiora Street in Castlecliff) being added in June.

Thanks to Spark Foundation; a celebratory morning tea is winging its way to the Far North.