Laurence Zwimpfer

Stolen Modems – unknown broadband number?

We get regular reports about Jump modems being lost or stolen. This presents a slight dilemma for customers when calling the Skinny Care Team to request a replacement. The IVR for Jump (press ‘3’ when calling 0800 475 4669) asks callers to enter their broadband number and verification code. But this is pretty difficult to do if the modem has been lost or stolen, or in some cases the transparent sticker with these details has been removed.

The good news is that Skinny Jump Care Agents can retrieve these details if they are sure the person calling is who they say they are. Normally, they would request the broadband number and verification code, printed on sticker on the side of the modem. Or they may ask the customer to retrieve these details from their Jump app.

In the absence of these details, the Skinny Jump agents may request the following details to verify the caller:

(1) registered email address;

(2) service address; or

(3) last top-up.

Once the Care Agent is satisfied they are talking to the right person, they will retrieve the modem details and complete a Modem Returns form, including a request for a replacement modem to be sent if this is what the customer wants.

Of course, all this assumes that the customer has been able to reach a Skinny Care agent. If they choose the IVR path (press ‘3’), they will get caught in a never-ending loop, unless they attempt to enter a broadband number and verification code; if these numbers are invalid they will then be given the option to press ‘9’ to talk to a Care Agent. More on this in my next post.

451 Ciena signups and counting!

What an amazing effort – you have signed up 451 new families to the Ciena plan since the start of the year. So, we are now on the countdown to our target of 600 for 2024. At the current rate, we’ll reach our target in about 4 weeks.

And who are our Ciena Partner champions? 68 partners have signed up a family to Ciena; the total number of issues since the start of 2023 is 1296. Here are the top 30%.

68	1296
	Total Issues
Linwood Library	137	11%
Hastings War Memorial Library	108	8%
Shirley Library	103	8%
Ranui Library	84	6%
Hornby Library	59	5%
Wairoa Library	50	4%
Otara Library	45	3%
Glenfield Library	44	3%
Manukau Library	43	3%
Kaikohe Library	42	3%
New Brighton Library	41	3%
Te Takere Levin	41	3%
Rotorua Library	35	3%
Papatoetoe War Memorial Library	33	3%
Manurewa Library	32	2%
Onehunga Library	30	2%
Mangere East Library	29	2%
Te Paataka Koorero O Takaanini	28	2%
Glen Innes Library	21	2%
Flaxmere Library	20	2%
Porirua Library	20	2%

Jump customers to get extra year before their SIM expires

More good news for Skinny Jump customers!

We know that around 17% of all active Jump customers (that’s over 5000 customers) never use more data than their free 15GB top-up each month. This of course means they have a totally free internet connection.

But until recently, the downside has been that the Jump modem SIM cards expire if they are never topped up within a 12-month period. This expiry period has now been extended to 24 months for all new customers after 12 March 2024.

So while this is good news, there does come a day when Jump customers who rely totally on their free 15GB will face SIM expiry. This means the modem is classified as faulty and needs to be returned for repair, including a new SIM card.

To avoid this problem, all that Jump customers have to do is to make sure that they carry out at least one top-up and plan renewal every two years.

Now comes the hard part. Will people in this very low data usage group even remember how to top up when the time comes? We suspect most of the people who rely on the free 15GB data are elderly; how can we expect them (or anyone else for that matter!) to remember how to do this after two years. They probably won’t even be able to find their user guides after all this time.

We also know that over 30% of all calls from Jump customers to the Skinny Care Team are seeking help in topping up and renewing their plans.

So, we are looking for on-the-ground suggestions about how to solve this problem. Top-up Tuesdays??

Jump Ciena Plans vs Top-ups

What is it that ‘Water and Oil’ have in common with ‘Ciena Plans and Jump Top-ups’? Yes, you’ve got it. They don’t mix!

Families opting for the Ciena Plan get 210GB data loaded to their accounts on the first day of each calendar month. The good news is that this is free until the end of the 2024 school year; the not so good news is that some families use all this data before the end of the month and then lose the internet.

Regular Jump customers pay $5 for 35GB data with a maximum of 6 top-ups every 30 days. 5 x 35GB = 210GB. Regular customers also get a bonus 15GB of free data on the first day of each calendar month.

This week, we received a cry from a Jump customer on a Ciena Plan:

“My plan isn’t the same. I signed up for Ciena in August last year but my dashboard now says I have to pay $5 to purchase another 35GB.”

A bit of investigation revealed two areas of confusion:

(1) the customer claims the partner who helped them set up their Jump modem told them that they could top up when they used the sponsored 210GB allowance. Sorry, WRONG advice! Not true. When customers use up their 210GB data, that’s it for the rest of the month. No more internet! So how do you stop the kids gaming or netflixing away all the data before month end? Frankly that’s a bit of a challenge that the technology can’t solve, nor can Chat GPT! But perfect for pre-pay services like regular Jump.

(2) the customer called the Skinny Care Team and were advised that they could either wait until the end of the month and get the next 210GB data package (so far so good) or top up their account, which would then change them back to standard Skinny Jump. Can you hear alarm bells ringing? More WRONG ADVICE!! A year ago this was possible, but not anymore. Sometime last year, the option to top-up and purchase a standard Skinny Jump Plan was removed for customers on sponsored plans like Ciena.

So like oil and water, you can’t have a bob each way. One or the other. No mix ‘n match, I’m afraid.

I am sure you are all wondering how this story ends. We have to be a bit cautious about families playing the system using the sponsored 210GB, switching to standard Jump for the rest of the month, thereby securing another 210GB and then switching back to Ciena, etc. A friendly call to the customer quickly sorts this; in this case a genuine problem of confusing advice. Also an opportunity to fully explain the limitations of sponsored plans. The customer asked for Ciena to be reinstated, but also indicated that they would start investigating commercial unlimited broadband plans if they find the 210GB an ongoing constraint.

So, a sort of happy ending for all.

THE END

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!

Do not replace old Jump modems if they are still working

I have had a few questions from partners about whether they can replace the older style Jump Modems (B315 and B618) with a new Smart Modem, even if the old modem is still working.

The short answer is NO. In our experience the older modems are more reliable and some customers have even asked us to replace their Smart modem for an older version because they think they work better!

If the customer thinks their modem is faulty, they should contact the Skinny Care team to discuss why they think it is faulty. The Care team will then assess whether the modem needs to be replaced or not.

The moral of this story is that “newer is not necessarily better”.

Always use your own email when filling out a Modem Returns form

I had an inquiry today from a partner wondering if the modem she had entered on a Modem Returns form had been de-linked yet, as she wanted to proceed in setting up her customer with a new modem.

I explained to her that she should have received an email notification from the Skinny Care Team, advising her when the modem has been delinked. But then I checked her Modem Return responses and realised she had used a generic email at the start of the form.

This email should always be the one belonging to the staff member completing the form.

Skinny uses this email to notify you when the modem has been de-linked and whether it is ready for re-issue or whether it should be set aside until we (DIAA) send you a recovery bag.

In the case above the partner had used a generic internal email, so that not only did she not receive the notification email, no-one would have received it. As an internal email, it was set to reject any outside messages.

Partners should get a heads-up about this as soon as they submit a Modems Return form, as a copy of the information submitted on the form is returned to the email entered in the first field on the form. If you don’t receive this, then it is possible you have used an email that is blocked for outside parties like Skinny Jump.

Replacement modems for customers with no coverage

I had a call today from a Jump partner who was unsure about whether she could issue a replacement modem for a faulty one, when the coverage checker was indicating no coverage or capacity at her address.

The short answer is ‘Yes, you can’. When it comes to replacing faulty modems, we want to make this as seamless as possible, so there really isn’t any need to do a coverage check at all.

Unless of course if the customer has moved to a new address and not notified Skinny. But if they are at the same address and they already have Jump service, then you should just be as helpful as possible in getting them a replacement modem.

If all Jump customer played by our “rules”, partners should not even be involved in issuing replacement modems – this is for the Skinny Care Team to do when a customer calls them with a suspected faulty modem.

But we know customers don’t always follow the rules, so they turn up on your doorstep and you have to take it from there. C’est la Vie! That’s life!

Special briefing for Stepping UP partners

Some changes are coming for a major email service provider in New Zealand. We have invited this organisation to provide a special preview for our Stepping UP partners at 2pm on Monday 4 March, as we know this will impact many users who may need help in setting up a new email address. This session will brief you on the details of the change being implemented.

We would like you to have the opportunity to understand the scope of this change so that you are ready to provide any support needed by your community.

We will provide further details after the briefing for any partners unable to join the preview session.

You can sign up for the Zoom briefing through Partner Webinars on our Stepping UP website.

Briefing for new Ciena Partners to be held on Thursday 15 February

I have had a few inquiries from partners about offering the Skinny Jump Ciena plan to their communities – remember this gives families with school-aged children free access to the internet for the rest of this year. I have scheduled a briefing for these prospective new partners for Thursday 15 February at 11am. You can sign up here.

Existing partners are welcome to join in as well if they would like a refresher on Ciena. 38% of our partners have signed up less than 5 families during the last 12 months, so I can understand if our processes are a bit fuzzy.

The most important thing to remember is that a Skinny Jump Profile Form must be completed for all Ciena sign ups, whether a new modem is being issued or whether a family is transferring from a standard pre-pay Jump connection. The form initiates the modem provisioning process. And of course we do need a scanned or photographed copy of the Ciena Jump for Students Fund referral form.

Existing partners should receive the new pad of referral forms (with 31 December 2024 as the end date) today or tomorrow. We will send a pad of these forms to any new partners after the Thursday briefing.