A few partners have been in touch reporting difficulties when signing up customers using recently shipped modems. It now appears that some shipments were sent without being provisioned for Jump.
The ones we know about are:
The Modem IMEI’s in the table above are indicative only; we believe the whole shipment may not have been correctly provisioned.
Other shipments made that day (14 July) might also have been affected:
If any of the above partners are experiencing problems with modems in these shipments, please set aside the whole batch and send an email to jump@diaa.nz
We have escalated this issue to the Skinny Jump team and they expect to be able to provision these modems remotely, so there is no need to submit a Modem Returns form. We will advise you when we have confirmation that they have been correctly provisioned.
Every year, Spark invests millions into the Skinny Jump programme, with one of its largest costs being the purchase of new Jump modems and we want to make sure we are using this generous investment wisely.
Our approach has been to encourage customers who do not need their modems any more to return these so that they can be delinked and reissued in much the same way that libraries issue books. But the main difference of course is that there is no time limit on the Jump ‘loan’ modems; customers are welcome to keep the modem for as long as they need it.
But the challenge is how to encourage customers to return it when they don’t need it. Here are some things you can do to help:
(1)Make sure every modem you issue has the “Stopped using your Skinny Jump Modem” sticker attached.
(2)Display the Modem Returns poster, as a reminder to Jump customers. You can also order copies of this poster through the online order form. Note the default quantity is 100; you can change this in the comments field at the bottom of the order form. I suspect you might not have enough wall space to display 100 copies!
(3) Always stress the importance of returning the modem if not needed any more. This is part of the 6 C’s discussion we expect you to have with every customer receiving a Jump modem. Now here’s a quick test for you – which of the 6 C’s is about modem returns? (answer at bottom of this post).
(4) Never issue a replacement modem unless the customer returns their faulty unit. This appears to be part of the problem. We are currently consulting with our 22 largest partners (the ones who issue the most modems) and have discovered that over 1600 modems have been issued without the faulty ones being returned. This doesn’t include modems reported as lost or stolen. Remember that you can monitor this yourself in your Jump Gsheets. Cells B1:C2 report the number of duplicate (or more) issues:
Thank you to the partners who have already responded to my email about this issue and I do understand that it is often difficult to remember whether individuals have already been issued a modem (especially when you have had over 1500 Jump customers in 10 years!). We keep stressing that Jump is a high trust model, where we encourage partners to take applicants at their word, unless you have local knowledge that suggests someone is abusing the opportunity. We don’t want to add any complications into the signup process, like asking customers for ID or requiring staff to pre-check the Jump register before issuing modems. We know that some partners use their ‘book a librarian’ service to assign a timeslot for Jump signups and this does provide an opportunity to check if they are a repeat customer before they arrive. But we also know that some customers can be quite devious using different names and emails to secure additional modems.
I will be compiling a brief report on the feedback from our largest partners and sharing how they are tackling this issue in a further post. But I welcome feedback from any partner with suggestions. I am waiting with baited breath for feedback from one of the top 22 partners, with a stunning record. Despite issuing nearly 1000 modems, their Jump register only reports 7 duplicates and none with 3 or more modems!
Answer to 6 C’s question: Community – returned modems can be reset and re-issued; faulty modems can be repaired; old modems can be recycled. This helps more homes get access to a truly affordable internet service, it keeps Skinny Jump sustainable and it’s good for our environment. Reference pp.4-5 of Partner Guide.
When a customer returns a modem to a Jump Partner and says ‘my SIM card has been stolen or lost’, it appears partners are issuing a replacement modem. That is all good.
The problem occurs when the Modem Returns form is filled in, requesting a SIM SWAP. It is too late to do this when the modem has been returned to a Partner, especially when a replacement has already been issued. So the correct classification is that the modem is faulty and must be recovered for repair.
The SIM SWAP process only applies when the modem is still with the customer and the customer has reported this to the Skinny Care Team.
The Care Team will make a call whether the modem itself is faulty and must be recovered or whether it is just a matter of sending a replacement SIM. The process involves changing the Broadband number on the new SIM to match the customer’s existing broadband number, so it is a relatively simple process to reactivate the modem without the customer having to set up a new account.
So as a general rule, Partners should never select the “SIM SWAP” option. Once a modem has been returned to a Partner, you really only have two options:
(1) Yes, this modem is suitable for reissue, or
(2) No, this modem should be recovered for repair
Of course there is the “stolen or lost modem” option, but you may recall, we have asked that you never issue a replacement modem unless the customer returns their existing modem. Customer claiming “stolen or lost” must contact the Skinny Care Team.
I have to take my hat off to one of our Jump delivery partners who diligently searched my blog posts for the answer to a jump problem she was experiencing. She discovered the answer in one of my posts way back in 2020, but the problem was that this post no longer reflected current procedures.
The advice in the post asked her to email the Skinny Support team to get a modem de-linked. This was the procedure in 2020, but was subsequently changed to align with the “Returns and faulty modems” procedures on page 21 of the November 2024 edition of the Partner how-to Guide, i.e. complete a Modem Returns form.
So I guess this is even worse than institutional memory – my blog post remains in black and white forever!
Needless to say, it took all of 30 seconds to bin the old blog post. But of course the bigger issue is what other outdated advice is lurking in my blog? The safe thing might be to bin all posts whenever a new edition of the Partner Guide is published.
But perhaps, until I get over my “never throw anything away — might come in handy one day” syndrome, perhaps you can just be a tiny bit cautious about any old posts, especially those discussing operational procedures. A good guideline is that anything to do with modem distribution and recovery is a DIAA issue (jump@diaa.nz). Anything to do with the Skinny Jump service is a Care Team responsibility (0800 475 4669).
PS: The story with the partner discovering this problem ended well. She was politely referred to me by the Skinny team.
William Chou from Te Manawa Library in Auckland has recently raised this question and to be fair, he isn’t the first one to do so.
William advised us that there had been at least three instances at Te Manawa during the last two months where the Skinny Care agents had advised customers reporting a faulty Jump modem to go to the library, “as it would be faster”. But as William pointed out, this conflicts with my previous posts (and as it happens, the Jump Partner Guide).
Here’s an extract from my April 2025 post:
It seems that part of the confusion arises when Skinny Care agents mistakenly direct customers to Jump partners for replacements. Please note: Skinny agents should never refer customers to partners for replacement modems. If they confirm the modem is faulty, they should complete the Modem Returns form instead.
So William is quite right to question whether our processes have changed.
The short answer is that our agreed processes have not changed.The challenge that we seem to have is training new Skinny Care agents. The agents are dealing with both regular Skinny products and Skinny Jump, and we do have quite a lot of unique procedures for Jump, especially around the distribution and return of modems, and are regularly making tweaks to Jump processes. I can understand that this could be quite a challenge for Care Agents to keep up to date with.
I know the Jump Squad in Spark provide regular updates and training for Care Agents and all they can really do is keep issuing reminders of the correct procedures.
But we also know that some Jump partners are happy to issue replacement modems. There are problems in doing this, especially around timings for delinking the faulty modems from customers’ accounts. So despite the instructions in the User Guide (does anyone read user guides these days???), customers will keep coming to partners for faulty replacements.
But we want this to be your choice, not feeling that others, e.g. Care Team, are handing on work onto you that they should be dealing with.
How do we fix this? Frankly, I don’t know. Maybe persistence? So please keep alerting me (jump@diaa.nz) to any instances where customers are saying “Skinny told me to come to youfor a replacement modem“. In a perfect world it would be great to know the name of the Agent providing this wrong advice, or as a minimum, the day and time of the call.
Each year we ask all our Jump partners to do a stocktake of their Jump modems to help us start the new year with a clean slate. If your Jump stock matches the number in cell E2 of your Jump GSheet, please send us a short email confirming this (jump@diaa.nz). If you don’t know how to access your GSheet, send us an email and we’ll remind you.
Check the top few lines of your GSheet – it should look something like this:
If there is a mismatch with your ‘actual stock on hand’, please email us the IMEI numbers (the numbers beginning with 8668, 8670, 8629, 8605 or 8664) for the ones you are holding and we’ll get your Gsheet back in order.
You will recall that we use the stock data in the GSheet to generate and prioritise new orders, so it is really important to keep these aligned.
Please also check that we have the correct contact name in cell A2 – this is the person we send new modem supplies to. If this is not correct please email us with the new contact person – name, email and contact phone number.
We would like you to confirm these details before Christmas; to help you with this, you might get a call from Georgia or Tori, our two Jump helpers (like Santa’s Christmas Elves).
And one other thing – we know some partners just never seem to be able to find the time to complete Modem Returns forms when a faulty modem is returned. So when you are doing your stocktake, please take a note of any old modems cluttering your cupboards and unsuitable for re-issue, we’ll send you a courier label to recover them. Just tell us the size of the box you will be using so we can get the courier charges right. Or if it is just one or two pesky modems, we can send you a return courier bag.
Our hats off to Martha Manaena at REAP Wairarapa for bringing to our notice an interesting anomoly. She was trying to issue a new Jump modem and discovered it had the same IMEI number as one she had issued some time ago. To make matters worse, the modem had no Broadband sticker!
After a quick look in the box, she discovered the wayward broadband sticker attached to the inside of the box as many others have done during the last six months – this happens when the modems are thrust into the box too forcefully and the transparent broadband sticker decides to attach itself to the side of the box – remember, I raised this issue some months ago.
But modems with the same IMEI number??? This was news to me until I put on my thinking cap. Of course there would be modems with the same IMEI number. We have been using refurbished modems for the last 6 months and of course, a refurbished modem will have the same IMEI number as one that has been previously issued. The IMEI number is assigned by the manufacturer and relates to the modem hardware, not the Skinny internet connection.
There’s always a ‘good news’ side to the story. The IMEI number is something that we (DIAA) use to monitor modem supplies, but this is not relevant to Skinny – they rely on the Broadband number and Verification code, the two bits of information on the troublesome transparent sticker that sometime detaches itself.
So well done, Martha, for being the first person to notice this apparent anomoly, or at least the first person to raise it with me!
I am well overdue for a blog post on this topic. This is now the second most frequently asked question by Jump partners. What is the most frequently asked question you might wonder (scroll to the bottom to find the answer).
Back to the main topic of this post – some partners have been waiting for more than four weeks to get a return courier bag. The good news is that there is no great mystery here – it is simply a workload issue. Our goal is to get these to you so they are off your hands within 10 days of lodging a Modem Returns form, but that has been impossible over the last four weeks.
Our DIAA team has been a tiny bit preoccupied during the last month launching three new Digi-Coach programmes in the Waikato, Northland and last week in The Top of the South Island. Next week we are in the Central North Island and a week later in Wellington. With five new Digi-Coach cohorts in operation, that means 50 new Jump Specialists become available in libraries and community organisations throughout these regions five days a week for the 12-week work placements. Take a look at the stunning impact videos featuring Digi-Coaches in the Wellington region during the pilot programme earlier this year.
BUT, I digress. The really good news for return courier bags is that all partners should receive their bags this week. We had 50 on the courier yesterday and we are expecting the remaining 30 or 40 to be out the door this week. We have a new cunning plan to keep on top of this in the future and avoid such a huge backlog.
This has also impacted updates to your Gsheets for delinked modems. Normally these updates happen at least weekly, but they have suffered the same fate as the return bags. This is not such a problem, as partners receive a direct email notification from the Skinny team whenever a modem is delinked and reset for re-issue. So you don’t have to wait until your GSheets are updated before you issue delinked modems. They (your Gsheets) will catch up eventually, as this impacts your stock levels.
And the answer to the most common question is ‘When am I getting more modems? The answer to this question is much more complicated and varies week by week. But as some partners will have noticed, we have now exhausted supplies of the refurbished Smart modems and the latest shipment of over 700 modems was mainly the new Futura modems. The backlog of orders has reduced to 1600, which is the best it has been for most of this year.
From courier bags to modem supplies, the road ahead is looking brighter.
60 Jump partners were the first to receive the new Futura modems this week. But as these partners are discovering, the modems appear to have been provisioned for Standard Skinny, not Jump.
Now we don’t know how widespread this is and whether all 732 modems are affected, but it would be prudent to hit ‘pause’ in issuing these. My rule of thumb is that when more than one partner reports a problem, we pause sign-ups until the problem is understood and resolved.
Clarifying the Process for Replacement Jump Modems
We regularly receive reports from partners about Jump customers requesting replacement modems — often because their modem has been lost or stolen, or because they’ve been referred by the Skinny Care Team. These situations can put pressure on your staff, especially when customers arrive unannounced and expect an immediate replacement. In some cases, they may become quite insistent or even stroppy.
However, Jump partners do not have the tools or access needed to issue replacement modems on the spot. That’s why our recommended process is for all replacement modem requests to be directed to the Skinny Care Team (0800 475 4669).
The Skinny Care Team has the systems in place to:
Check whether a modem is genuinely faulty.
Verify the customer’s identity and Jump status.
Complete the required Modem Returns form, which triggers the modem de-linking process and a request for DIAA to courier a replacement.
Once the form is submitted:
We (DIAA) arrange for a replacement modem to be sent directly to the customer.
We also include a prepaid courier bag for returning the faulty modem.
The de-linking process takes a few days, ensuring that by the time the new modem arrives, the customer’s account is ready to be activated.
Lost or Stolen Modems
If a modem has been lost or stolen, partners must not issue a replacement under any circumstance. The customer must contact the Skinny Care Team directly to report the issue and begin the verification process.
Incorrect Information from Skinny Care
It seems that part of the confusion arises when Skinny Care agents mistakenly direct customers to Jump partners for replacements. Please note: Skinny agents should never refer customers to partners for replacement modems. If they confirm the modem is faulty, they should complete the Modem Returns form instead.
Managing Customer Expectations
We know it’s not always easy to turn customers away — especially when they show up unannounced. That’s why we strongly encourage all partners to:
Clearly communicate to your community the type of support you offer.
Decide whether Jump support is provided via:
Drop-in sessions,
Set times during the day/week,
Appointment only.
Avoid providing support during staff lunch breaks (12–2pm) or during busy periods such as school holidays, when other programmes may take priority.
Optional Modem Replacement by Partners
If you do choose to issue a replacement modem (e.g., if you have one available and have time to assist), that’s entirely up to you. While this is outside our standard process, we’re happy to support you if you have the capacity.
Just ensure that customers understand:
This is a back-end procedure that cannot be fast-tracked — not by delivery partners, the Skinny Care Team, or DIAA.
Digital Inclusion Alliance Aotearoa 