Category: Jump Sign-ups

Free Jump data boost for Summer

The Skinny Jump team is gifting all regular Jump customers a free data boost for the next two months – the standard 15GB free data allowance has been doubled to 30GB for the 2023/2024 holiday period. Jump customers received their first 30GB data boost on 1 December 2023 and another one will be applied on 1 January 2024. On 1 February 2023 it returns back to 15GB.

This data boost is only available to standard Skinny Jump customers, not those on sponsored plans like Ciena, MoE or OCHT.

The data boost is provided on a ‘use it or lose it’ basis, i.e. unused data doesn’t rollover at the end of the month.

For new customers signing up during December, the 30GB is not applied at the time of modem activation but is automatically added on the 1st of January 2024 (around 12:00 AM for late night revelers*)

All eligible Skinny Jump customers were sent an email, advising them of this data boost, informing them of this great news! But please pass this on to any Jump customers you come across.

*reveler: a person who is enjoying themselves in a lively and noisy way

GMail+ solves dual email issues

At times, a customer’s email address may already be linked to a Skinny service, and signing-up for Skinny Jump will require the use of a different email address.  If your customer uses Gmail, there is a handy solution for utilising their existing Gmail account.

Gmail provides a feature known as ‘plus addressing.’   With this feature, they can add a ‘+’ symbol followed by any word or number of their choice to their email address, and emails will still be delivered to the original Gmail inbox.   For example, if the customer’s email address is mike@gmail.com, they could use:

  • mike+jump@gmail.com
  • Mike+2023@gmail.com
  • mike+skinnyjump@gmail.com

All of these email addresses will reach their inbox, and the Skinny Jump platform (both browser & app) will recognise it as a separate email address from the original.

An extra bonus of ‘plus addressing’ is that it simplifies tracking the origin of spam emails.  By creating a distinct email address for any online account or service, Gmail users can readily determine which website is the source of spam by examining the ‘from’ field in an email they’ve received.  This method allows them to take action to prevent spam and maintain a clutter-free inbox.

So, the next time a customer’s Gmail address is not accepted during the Skinny Jump sign-up process, try adding a + and any word/number that works for them @gmail.com and the verification email will go to their existing Gmail inbox!

Nearly there with the broadband number issue and app signups!

The Skinny Jump app team have been investigating this bug on the Jump app and have verified the cause of the issue on the android version of the app, but has also identified another bug on the iOS version.

Android: Android app implemented a hard limit of 11 – 12 characters on the input field for the broadband number, therefore not allowing 10-digit broadband numbers

iOS: iOS app implemented the wrong logic where the broadband input field would accept any number of characters, therefore allowing 10-digit broadband numbers

The app developers are now updating the logic/code within the app to accept 10-digit broadband numbers. Once the updates have been made, they need to align to a weekly app release schedule, so they can “push” the new versions of the app onto the app stores. They expect this whole process could take another 2 weeks.

In the meantime, if you are signing up a customer with a 10-digit BB number (0204XXXXXX), we suggest you enter the number in this format: 64204XXXXXX. Both android and iOS versions of the app should then accept the BB number.

Ciena Jump signups rocket past 600

Another record month for Ciena Jump signups! 56 partners had signed up a whopping 619 families to the Ciena plan by the end of September (and already another 7 so far today – 3pm 2 October 2023).

This is a fantastic achievement. Linwood Library remains top of the leaderboard – in fairness they did have a sort of head start by collaborating with the Greater Christchurch Schools Network (GCSN) in 2022 and they did get the August Chocolate Fish award.

But with Ranui, Shirley, Hastings and Hornby libraries coming a close second for two months in a row, I think they deserve the sugar boost for September! So keep an eye out for the next courier delivery.

56626
Total Issues
Linwood Library8213%
Ranui Library579%
Shirley Library549%
Hastings War Memorial Library467%
Hornby Library437%
Wairoa Library315%
Otara Library295%
Manukau Library224%
Manurewa Library213%
Te Takere Levin213%
New Brighton Library203%
Glenfield Library142%
Kaikohe Library142%
Onehunga Library132%
Porirua Library112%
Rotorua Library112%
Glen Innes Library91%
Mangere East Library91%
Papatoetoe War Memorial Library91%
Wellsford War Memorial Library91%

Slow verification code arrival still causing some problems

We had hoped that this problem, which seems to be just impacting Jump customers with Gmail accounts, would sort itself. But it appears not yet.

Anya Kay from East Coast Bays Library in Auckland encountered this problem last week when signing up a new customer with a Gmail account. So she set up a Yahoo email account for her customer, and hey presto, the verification email arrived straight away! Good problem-solving Anya!

Skinny Jump back in business

I have confirmation from the Skinny Jump team that yesterday’s fault has been fixed and Jump is back to business-as-usual. Everything working as it should – website and Apps. The issue with Android phone signups for 10 digit broadband numbers is still being worked on, so please continue to use browser sign ups for customers with Android phones. We have been alerted to a possible related problem with web signups not being reflected in the Android App, so please make sure your customers do load the Jump App on their phones after you have signed them up and check that they can log in.

We would appreciate notification of any situations where this isn’t working, preferably with a screen shot from the Android phone. Thank you.

The short BB number problem solved but not yet resolved

Thanks to thorough testing by Suniti De La Mare from Ranui Library, the problem has been narrowed to the Jump Android App – this has a mind of its own and inserts spaces when entering the shorter broadband numbers, causing the signup process to fail. Everything seems to work fine when using the Jump iPhone App and the computer desktop versions.

The Jump team is onto this and is working to fix this bug.

So the interim solution is to use a computer desktop for new Jump signups (which I know many partners already do anyway). But please make sure your Jump customer also has the App on their phone before they leave with the modem to make life easier for them in monitoring their data usage and managing top-ups.

The Great Jump BB Mystery continues

This story could become a TV series! My original post suspected a BB number error (as modems were shipped this week with only six digits after the 0204). However, after some testing by the Skinny Jump team, it was confirmed that these broadband numbers are legitimate and modems with the shorter numbers have been provisioned for Jump. My update post sent us on a different path of investigation – looking at how the BB number is being entered.

We now have more evidence from partners that there is nothing wrong with the modems nor the shortened BB numbers. The difference seems to be how the BB number is entered. The Jump App makes it clear that the BB number must be entered without any spaces, i.e. 0204xxxxxx (for the shorter numbers) or 0204yyyyyyy (for the longer numbers).

But two partners have reported that the App now appears to have a mind of its own and in some situations automatically adds spaces to the BB number (see example below). Note the ! triangle in the broadband number field, signifying an invalid BB number. So this suggests a new line of inquiry.

We were first alerted to this issue by Carla at Hastings Library and she explained a workaround that her team discovered:

Re: Registering customers for Skinny or Ciena Jump

The issue:  The app is automatically putting spaces in the broadband number.

While doing the activation for the modem you may come across an issue where the Jump app won’t let you verify and activate the modem. This means you won’t be able to move forward with the activation. You need to:

  1. Huakina (open) a new incognito window on the rorohiko (PC)
  2. Go to Skinny Jump login and get the customer to uru atu (sign-in)
  3. Click on ‘Activate’ and whiriwhiria (select) ‘Broadband’
  4. Patopatohia (type) the Broadband number and Verification code
  5. Get the customer to restart their Jump app and uru atu.
  6. Continue with usual sign-up.

Kia aro mai (please note) it might take a few seconds to activate but keep clicking on it until the dashboard shows up.

Thank you, Carla, for sharing your solution. This will help keep the Skinny Jump train moving while the investigation continues to try and understand why some partners are facing the ‘auto-fill’ problem while others are not.

Jump BB numbers – the mystery deepens

Further to my previous post, I may have been hasty in assuming the 10-digit broadband numbers were the problem. While they were a problem in the past, the Skinny team has confirmed that these are legitimate Jump provisioned broadband numbers and they have been able to set up one without any problem.

So, we need to figure out what the Skinny Jump team is doing that is different to what partners are doing to get the error message. The sign up documentation (user and partner guides) simple refer to just entering the BB number, but there are variations in how this is entered, e.g. 64204xxxxxx (11 digits), o204xxxxxxx (also 11 digits), but if you enter 0204xxxxxx (only 10 digits),maybe this causes a problem? The instruction in Step 5 of the App signup explicitly states not to add spaces, but of course if you are only entering 10 digits, then you could inadvertently enter a space.

So those of you who are up for a challenge, I would welcome your help in solving this problem. Please feel free to try setting up one or more of the recent modem shipment (those with 0204 xxx xxx numbers), trying different number formats. You can always put them through the Modem returns process to reset them after your tests.

Update on Jump Verification Email delays

Thank you to those partners who have provided feedback on this issue. While this is still not fully resolved, it appears to be an issue in the cloud between a Microsoft ‘send’ server and a Google ‘receive’ server. One partner has tested this by hot spotting through their phone and this didn’t seem to make any difference, so my previous suggestion about using your Jump demo modem is not likely to be a solution.

One thing we did learn today is that the timeout for the Verification Code is around 5 minutes. So if the email with the verification code doesn’t arrive within 5 minutes, then there is no point in waiting, as the code will have expired. The best strategy is to try again (after 5 minutes). Certainly get your customer to check their spam box while you are waiting; one partner mentioned all three sign ups today went to spam.

The partly good news is that this problem is intermittent and partners have successfully signed up 917 new customers this month, including 53 today (so far).