Category: Skinny Care

Jump Customers changing address

I had a question today from one of our partners about the process when Jump customers move to a new address. I thought this might be a good opportunity to remind all partners.

Here it is in a nutshell:

  1. Use the address checker to confirm that the customer is moving to an address with Jump coverage.
  2. If so, ask your customer to contact the Skinny Care Team on 0800 475 4669 and inform them of the new address.
  3. The customer can then unplug their modem and take it to their new address.
  4. If customers move their modems to a new address without notifying the Skinny Care Team, they could find their modem gets blocked, as this is a breach of the conditions of use.
  5. If their new address does not have Skinny Jump coverage, then the modem should be returned to the nearest Jump partner for resetting and assigning to a new Jump family, or the customer is welcome to contact the Skinny Care Team and request a pre-paid return courier bag.
  6. What they should not do, is just walk out the door and leave their Jump modem behind for the next tenant.
  7. Transferring to another family member can also be problematic, as the modem is linked to the original user’s email and any new user would require access to this email and the password in order to top up the account and purchase new data plans. So it is much better for the modem to be returned and reset (or if it is unsuitable for reuse, it will be responsibly recycled). The family member is welcome to apply for a new modem using their own email and password (assuming of course that they meet the eligibility criteria).

New process for faulty Jump modems to start on 15 August 2022

We reached agreement with the Skinny Jump team today to proceed in implementing a new process for handling faulty modem replacements. This is an attempt to address the continuing shortage of modems and the re-supply waiting time that has now stretched to 6 weeks.

It has also been prompted by the difficult situation that partners are facing when the Skinny Care Team (Helpdesk) refer a customer to you for a replacement modem, but you are unable to help because your Jump modem cupboard is bare.

What is changing from 15 August is that all replacement modems for faulty units will be supplied from our DIAA Wellington office.

We hold a small stock of modems for customers who are unable to travel to a local Jump partner or when local partners are closed. Now that most partners are open again after the Covid restrictions, our priority will be to support existing customers who need replacement modems.

Jump customers must continue to contact the Skinny Care Team first (0800 475 4669) whenever they are having trouble with their Jump internet connection. This is not changing.

If the Care Team diagnose the problem as a modem fault, and the customer advises that they wish to continue with the Jump service, the Care Team will complete a Modem Return Form with the customer’s contact details (address, email and phone) as well as details of the faulty modem (IMEI and broadband numbers) and a brief description of the fault.

This will the ensure that: (a) the faulty modem is delinked from the customer’s account, so that customers can use the same emails to set up replacement modems and transfer any credit balances, and (b) replacement modems are couriered to customers along with a pre-paid bag to recover faulty modems for repair or recycling.

What this means (at least in theory) is that partners should never have to issue replacements for faulty modems. Customers who do not require a replacement will continue to be encouraged to return their modems to a nearby partner, where partners will be responsible for completing a Modem Return form, as you currently do.

We know that some customers will just turn up with faulty modems, seeking a replacement. If partners have supplies of modems, you are welcome to provide the replacement, noting details on the Modem Return Form. But clearly if you don’t have any stock, your only option is to refer customers to the new process outlined above.

Updated Modem Return Form to replace old forms on 20 April 2022

An updated Modem Return form is being introduced from the start of business tomorrow (Wednesday 20 April). This replaces the three previous forms used by delivery partners for modem returns, i.e.

(1) Skinny Jump Account Delinking & Modem Reprovisioning – Delivery Sites & Care Use Only – originally developed for modems that were returned mainly because they were no longer required and could be remotely de-linked from customers’ accounts and rest, ready for re-issue.

(2) Faulty Jump Modem returns – originally developed for modems that had been remotely tested by Skinny and customers were advised that the unit was faulty and should be returned to a nearby Jump partner. We have recently consolidated this form with the standard Delinking Form above.

(3) MOE Modem Activation and Returns – originally developed for modems issued by the Ministry of Education.

The new consolidated form is to be used by Jump Delivery Partners when they receive any Jump modem returned by a customer or if they require a particular Jump modem to be re-provisioned for any other reason. The Skinny Care Team may also use this form when a customer reports they have a modem but there is no coverage or capacity at their address.

The purpose of this new consolidated form is:
(1) to make it easy for Delivery Partners to get a modem de-linked from a customer account and then reset in a timely manner, so that it can be re-issued. This form provides a direct communication channel to the Skinny Support Team who are responsible for delinking any Skinny Jump accounts and resetting modems. Jump Delivery Partners should never call the Skinny Care Team on the customer 0800 number, as this Helpdesk team is not able to delink accounts or reset modems.

(2) to recognise modems issued as part of a special Jump Plan – MOE, CIENA or RED CROSS – and ensure these are recovered or correctly re-provisioned.

(3) to record customer details for the collection of unwanted modems or at locations where there is no network coverage or capacity.

The information provided in this form authorises the Skinny Support Team to delink an account and reset the modem. Faulty or defaced modems that are not suitable for re-issue are to be marked as “faulty” in the form and this triggers a response from the Digital Inclusion Alliance Aotearoa (DIAA) team to send a courier bag to recover the modem for repair or recycling.

Once the modem is reset, an advice note is sent to the Delivery Partner at the partner email entered at the end of the form.

The Jump top-up challenge: where’s my 30GB?

I had an interesting call from one of our most experienced Jump partners today; she was seeking clarification about the top up process. While she frequently explains the top-up process to customers when they sign up for Jump, she had never actually done a top-up herself, and was quite confused by the information presented on the Skinny Dashboard when she did try and top up the Library demo unit.

She had succeeded in adding $5 credit to her Jump account, but was surprised when she didn’t see 30GB data added to her plan. Instead she saw the information above: 6144 MB (= 6GB) data that was going to expire at 3.30pm and 15360 MB(=15GB) data that was going to expire at the end of the month.

There is an explanation about the ‘free’ 6GB and the 15GB in the fine print above, but I totally understand how this detail can get overlooked – in some telephone surveys we conducted last year, many customers didn’t know about this free data, so we do wonder if this is always being explained when the customer signs up. Even if it is, customers might not fully appreciate this until they go to top up.

But where is the 30GB that I just purchased? Check out the words below the ‘Credit Remaining’ of $5, you will discover that there is no current plan. And just below that ‘Get a plan‘. You must click on this to add your 30GB data plan. When you do this you will discover the 30GB data joins the two freebies and your ‘credit remaining’ drops by $5.

We strongly encourage every partner issuing Jump modems to personally go through this process – we’ll even pay the $5 if necessary. It is well worth $5 (soon to be less than the price of a cup of coffee) for you to have a first-hand experience of the top-up process.

People needing help when topping up make up the largest group of callers to the Skinny Help Desk (Care Team). If we can help Jump customers be more confident in topping up this would enable the Care Team to focus on helping with the much more challenging technical issues.

PS. A box of Chocolate Fish for the partner who brought this to our attention! I am sure she is not the only one that gets confused.

Don’t call Skinny for modem supply issues

I have been receiving a few redirected calls from the Skinny Care team with requests from partners about modem supplies.

PLEASE DO NOT CALL THE SKINNY CARE TEAM FOR ANY DETAILS ABOUT MODEM SUPPLIES.

The Skinny Care team has no role in the supply of modems. This is our (DIAA) responsibility, working with you, our Partners.

Any inquiries about modem supplies should come to jump@diaa.nz

Thank you.

Skinny Care over the holiday period

A heads up for all Jump Delivery partners that Skinny Care (the Skinny Helpdesk on 0800 475 4669) will be operating a bit differently during the coming Christmas/ New Year holiday period. We don’t expect you as one of our delivery partners to ever have to use this number, but it could be helpful that you know about this change in case any of your Jump customers ask you.

Skinny Care will only be available via Chat on the following dates:

26, 27 and 28 December 2021

2, 3 and 4 January 2022

The Care Team will be closed on Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. Otherwise they will there to help during normal hours:

Monday to Friday: 8:00am – 7:00pm (support available via Chat or Facebook only)

Monday to Friday: 9:00am – 5:30pm (support available via Phone)

Weekends and public holidays: 9:00am – 5:30pm (support available via Chat or Facebook only)