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!
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.
Rarely a week goes by without at least one report of a stolen Jump modem.
The first and most important thing for customers to do is to report this to the Skinny Care Team (0800 4754669). They will immediately block this modem so that it becomes inactive and of no use to the thief.
The second thing the Care Team will do is initiate a process to de-link the modem from the customer’s email, which means the customer can use the same email when signing up for a replacement modem and arranging for any credit on their old account to be transferred.
The third thing the Care Team will do is to ask us (DIAA) to send a replacement modem.
So the answer to my question is that you, as a Jump partner, should not have to do anything. But I know this doesn’t stop customers getting in touch with you to request a replacement. If they do, and they know their Jump broadband number, you can complete a Modem Returns form to initiate the replacement process. But you will not be able to issue a replacement using the same email until it has been processed by Skinny – and this can take 1-2 days.
So, our advice is to always refer customers reporting stolen modems to the Skinny Care team.
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.
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:
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.
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.
Two partners have reported today that some modems in the latest shipment have a missing digit in the Broadband number, which is printed on the transparent sticker on the side of the modem. This means they can’t be issued – you will receive an error message, as the BB number will not be recognised.
All partners that received a new shipment of modems this week could be affected, so please put aside any modems without 11 digits in the following format “0204 xxx xxxx” until we get this resolved.
I have asked for further shipments to be suspended until we understand how this error is occurring and how we can fix it.
Partners who received modems this week include:
Glen Innes Library; Hastings War Memorial Library; Papatoetoe War Memorial Library; Kaikohe Library; Mangere East Library; Rotorua Library; Otara Library; Otahuhu Library; Dargaville Library; Ranui Library; Hornby Library; HB Williams Memorial Library Gisborne; Grey Lynn Library; Linwood Library; Kaikohe Library; Waverley Library Plus; Te Kete Aronui – Rototuna Library; Glen Eden Library; Porirua Public Library; Dunedin City Library; Onehunga Library; Hamilton Central Library; War Memorial Library Hutt City; Shirley Library; Step Ahead; Highland Park Library; Pukete Neighbourhood House
Skinny has been proclaimed number one amongst the major telcos when it comes to customer service. The results of a independent survey of telcos’ service performance was released this morning by the Commerce Commission.
This is doubly good news for Skinny Jump customers – not only are they getting the most affordable internet service in New Zealand, they are now also getting the best internet service.
The Residential Broadband Rankings for the period from January to June 2023 put Skinny ahead of all other major internet providers when it comes to how likely customers are to recommend their provider to friends and family. Skinny also topped the tables in customer satisfaction with how quickly providers resolve customer service issues.
So well done to the Skinny team; we are fortunate to have you as the Jump internet provider.
Te Rangaihi Reo Māori: The Movement is inviting all of Aotearoa to stop what they are doing and celebrate te reo Māori at 12pm on Thursday 14 September. This marks the very moment the Māori Language Petition was presented to Parliament in 1972. 3 years later, it became what we now know as Te Wiki o te Reo Māori (Māori Language Week).
One of our Stepping UP partners, TaiTech in Gisborne, has taken the bull by the horns and plans to deliver their Better Digital Futures class that day in te reo Māori. They are getting some help from some local Kura Kaupapa Māori students, especially when it comes to getting the right pronunciation. They will be walking their kaumatua students through a special lesson on navigating their smartphones in te reo Māori.
So what can your team do on 14 September to celebrate Te Wiki o te Reo Māori. Maybe you could display your te reo Māori Jump posters next week and encourage all your staff to test their te reo fluency in reading the poster. An interesting fact that you might not know is that families identifying as Māori are by far the largest group of Skinny Jump users – of the 13,500 new Jump users between July 2022 and June 2023, nearly 7,500 (55%) identified as Māori.
Our DIAA team is coming together on Zoom at 12 noon on 14 September to share what we know about te reo Māori terms for all things digital, as well as learn same standard greeting phrases. We are also planning to test ourselves on how well we can pronounce the Māori names for some of our partners!
Just over a month ago, Tawera from the Skinny Jump team, issued a Ciena challenge. Total sign ups were sitting around 400 and Tawera suggested if we could boost the sign up rate to 100 per month, we would achieve the target number of signups (700) by the end of October.
Today, we reached the 500 mark and it’s not even the end of August yet. And special congratulations to the leaderboard front runners below. What a simply magnificent effort from Lorna Blackler and her team at Linwood – a well-deserved box of chocolate fish heading your way!
| Total Ciena Partners = 51 | 502 | |
| Total Issues | ||
| Linwood Library | 74 | 15% |
| Shirley Library | 46 | 9% |
| Ranui Library | 45 | 9% |
| Hastings War Memorial Library | 40 | 8% |
| Hornby Library | 32 | 6% |
| Wairoa Library | 28 | 6% |
| Manukau Library | 20 | 4% |
| Otara Library | 20 | 4% |
| New Brighton Library | 18 | 4% |
| Te Takere Levin | 17 | 3% |
| Kaikohe Library | 14 | 3% |
| Manurewa Library | 14 | 3% |
| Onehunga Library | 11 | 2% |
| Porirua Library | 11 | 2% |
| Glenfield Library | 9 | 2% |
| Mangakino Central Charitable Trust | 8 | 2% |
| Rotorua Library | 8 | 2% |
Digital Inclusion Alliance Aotearoa 