Category: Skinny Jump

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

Possible delays with Jump modem de-linking

The Skinny Care team has advised that there could be some delays in de-linking and resetting modems; some staff have been temporarily diverted to assist with call queues.

Their goal is to action all de-linking/ reset requests lodged through the Modem Return form within 36 hours.

This is just a heads up in case your customers expect you to arrange instant de-linking of faulty and returned modems. Do remind them that the correct procedure is to report the fault to the Care team and this will trigger a replacement modem being couriered to them. By the time it arrives they can be 100% sure that their faulty modem has been de-linked and they can use the same email to set up a new Skinny account with their replacement modem.

When are Jump modems unsuitable for re-issue?

A Jump delivery partner was cleaning out a storage cupboard today and came across three “reset” modems; they were “pretty old and not looking in the best of condition”; one was missing cables and another had very dirty cables. The label with the Broadband number had come off the other modem and had been stuck back on with cellotape.

In her assessment, as well as the person who assigned the modems to the storage cupboard in the first place, these modems were not fit for reissue. Hence they had been assigned to the storage cupboard awaiting a courier bag to return them for repair or recycling. But after about 6 months, when no courier bag had arrived, they were discovered by another staff member.

So what went wrong with our Modem Return process?

When a customer reports a faulty modem to the Skinny Care Team, the agent does their best to fix the problem remotely, but if they determine the modem has a technical fault, they complete a Modem Return form to arrange for a replacement to be sent and the faulty unit recovered.

However if a customer just turns up on a Jump delivery partner’s doorstep with what they claim is a faulty modem, partners have to take this at face value – we do not expect you to try and diagnose the problem or fix it in any way. All we ask partners to do is to complete a Modem Return form and wait for Skinny to reset the modem so that it can be re-issued, or assessed as faulty so that it needs to be returned for repair, e.g. because the SIM card has expired.

Now comes the interesting part. The Skinny Care team can not determine the physical state of the modem; some returned modems have been used as an artist’s canvas (not always to everyone’s taste); others have missing parts and many are physically dirty. Some even come loaded with cockroaches!

So we need Jump partners to make a judgement call – is the modem physically suitable for re-issue? For our library partners, this is something they are used to – at what point are books withdrawn from circulation and send for repair?

Even if the modem gets the green (technical) tick from the Skinny Care Team, partners may need to override the ‘reissue’ judgement with ‘return for repair’, based on a physical assessment.

If it is just a missing ethernet cable or even a missing power supply, we (DIAA), can send you a replacement. But if it is dirty or defaced, then the modem is immediately classified as faulty (based on being unsuitable for re-issue to another customer).

One of the questions asked in the Modem Return form is “Why is the modem to be delinked and reset?”. If you feel the modem is unsuitable for re-issue, please add a comment to this effect. This will result in a recovery courier bag being sent to you. If we don’t have this information, we act on Skinny’s technical evaluation, which often means the modem is relisted in your Google sheet ready for reissue, but in reality it is sitting in a cupboard.

To cut a long story short, please keep an eye on unallocated reset modems in your Google sheets and please advise jump@diaa.nz if the Google sheet does not align with actual stock on hand. And remember, reset modems should always be issued before new stock.

Jump Android App bug fixed

Some partners reported problems when signing up customers using the Jump Android App. They would get through to last part of the sign up process, but when the customer tried to enter their address, they would get an error message.

This proved to be a software bug, that has now been fixed and uploaded to Google Play on 6 November 2023.

Thank you to the partners who reported this problem.

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!

Jump ‘no coverage’

I received two inquiries yesterday from partners who are consistently getting the ‘no coverage’ message on the Skinny Jump address checker in some areas of their communities. Both raised the same question – how can we get the capacity boosted on the cell towers serving these communities.

The short answer is that this is outside our (DIAA) control and even outside the control of the Skinny Jump team. The Skinny Jump network is part of the Spark cell network and when towers reach capacity they must await their turn for upgrading.

The Jump address checker is updated with cell tower capacity information every night, and as the customer base is changing all the time, things can change literally overnight. So what can you do about it?

(1) When you encounter a customer in a ‘no coverage’ area, you can complete an online application and this signals to us there is demand at this location. We re-check the address and if it still has no coverage we transfer the application to a ‘no coverage’ database.

(2) We then recheck this address again 1-2 weeks later and if there is still no coverage we send an email to the customer, encouraging them to re-check themselves from time to time in case capacity becomes available.

(3) We aggregate the ‘no coverage’ data by location and share this with the Jump team, who in turn alert the Spark network team. But we know the Spark team will already be aware of towers that have reached capacity and will most likely already have an upgrade plan.

(4) Since the start of this year, we have had 411 customers register through this process, just 3% of all Jump requests. What of course we don’t know is how many customers are turned away without completing an online application form.

(5) The suburbs that have experienced the most cell tower capacity constraints are:

SuburbNo coverage
Auckland – Henderson20
Auckland – Manurewa16
Auckland – Papakura9
Dargaville – Dargaville9
Rotorua – Victoria9
Auckland – Otara8
Levin – Levin7
Napier – Onekawa6
Auckland – Papatoetoe5
Auckland – Ranui5
Rotorua – Glenholme5
Auckland – Massey4
Kaitaia – Kaitaia4
Lower Hutt – Naenae4
Rotorua – Owhata4
Auckland – Mangere East3
Auckland – Mt Wellington3
Auckland – Pukekohe3
Christchurch – Shirley3
Hamilton – Claudelands3
Kaiwaka – RD 2, Kaiwaka3
New Plymouth – Marfell3
Rotorua – Fairy Springs3

One Android problem fixed but another emerges

My previous post celebrated the launch of the new Jump Android App that included a bug fix for the shorter broadband numbers. But unfortunately, another bug has emerged with the Android version of the Jump App.

When customers click on ‘top up’ in the App, the App closes – thanks to Noha from Porirua Library who first reported this.

The good news is that the app team has already isolated the issue and submitted code to fix it – and it is only affecting the Android version. The not so good news is that we don’t know how long it might take before the App can be updated on the Google Play Store. This update has to be approved by Google and is outside the control of the Spark app team.

The suggested workaround for customers in the meantime is to use the dashboard on a PC to do the ‘top up’ or a browser on their smartphones. Of course, they can also top up using the Jump Interactive Voice Response front-end on calls to the Skinny Care Team (0800 475 4669).

The Jump team expects to have a definitive timeline next week for the update to be uploaded.

New Jump App for Android uploaded

An updated version of the Skinny Jump App for Android (v1.1.1) was uploaded to the Google Play Store on 24 October 2023. This included a fix for the shorter broadband numbers that have been causing problems.

For new Jump customers, they will automatically get the new version when they download the App. Customers receiving a replacement for a faulty modem should be advised to delete their existing App and then download the new version.

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.