A partner has raised a question about whether a Ciena customer can continue on the programme if their modem becomes faulty.
The short answer is, YES.
There is a provision on the Modem Return form to indicate if the customer reporting the faulty modem is on a sponsored plan, such as Ciena or OCHT. Partners should make sure this option is selected and this will trigger an action to get the replacement modem re-provisioned for Ciena or OCHT.
The Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) is seeking candidates interested in serving as a member of the Library and Information Advisory Commission (LIAC).
LIAC’s role is to advise the Minister on:
library and information issues, including mātauranga Māori, and access to library and information services
the role of library and information services, including mātauranga Māori, in the cultural and economic life of New Zealand, and
any other matters requested by the Minister.
Further information, including a Candidate Information Sheet and Expression of Interest Form can be found at https://www.dia.govt.nz/Appointments-to-Statutory-Bodies.
Note that Applications close 5pm Monday, 24 June 2024.
Applications should be sent to: appointments@dia.govt.nz.
DIA is also seeking applicants for the Applicants for Guardians Kaitiaki of the Alexander Turnbull Library. Further information on this role can also be found on the above Appointments to Statutory Bodies website.
The Ministry of Education’s Equitable Digital Access (EDOS) programme is definitely ending on 30 June 2024. Some were hoping there would be a further extension announced in yesterday’s Budget, as there was last year.
But here is the decision in black and white in the Budget documents:
The Ministry is currently finalising an offer for households that are currently part of the programme and expects this to be finalised next week. In the meantime, any inquiries should be directed to EDOS on 0800 441 844.
What does this mean for Jump customers who have been part of EDOS?
Yesterday, the Skinny Jump team notified all EDOS households with an MOE-sponsored Jump connection that the sponsorship will end in 30 days and their Jump connections will revert to standard Skinny Jump. This will happen automatically unless customers contact Skinny to advise that they wish to terminate their connection.
Customers who want to terminate their service will be encouraged to return their unwanted Jump modem to their nearest Jump partner and this can be processed through our standard modem returns process.
We do not know the details of what the Ministry will be offering other EDOS households, but it could lead to some choosing to switch to Jump. They are of course welcome to do this, subject to normal Jump coverage and eligibility criteria.
Please encourage them to also return any unwanted modems; we can arrange collection and send them for recycling. If it is not a Skinny Jump modem then it shouldn’t be managed through our standard Modem Returns process; please just set them aside and let us know (jump@diaa.nz) so that we can send you a return courier bag or label.
As indicated in my earlier post, it is time to start applying the brakes for new applicants to the Ciena plan. We have nearly reached our target number of new sign-ups since the extended sponsorship was announced in December 2023.
The Skinny Jump team has agreed to continue supporting any applications received until 31 May 2024, when the Ciena Plan will be removed as an option in the Jump Profile form.
Please make sure that all staff involved in Skinny Jump sign-ups are aware of this, so they don’t inadvertently offer this option to a new family after 31 May 2024.
Please withdraw all the Ciena Jump for Students Fund referral forms and any Ciena Jump signage so that frontline staff do not offer this by mistake. You may wish to store these securely, in case the Skinny Jump team is able to secure any further sponsorship.
Just to confirm, the offer of a free internet connection continues until the end of 2024 for all families signed up to Ciena before 1 June 2024. At this stage we have no indication whether the scheme will be continued in 2025; the default is that all customers on the Ciena Plan will revert to standard Skinny Jump on 1 January 2025, unless advised otherwise.
We love the new tools that the Skinny team has put in place for getting Jump help – interactive voice response (IVR), online chats, email, facebook messaging, – and during March 2024, 60% of all the Care Team contacts by Jump customers used these tools.
But there are times when you really really need to talk to a human. And this is proving challenging for some Jump users. One elderly customer recently gave up trying to navigate the IVR when they were asked to enter their broadband number and verification code, so they called in to see their local Jump partner.
The partner tried to navigate the Jump IVR for this customer to find a way to get around the looped response if you don’t know these details – and failed! Unless a broadband number and verification code is entered, callers are returned to the IVR menu.
I did discover that if you don’t press ‘3’ for Jump, then you do get a press ‘9’ option to talk to a Care Agent, but what this means is that you then join the regular Skinny broadband queue. This is also so counter-intuitive that it would be impossible to explain to customers.
So the advice from the Jump Squad is to explain to customers that even if they don’t know their broadband number and verification code, they must attempt to enter some numbers. When these are entered, the system will detect them as invalid numbers and present the customer with a press ‘9’ option to talk to an agent.
I am aware that some IVR systems default to a live operator if customers reach a dead end and simply wait for 10 seconds. At this stage, the Jump IVR has not been set up this way, but changes could be made in the future.
We get regular reports about Jump modems being lost or stolen. This presents a slight dilemma for customers when calling the Skinny Care Team to request a replacement. The IVR for Jump (press ‘3’ when calling 0800 475 4669) asks callers to enter their broadband number and verification code. But this is pretty difficult to do if the modem has been lost or stolen, or in some cases the transparent sticker with these details has been removed.
The good news is that Skinny Jump Care Agents can retrieve these details if they are sure the person calling is who they say they are. Normally, they would request the broadband number and verification code, printed on sticker on the side of the modem. Or they may ask the customer to retrieve these details from their Jump app.
In the absence of these details, the Skinny Jump agents may request the following details to verify the caller:
(1) registered email address;
(2) service address; or
(3) last top-up.
Once the Care Agent is satisfied they are talking to the right person, they will retrieve the modem details and complete a Modem Returns form, including a request for a replacement modem to be sent if this is what the customer wants.
Of course, all this assumes that the customer has been able to reach a Skinny Care agent. If they choose the IVR path (press ‘3’), they will get caught in a never-ending loop, unless they attempt to enter a broadband number and verification code; if these numbers are invalid they will then be given the option to press ‘9’ to talk to a Care Agent. More on this in my next post.
What an amazing effort – you have signed up 451 new families to the Ciena plan since the start of the year. So, we are now on the countdown to our target of 600 for 2024. At the current rate, we’ll reach our target in about 4 weeks.
And who are our Ciena Partner champions? 68 partners have signed up a family to Ciena; the total number of issues since the start of 2023 is 1296. Here are the top 30%.
| 68 | 1296 | |
| Total Issues | ||
| Linwood Library | 137 | 11% |
| Hastings War Memorial Library | 108 | 8% |
| Shirley Library | 103 | 8% |
| Ranui Library | 84 | 6% |
| Hornby Library | 59 | 5% |
| Wairoa Library | 50 | 4% |
| Otara Library | 45 | 3% |
| Glenfield Library | 44 | 3% |
| Manukau Library | 43 | 3% |
| Kaikohe Library | 42 | 3% |
| New Brighton Library | 41 | 3% |
| Te Takere Levin | 41 | 3% |
| Rotorua Library | 35 | 3% |
| Papatoetoe War Memorial Library | 33 | 3% |
| Manurewa Library | 32 | 2% |
| Onehunga Library | 30 | 2% |
| Mangere East Library | 29 | 2% |
| Te Paataka Koorero O Takaanini | 28 | 2% |
| Glen Innes Library | 21 | 2% |
| Flaxmere Library | 20 | 2% |
| Porirua Library | 20 | 2% |
More good news for Skinny Jump customers!
We know that around 17% of all active Jump customers (that’s over 5000 customers) never use more data than their free 15GB top-up each month. This of course means they have a totally free internet connection.
But until recently, the downside has been that the Jump modem SIM cards expire if they are never topped up within a 12-month period. This expiry period has now been extended to 24 months for all new customers after 12 March 2024.
So while this is good news, there does come a day when Jump customers who rely totally on their free 15GB will face SIM expiry. This means the modem is classified as faulty and needs to be returned for repair, including a new SIM card.
To avoid this problem, all that Jump customers have to do is to make sure that they carry out at least one top-up and plan renewal every two years.
Now comes the hard part. Will people in this very low data usage group even remember how to top up when the time comes? We suspect most of the people who rely on the free 15GB data are elderly; how can we expect them (or anyone else for that matter!) to remember how to do this after two years. They probably won’t even be able to find their user guides after all this time.
We also know that over 30% of all calls from Jump customers to the Skinny Care Team are seeking help in topping up and renewing their plans.
So, we are looking for on-the-ground suggestions about how to solve this problem. Top-up Tuesdays??
What is it that ‘Water and Oil’ have in common with ‘Ciena Plans and Jump Top-ups’? Yes, you’ve got it. They don’t mix!
Families opting for the Ciena Plan get 210GB data loaded to their accounts on the first day of each calendar month. The good news is that this is free until the end of the 2024 school year; the not so good news is that some families use all this data before the end of the month and then lose the internet.
Regular Jump customers pay $5 for 35GB data with a maximum of 6 top-ups every 30 days. 5 x 35GB = 210GB. Regular customers also get a bonus 15GB of free data on the first day of each calendar month.
This week, we received a cry from a Jump customer on a Ciena Plan:
“My plan isn’t the same. I signed up for Ciena in August last year but my dashboard now says I have to pay $5 to purchase another 35GB.”
A bit of investigation revealed two areas of confusion:
(1) the customer claims the partner who helped them set up their Jump modem told them that they could top up when they used the sponsored 210GB allowance. Sorry, WRONG advice! Not true. When customers use up their 210GB data, that’s it for the rest of the month. No more internet! So how do you stop the kids gaming or netflixing away all the data before month end? Frankly that’s a bit of a challenge that the technology can’t solve, nor can Chat GPT! But perfect for pre-pay services like regular Jump.
(2) the customer called the Skinny Care Team and were advised that they could either wait until the end of the month and get the next 210GB data package (so far so good) or top up their account, which would then change them back to standard Skinny Jump. Can you hear alarm bells ringing? More WRONG ADVICE!! A year ago this was possible, but not anymore. Sometime last year, the option to top-up and purchase a standard Skinny Jump Plan was removed for customers on sponsored plans like Ciena.
So like oil and water, you can’t have a bob each way. One or the other. No mix ‘n match, I’m afraid.
I am sure you are all wondering how this story ends. We have to be a bit cautious about families playing the system using the sponsored 210GB, switching to standard Jump for the rest of the month, thereby securing another 210GB and then switching back to Ciena, etc. A friendly call to the customer quickly sorts this; in this case a genuine problem of confusing advice. Also an opportunity to fully explain the limitations of sponsored plans. The customer asked for Ciena to be reinstated, but also indicated that they would start investigating commercial unlimited broadband plans if they find the 210GB an ongoing constraint.
So, a sort of happy ending for all.
THE END
Two partners have been in touch this week (and it’s only Tuesday!) about handling modems that have been returned and then reset remotely by Skinny for re-issue.
The dilemma they face (which I am sure is shared by many other partners) is whether to issue the modem without its packaging. As one partner pointed out, it is not very professional to issue a modem and its extras – power supply, ethernet cable, user guide, modem return flyer and ‘keeping your whānau safe’ pamphlet- without some form of packaging. They have used library bags in the past, but these are no more.
Our approach to date has been to encourage partners to issue reset modems without packaging, but we really didn’t think about all the tag-along bits and pieces.
We have raised this with the Skinny Jump team at Spark to see if we could get supplies of new packaging but a good interim step was suggested by another partner – set aside any packaging returned by customers rather than send it back to us.
We are going to do this as well, at least in the meantime – we recover an average of 30 faulty modems every week, and many of these include their packaging; we are going to start retaining the packaging so that we can send some to partners as required.
Couriering a single empty box is probably a bit over the top, but we could possibly package six Smart Modem boxes using the same boxes that the modems arrive in.
If anyone has a better idea, please shout it from the rooftops!
Digital Inclusion Alliance Aotearoa 