Skinny! Where's the support?!

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Skinny! Where's the support?!

michaelmurfy

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#318334 7-Jan-2025 19:58

I thought I'd expand on a previous thread related to BigPipe (https://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=39&topicid=318050) given fundamentally the team supporting both products are the same (or at-least were) but thought I'd post my experience here.

My Parents have been without internet (VDSL) since the 1st of January with somewhat funky service leading up to that. I thought easy, lets log a fault but -

1) Filled out the Online faults form, got the email saying "looks like it is pretty urgent, so we'll get onto it right away" and gave them a few days to get onto it given it was New Years Day when I submitted it. Crickets.
2) Tried phoning them on a weekend however was told it's Facebook Messenger support only. Fine, contacted them on there but was told I wasn't on the account which is odd as I'm the one who originally set up this account - asked my father to also send them a message and he was met with silence. This was done 4 days later after my initial fault ticket. Tried giving them the ticket number but was met with silence. I was also never requesting information, only providing it to them.
3) My father attempted to phone them multiple times (total on hold time was 5 hours, 48mins throughout the day) on Monday. And also messaged them frustrated he was unable to get through. He eventually got a call back and great news - a new router is being sent out to him.
4) I also tried calling them to follow up since I had been put on the account. I waited 2 hours on hold today and couldn't get through. Messages sent over Facebook Messenger met with silence.

My father is super frustrated as it's now 7 days without any meaningful action. We're hoping a new router has actually been sent but my father is also super frustrated that this takes "5-7 business days" meaning by then he's 14 days without internet.

And lastly, he's a Skinny Mobile customer and has been burning through his data but they can't apply any data to his mobile to just tide him over.

I get this is a budget service but really service needs to be looked at. I do fully understand the time of the year but I've heard about poor support from Skinny / BigPipe multiple times now and have just experienced it myself. It shouldn't be this hard to get traction especially around a fault involving loss of service.

Would be interested to hear if anyone else have reported faults to Skinny or BigPipe lately and have got similar experiences? And if anyone from Spark is reading this it could be worth putting this further up the chain to ensure Skinny / BigPipe customers are not forgotten about.

Michael Murphy | https://murfy.nz
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Max
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#3328866 7-Jan-2025 20:10

I'll repeat the same words I did years ago.

This shouldn't be hard.

And unfortunately this wasn't exactly listened to because to keep your customers happy, you need to be listening to them, you need to be taking action, alongside looping them in and educating them.

There is a clear communication breakdown, something tells me no fault has been logged with chorus, and sending a new CPE in the first instance should never be the case unless you are absolutely certain it's gonna fix it. Chorus techie should be out there, starting from the house and then going up to the exchange if it's not a house fault.

NZ post will likely still be slammed potentially clearing the back log but I can't imagine it won't take until next week. Probably Thursday or Friday at worst.

Also why can't Skinny load data on? Does the CRM not allow?

I don't want to come off as a dick but even as an ex One NZer... Would like our industry peers to be showing ISPs up by one upping each other with service and some care.

Ramblings from a mysterious lady who's into tech. Warning I may often create zingers.

RunningMan

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#3328878 7-Jan-2025 20:44

No help to your parents, but there does seem to be a decline in service. Last time I used the web chat and eventually just gave up frustrated without resolution to a fairly simple query, now it looks like the web chat has gone?

The somewhat ironic thing is this pop-up on the site:

Award winning service

We've won a raft of awards for our service. Like the Canstar Blue Most Satisfied Customers Award in the Broadband category, the Canstar Blue Most Satisfied Customers – Mobile Prepaid 2015-2022, Consumer NZ People’s Choice 2016 – 2022 and the Reader’s Digest Mobile Phone Service Providers – 2023. We mean business.

Guess it's 2025 and they've moved on from 2023.

nztim

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#3328898 7-Jan-2025 23:02

MaxineN: I'll repeat the same words I did years ago.

This shouldn't be hard.

And unfortunately this wasn't exactly listened to because to keep your customers happy, you need to be listening to them,

It Shouldn’t be hard but when everyone wants cheap and cheerful providers have to cut costs somewhere usually support staff.

This is still inexcusable though!

Any views expressed on these forums are my own and don't necessarily reflect those of my employer.

mattwnz

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#3328947 7-Jan-2025 23:26

I would suggest contacting the TDR which they are a member of, as that may get more action.

cokemaster

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#3328955 8-Jan-2025 00:54

This shouldn't be hard.

You are right. xDSL support processes have been well and truly nutted out over the years at Spark (and Skinny).

Also why can't Skinny load data on? Does the CRM not allow?

It will be more of a business / process decision. I do find it hard to believe that they wouldn't have something to tide him over.

Messages sent over Facebook Messenger met with silence.

Last time I used the web chat and eventually just gave up frustrated without resolution to a fairly simple query, now it looks like the web chat has gone

From a resourcing perspective, non-realtime chat is even more commercially attractive than chat over traditional voice. eg. you need less agents and they're less time sensitive so scheduling is easier. I've also heard that there may have been some downsizing in the support teams too.

I suggest going through the complaints process, I've also had luck getting expedited support by reaching out to the executive team eg. jolie dot hodson at spark dot co dot nz.

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#3328957 8-Jan-2025 01:15

cokemaster:

xDSL support processes have been well and truly nutted out over the years at Spark (and Skinny).

Sadly all of it seems to have been lost as NO support for copper is more like how it is these days for the big players. Ever since Spark began charging a premium for copper for what must be almost a decade now one of their primary reasons at the time for the pricing change was because copper connections generated more support calls. With the support staff cuts and the outsourcing back and forth I do wonder if the troubleshooting procedure even exists any longer.

xpd

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#3328977 8-Jan-2025 08:08

My experience with Skinny a few years ago was not great.

Signed up the FIL with them, all went well, no issues. But a year later my FIL passed away suddenly...... Skinny didn't want to know about it. They wanted their money (was on a year contract IIRC) regardless of the fact the account holder was deceased. Was advised they needed a death certificate to close the account. That took some time to obtain, but finally got it and emailed it to Skinny as advised.

No, account was not going to be closed.

W T F.

So I removed the credit card from the account and asked how they were going to take money, considering all his cards/accounts were now frozen. They didn't care.

Only way I got them to close the account was to advise I was giving all the information to the family lawyer and he'd be in touch. Within 30s I had a message to say the account was closed.

Things do not appear have improved going by all the feedback I've seen around here and Reddit.

Gavin / xpd / FastRaccoon / Geek of Coastguard New Zealand

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#3328997 8-Jan-2025 09:24

michaelmurfy:

2) Tried phoning them on a weekend however was told it's Facebook Messenger support only.

This is a massive red flag to me. What if you don't have Facebook?

xpd

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#3329017 8-Jan-2025 10:20

alasta:

michaelmurfy:

2) Tried phoning them on a weekend however was told it's Facebook Messenger support only.

This is a massive red flag to me. What if you don't have Facebook?

Seen the movie Inception ?

Gavin / xpd / FastRaccoon / Geek of Coastguard New Zealand

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#3329023 8-Jan-2025 10:37

nztim:
MaxineN: I'll repeat the same words I did years ago.

This shouldn't be hard.

And unfortunately this wasn't exactly listened to because to keep your customers happy, you need to be listening to them,

It Shouldn’t be hard but when everyone wants cheap and cheerful providers have to cut costs somewhere usually support staff.

This is still inexcusable though!

Unfortunately you can cut too much to the point where now it creates situations like this, which leads to loss of revenue... Because you'll lose customers over this.

Even if you're a budget ISP, you as still need a customer support centre that is trained to handle it and make their own decisions for what's best for the customer. As said, massive communication break down and the left foot isn't talking to the right foot essentially.

Ramblings from a mysterious lady who's into tech. Warning I may often create zingers.

alasta

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#3329027 8-Jan-2025 10:52

MaxineN:
Unfortunately you can cut too much to the point where now it creates situations like this, which leads to loss of revenue... Because you'll lose customers over this.

It's not just the revenue risk, but also the administration costs incurred when customers eventually escalate their problems to senior management, or bring in lawyers, the TDR or the Disputes Tribunal. Properly resourcing the customer front end must surely be much cheaper than dealing with all that mess.

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#3329031 8-Jan-2025 11:02

alasta:

michaelmurfy:

2) Tried phoning them on a weekend however was told it's Facebook Messenger support only.

This is a massive red flag to me. What if you don't have Facebook?

That explains a bit. I clicked "message us" the other day and it took me to a page with username and password fields. I entered my Skinny account details and it rejected them, but now I see that it wants a Facebook account (it doesn't actually say that anywhere, but there's a Copyright Meta at the bottom that I hadn't noticed until now, so I'm putting two and two together).

I don't have a Facebook account.

Bung

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#3329046 8-Jan-2025 11:18

Oh look we have to use Facebook to get support, we may as well complain about the service while we're logged in. ☹️

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#3329048 8-Jan-2025 11:25

@RunningMan

Been with Kogan mobile for the last six months and so far am happy with customer support for a budget provider.

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#3329293 8-Jan-2025 18:02

yitz:

cokemaster:

xDSL support processes have been well and truly nutted out over the years at Spark (and Skinny).

Sadly all of it seems to have been lost as NO support for copper is more like how it is these days for the big players. Ever since Spark began charging a premium for copper for what must be almost a decade now one of their primary reasons at the time for the pricing change was because copper connections generated more support calls. With the support staff cuts and the outsourcing back and forth I do wonder if the troubleshooting procedure even exists any longer.

I can't speak for the providers mentioned here but DSL is getting more and more rare, thankfully. But that also means that perhaps the people who know how to troubleshoot it might have moved on and it's possible some loss has occurred.

The line test tools all still exist on the chorus side which all RSP's will have access to, it's even the same place as where you'd run a test against a fibre service and the procedure to raise a fault is almost exactly the same.

*Insert big spe*dtest result here*

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