Awful service from Skinny wireless broadband support

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Awful service from Skinny wireless broadband support

johno1234

2793 posts

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#303719 3-Mar-2023 17:06

Ok we have had Skinny wireless broadband at Whangamatā for a few years. Last month our Auckland fibre cable was damaged so I brought the skinny modem to Auckland and asked them to change the account address so we could use it there until the fibre was repaired. It never actually worked in Auckland.

Fibre now repaired at home so took the Skinny modem back to Whangamatā and asked Skinny to change the address back. But it doesn’t work there now. 4G connects and works for about 30 seconds after booting the modem then drops the 4g connection.

Have spent a long time on Skinny chat support. Hours. Finally escalated and they have come back and told me Whangamatā is capacity constrained at our address and they can’t connect me.

Say what? There’s about 5000 people in Whangamatā outside of the holidays. The place is dead quiet. Spark 4g is fine. For 30sec after booting Skinny does 80Mbps 4G lte just fine. This account was working fine before the address move. Now they have reneged. They have refunded the last month’s charges and are demanding that I return their modem.

Been in the IT game since 1986 and this is about the worst bullshit I’ve ever seen. The person asked if I wanted to change to fibre. Not with Skinny after this. I wouldn’t trust them.

It’s a shame as they are the only provider you can switch on and off over the holidays.

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Geek @ Coastguard NZ
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#3044404 3-Mar-2023 19:23

Confused.... you say Skinny Wireless but then go on to say your fibre was damaged.... which is it ? Wireless or fibre ?

If wireless, then fair enough if its congested, there has been some bad storms if you havent noticed which affected a lot of infrastructure.

Gavin / xpd / FastRaccoon / Geek of Coastguard New Zealand

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dt

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#3044407 3-Mar-2023 19:38

Way I’ve understood it is that he has two places, one in whangamata and one in Auckland. Fibre damaged in Auckland so took his wireless up from whangamata.

Sucks to hear about your experience but unfortunately not uncommon with Skinny, I’ve had the displeasure of having get them to see any logic over chat as well.

johno1234

2793 posts

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#3044408 3-Mar-2023 19:48

xpd:
Confused.... you say Skinny Wireless but then go on to say your fibre was damaged.... which is it ? Wireless or fibre ?

If wireless, then fair enough if its congested, there has been some bad storms if you havent noticed which affected a lot of infrastructure.

Wireless in Whangamatā, Fibre in Auckland. Problem is the former. Was I not clear about that?
Yes I did notice the storm as I cleaned up the damage here.
It’s not congested. Outside of the summer holidays this place is as quiet as a morgue. I was able to demonstrate 80mbs over the Skinny/Spark 4G lte network at the address which is what it used to max out at prior to the storm. The local fibre is working as is the power and the cell sites here appear to be working.

johno1234

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#3044411 3-Mar-2023 20:25

If Skinny is congested in Whangamatā they definitely should stop accepting new accounts. I am not a new account I’ve been here for years. They moved my address to Auckland temporarily (which never worked anyway) and now refuse to move it back to where it was.
I have a name for them but may not use that sort of language here.

quickymart

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#3044430 3-Mar-2023 21:25

I wonder if you moving from the area to a different one, then back to the original area would count as a "new" connection to the area, even though your account hasn't actually been closed? (if that makes sense) - hence why they can't connect you.

johno1234

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#3044466 4-Mar-2023 08:45

I bet it is something dumb like that. You’d think common sense would prevail

Linux

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#3044473 4-Mar-2023 09:36

johno1234: I bet it is something dumb like that. You’d think common sense would prevail

Capacity on cell sites requires lots of planning and stop sells happen due to sites not having enough Capacity. So the carrier is using common sense

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RunningMan

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#3044476 4-Mar-2023 10:01

johno1234: [snip]

Say what? There’s about 5000 people in Whangamatā outside of the holidays. The place is dead quiet. Spark 4g is fine. For 30sec after booting Skinny does 80Mbps 4G lte just fine. This account was working fine before the address move. Now they have reneged. They have refunded the last month’s charges and are demanding that I return their modem.

As @linux says, there's a lot more to cell site capacity than you being able to get 80Mb/s for half a minute. 30 seconds out of daily, monthly and annual capacity planning is a drop in the ocean.

This is the modern equivilant of the xDSL port waiter situation from days gone by. If you remove your connection from an area then that capacity can be reallocated to somewhere else. The reallocation may be to Spark as opposed to a specific Skinny customer, as Skinny has generally only been available in areas of excess capacity. I don't see how Skinny have reneged on anything, as they are not the party that initiated the move out of the area, unless you had a specific agreement with them that the location change was a temporary move to Auckland and back. If that's the case, then they've clearly fallen short and need to address it.

As for the modem return, check what the T&Cs of your original agreement with them were. There's a number of plans where you pay for the modem up front so shouldn't have to return it.

johno1234

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#3044478 4-Mar-2023 10:22

Linux:
johno1234: I bet it is something dumb like that. You’d think common sense would prevail

Capacity on cell sites requires lots of planning and stop sells happen due to sites not having enough Capacity. So the carrier is using common sense

I am an existing customer on that site and have been for several years. I asked them to temporarily change my address while the Auckland fibre was being repaired.
It’s not a new sell.

johno1234

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#3044481 4-Mar-2023 10:27

RunningMan:
johno1234: [snip]

Say what? There’s about 5000 people in Whangamatā outside of the holidays. The place is dead quiet. Spark 4g is fine. For 30sec after booting Skinny does 80Mbps 4G lte just fine. This account was working fine before the address move. Now they have reneged. They have refunded the last month’s charges and are demanding that I return their modem.

As @linux says, there's a lot more to cell site capacity than you being able to get 80Mb/s for half a minute. 30 seconds out of daily, monthly and annual capacity planning is a drop in the ocean.

This is the modern equivilant of the xDSL port waiter situation from days gone by. If you remove your connection from an area then that capacity can be reallocated to somewhere else. The reallocation may be to Spark as opposed to a specific Skinny customer, as Skinny has generally only been available in areas of excess capacity. I don't see how Skinny have reneged on anything, as they are not the party that initiated the move out of the area, unless you had a specific agreement with them that the location change was a temporary move to Auckland and back. If that's the case, then they've clearly fallen short and need to address it.

As for the modem return, check what the T&Cs of your original agreement with them were. There's a number of plans where you pay for the modem up front so shouldn't have to return it.

I very clearly explained that it was a temporary move for the purpose of Internet cover while the cable was awaiting repair.

I don’t care about the modem as it was free with the 12 month “contract” at Whangamatā that they have now reneged on. I asked the person to escalate the case as I was not happy with their resolution but was told that there was no escalation possible.

I get it. Skinny are a low cost operation so you get shitty service from them.

xpd

Geek @ Coastguard NZ
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#3044485 4-Mar-2023 10:46

Must admit their customer service does bite.... trying to close an account due to a death was a nightmare, I ended up threatening legal action to get the thing closed.

Gavin / xpd / FastRaccoon / Geek of Coastguard New Zealand

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RunningMan

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#3044486 4-Mar-2023 10:47

johno1234: [snip] I very clearly explained that it was a temporary move for the purpose of Internet cover while the cable was awaiting repair.

But did they actually agree you could do it temporaily? Can you show them the chat transcript / email?

johno1234: I get it. Skinny are a low cost operation so you get shitty service from them.

If the experiance of people here is a good metric, then this is not the case at all. They would be one of the providers with the least amount of complaints.

quickymart

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#3044487 4-Mar-2023 10:49

johno1234:
Linux:
Capacity on cell sites requires lots of planning and stop sells happen due to sites not having enough Capacity. So the carrier is using common sense

I am an existing customer on that site and have been for several years. I asked them to temporarily change my address while the Auckland fibre was being repaired.
It’s not a new sell.

This is the point I was trying to make - for capacity purposes it probably is a "new sell".

johno1234

2793 posts

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#3044489 4-Mar-2023 10:52

Their wireless broadband was perfect for a holiday home as you can just take the credit card off the account for the months when nobody is using the house. We would usually only pay for about 5 months a year.

Their fibre billing is through the same interface. I wonder if that can be turned on and off in the same way, or if the account has to be closed and reopened each time with a fibre connection?

johno1234

2793 posts

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#3044491 4-Mar-2023 10:58

This is the point I was trying to make - for capacity purposes it probably is a "new sell".

Then they should have warned me on the temporary move that I risked not being able to move back.

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