Skinny! Where's the support?!

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

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michaelmurfy

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#3330089 10-Jan-2025 19:40

I am actually wondering as others have mentioned here if there is a lack of understanding of xDSL with their current support staff with us. Still doesn't explain the inability to get in touch with them, but could explain why they're wanting to just send out a new modem before any further troubleshooting. Also VDSL with other providers is pretty expensive!

So anyway, yesterday finally got an email to say a new modem was sent and should arrive within 5-10 working days.

We're already the 10th day into this outage but what is also interesting is this:

"Please note that if the faulty modem will not be returned, we will process a $150 modem charge to your credit card. For more info on this see here www.skinny.co.nz/skinny-terms/#returnforbb"

You have to dig further into the warranty terms and conditions which do state there may be a charge if the modem is not defective or is not returned but still, the template should be kept up to date with any website changes.

This is not the first time I've had an issue with the email templates being sent to me either. The template in 2023 talked about the HG659 when the Smart Modem was a thing for years.

But I also asked on Tuesday some questions in relation to troubleshooting and finally got a reply on their chat today with incorrect information followed by them closing the chat with me with a survey...

Michael Murphy | https://murfy.nz
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michaelmurfy

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#3332473 17-Jan-2025 01:22

And just closing this off my Parents got their new modem on Tuesday the 14th so went without internet for 14 days. Thankfully, the new modem did indeed resolve their issue and they're back online.

However, my father understandably lost all trust and confidence with Skinny for broadband and has now moved to another ISP, he's got far more patience than me as I think I would have thrown in the towel earlier.

While Skinny's support are slow I suspect it was compounded with the issue of my parents having VDSL. There are actually fewer xDSL connections in NZ these days and I could imagine it is a bit more difficult to diagnose over UFB. I've placed a complaint / feedback in on this because these days internet should be seen as an essential service and for my parents they've got patchy mobile coverage (rural) so an internet connection is essential for communication. Also mobile data really costs nothing and in an event like this I feel Skinny should be crediting some data onto the account owners Skinny mobile to keep them up and running like other providers do.

shk292

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#3332885 18-Jan-2025 10:51

On the subject of Skinny support, I recently raised a trouble ticket because I'm getting intermittent short-duration disconnections, where all connection to the internet is lost and the green light on the smart "modem" turns red. I described the symptoms, including that it's not possible to view the SM's system log to see what is happening.

Here is the reply:

Thanks for getting in touch. Sorry to hear you’ve been having trouble with your connection and we want to help you get this sorted.

Often in cases like these there's something interfering with the line causing disconnections. It would be great if you could go through the steps below to help work out where the problem lies.

First off, how are you connected to the modem at the moment? Via wireless or via an Ethernet cable? If you're connected via wireless could you please try connecting via Ethernet, and letting us know if you still experience disconnection issues?

If you're just getting connection drops on your WiFi, there's likely to be a problem with your modem/router setup.

I'd recommend having a read of our WiFi guide here: https://www.broadbandunlimited.nz/support-centre/support/how-can-i-get-faster-and-more-stable-wifi for tips and tricks to help get the best out of your connection.

Please also make sure that there isn't anything else using your internet connection at the time you're testing. If for example there is a computer on your home network downloading updates, or uploading data to the cloud.

Please reply letting us know how you get on!

Frankly, this is just BS. It totally ignores the symptoms described, and there is no explanation of how a problem on the WiFi is going to cause the SM to disconnect from the internet. I'd also like to know what these "line interference" problems are on a FTTP connection. This type of reply just seems to be a way of responding to a fault without actually doing anything.

I replied with a reiteration of the problem symptoms and they have basically said there's nothing wrong, and to check the ethernet cable (I'll try a different one between SM and ONT).

What next if it still happens? New ISP?

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#3332887 18-Jan-2025 11:06

It reads more like a copy-and-paste to me.

Gordy7

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#3332898 18-Jan-2025 11:33

shk292:

On the subject of Skinny support, I recently raised a trouble ticket because I'm getting intermittent short-duration disconnections, where all connection to the internet is lost and the green light on the smart "modem" turns red. I described the symptoms, including that it's not possible to view the SM's system log to see what is happening.

Interesting and curious...

When the SM internet connection restores after a disconnection are you able to view the system log to see what was recorded during the disconnection?

Do you have any admin access to the SM with and without internet connection?

I recently had intermittent problems with my SM3 and replaced the power adapter - I can't remember all the symptoms - SM3 has had no problems since -

https://noco.co.nz/products/noco-12v-3a-dc-charger-nz-approved-5-5x2-1mm-dc-plug-12volts-up-to-3a?srsltid=AfmBOoplzIba0FWl_SRt6t9zs6WHm_vZzp3hh-JuaUKCI8qeKQCi15ih

Edit: I have a Spark SM3 and I am on Skinny

Gordy

My first ever AM radio network connection was with a 1MHz AM crystal(OA91) radio receiver.

Gordy7

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#3332967 18-Jan-2025 12:37

It seems that Skinny's response to @shk292 covers the high percentage of user connection issues - I would imagine fairly common to most ISPs.

There are no diagnostics for hardware malfunction symptoms and testing.

In the SM docs the Red Light is listed as no internet connection.

Gordy

My first ever AM radio network connection was with a 1MHz AM crystal(OA91) radio receiver.

shk292

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#3333014 18-Jan-2025 18:10

I have admin access to the SM but I can never access the system log. The SM says it may take a few minutes to display the log, but nothing ever shows

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#3337459 30-Jan-2025 16:22

Went through the exact same, they just DO NOT log it to chorus even they they will tell you every lie to get you off the phone.

i have BYO, and had two modems both exhibiting no internet. they kept telling me its a Auckland outage, or outage in area will be fixed asap which of course was total lies.

Eventually i forced them to log to chorus as i had about 10 calls some topping an hour. dont bother complaining either as there was zero response lol.

Im moving to starlink - i highly recommend moving off skinny asap as the support is extremely poor.

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