Telcos’ retail stores being repurposed

AUCKLAND: The major telcos are repurposing their retail stores as collection points for essential servicing during the Covid19 lockdown.

While the likes of The Warehouse Group and the Mad Butcher have selfproclaimed essentialservice status, only to be shot down by MBIE, the telcos’ move is all above board, says Geoff Thorn, head of the Telecommunications Forum whose members include Spark, Vodafone and 2degrees.

‘‘The industry received confirmation from [the] Government last night that any entity that provides maintenance and repair services for utilities and communications, including their supply chains, is an essential service,’’ Mr Thorn said on Wednesday.

He said it was essential to reopen retail stores as noncontact, nofoot traffic locations, given many people would need phone gear fixed or replaced quickly, or would need a new SIM card, but courier networks were congested with multiday delays.

Vodafone will open stores as ‘‘connectivity hubs’’ from 11am to 2pm daily from Monday, with appointmentonly visits spaced at 30minute intervals to keep customers apart.

But Spark was first off the blocks.

The telco said it had repurposed 39 of its retail stores and would open them today as noncontact, ‘‘emergency distribution centres’’ — closed to foot traffic but available for bookings seven days a week for a ‘‘short window of time’’ each day in each location.

Customers will be able to use the distribution centres for the likes of picking up a new SIM card or phone, or to replace a modem.

However, it will not be a case of just bowling up. Spark said anyone who needed to access a store first had to dial 123 to lodge a hardware fault or service request.

They would then be contacted by a Spark staffer who would tell them which store to turn up at and at what time.

The customer would then turn up to the designated store with photo ID, which would be held up to a window for a Spark employee to check.

The Spark staffer would then leave a bag containing the product outside the door for collection. No foot traffic would be allowed, and security cameras would be in place.

There is no online map indicating the location of the repurposed stores, to discourage people from wandering up on spec in violation of the Level 4 lockdown order.