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Review summary

Created with AI, based on recent reviews

Considering 77 reviews, most reviewers were let down by their experience overall. Consumers frequently complained about terrible customer support, extremely long waiting times, and frustrating automated phone bots that made resolving issues nearly impossible. Many people also mentioned unexpected billing errors, unannounced monthly charges, and difficult contract terms. However, some reviewers were happy with the cheap pricing and affordable plans offered by the provider. A few individuals also pointed out that certain interactions with staff members provided genuinely helpful assistance. Despite these occasional bright spots, the overwhelming consensus remains deeply negative due to persistent communication failures and poor reliability.

What people talk about most

Customer service

Clients share negative opinions on customer service, frequently struggling with unresponsive automated chat... See more

Service

Reviewers highlight negative aspects of service, reporting that phone plans and travel eSIMs frequently fail... See more

Price

Consumers find price to be ambiguous, with reviewers praising the cheap plans and good rates, while others... See more

Payment

Reviewers express deep dissatisfaction regarding payment issues, frequently reporting that funds were... See more

Customer communications

Customers felt deep dissatisfaction regarding customer communications, reporting that phone calls constantly... See more

Reviews shaping this summary

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Skinny as a provider are one of the cheapest but it really is counter productive when their app has major issues with loading and conectivity. I can never seem to load credit, update card info, renew... See more

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Purchased 52 week plan. Have had difficulty porting number across. The online portal doesn't work. Unable to talk to someone the message always says you have contacted us after hours but it absolut... See more

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

The customer service is horrendous, and that's saying it lightly. I recently went to Melbourne and purchased the 3 day roaming plan which did not work the entire time I was away. I attempted to contac... See more

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

This company has been going downhill for the last three years I have been with them for 10 years but their customer service is terrible they don't return no calls. There customer service hours have re... See more


Company details

  1. Telecommunications service provider
  2. also in
  3. Internet provider
  4. Internet Service Provider
  5. Mobile network operator
  6. Mobile Phone Shop
  7. Phone and internet services

Information provided by various external sources

Skinny does award winning prepay mobile at great prices across NZ, it's that simple. Find out more here today. Skinny is a division of Spark New Zealand.


Contact info

1.3

Bad

TrustScore 1.5 out of 5

512 reviews

5-star
4-star
3-star
2-star
1-star

No history of asking for reviews

This company hasn't invited their customers, so reviews may not be representative

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1.3

All reviews

(512)

77 reviews in the last 12 months

Write a review
Companies on Trustpilot aren't allowed to offer incentives or pay to hide reviews. Reviews are the opinions of individual users and not of Trustpilot. Read more

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

No support at all

No support at all. Purchased SIM - been 12 days and still not arrived. Tried to contact via phone / WhatsApp / Email. Person on phone said they could see the order #, but when they opened it, it was blank. Asked me to email the details, which I did repeatedly over different days - still nothing. Very sad!

UPDATE: It finally arrived. Network setup was easy at least and pricing good :)

29 April 2026
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Disappointed

Out of 10, if I could give skinny a -0 that's right, a minus 0, I would. There Filipino customer service is NOT HELPFULL. I'm elderly, and they don't listen, or care. I would NOT, recommend them as a Cell Phone provider, FULL STOP. STEER CLEAR.

22 April 2026
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Skinny refuses to help their customers

I had a customer in a retail store who’s number wasn’t working after porting from Spark to Skinny
The customer really struggles with technology as they were older so I used my phone to reach out to the telco’s on the customers behalf
We called spark, the number definitely wasn’t with them any more
We called skinny and despite the opening hours saying 9-7, they automatically ended the phone call saying it was outside hours. It was 5pm.

I ended up reaching out to Skinny via messenger. The customers friend had her phone stolen so she bought a new one and I gave her a new phone number

I gave skinny the friends phone number and asked them to call the friend so they could speak to the customer as they would be together

Skinny refused.

Would not reach out to their customer to sort out their problem. I gave them the customers phone number and SIM card information so they would look into the problem. Gave them an alternative contact number. They refused to help their customer.

It’s the worst customer service I’ve ever encountered. I went back and forth with them for hours after my shop had closed and the customers had gone home. They just refused to help.

DO NOT USE SKINNY

9 April 2026
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Most useless phone provider!

Most useless phone provider!!
The app crashes all the time or doesn't work at all.
The customer service hours are only 4 hours a day.
Customer wait time if you call is always 1+ hours
Majority of issues cannot be sorted via chat.
The absolute worse

9 April 2026
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

NOT a happy Customer

You pay for a service and the cell towers are constantly overloaded. One very very unhappy customer and they DONT care. If you pay for a service you should at least be able to use it.

8 April 2026
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Skinny is a SCAM mobile network

Skinny is a SCAM mobile network. Topped up my 12 yr old daughter's phone with an $8 plan, and within hours the entire credit had gone, and she hadn't even used it! Tried to get hold of Skinny for over 24hours, until finally got through to some Asian lady that would not help me at all. Wouldn't inform me why or how this has happened, and refused to give me any information because the account is aparently under my daughter's name, even though im her parent who actually pays for the plans. They would not give me any reason why they had ripped me off, and now my daughter is left with no credit. I will never purchase their plans again and will be changing to another provider. Shame on you Skinny for taking people's money then not explaining why.

2 April 2026
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

The service comes & goes

The service comes & goes . We have had no internet from early Friday to Monday afternoon. Customer service is the worst I have come across, which is in the phillipines. I attempted to phone them with no response Friday through Monday. Today today customer service was only available only from 10am to 3pm. I was on the phone for 90 minutes trying to get hold of someone. When I did I was cut off. They rang back twice, but there was no one there when I answered. So back to phoning to get through again .When I finally did I was told I live in a moderate reception area & they will not be sorting this issue out We have lived in this house for a very long time & up until November last did not have a single problem.
I am looking for another service provider & have tossed the Skinny modem in the rubbish bin.

30 March 2026
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Useless

Useless, I have to reset my modem at least twice a day ! There no different to the rest of NZ large business, damn useless , all talk and rubbish service .

18 March 2026
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Skinny- the worst provider ever!!

I changed providers for my broadband and mobile roughly 6 months ago. Ever since I have not been able to use the app as it doesn’t work. My main reason for this review is because I moved houses 4 months ago. Before moving I rung Skinny to cancel my broadband as I will no longer be using it. The following month I was still charged $80 for broadband. 4 months have passed and I have STILL been charged monthly for broadband, despite having called on 5 seperate occasions now about the SAME THING. The absolute worst company/provider I have had to deal with in my whole entire life. Last time I called them they were refunding me a month ago and confirmed (for the 5th time) that I will no longer be charged. Just checked my bank account today and another $80 has been taken out of my account. That is a total of $320 they have taken. Still no refund either. Absolute idiots. Whatever you do, do not go with them. I will be disputing this with my bank and getting a full refund as well as emailing a formal complaint to both Skinny and NZ telecom dispute. I’m with Skinny for my mobile plan as well which I 100% will be changing. They will not be getting a single cent from me again!

16 March 2026
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

I changed a credit card number for…

I changed a credit card number for automatic rollover, two weeks before the due date. I get a message telling me that I'm out of credit even though the dashboard says the cards loaded. I ring skinny and spend an hour on the phone getting it sorted. I am told by the person on the other end its sorted. Today I getanother message. You have no credit. I am now on the phone waiting through endless ghastly music trying to speak to another idiot to find out why this has happ4ned again. I am seriously considering dumping skinny. :It was good once but not any more.

12 March 2026
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Worst experience ever

Worst experience ever. Last month between 14/02/26 through to 26/02/26, I had no access to any internet. I was paying $105 per month. There was an outage in wellington where the wind was so bad alot of neighbour's internet & power went out. My internet still didn't come on during the weekend since this had happened. I rang on the monday, told the lady my internet isn't working since the windy weather and explained the issue. She tells me, she can offer to reduce my next bill instead of paying the $105 for having no internet for 13 days. Fast forward, it took 13 days for a technician to come over and fix the cable (apparently a default). I get told they were going to turn up the following week, turns out they wanted to turn up on the day that I was not expecting. The conversation was back and forth during these 13 days. Annoying to be honest and frustrating. Every time I'd email i'm talking to 5-8 different types of people instead of the one or same person. It was confusing the whole situation.

Fast forward, since day one when I first rang. The lady said she would offer to reduce my payment instead of me paying in full. Now here I am, trying to have this issue resolved and they send the warning email and messages to disconnect. Really I have been trying to get a hold of them but their emails aren't reliable and are never on time. The calls constantly hangup as they do. Contact is a big fail.

The worst customer service I have ever experienced with any company. Don't sign up to skinny they are misleading when it comes to "contact us". I am now in the process of finding a better internet provider.

If I could put no stars that would've been even better.

16 February 2026
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Skinny worst customer service, sack them all including management.

Skinny would have the worst customer service I have ever seen, they start chatting to you then disappear, hour later a responce from them I answered the question and what, they disappeared again, 4 hours later still no better off. Skinny CEO needs to wake his team up, Just put in a call to Skinny ( another option ) your call wait is 24 minnutes, an hour later your call wait is 26 minutes. Come on Skinny sack your team as there is NO SERVICE, I want a RWEFUND as im in credit and account closed. Get rid of the Management Team as well. CHALLENGE for the CEO, buy a mobile phone and connect to Skinny ( see how long that takes you lol ) then ask them a question on Facwbook or there 0800 number then expericence the fustrations and waste of our time it takes for reply's, I ve wasted over 23 hours out of my life, or pay for me to come to your Head office and I will personally show you the lack of Cutomer Service that you will be able to see first hand. Can't see you taking up any of the the 2 challenges.

7 March 2026
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

A total rip off do not use!

Like many of the other reviews I have read here I would give the a zero or a minus if I could.
I bought a sim for my father in law when we were in NZ last week. When activating it said I needed to top up the acc. So I looked at their plans, each individually plan had its own top up button on it so I assumed if I hit the top up on the plan I wanted and added credit it would install the plan. Stupid me! I paid $20 (the amt for the plan) and hit go. I thought that would be it. He tried his phone and he had data which was the main reason he wanted it. The $20 plan gives you unlimited texts, calls and data for either 5 or 7 days. Whatever it was it covered the length of our remaining stay in NZ.
Next morning he has no internet. Looking at his acc he has run out of credit. The only thing I could think of after half an hour trying to work it out was the payment hadn’t gone through, but then why would he think it was working? He’s not completely up with how everything works so I figured maybe he was still on the motel wi-fi when he said it was working.
But then why wasn’t the credit still there?
I didn’t have too much trouble getting to chat with someone unlike most other reviewers, but it did me no good. The customer service guy was named Venson. He said I didn’t select a plan so the credit was then put to standard charges of 40cents a min talk 20cents per text and 40cents per mb. So it turned out he used 52mb which Google says would equate to 20-30 mins browsing through Facebook, and that was the end of his $20
When I asked Venson who would want to get 20-30 mins worth of data with their $20 when they could pick a plan that gave them unlimited everything for 5-7 days, he just replied that it was my fault and they are complete justified to do that. He said they could add credit back to the acc but no refund. (Sounds a bit like they realised it was their fault to me) Since we were only visiting NZ credit is no use to us. I went over it several times about having no mention on their site to add credit then select a plan. Then I got a reply from a different guy named Ross who just sent me basically the same message again.

As an amazing contrast to skinny I had bought the father in law an eSIM like I use in my phone from maya mobile before we left for NZ and then found it wouldn’t work because his phone won’t accept an eSIM. So completely my fault for assuming it would work. They even say on their site to check the phone is compatible before buying. Anyway I got on to their chat line today now we’re home and asked if there was any chance of a refund even though I know it was all my fault for not checking. The first thing the lady said was ‘of course we can, I’m so sorry it didn’t work for you’ I gave her the details she checked them straight away and then said the refund was done and should be back in his account within the next 3-5 days.
And that’s when it was all my fault!!!!!!!
I told skinny thanks for nothing and I was going to leave a really bad review but they just ignored me. I can see by the other reviews here that it wouldn’t bother them much. I’ve never seen such a low review score average on anything. Now I’m going to have to Google it to see if it’s a record. Good luck fellow skinny victims.

25 February 2026
Unprompted review

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