As of 7pm 25th of March, the government have made additional decisions regarding which businesses are considered essential during the lockdown.
They have official stated on the covid19.govt.nz website: “Critical support services to ensure businesses and workers can continue working from home are considered to be essential. This includes functions such as IT and Payroll.”
Given this decision, I will be able to continue with onsite appointments, albeit with strict criteria as to whether the onsite appointment is absolutely necessary:
- The issue is not able to be resolved using our remote assistance system
- The issue can only be resolved by coming onsite
- The issue is essential for you to continue working during the lockdown
- You or anyone in your household is not unwell or hasn’t returned from overseas in the last 14 days
If an onsite appointment is scheduled, the following precautions will be taken:
- If there is a hardware fault with the device itself, upon arrival I will collect the device at the front door with at least 2 meters distance maintained. I will then take it away to work on it at home and return it to you after it is fixed using the same protocol as pickup.
- If there is an issue with wifi or internet, and your internet provider is Concentric, or your internet provider is not the problem and the issue is with the network in your home, I will ask that you please stay in an area of the house where I am not to maintain full physical distancing.
- If the issue is with a peripheral of the computer (eg mouse/keyboard, screen, printer) that can’t be solved remotely, then I will ask that you please stay in another room of the house from where the devices are situated while I am onsite.
- While in your home during the appointment, I will sanitise any surfaces or devices I need to touch using wet wipes. Before my arrival, could you please ensure that a window is left open for approx 1/2 hour so that the room can air. Also please ensure any internal doors are open so that I can limit the surfaces I need to touch.
- I will spend as much time as necessary to solve the problem that requires my presence onsite. Once the device is at a point where remote assistance can be performed, I will finish the appointment and anything further can be completed using remote assisance.
Thank you for your understanding here. We certainly are in unpreceidented times and these measures are necessary to help contain the spread of COVID-19.