Pharmacy customers needing prescriptions were some of the people in Warrnambool hit by a nationwide National Australia Bank outage on Saturday.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The several-hour long outage of EFTPOS terminals, internet banking and ATMs affected millions of consumers and small businesses who were unable to make or accept payments.
Warrnambool Direct Chemist Outlet Target pharmacy manager Peter Lee said the outlet lost business. He said Saturday was a busy day but couldn’t yet quantify the impact.
“I’m going to get all my data and we’ll make a decision (whether to seek compensation),” he said. “I don’t know the full extent of it but people require medication so it would have been a bit tricky for us. We get a lot of people coming in from out of town, they do their weekly shop so obviously it was thrown into disarray.”
Mr Lee was on a day off and was in Port Fairy where people couldn’t withdraw money from the ATM. “It wasn’t ideal but I heard of people who were in a lot worse situations.”
Dr Tully’s Espresso Bar employee Emily Lacey said they were also affected. “We had customers who couldn’t pay,” she said. “Some had to get cash out or we gave the drinks to them and they could come back and pay when they could. The app also wasn’t working so they couldn’t transfer money. We only had a handful of people but it was still really inconvenient for them.”
Pavillion Cafe and Bar owner Jon Watson said they were without EFTPOS “but with some careful management it’s easy to deal with.”
Coles Warrnambool Lava Street manager Matthew Kulhan said some NAB customers were unable to withdraw money but their overall operations weren’t affected.
Bakers Delight Target Centre sales assistant Donna Rowan said about five customers’ EFTPOS transactions were declined. Faulls Shoes, Unisexcuts and Fishtales Cafe were also without EFTPOS facilities on Saturday and Jeans West retail assistant Kerrie Thomas said they had trouble with NAB cards on Sunday.
Most services have now been restored after the outage which occurred during planned works, causing a subsequent power failure. NAB has committed to repaying lost profits to affected businesses. To register call 1800 152 015 or speak to your local business banker.