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Telstra Takes Retailers + Distributors Down Again

Telstra Takes Retailers + Distributors Down Again

Retailers, distributors and manufacturers in Victoria are now adding up the cost of yet another Telstra network outage, the eighth this year.

Hours after Telstra CEO Andy Penn moved to assure users that he was on top of their network problems and that a $250M fix was being implemented, the networked crashed again being pain to hundreds of businesses and government departments, particularly in Victoria.

Ironically the expenditure is not outside Telstra’s normal $4 billion capital expenditure program.

Retailers affected included JB Hi Fi, Harvey Norman, Officeworks, The Good Guys, Medibank, Monash University, Jetstar, Simply Energy and ME Bank.
Politicians and government services, including hospitals and transport ticketing system myki, were all affected.

Penn who has spent this year defending network crash after network crash, is now running out of excuses with lawyers now looking at how they can mount a class action against the carrier.

The latest crash in Victoria wreaked havoc for business with retailers, distributors including their ordering and stock control system taken off line for over six hours.

This is the same Company that brags that they have the “best network in Australia”

Penn who is shaping up as the worst CEO ever for Telstra appears not to have an answer to the problem other than a $250 million program to improve infrastructure

Adding to the frustration was the fact that the outage occurred on the last day of the financial year, when many businesses finalise their finances.
Maree Mitchell, was upset at the timing of the outage.

“Seriously, at close of day at end of financial year?” she wrote.

“Are you going to pay the tax for us because of the transactions we couldn’t make? Sorry doesn’t pay the bills.”

The outage hit “just after 2pm”.

Retail giant Myer was reporting problems as early as 1.30pm.

More than 60 Myer stores across Australia were cash-only for six hours Fairfax Media in Victoria claimed.

Telstra’s eighth network outage this year came just 24 hours after chief executive Andy Penn selectively briefed journalists.

It was just one of a host of major Telstra fixed-line customers hit by the outage on Thursday.

Outage reports centred mostly in Victoria and NSW, including Melbourne’s CBD.

Angry customers took to social media to vent their frustration.

“What do you plan to do to fix this issue?!” Chantal King asked Telstra on Facebook.

Corporate and enterprise customers, rather than consumers, were the most impacted.

A Myer spokeswoman said its 66 stores nationwide operated as usual, but customers had been unable to pay with credit and debit cards from about 1.30pm to 8.30pm.

“Our … website is fully functioning” she said.

NAB customers were also being affected, with the outage causing problems to its internet banking and at its contact centre until they were restored around 9pm.

Jetstar customers at Melbourne airport experienced delays from 2pm until services were restored around 4.30pm.

The telco giant has been hit by several outages this year on its mobile and fixed network and has had to offer free usage to compensate angry customers.
However, even Telstra had been affected by Thursday’s mass outage.

Its advertising subsidiary Sensis, in which Telstra owns a 30 per cent stake, was unable to receive inbound calls.

It advised White Pages and Yellow Pages that customers might not be able to view their online accounts Fairfax reported.



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