Commonwealth EFTPOS outage

CommBank says services are coming back online.

UPDATE: COMMONWEALTH Bank says services have come back online, but acknowledges there may still be delays for some customers.

In a statement, a spokesman said: “Services were restored by 2:40pm, however Commonwealth Bank acknowledges some customers may face slight delays in our branches. We apologise to all our customers affected by this issue and we thank them for their patience.”

CommBank suffered a major outage of its Eftpos, Netbank and ATM services on Friday afternoon, with customers across the country unable to access banking services or pay for items.

The outage began about noon AEST. Earlier, CommBank said in a statement: “We’re aware some customers may be experiencing some issues with our systems and we are working to resolve this. We apologise for the inconvenience.”

Customers turned to Twitter and Facebook to vent their frustration, with many complaining of being unable to pay for groceries and petrol, and businesses unable to process payments.

“I’ve been waiting three hours, ” one user wrote on CommBank’s Facebook page. “I trusted your bank with all my money and now I need a bank cheque to purchase my property by 5.30pm today but you can’t let me access my money. This is very unacceptable.”

Another asked if the bank would pay compensation. “When your clients can’t fulfil their obligations to the Commonwealth Bank you penalise them financially, should we expect the same from you?” they wrote.

One Twitter user said the outage had cost her business thousands of dollars. “How do I make a claim for compensation?” she asked.

Another wrote: “Customers are walking out of my shop because we can’t take cards and the closest ATM is a CBA one which doesn’t work!”

One complained of being unable to pay for medications at the chemist. “When your EFTSharp pos terminal up-v5500 series manual quits you must have signature backup, ” they wrote. “Was in severe pain at chemist waiting to pay for meds!”