Local businesses impacted by service outage, Telstra working to fix problem

The outage was identified on Friday morning and has affected more than 400 customers across Wendouree, with some local businesses left reeling from a lack of internet services that has left EFTPOS machines and landlines down.

In a response to a Facebook post by The Courier, an employee of a Stockland Wendouree retail store said the shop was affected by the outage all weekend, writing that “all weekend long we have had to apologise to customers because the EFTPOS and phone line wasn’t working most of them just walked away we have lost sales because of this”.

A Coles staff member also told The Courier that EFTPOS machines had been down over the weekend, causing major issues for shoppers.

Stockland Wendouree marketing manager Mark Goss said he knew of more than 10 retailers in the complex impacted by the outage, but said the matter was out of management’s control.

“I know there are some stores down on the floor that do have it (services impacted),” Mr Goss said.

“I would say more than 10 stores.”

He also confirmed some ATM machines in the complex had been impacted and said it was “possible” the  disruption could have impacted on trading in the shopping centre

Telstra confirmed on Monday a faulty cable on the corner of Norman and Forrest streets was the reason for the outage.

A Telstra spokesperson said a significant number of services had been returned by Monday afternoon, including services to all Stockland Wendouree businesses.

However, the cable would not be fully repaired until Wednesday, potentially meaning more pain for customers.

“The repair job is complex, and is taking significant time,” the spokesperson said.

“Technicians worked throughout yesterday and by the end of today should have restored the services of 300 customers.

“The remainder will be progressively restored with work completed by Wednesday.”

Meanwhile, Optus also confirmed in a written statement that Wendouree customers could also be experiencing service outages “as a result of a fault at the local exchange”.

“Optus technicians have escalated the issue with Telstra to get services restored as quickly as possible,” the statement read.