Optus outage: Federal government urges compensation for small businesses

Compensation for small businesses hit by yesterday’s Optus network outage “has to be on the table”, Financial Services Minister Stephen Jones says, as entrepreneurs across the country deal with the aftermath of lost sales and severed communications.

Outside of individuals who could not make emergency 000 calls because of the outage, small businesses endured some of the worst effects of the hours-long outage, Jones told ABC’s RN Breakfast Thursday morning.

“Everything from flower shops to Uber drivers have been impacted by it,” he said.

Internet outages temporarily deactivated point-of-sale systems, making it impossible for many businesses to accept card payments for much of the day.

“Small businesses are obviously going to be the ones hit the hardest, because they’re living from week to week, cashflow is critical, and if they are down for a day, or half a day — in the busiest part of the day, as it is in cafes and bakeries and many of the businesses affected — many of them have lost a day’s takings,” he said.

“Many are already doing it tough.”

When asked if Optus should compensate businesses for lost trade, Jones said the option “has to be on the table”.

“If you’re a small business that has lost a day’s takings because your phone system wasn’t working, then you’re going to be asking those hard questions.”

Customer orders an “absolute shamozzle”

Some small businesses whose trade was disrupted would welcome a compensation scheme if it becomes available.

Marco Frau is a chef at Hi Italy Pizzeria in Reservoir, Victoria, which elected to shut for the day because of the Optus outage.

Although the business’ phone and internet services returned by 4pm, ahead of the dinner rush, Frau said the outage seriously disrupted preparations and ingredient ordering ahead of opening time.

“We do everything by phone,” Frau told SmartCompany on Thursday.

The telecommunications giant “has to refund us something” to make up for a day of lost trade, he continued.

The business will assess Optus’ response to the outage before it considers changing providers.

For Little Secrets Boutique, a clothing retailer in Singleton, NSW, the consequences of the outage have carried into a second day.

Business owner Kristy Ross said the point-of-sale outage forced customers to resort to cash if they had it on them.

“We did lose money, and it disrupted the whole day really, because [reception] didn’t come back until 1.30, 2 o’clock,” she said.

Fortunately, the boutique is located close to an ATM, and some customers did elect to withdraw cash to complete their purchase.

But the business’ online store is now an “absolute shamozzle”, Ross said.

“I have to ring a lot of people now and cancel their orders because half of it was sold yesterday, and I didn’t know, because our POS system wasn’t up and working,” she said.

“That’s one effect: I have to refund money today and then disappoint them that they couldn’t get any of the products.”

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Ross is also open to a refund or compensation from Optus, should such a system become available.

SmartCompany understands other retailers were particularly susceptible to the outage.

Stores serving an older clientele found customers were uncomfortable making direct bank transfers, further limiting their ability to make sales.

Second-order effects include the disruptions caused to train services in Melbourne, which may have delayed workers travelling to or from work.

Federal government advises SMEs to keep receipts

Optus is yet to publicly identify the cause of the outage.

Given the severity of the outage, Telecommunications Minister Michelle Rowland has announced the federal government will conduct a post-incident review.

“Connectivity is absolutely essential for Australian consumers and businesses, and the impacts of this outage were particularly concerning,” Rowland said in a statement.

“While we welcome that Optus services were restored over the course of the day, it is critical the Government conducts a process to identify lessons to be learned from yesterday’s outage.”

Mirroring comments made by the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman, which handles complaints made against telco providers, Rowland said small businesses should hold on to receipts for purchases because of the reception outage should a compensation scheme come into effect.