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Update 13 Jan 2021: Tyro EFTPOS outage will stretch into next week for some merchants
An outage of Tyro (ASX: TYR) EFTPOS terminals will stretch over a second week as the company scrambles to fix 'locked' hardware, igniting the rage of customers on social media.
As announced last Tuesday, Tyro identified a connectivity issue relating to approximately 15 per cent of its terminal fleet.
In the resulting days the group's technicians worked day and night just to identify the cause, which was eventually uncovered on Friday 8 January 2021.
The root cause is a "configuration issue" according to Tyro - something unable to be fixed remotely with a software update.
As such, Tyro has contracted a third party to physically collect impacted terminals which will be fixed and redeployed.
However, in an announcement today, the company said that part of the process may take between two to four days, meaning some Tyro customers will go more than a week without anyway to accept EFTPOS payments.
According to Tyro's latest update, posted last night, the timeframe for repair is location dependent.
"We have engaged a third-party partner to collect all locked terminals around the country and bring them back to our facilities as quickly as possible," Tyro said.
"We expect the turnaround time, from when your terminal is collected to being returned, will range between two and four days (with this timeframe being location dependent).
"We will do all we can to expedite this timeframe noting it includes delivery and return time and also accounts for the volume of terminals being repaired."
To date, the company has not given any indication that it will be compensating businesses for lost revenue during the period, nor has it offered customers any sort of alternative solution to see them through as the issue is fixed.
Outraged customers have taken to social media, condemning Tyro for the time taken to rectify the problem and vowing to change providers.
"I know you may only think of me as a small and insignificant client, but my small business relies on your system working," one impacted customer said on Facebook.
"I will never recommend your product to anyone."
Another customer bemoaned how it had been an entire week since the outage and they were yet to be notified about the collection of a broken terminal by the contracted third party tasked with collecting the devices.
"I'm [sic] still haven't been contacted from any of you guys," another customer said.
"Today is day 7 since the card machine is down. Really sick of explain [sic] and say [sic] sorry to the customers."
One customer even mentioned US-based competitor Square as an alternative to Tyro for impacted customers, decrying the alleged lack of communication from the payments provider.
"Why don't you advise us to go and get a square reader from Officeworks and get back online, same day?? You'd rather keep us in the dark than help us. Can you imagine how good you'd look if you told people about Square or the like??," they said.
"I know I tell my customers to go to the next shop if I don't have the product they want. I expect that from the people I deal with too.
"You have shown your lack of ethics and integrity. This is not the kind of business I want to deal with."
Shares in Tyro are down 2.17 per cent to $0.09 per share at 1.09pm AEDT.
Business News Australia has approached Tyro for comment.
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