Westpac Bank Outage and Compensation

Recently WestPac had an unexplained 6 hour outage to their Online Banking and Mobile App , apparently this was caused by a system upgrade that went wrong.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t access my money during this for a bill payment. I did a quick google to quantify this, and found out Commonwealth Bank had done the right thing and reached out to customer for their outage with a sum of 50$ which seemed fair. Being a loyal Westpac customer over the years I know they would not do this, so I would need to be proactive! I raised a complaint which you can see was initially ignored with an apology until I raised the next complaint procedure, and they complied.

The idiom “Like taking candy from a baby” rings true in this case, which got me thinking, and I’ve decided to start donating proceeds from these complaints to charity. It’s great to think, that corrections of mistakes can also lead to a good thing all around.

———————————————

Dear XXXXXX,

Reference – XXXXXX

Thank you for your reply.

As a gesture of good-will I have arranged to credit $50.00 to your account ending #XXXXX for the inconvenience and frustration this has caused. The funds will appear in your account within three business days.

Thank you again for taking the time to write to us.

Kind regards

Triage Manager, Westpac Group

Customer Solutions, Customer & Corporate Relations

Reply Paid 5265

Sydney NSW 2001

From: 
Sent: Tuesday, 8 September 2020 2:51 PM
To: 
Subject: Re: Westpac concern

Just to confirm Westpac won’t compensate me for this ? If so then I will raise this with the Australian Financial Complaints Authority (AFCA) with my proof of loss 

Thanks

XXXXXX

—————————————————————————————–

On Tue, Sep 8, 2020 at 2:42 PM @westpac.com.au> wrote:

Thanks for contacting us about accessing Westpac Online Banking.

Unfortunately, we have had technical problems with Westpac Online banking over the last 24 hours, which impacted the ability for some of our customers to use the service.

We apologise for any inconvenience that this may have caused.

This issue has been rectified and you should now be able to login.

If you are still having issues logging in, we invite you to:

* Call 1300 655 505 (8am to 8pm, 7 days) from anywhere in Australia

* Call + 61 2 9155 7700 (24 hours) from overseas.

Kindly note, in future, our Telephone Banking team are available to assist, if online banking is unavailable.

We have passed your feedback on to the relevant parts of our business and this feedback will be used to help us improve on our service and approach.

XXXXX, thank you for taking the time to let the Bank know of your experience as it is through such feedback that we learn how our products and services are performing for our customers. I have provided a complaints matter brochure with our escalation process if you are not happy with this resolution.

Once again we sincerely apologise for the inconvenience you have experienced due to this matter.

Kind regards

Triage Manager, Westpac Group

Customer Solutions, Customer & Corporate Relations

Reply Paid 5265

Sydney NSW 2001

Just to let you know, in the next couple of weeks you may receive a short survey about the service I provided you. It would be wonderful if you could complete it based on your experience of working with me to resolve your complaint. Thank you.

———————————–Original Message——————————————————-

To:  <[email protected]>

Subject:  Feedback – Complaint

What is your feedback: Complaint

Comments: Unfortunately today I needed to move money out of my Westpac Bank account to pay another party. Due to the outage today, I have wasted a hour of my time contacting the recipient of the sum to tell them the reason for this and had to monitor it all day and keep them updated due to your continued outage.

I would like to be compensated for this wasted time

Expected Outcome: Financial Compensation for wasted hour ( 50$ )

Customer Address: *

Customer Phone Number: *

Customer Number: *


3 Comments

  1. I was able to get $200 from uBank for the same reason.
    uBank tried their best misleading tricks to avoid the complaint, they invented all the most miserable excuses like “it’s your browser” or “you have a virus” etc. etc.
    Then as usual, I started my research and I found out that people were complaining for the same issue on uBank Facebook’s page.
    People posted screen shots which matched with my screen shots.
    It was only after a complaint to the Financial Ombudsman that I was able to get the miserable compensation.

    1. And did you know they get a fine for every Financial Ombudsman complaint you file?

      So their customer service desk has an SLA and job quota and that’s to close and ignore your complaint, even if you threaten an AFCA. Their results are based on closing the case no matter what the outcome.

      They have another service desk inside the company that’s job is to settle Financial Ombudsman complaints, their SLA and job quota is to pay and close the AFCA the fastest!

      1. What troubles me is that these corporations only employ Indians and there is a specific reason why do it.
        When they make the offer is to avoid the case escalate further at the AFCA also to avoid being recorded.
        I must say that the new financial Ombudsman is much more effective and it has much more power than the previous one.

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