Eftpos outages reported around country

Photo / Dean Purcell

By RNZ and Herald reporters

Stores around the country have been unable to process Eftpos payments for much of today due to a worldwide outage.

Payment provider Windcave says it has been investigating technical issues since 9am, which caused intermittent blackouts. It also provides services internationally, including in Australia, Asia and the Pacific.

Several retailers across the country took to social media to notify frustrated customers of the outage.

Homeware store Briscoes confirmed all of its stores had been affected by the outage, but payments were still being processed with a delay.

A Herald reader said Eftpos machines were down at the Warehouse in Westgate this afternoon. She had been told Countdown supermarket was also affected.

Social media users describe chaotic scenes in shops as customers without cash are unable to pay.

Some have described the outage as causing retail “chaos”.

“I am in Auckland and not even parking meters are working,” said one social media user.

The worldwide outage was first reported around 9am by Windcave, which facilitates such payments for businesses.

Merchants were experiencing “intermittent level timeouts” as the company worked to restore access, it noted on its website.

“We apologise for the inconvenience and the disruption this outage has caused,” the company said.

By 2pm, the company said it had been able to resolve the issue and “get processing back to normal”.

“Merchants should start seeing transactions and Payline access stabilise as of above times,” the company said.

Movie theatres, retail stores and restaurants were among the many businesses unable to accept card payments.

One shopper at a West Auckland Warehouse store this morning described the experience to the Herald as quite frustrating.

“I had gone in to get shorts for my daughter,” she said, explaining that it’s not often she gets out of the house to do shopping without all of her children in tow.

But the retailer kept saying over the speaker system that the Eftpos system was down.

“They probably said that three or four times, and then I just left because there was no point. There were heaps of people just walking out the doors.”

The shopper said she didn’t blame staff, who she described as helpful in letting customers know about the difficult situation.

“I never have cash on me anymore,” she said. “It makes you realise how reliant we are on Eftpos these days.”

Wellington City Council sent a notice to residents that the PayMyPark app was unable to accept payments.

“Due to this, we will not be enforcing meter payments until this is resolved,” the council said. “Time limits will still apply and will be enforced.”

Due to a WINDCAVE outage, parking meters and the PayMyPark app are not currently able to accept card payments.
Due to this we will not be enforcing meter payments until this is resolved. Time limits still apply and will be enforced.
Thank you for your patience 🙏

— Wellington City Council (@WgtnCC) February 5, 2023

The outage also appeared to be causing issues for charitable giving website Givealittle.

“We are aware there is a current issue with processing payments which may affect some donors,” a banner on the website told visitors today. “Our payment provider is working to resolve this.”