The Tattersalls network has been down in Victoria for over an hour. The Tattersalls phone lines are constantly engaged. The company has not sent an email explaining the situation. Newsagents don’t know if it is just them or the whole network. Earlier this week a smaller group of newsagents suffered network outage, the remifications of which are still being dealt with.
Both lottery companies need to come up with more efficient ways to alert their respective networks to status. Too much time is spent trying to get onto an overloaded call centre in these circumstances.
UPDATE (10:15PM) The Herald Sun posted a report about this online at 7:06pm tonight which claims the network was out between 2pm and 6:20pm. This is a long time to be unable to sell tickets in a short retail week before a long weekend.
This outage is more financially painful than the Intralot outage because of the considerable higher revenue put through Tattersalls compared to Intralot – this is the difference between category 1 and category 2 products.
I went back and read an earlier post of yours Mark when intralot was off line the whole day recently, and i was not really shocked to be honest,the empathy and understanding that was understated and implied in your blog towards their plight was quite obvious,and to be honest not so subtle…here is what you said..
The Intralot network is down in Victoria today due to an Optus network problem. This is also affecting access to the Intralot help desk. Optus people have been working on the problem all day. I am posting this here as a service and not for commentary.
Category: Lotteries
the irony and contradiction in your recent post does nothing to dispell any previous held thoughts that your comments are not completely unbiased and again it must be asked why?I ask again why are you not more critical of intralot when they continually underachieve Mark,or is there some reason you cant be or chose not to be.And finally ,as you said in your prior post about “not being commentary, just service” ,why are you providing a “service”for intralot anyway..Interesting
Helen, I let people know about the Intralot network being down just as I have done today wwith Tattersalls. No conspiracies here.
Ours is now working again.
And now it’s down again…
I think the conspiracy theory is a little thin; I requested Mark investigate this matter first hand as a result of the lack of information coming from Tattersalls.
This issue has happened before; Tattersall’s were advised of their shortcoming with communications then. Nothing has changed regarding this issue and Tattersalls deserve any critisism directed at them.
It’s ridiculous that we are kept in the dark regarding outages when we have so many avenues of communication.
Intralot is no different, (except i actually make money from Tatts), hopefully they will learn where Tatts continues to fail.
Why then Vaughan would Mark retrospectively add the second paragragh bit about “both companies” after he had finished and posted his original blog already…maybe to make it look like part of the original post and not look so biased when pointed out to him..call me a conspiracy theorist yes but much too many coincidences for real credibility for me
Helen, I did not add the second paragraph because of anything you wrote. You hate intralot, I get that. I cannot change your opinion just as you cannot change mine. If you think I am as bad as you suggest why keep coming back here. You only comment on lottery stuff. There is so much more of value here.
I would suggest that the second paragraph was added simply because it is a fact, not a conspiracy.
I hate Intralot as much as the next person. I have it; it’s a dead donkey that takes up retail space. (not getting into further details now)
The point is, both companies are atrocious at notifying their customers when the shit hits the fan. Tattersalls track record has not changed in 5 years despite discussion on this issue prior. They deserve the critism coming their way.
Mark,i participate in many such forums such as yours, as i like to read informed unbiased debate on a variety of issues..as i said i have been in newsagencies for over 22 years and i will comment on issues when they affect me positively or negatively..if you dont like criticism and critique of your comments and blogs, i could say say the same to you, dont blog…as you say “there is so much more value” though in hearing unbiased balanced comments..blogging is always 2 ways Mark not one …and Vaughan as i said Mark could have added the second paragarph as a subsequent post not an alteration that in my opinion attempts to appear as the original post…again clarity is important.
just to let you all know had two transactions that were going thru when the system went down one did go thru the other was branded “INVALID TICKET” .
When I finally did get thru to the Tatersalls Help Line i was asked what were the last tranactions- the invalid ticket was a still live and i was charged for it!!
It has been subsequently been deleted and the L.A.A.V has been informed about the issue.
Mark thank you for letting me know that I was not the only newsagent affected. tatts phone line rang out. Helen take a chill pill.
Theo; great point.
We also have had 2 lots of tickets that were invalid. One lot on Monday totalling $42.00 and today for another $20.00. Tatts are refusing to refund the Monday tickets as we could not speak with them until Tuesday morning. I cannot get through to Tatts today and expect the same attitude tomorrow when we try to cancel the tickets.
You will be hearing more of this issue.
Question; with Tatts being down for a large part of the afternoon; why haven’t we heard anything from Tatts, LAAV, VANA etc.
It brings us back to the relevance of ANY association.
Spoke to the LAAV they will take the issue up with the victorian gaming group
(there a lot more issues about reliability of the system) and Vaughan have you called the LAAV about the tickets? maybe they can do something about it.
This down time issue is going to hit the fan big time because a punter will come out and say that they would have won tonights lotto if they had a chance to put it on.
I’ll be upfront and say that i prefer Tatts but i did let my business manager that it was a “piss poor ” effort from Tatts with the communications effort.
I’ll complain again to Tatts given this is the second time in three days the system has gone in my shop.
Cheers
Theo;
The issue is not about the LAAV doing something about my tickets; the issue is about communication of this major outage. I have it on very good authority that both VANA and the LAAV knew about this not long after it occurred across the network. Have we heard from Tatts, nope.
Have i seen any advice from either LAAV or VANA, nope.
Like i said, what’s their relevance?
If a ticket is branded invailid then one could assumed that it is not live and therefore it does not need to be cancelled.
It is also impossible to cancel a ticket if you get a constant engaged signal are we expected to wait till after business hours for a ring tone or perhaps after the draw when it is way too late.
Vaughan, any organisation serving newsagents needs ot understand that today communucation is everything. There are no excuses. Twitter, Facebook, blogging, email – these are all facilities which can be used to keep people in the loop. In today’s indicent, those serving newsagents used none.
what is their relevance, well yes they were told certain facts that subsequently were well maybe misleading -i don’t know LAAV was told that not ALL the network was down.
i have never been a member of Vana, but a member of LAAV.
i ain’t an apologist for the LAAV.
So with this turmoil i ask myself am i better than the guy that has put their hand up to represent me cause i haven’t and we do need an association of some sort. Ok representation may not be the best but who can I do better??
Tatts and their communications issue i’ll let them know -again and again.
hope you guys and gals do the same complain and complain and complain then take it to the newspapers that people can’t put on their Recession buster winning ticket at a Tatts outlet.
cheers