The Tatts network outage today will have a considerable cost to retailers. Being a $12M Powerball day, there is labour to consider along with other lost sales due to a drop in foot traffic given the public news of the network outage.
The National Retailers Association last month provided guidance on how to handle a claim re a NAB EFTPOS outage. I share it here for those considering whether they wish to seek compensation from Tatts:
On 26 May 2018, the online transaction network of the National Australia Bank (NAB) suffered an outage which caused NAB EFTPOS and HICAPS terminals to be inoperative.
As a result of this, businesses may have suffered losses due to the inability of customers to purchase goods or services.
NAB undertaking with respect to business losses
NAB has undertaken to compensate those businesses who suffered losses because of this outage.
Businesses affected by this outage are invited to contact NAB on the following numbers:
- For NAB Transact and/or EFTPOS services – 1300 369 852
- For HICAPS services – 1300 650 852
- For other business compensation inquiries – 13 10 12
What to prepare
When seeking compensation, NAB will likely require some form of evidence to substantiate your claim for compensation.
Evidence of:
- changes in sales patterns due to the outage (eg. a sudden drop in sales after the outage occurred); and/or
- differences in sales between 26 May 2018 and the previous and subsequent Saturday; are likely to be of assistance.
Newsagents with software that records previous sales and other data points could easily quantify the commercial impact of the Tatts outage. While school holidays will be a factor along with some other aspects such weather, one ought be able to make a case. This is especially true for businesses with larger Tatts sales, with dedicated labour costs.
Tatts implied commercial impact in their announcement of a delay to the draw. This notice issued by them could be part of a claim by retailers as it acknowledges the problem.
Hopefully, Tatts management will advise retailers, if they have not done so already, the process for determining compensation. In the meantime, lottery retailers should undertake their own enquiries into this, to understand their rights and actions open to them.
A novel and fair idea would be for tatts to run a charity day of sorts whereby they donate all commissions feom online sales back to the retail network.
Will Tatts Compensate Retailers ?
Of course they wi…… Ooh hang on I see a flying pig going by.