“It’s ridiculous,” the New Zealander in Singapore said today. “The app doesn’t work ... It hasn’t worked for weeks.”
She was going through a relationship property court case, which is why she asked not to be named, and said she needed bank account access for the case.
She said a bank staffer told her the problem seemed to be affecting other overseas Westpac customers.
“I can’t pay any bills to lenders. I’m currently in the middle of a relationship property proceeding. I’ve not been able to provide any data ... We’ve missed court deadlines.”
She said she had three mortgage accounts with Westpac and for many people, being unable to access online banking was more than a minor inconvenience.
Singapore, where an expat Westpac customer said the online banking outage was having bad effects on her legal proceedings. Photo / 123RF
“It’s not just about everyday banking. It’s everyday lives.”
She said that in East Asia, an online banking outage of this nature would receive huge publicity and corporate leaders would apologise if they’d inconvenienced customers the way Westpac had.
But she said Westpac had not front-footed the issue.
“They’ve just done nothing. They’ve literally left people in the dark overseas.”
She added: “It’s appalling they are playing this down ... Yet weeks on, here I am, still with no access and no reasonable response from Westpac as to when it will be restored. It’s woeful.”
David McNickel, a Westpac customer in China, said online banking was working last night but was down again earlier today, with a “be back soon” message.
David McNickel, one of the affected Westpac customers overseas, said this message appeared on Tuesday and again today.
He added: “They won’t say what has happened. Remarkable with all their resources and massive annual profit that they can’t fix this.”
McNickel said that yesterday afternoon Westpac had added the message: “Westpac One app and online banking will be back soon.”
He was able to log in at about 5pm today, New Zealand time.
The Singapore customer said she could see the same message.
However, another customer today said the issue seemed to have been resolved.
But yet another customer yesterday told the Herald: “My wife and I ... have been greatly inconvenienced also by not being able to access our Westpac accounts online.”
He said it was “mystifying that only some accounts” were affected.
“My wife got access to hers, piggy-backing off my phone, two days before me.”
A spokesman said at about 5pm the login problems should have been resolved and the bank would try to make more attempts to contact the Singapore customer.
On Tuesday afternoon, Westpac said “a small number of customers” had experienced issues logging into Westpac One online banking.
“Access was restored for all customers last Thursday. However the issues have returned for a minority of those customers and we are working urgently to resolve them,” the bank said at the time.
Westpac apologised, saying it realised how frustrating and disruptive the outage could be.
The bank advised people who still had issues to phone 0800 400 600 if in New Zealand, or +64 9 912 8000 overseas.
Westpac on Tuesday said it would reimburse the cost of these calls from overseas.
