Gold Coast internet outage: West Burleigh business owners lose thousands to weekly NBN outages

The NBN has shrugged off weekly outages that are costing Burligh business owners thousands in lost sales.

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WEST Burleigh business owners are livid over regular internet outages lasting all day leading to thousands of dollars in lost sales.

The internet outages are impacting a number of businesses on the ocean side of Tallebudgera Creek Rd including The Plantation House Cafe, Woodbox Cafe, Fraser Financial Services and Go Body Massage & Osteopathy.

They say they have been left without eftpos and internet for the past four Wednesdays, with staff at businesses having to “hot spot” off their mobile phones to access the internet.

However, a spokeswoman for NBN Co said there had been two outages in the past five weeks – one on October 21 caused by a power issue and another on November 18 caused “by an issue at a pit”.

West Burleigh businesses say they have suffered repeated internet outages caused by the NBN.

The spokeswoman said both had been resolved.

“It is it purely coincidental both incidents occurred on a Wednesday,” she said.

But Abby Steven, who runs Go Body Massage & Osteopathy, said she had messages from her ISP (internet service provider) TPG alerting her to at least four outages in the past month.

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The first was on October 21 and went from 7.43am to 9.11pm while the second was called “planned maintenance” from NBN Co and lasted from 8am to 4pm on October 27, she said.

The third outage ran from 8am to 4pm on November 4 and the most recent interruption to their internet service was on November 18 and ran until the next day, she added.

“I’m having to treat patients and not charge them or organise alternative arrangements (for payment) as we cannot use eftpos when the internet is down,” she said.

West Burleigh businesses say they have suffered repeated internet outages caused by the NBN.

She said in each instance TPG had said it was either planned maintenance by NBN or NBN was the source of the disruption.

Ms Steven said she had called TPG to cancel her service and had been referred to their internal disputes team.

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“It’s severely inconvenient,” she said.

“I’ve had to rely on patients doing bank transfers when the eftpos is out.”

Woodbox Cafe staff member Christian Cosentino said his family-run business had experienced an internet outage each Wednesday for the past four weeks.

Christian Cosentino from Woodbox Cafe says the business has experienced repeated internet outages.

Mr Cosentino said the business had lost “hundreds of dollars” during last week’s outage because it affected their eftpos machine.

“It’s absolutely ridiculous. It’s the worst possible timing as well, small businesses are already struggling through COVID,” Mr Cosentino said.

“(The outage) made the actual day harder because we were juggling people who were starting tabs so they can pay later.

“Others we’ve turned away because they don’t have cash or were visiting from out of town and can’t come back and pay.

“Any business on this street would be facing this issue. It’s not fair for all the businesses and it’s not something we should have to worry about it.”

Another business owner, who declined to be named, said the outages had been every Wednesday for the past five weeks.

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