Payment services resumed across Australia after a disruption on Saturday afternoon left some customers unable to complete purchases at major retailers, with Mastercard blaming a \u201cscheduled system update\u201d for the outage.<\/p>\n
Reports spread during the afternoon as shoppers said card transactions and digital wallet payments were failing during a global Mastercard outage.<\/p>\n
Customers described problems with bank cards as well as mobile wallet purchases, including Apple Pay and Android Pay, when linked to Mastercard.<\/p>\n
Businesses in parts of Sydney and Brisbane reported confusion at check-outs as some transactions went through while others were declined. <\/p>\n
At one stage, retailers were asking customers to try another card, use cash or return later as queues built and purchases were abandoned.<\/p>\n
Cafes and grocers in Sydney\u2019s eastern suburbs were among those affected by the outage, with Chargrill Charlie\u2019s at Charing Cross explaining the problem had continued for about an hour.<\/p>\n
Owner Ron Shaked said the store had \u201chad to turn customers away\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey haven\u2019t been able to pay, people were having to wait a long time and they\u2019ve left because they were sick of waiting,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Frenchmans Rd Pharmacy manager Joseph Riakos said staff were struggling to explain the issue to customers because the disruption appeared to hit some cards but not others.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re having to say either use cash or to come back another time,\u201d Mr Riakos said during the outage.<\/p>\n
A Brisbane woman said she was left embarrassed when her payment was declined at a Bowen Hills cafe despite having funds in her account.<\/p>\n
\u201cI checked the accounts and the money was there but every attempt was declined,\u201d she told NewsWire.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never have cash but luckily for once I did or I would\u2019ve had to leave.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was embarrassing enough as it was \u2013 I know the money was there but you still feel like a bit of a fraud when it fails.\u201d<\/p>\n
Businesses across Australia posted on social media to warn customers about the Mastercard issue as some payments were being declined.<\/p>\n
Earlier in the outage, Commonwealth Bank said some Mastercard card payments were being declined \u201cdue to a global MasterCard issue\u201d and advised customers to insert their card and select savings to make payments via eftpos.<\/p>\n
Downdetector, a website that tracks user-reported service outages, logged a surge in Mastercard complaints between 2pm and 4pm, including more than 1700 reports by 3pm on Saturday.<\/p>\n
In a statement to NewsWire, a Mastercard spokesperson said a \u201cscheduled system update\u201d caused Mastercard transactions to be declined for a period of time.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe situation has been resolved and all systems are working as normal,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Payment services resumed across Australia after a disruption on Saturday afternoon left some customers unable to complete purchases…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":569673,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[280722,280730,280736,271062,280712,272832,280761,280748,280726,280733,280725,280765,280767,280731,271102,280752,280753,280766,11730,280749,280714,280704,280715,280739,8906,85,280719,10166,280724,6932,280716,280757,280734,280754,280759,3231,19061,4381,11502,280727,280703,280710,280706,36091,280738,280732,280718,16710,280758,280713,280756,280741,342,280737,280747,280743,111,187831,168183,139,69,280745,17711,280707,44670,1653,384,10057,19987,27563,280740,766,6492,280751,1534,280760,4578,16739,1414,280709,280746,280742,280708,280762,280728,1516,1734,280721,280744,145,280717,280764,280720,261629,280763,265757,280723,280711,280755,262450,280729,280705,280750,2044,280735],"class_list":["post-569764","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mobile","tag-s-eastern-suburbs","tag-2pm-and-4pm","tag-3pm","tag-a-period","tag-a-scheduled-system-update","tag-a-bit","tag-a-bowen-hills-cafe","tag-a-disruption","tag-a-fraud","tag-a-global-mastercard-issue","tag-a-global-mastercard-outage","tag-a-long-time","tag-a-mastercard-spokesperson","tag-a-payment-network-fault","tag-a-statement","tag-a-surge","tag-a-website","tag-about-an-hour-owner","tag-afternoon","tag-all-systems","tag-and-grocers","tag-android-pay","tag-another-card","tag-another-time","tag-apple-pay","tag-australia","tag-bank-cards","tag-businesses","tag-card-transactions","tag-cash","tag-cash-or-return","tag-chargrill-charlie","tag-charing-cross","tag-check-outs","tag-checkout-chaos","tag-commonwealth-bank","tag-confusion","tag-customers","tag-digital-payments","tag-digital-wallet-payments","tag-eftpos-downdetector","tag-either-use-cash","tag-every-attempt","tag-funds","tag-her-account","tag-her-payment","tag-major-retailers","tag-mastercard","tag-mastercard-complaints","tag-mastercard-services","tag-mastercard-transactions","tag-mastercard-businesses","tag-mobile","tag-mobile-wallet-purchases","tag-more-than-1700-reports","tag-mr-riakos","tag-new-zealand","tag-newswire","tag-newswire-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-one-stage","tag-parts","tag-payment-outage","tag-payment-services","tag-payments","tag-people","tag-problems","tag-purchases","tag-queues","tag-rd-pharmacy-manager-joseph-riakos","tag-reports","tag-retailers","tag-ron-shaked","tag-saturday","tag-saturday-in","tag-savings","tag-shoppers","tag-social-media","tag-some-card","tag-some-cards","tag-some-customers","tag-some-mastercard-card-payments","tag-some-payments","tag-some-transactions","tag-staff","tag-sydney","tag-sydney-and-brisbane","tag-system-update","tag-technology","tag-the-accounts","tag-the-afternoon","tag-the-disruption","tag-the-issue","tag-the-mastercard-issue","tag-the-money","tag-the-outage","tag-the-outage-a-brisbane-woman","tag-the-problem","tag-the-situation","tag-the-spokesperson","tag-the-store","tag-their-card","tag-time","tag-user-reported-service-outages"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569764","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=569764"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/569764\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/569673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=569764"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=569764"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=569764"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}