One anonymous Westpac customer told ZDNet that after logging on successfully this morning, the user came back to the e-banking site an hour later to find a blank page with a top line of -mixed up characters".
-I refreshed and received it again. On a third attempt, I once again got the "Sorry, Internet Banking is currently not available" box," the Westpac customer said.
A statement on the bank's Web site this morning confirmed the outage.
"Following hardware and software checks, we have slowly started opening up Online Banking to customers. Although some access is now available you may still experience delays or disruptions today as we anticipate heavy demand during business hours."
Labelling Westpac's ongoing online access problems -absurd", the avid user of Internet banking believes Westpac should not be promoting the use of the site so heavily if it does not have adequate back-up procedures in place. "Reverting us to their phone banking service is just not good enough," the reader said.
The customer added that free, over-the-counter banking should be provided for customers as a result of the inconvenience caused.
-This is costing me time and money, and I'm not happy," the customer added.
Wespac denies the problems have been the result of external viruses or attacks on the systems security, but declined to comment further.
that's the trouble with technology. the reliability just isn't there and it won't get much better. it doesn't matter what the technology is, whether it's cars, phones, washing machines or even pen and paper. there will ALWAYS be failures. the crux of the matter is what level of failure is acceptable, considering the advantages gained when the technology does work