Netbank bites the dust again

For the second time in a fortnight, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia's Internet banking service is unavailable due to "technical difficulties".

Customers attempting to log into the CBA service on Thursday are being greeted with an "important message from NetBank", which states that some customers are being affected by the problem and services should be resumed later this afternoon.

A Commonwealth Bank spokesperson told ZDNet Australia  that around half of NetBank's customers are affected.

"We have had some problems with NetBank this morning. Technical difficulties resulted in just over 50 percent of users trying to log on being unable to access the site. We expect that the site will be fully accessible mid afternoon," the spokesperson said.

The service was still unavailable at lunchtime on Thursday.

This is just the latest in a series of embarrassing problems at Netbank, which spent AU$100 million to upgrade its systems four months ago.

The project had its fair share of glitches even in the pilot stages where users of the service complained that they were not given any notice that their service had been upgraded.

Within days of the launch, some more users experienced problems as the bank switched over to its new system.

Last month, Netbank was down for most of a business day after another unexplained glitch.

Talkback 16 comments

    FEES Aaron Mailey -- 01/09/05 (in reply to #120120583)

    and they have put fees on online transactions via netbank! when will banks learn big profits can be spent on making things work!

    Don't use Commonwealth Anonymous -- 01/09/05

    I've been with Commonwealth bank for 20 odd years and recently they have gone stupid. The fees they are charging on Netbank are getting unbelievable - I thought they wanted to encourage electronic transactions? My advice to anyone thinking of joining the Commonwealth - DON'T!

    NetBank now allows browsers to "remember" logon details Duncan Jones -- 01/09/05

    The original version of Netbank never allowed my Opera browser to "remember" by logon details. This is no longer the case.

    Opera will now [using the Cntrl + Enter keyboard combination] auto fill out and logon for me.

    This is fine as long as my laptop never leaves my sight, but somehow I feel safer having to enter my logon name and password manually evertime I want to use Netbank.

    This is an Opera issue Anonymous -- 13/09/05 (in reply to #120120589)

    You can configure Opera to obey the autocomplete=off directive.
    NetBank has the sign-in page tagged correctly.

    Westpac even worse? Anonymous -- 02/09/05

    I always thought Westpac would have been the worst in terms of net banking reliability.

    Very frequently (usually once a week), Internet banking is unavailable through Westpac for hours on end.

    I've also noticed that repeated retries to their site during downtime result in your account being locked and you get a message to the effect of "Your account has been locked for security reasons".

    This has happened to my family and I on several occasions and have had to wait on the phone for about 30 minutes each time to rectify the problem.

    using same consultants? Anonymous -- 21/11/05 (in reply to #120120629)

    Perhaps the Commonwealth Bank were using the same consultants as Westpac before them, to work on their $100 million upgrade. The current 'spin-doctor' trend is certainly 'fixing' things. Yes, I certainly will switch over to another bank from the Commonwealth bank, due to having my accounts and access 'fixed' by this fee charging bank obviously not to my common wealth.

    Which bank? Anonymous -- 03/09/05

    Perhaps, instead of "which bank", it should be "what bank?". Does it really exist? Does it really provide Internet banking, or is that yet another victim of cutbacks?

    Hard to beleive that they spent 100m Anonymous -- 05/09/05

    Its hard to beleive that they spent $100million. I bet if they asked a few developers to have done what they have produced for say $100k they would have a better result. I think they have been ripped off and now they are paying for it, as well as their customers. Really $100million for what?, did anybody tell them that the dot com boom era ended long time ago. I have used CBA's site, nothing special moved to National no fees,

    It's all about outsourcing! Anonymous -- 06/09/05

    Narrow-minded management can only think of short-term, ineffective cost savings. Most of them only function that way. They rotate around and "plant" their stupid ideas without thinking about future or any strategic directions. Outsourcing is one of their "bright" ideas. The Bank pays gazillions of dollars for poor service which eventually transfers onto end-customer. I just cannot understand why they (so called managers) are still awarded for such a stupid mistakes. BTW, both, Westpac and Commonwealth have outsourced IT.

    Its still better that queueing Anonymous -- 07/09/05

    Even if Netbank has a few outages its still better for banking and paying bills than lining up in a queue. I havnt been inside a Bank since ATM's came along and have used Netbank for bills since it started too. It works for me.

    netbank is better than the branch Anonymous -- 07/09/05 (in reply to #120120778)

    I understand that comm bank have suffered 'some' problems but this is fair given the size of the netbank system. Some people think things just run and they cost a nickle to build... think about it people. I still prefer to live with netbank than stand waiting for service for 10min's in a branch just so I can transfer money!

    Commonwealth Bank netbank Anonymous -- 08/09/05

    I am working in China and i use Netbank to transfer money to pay off my Visa etc which gets well used here. I don't know how people used to handle their affairs when working overseas before it. I can now even use my debit card in ATMs in some small towns in Quandong province. I still don't know why they had to change things that were cosmetic. If you need to fix what is in the background then do so but unless you have a name change or something significant then leave the front door alone.

    Three days of being disconnected Anonymous -- 12/09/05

    The recent downgrade of the Netbank service with increased fees has left me totally disillusioned with the Commonwealth Bank. For three days, when I attempted to telephone the "helpdesk" the I received a recorded message that they were too busy to take my call and advised that I should call back later then I was immediately disconnected. No service but a Telstra call charge every time I tried to get through to NetBank. I then tried to record my complaint through the Bank's publish complaint line. A lot of "Bankers" there to answer the phone - but definitely not interested in anything to do with NetBank.

    Which other bank? Anonymous -- 13/09/05

    What other banks offer more solid and competitive internet banking services.

    As in Anonymous -- 13/09/05 (in reply to #120121014)

    What other competition is out there and what are their merits?

    Try St George/BankSA or BankWest michael crichton -- 14/09/05

    not wanting to push a particular bank here but i use these three (well, two actually) systems and they work quite well.

    st george/bank sa have no transaction fees on online banking, meaning you can do unlimited bpays and third party transfers at no cost. very handy for me, as I do over 20 bpays/transfers per month, and they can be automated too.

    bankwest have a very simple interface that is clean and clear to use. i don't use them for transactions though, more for statements.

    ask around - I'm sure that other banks provide unlimited (or 'generous') electronic transactions limits. None of this 50 cents per transaction stuff.

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