“The inability to contact 000 from a landline is ludicrous.”
Diane, from NSW, is not happy with Optus. She’s not the only one.
Hundreds of our readers have shared their experience, from frustrating to life threatening. We have published some of their responses below.
Diane, Central Coast, NSW
“I am a Support Coordinator working with a Disability Support Company on the NSW Central Coast.
“This outage has huge ramifications on those with disabilities. They [Optus] do not understand what the outage means, or how it affects them.”
“The inability to contact 000 from a landline is ludicrous.”
“Telco’s like Optus encourage people with disabilities to have a fixed landline, but in cases such as this, Optus has failed them.”
“I have clients who are under extreme stress now as they cannot connect with loved ones, support networks and the most important sector – Emergency Services!”
Debbie, small e-commerce business owner of ‘Only The Sweet Stuff’
“It’s devastating because this is one of the most critical times for the business following the launch of our Black Friday sale.
“It’s one of our busiest times of year, which we rely on to set us up for the new year.
“We are not even able to dispatch orders.
“The outage has taken away access to my website, and inventory – I can’t even contact my only staff member.
“My revenue is down by 63 per cent currently, and we have had a 72% drop in checkouts on our e-Store.”
“I am a Chiropractic Assistant. I walked into work early this morning ready for business as usual, but my boss and I found it strange that the Wi-Fi wouldn’t work, after fiddling around with the modem.
“We couldn’t access the treatment notes or appointment schedules, and this left us quite helpless when each patient walked through the door.
“The most incredible event involved our patients just walking out without paying or booking their next appointment.
“Mutual agreements were made to ensure the invoice eventually gets paid.
“I eventually left work early due to boredom.”
Rebecca, working from home
“As someone who is disabled, and knowing there is another rise in Covid cases in my area right now, it worries me that there might have been people who couldn’t get emergency help this morning if they needed it.
“I know first hand how quickly a situation can change when you’ve got underlying conditions.
“I was unable to let my pharmacy know I’d be picking up my scripts today too.
“They prepare them in advance for me as I’m immunocompromised so I can get in and out as quickly as possible with minimal risk.”
Katherine, Tweed Heads, NSW
“I am a carer of my eldest daughter, so this has a huge impact on me and her.
“She is with her support worker but even if I wanted to call her, I cant.
“This shouldn’t be happening in 2023.”
“I’m furious because it is imperative that I call my elderly father 4 times a day.
“When I finally called him he was crying and in a panicked state.
Aussies stuck overseas
While the outage struck millions of people in Australia, thousands of Optus customers abroad were also hit by the outage.
“I’m in Vancouver and can’t call family,” wrote Maree, from Vancouver.
Meanwhile, Sue and Bill, who are travelling in New Zealand, said their plans had been severely impacted.
“We are travelling in New Zealand by car,” they wrote. We purchased roaming credit for our phones so we had some communications if we had problems with the car or needed directions.”
“Our hotel bookings were all on our email and QANTAS app. The only time we got lost was in Christchurch. “
“Thank God for service stations to get verbal directions and Macca’s for free Wi-Fi.”
