Customers are reporting Commonwealth Bank is putting $50 in their accounts with a ‘sorry’ message after last week’s major outage. Here’s what we know.
Commonwealth Bank (CBA) faced a major outage on 17 October leaving millions of Australians without access to their accounts and many other non-CBA customers without expected payments. While the issue was resolved within a day of the outage occurring, a backlog of transactions meant some were left without payments over the weekend or faced late fees on payment deadlines.
Customers on Twitter and Reddit have since uploaded screenshots on 22 and 23 October showing $50 deposits allegedly from CBA with a description reading “Sorry from CBA”.
lol did commbank really just send me $50 and a sorry because of last thursday’s outtage? pic.twitter.com/73U7rNv3zc
— smnth (@pieceofcupcakes) October 22, 2019
CBA’s Twitter did confirm it would refund fees and charges that occurred due to its outage but has not said anything specifically about sending money outside of refunds.
(2/2) We are now refunding fees and charges associated to the network issue on Thursday for our customers who were impacted by this issue.
We are very sorry for the inconvenience to everyone who has been affected by the delay.
— CommBank (@CommBank) October 21, 2019
On its updates page, it confirmed was making payments to customers but it’s suggested these were reimbursements fees and charges incurred — not in compensation for the inconvenience and distress the outage caused.
“Commonwealth Bank has made a payment into the accounts of customers who were unable to access their funds over the weekend, due to the delay in payments,” the post said.
“We wish to advise that we will not be contacting any customers to obtain their account details in order to process this payment. If a customer is approached for their account details they should not provide this and the customer should let us know by phoning our call centre or visiting us in branch.”
It’s understood, however, the $50 is being offered as gesture of goodwill to CBA customers who weren’t able to receive payments prior to the weekend. Accounts identified by the bank as not receiving payments in time were sent the sum on the night of 22 October but anyone who believes they were affected by the outage should contact CBA. Non-CBA customers who were also affected by the outage and didn’t receive payment before the weekend should also contact the bank if they wish to air their grievances.
Lifehacker Australia reached out to Commonwealth Bank on the morning of 23 October to confirm the reports and determine who was eligible for the $50 sum. It did not provide any further comments.
This story was updated with additional information.
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