Bannister Law investigates legal action against Tyro, after prolonged eftpos terminal outage

A growing number of businesses have registered interest in potential legal action against payment tech company Tyro, after a prolonged service outage prevented them from being able to accept card payments.

Sydney-based law firm Bannister Law announced on Wednesday it is investigating potential claims, against Tyro Payments Limited, from a large number of businesses that have been unable to accept eftpos payments on their Tyro terminals for 10 days.

The firm is also considering any potential shareholder claims against the publicly listed company following a share price fall after some terminals became ‘bricked’ from a configuration issue.

Owner of Forestville Pharmacy in Sydney, Peter Hawthorne, says it has been a “very frustrating” week after his two terminals stopped working last Saturday.

“It has been a very frustrating scenario because you kept getting the message from Tryo’s customer service that it will be fixed and a courier will come,” Hawthorne tells SmartCompany.

The family-run pharmacy went without a card payment system for only several hours because Hawthorne dashed to Officeworks to buy a Square terminal to function as a replacement.

After waiting in vain for a courier to quickly collect the two Tyro terminals, Hawthorne says his wife visited Tyro’s Clarence Street office in Sydney to drop them off herself.

“It was just chaos on the first floor of Clarence Street. The staff there were obviously stressed, but they were very nice,” he says.

Hawthorne says while he only lost a couple of hundred dollars worth of sales in the few hours he went without a functioning terminal, had he not found a replacement, he could have lost up to $25,000 over the entire week.

“We’re trying to take a deep breath for now but a disruption on this scale does make you reconsider,” he says.

Tyro actively engaged with frustrated customers via its Facebook page and has been releasing regular updates on its service status webpage.

“Our sincere apologies for the disruption being caused. Please know we are working around the clock to get you a functioning terminal,” the company said in a statement on Monday.

On January 7, the ASX-listed company announced to its shareholders that there were connectivity issues with respect to ‘a limited number’ of its terminals.

“Tyro is working closely with our terminal supplier, Worldline, who are assisting in the resolution effort,” the company said in its ASX announcement.

Speaking to SmartCompany, Bannister Law principal Charles Bannister reveals a large number of businesses have already registered their interest in potential legal action against Tyro online.

“Frustration and anger is continuing and growing, and businesses are suffering losses each day,” he adds.

Tyro is one of the largest providers of eftpos service, providing terminals to over 32,000 Australian businesses.

SmartCompany has contacted Tyro on multiple occasions and is yet to receive a response.