SUNDRE – Businesses and residents in Sundre have been left scrambling to come up with backup plans in light of an Xplore high speed fibre optic internet service interruption now lasting into a second day.
Among them is the Sundre Eyecare Clinic, whose staff late on the morning of Wednesday, Oct. 2 had to inform their customers that only cash payments would be accepted.
Dominik Hanson, a dispenser who helps clients pick out their glasses after they get a prescription, told the Albertan on Thursday, Oct. 3 that staff found themselves in a tight spot when they realized their internet went out the morning prior.
“That was a bit of scramble, trying to figure out what to do. So it was cash only and we had to call people in advance,” Hanson said.
“Yesterday it wasn’t so bad because we had a lot of senior patients booked in and they’re covered by Alberta Health Care, so we didn’t have to get them to pay for their exams,” she said.
But they’d hoped that their internet service with Xplore, which the clinic had fairly recently switched over to, would have been restored by the time they came back into to work this morning, she added.
Upon realizing they still had no connection, she said they decided they could not go the whole day without the ability to process debit or credit card payments.
“It’s a little bit difficult obviously because we have been actually having to call our Olds location,” she said, also confirming that insurance can only be processed through the use of a personal hot spot.
“We have a few locations, but they have been taking payment over the phone via debit machine, and then on our end we’re just writing down the reference number and we have to get our accountant to make the adjustment saying Olds accepted X amount of money and we have to transfer it to Sundre,” she explained.
“That’s how we’ve been doing debit and credit payments. Otherwise, it’s only cash,” she said, adding patients must of course consent to that approach.
While Hanson could not say exactly how many customers were willing to have the staff process payments over the phone on Oct. 3, she confirmed there had been at least a few.
“It hasn’t been super crazy busy here today,” she said.
“Yesterday, we didn’t have that plan in place so it was only cash,” she added.
But the average person doesn’t tend to walk around with hundreds of dollars in cash in their pocket.
“We haven’t done more cash payments than normal,” she said.
“Some of it is larger amounts, like for glasses for example; they don’t typically carry $500, $600 cash with them.”
So customers seemed willing to accept the option to pay by phone.
“So far no,” she said when asked if anyone had declined that option.
“They’ve been OK with us taking their information and using that on the phone,” she said.
“Another thing is, I can’t actually put orders through right now for glasses or contacts or anything because we have no internet so we’ll just have to wait,” she said.
“I was hoping I’d be able to put them through today, but I’m assuming that’s not happening,” she added.
“It’s just frustrating, but I’m sure everyone in town is probably feeling the same way.”
For their part, customers so far seem to have been patient with the situation.
“Lots of them are also with Xplore, so they know kind of what’s going on; most of them are pretty understanding, which is good,” she said.
The company has issued its customers in the area an automated voice message announcing that crews are investigating the nature of the service interruption, but does not have an estimated timeline as to when connectivity is expected to be restored.
Xplore has not responded to requests for additional information.
