Australian Super is struggling to deal with problems flowing from its bungled rollout of new internet and mobile service platforms in November, with members saying they are still unable to submit online forms, access account balances and make withdrawals.
More than four months after the technology overhaul was supposedly completed, the fund’s social media and call centre staff are being inundated with complaints from disaffected customers seeking fixes for unresolved log-in and transaction issues.
The fund this week confirmed that its online portal and app suffered another protracted outage on Saturday 4 March, which some members say began on 3 March.
Customer service staff notified members on Monday morning that normal services had been restored.
Despite efforts to project upbeat messages on its Facebook page about how members can “create a dream” by consolidating their super with Australian Super, the aggressive spruiking is being drowned out by a steady stream of negative posts from accountholders unable to use the digital services.
“Website and app not working,” one member said on Facebook last Saturday.
“When will I be able to see my funds you are holding?”
Another disaffected customer described the new digital platforms as “terrible”.
“Your new website and app are both terrible – constantly crashing and needing updates,” the member told the company’s Facebook page on Saturday.
“Please fix them.”
In communications with members on its website this week Australian Super only discloses that its misfiring technology is affecting “some members” and apologised “for longer than usual wait times to contact us”.
Given that the technology crisis is about to enter its fifth month and still contributes to call centre wait times of more than an hour, it is apparent that the fund has lost control of the user experience of thousands of its customers.
Members now are directing criticism at the fund’s call centre staff, claiming that some are providing only scripted answers to their urgent requests for assistance.
“Some just read the scripts and did nothing for me other than reiterate what I had already gleaned from the website,” one accountholder told the Australian Super forum on Whirlpool.
The same Whirlpool poster added also that some customer service staff “were insightful and helpful”.
Attempts by the country’s second largest super fund to downplay the magnitude of the technical problems through strategically worded notifications on its website seem to be fanning the disillusionment of members.
Many members are announcing on social media they cannot take any more and are moving their retirement savings to other providers.
Australian Super is facing one of the biggest challenges to the reputation of its brand as scores of members unable to resolve outstanding disputes through internal resolution processes now advance their grievances to the Australian Financial Complaints Authority.
Under AFCA’s rules, the fund has 40 days to resolve individual complaints internally before members are free to submit their grievances to the external dispute resolution scheme.
If the volume of complaints turns out to be as large as indicated on Australian Super’s Facebook page, the fund faces the prospect of AFCA making findings of systemic service failure.
Such findings would not only damage the brand but could come at a significant financial cost if members were able to demonstrate they suffered investment or other losses because they were unable to access the fund’s degraded platforms.
Such findings would also raise questions about the quality of the fund’s communications with members in the last four months and associated efforts to word public statements to underplay the gravity of the technology failings.
The technology fiasco is also sharpening the public focus on the time it takes Australian Super to process life insurance and benefit payments to the beneficiaries and dependents of members who die.
Member furore over the technology debacle appears to have emboldened many beneficiaries of Australian Super accounts to broadcast their grievances about the fund’s slowness to distribute payments.
Beneficiaries claim they have not received any payments from the fund up to 13 months after the death of spouses and parents.