Thousands of members of the country’s largest superannuation fund – Australian Super – have had no access to their pension and accumulation accounts for almost two weeks after a bungled technology overhaul impaired the fund’s online and mobile services.
Frustrated members say the new service platforms are reporting that their accounts “cannot be found” or do not exist.
Australian Super’s social media pages have been bombarded with complaints from members unable to transact or make drawdowns.
The fund also revealed on its website last week that some pensions were miscalculated by the new internet portal in the middle of November, resulting in members receiving incorrect payments.
“We’ve identified some payments have not been made correctly due to an error with the calculations in the new portal,” Australian Super states on its website.
“This means some members may have received an amount different to what they requested.
“The issue only affects members who made a change to their pension payment in the portal between 12 November and 18 November 2022.”
Banking Day understands that the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority is aware of the operational problems and has been engaging with the fund to understand the cause, and what work is being done to rectify it.
In a memo sent to members earlier this month Australian Super advised members to re-register with the “upgraded” digital service platforms because its IT team could not transfer login details from the previous systems that were deactivated on 11 November.
Members were asked to begin registering details through the new member portal and mobile app from 14 November – a process the memo described as “quick and easy” to complete.
Since then thousands of members have endured a tortuous ordeal.
Almost two weeks after the debut of the new online portal and mobile app, members are still complaining they are locked out of the fund’s digital platforms with no way of logging in.
“The log in problem will by the end of this weekend be going on for two weeks – I hope they can sort this problem out by the end of this year,” one member told the fund on Facebook on Friday.
Others say they were being timed-out by the new portal after they managed to log in.
“This is a titanic omnishambles,” a member told the fund on Twitter on 22 November.
“It is now late on 22/11 - 8 days later! We still have completely lost access to
my wife's account (says no such member exists) and my account logs in but
then times-out. We tried calling but it was hopeless. Have lodged two
complaints.”
A spokesperson for the fund on Friday furnished scant details about the service dislocation caused by the IT overhaul and refused to disclose how many of Australian Super’s 2.7 million members were affected by the technology meltdown.
“Australian Super apologises to members impacted by the update to the Fund’s member portal and app,” the spokesperson said.
“Most members have been able to access and use the new portal and upgraded app but we are aware some members have and are experiencing issues.
“We’re working to resolve issues as quickly as possible and have redirected additional staff to assist members.
“We understand this is frustrating for impacted members and would like to reassure all members that their information and account is secure.”
The floundering upgrade has turned into a reputational crisis for Australian Super, with scores of members announcing on social media they intend to leave the fund after account access is restored.
Others say they want compensation for not being able to adjust investment allocations and trade shares.
On the productreview.com.au website customers are calling on the fund to re-commission the abandoned service platforms until the new systems are stabilised.
“For seven working days I have been in contact with different people at Australian Super in an attempt to view my super account since they ‘upgraded’ their system,” one member said on the productreview.com.au website.??“It has been a very frustrating and fruitless exercise as no one I have spoken to has a clue as to what has gone wrong or how to fix it.??“They should now revert back to their previous system so that members can access and transact on their accounts.”
The fund’s call centres have been inundated by customers trying to clarify the status of their accounts.
Call wait times have blown out to more than an hour, according to members who spoke with Banking Day.
In the past week the fund has posted a recorded message on its 1300 customer service line to reassure affected members that their accounts are secure and have not been lost.
“We are currently experiencing a high volume of calls and anticipate long wait times,” the fund’s recorded message tells customers.
“We’re aware that some members are experiencing issues logging in following the member portal upgrade.
“We’re working on resolving this as a priority.
“If you received an error message advising that your account can’t be found please be aware that this is a temporary issue with the upgrade and your account is secure and has not been lost or accessed by any third party.”
On Saturday a Facebook user urged the company to come clean about how many members had been marooned by the protracted fiasco and to stop hiding behind glib phrases such as “some members”.
Other Facebook users urged Australian Super to improve its communication with members and questioned the competence of the IT engineers responsible for developing the new system.
Members have also documented their misery using the mobile platform in reviews posted at the Apple and Google app stores.