Yesterday was a leap day. So for the first time in four years he was on February 29th. This is usually a quirky astronomical fact (or a very special birthday for some people). However, this unique calendar day meant payment systems at petrol stations across New Zealand were out of action for much of the day.
As reported by many international news outlets, self-service pumps in New Zealand were unable to accept card payments due to an issue with the gas pump's payment processing software. new zealand herald It reported that the power outage lasted for “more than 10 hours.” This effectively closed some gas stations and forced others to rely on over-the-counter payments. The outage affected suppliers including Allied Petroleum, BP, Gull, Waitomo and Z Energy. It is reported that this has now been fixed.
In-house payment solutions such as BP fuel cards and the Waitomo app reportedly continued to function during the outage.
As pointed out by Bloomberg, New Zealand is one of the first countries to celebrate February 29th every four years due to its geography. The gas pump failure infuriated officials who were trying to resolve a problem caused by the software not being equipped to handle bonus days.
John Scott, CEO of Invenco Group, which provides the faulty self-payment terminals, confirmed to Reuters that a “leap year glitch” was the cause of the problem. Mr Scott said the issue only affected New Zealand code. Invenco is currently investigating the cause of the failure.
Scott also said new zealand herald Invenco said it worked with Worldline to deploy the fix. Worldline, headquartered in France, makes software for processing card payments. Worldline claimed that all non-Invenco terminals using its technology continued to operate during the outage. Otago Daily Times.
This obstacle is a reminder of how widespread people's reliance on technology has become, and how errors based on something as trivial as a calendar date can disrupt an entire business and disrupt people's day. I highlighted it. While some gas stations were still able to accept other forms of payment, those that relied on broken terminals found themselves losing business. RNZ reported that it spoke to a person who had been refused service from four petrol stations due to the power outage.
A fuel pump fails at a station in Wellington, New Zealand on February 29, 2024.Photographer: Mark Coote/Bloomberg/Getty Images
Companies involved are offering apologies and, in some cases, discounts to compensate for the inconvenience, with hopes that the scale and embarrassment associated with the outage will help prevent similar incidents.
“I'll add it to my Outlook reminders 😕,” an Allied Petroleum representative said in response to a question on Facebook asking if they might remember Leap Day in four years.
This story was originally Ars Technica.
