General News
4 February, 2024
Hold 'tongue the right way'
By CHRIS EARL BUSINESS has been battling for better service in Inglewood for more than three years. The standard reponse from telcos, say Cousin Jack’s cafe owner Deb Roberts and Deb Hancock from The Fat Butcher, is to buy more equipment...
By CHRIS EARL
BUSINESS has been battling for better service in Inglewood for more than three years.
The standard reponse from telcos, say Cousin Jack’s cafe owner Deb Roberts and Deb Hancock from The Fat Butcher, is to buy more equipment.
“We’ve purchased new equipment and it has its moments,” said Deb Hancock.
“Everything they suggested means spending more money. We’ve even moved the shop around, tried holding the tongue the right way, in the hope of getting reception to run the eftpos machine.”
“And the phone coverage ... it’s a digrace.”
Deb Roberts said it was not uncommon to lose customers who abuse staff as they left the cafe after the eftpos machine failed to connect to the internet.
“I tell customers there is an ATM down the corner but they leave and don’t come back. Just before a pie and a can of Coke was left on the counter because payment could not be made.”
And she says weather also affected connectivity at the cafe.
“On cloudy days, when it’s raining the service will cut out. The same can happen when trucks go past,” she said.
“And the phones, they only really work out the back of the shop. That does mean that there are times when customer’s phones don’t ring in the shop.”
Deb said eftpos was crucial to the cafe.
“Since COVID, 75 to 80 per cent of our sales are by eftpos.”
“And our power bill has gone up $300 a month since September and we can’t afford to lose customers because of no connection for the internet and phones.
Deb, who lives at Old Inglewood, said she experienced similar problems at home.
“There can be no mobile reception in the shed but there is in the house and the tower is not very far away,” she said. “In this day and age, mobile phones and the internet are today’s technology.”
Deb Hancock said she had been battling for better connectivity from Telstra for three years. “I’ve had to move doing the paperwork back to the farm where the service seems better,” she said.
“The equipment they say to buy might be okay on rural properties but it’s clearly not designed to be used in town.”
Other businesses in the narrow Brooke Street have expressed frustration with the patchy service that can vary from one side of the street to the other.
The Christmas Day floods saw services from some providers knocked out between Wedderburn and Bridgewater for more than five hours.
The push for better mobile and internet connectivity was a top priority in Loddon Shire’s wishlist before the 2022 federal and state elections.
Telstra is expected to present a connectivity plan to council this month with councillors already flagging they will become more vocal this year in their fight to see telcos and governments fix blockspots across the region.
“You can’t run a business without the internet,” said Deb Hancock.
Deb Roberts agreed, adding: “It not our fault when the connections drop out.”