Yesterday was a leap day, which means it was February 29th for the first time in four years. This is often a quirky astronomical fact (or a very special birthday for some). But the unique calendar date disrupted petrol station payment systems across New Zealand for much of the day.
Self-service petrol stations in New Zealand are unable to accept card payments due to a problem with the station’s payment processing software, according to multiple international media reports. new zealand herald According to reports, the power outage lasted “more than 10 hours.” This effectively closed some gas stations, while others had to rely on in-store payments. The outage affected suppliers including Union Oil, BP, Gull, Waitomo and Z Energy. According to reports, the issue has now been fixed.
According to reports, internal payment solutions such as BP fuel cards and the Waitomo app will still work during the outage.
According to Bloomberg, New Zealand is one of the first countries to experience February 29 every four years due to its location. The gas pump failure sent stakeholders into a frenzy as they tried to resolve issues caused by software not equipped to handle bonus days.
John Scott, chief executive of Invenco Group, the provider of the self-service payment terminals that malfunctioned, confirmed to Reuters that a “leap year glitch” had caused the problem. Scott said the issue only affected the New Zealand code. Invenco is investigating to learn more about the cause of the failure.
Scott also told new zealand herald Invenco partnered with Worldline to roll out the fix. France-based Worldline makes software for processing card payments. Worldline claims that all non-Invenco terminals using its technology continued to operate during the outage. Otago Daily Times.
The outage highlights how widespread people’s reliance on technology has become, and how errors based on something as trivial as a calendar date can upend entire businesses and disrupt people’s days. 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 he spoke to a man who had been denied service at four petrol stations due to the power outage.
On February 29, 2024, a fuel pump failed at a gas station in Wellington, New Zealand.Photographer: Mark Coote/Bloomberg/Getty Images
As the companies involved work to apologize (and in some cases offer discounts) to make up for the inconvenience, it is hoped that the scale and embarrassment associated with the outages will help prevent similar incidents from happening in the future.
When Facebook prompted “Maybe remember Leap Day in four years,” a Union Oil representative responded: “We’ll add it to Outlook reminders 😕.”
This story originally appeared in Technology Arts Festival.