DES MOINES, Iowa — A major service disruption at Lumen Technologies Thursday forced businesses around the metro to get creative.
Julie Heathcote, owner of Sunflower Chef Catering, said she and her team started noticing issues with their online invoicing system and in-person transactions around lunchtime Thursday.
“We ended up thankfully being able to write a check," Heathcote said.
However, the most frustrating part for Heathcote was phone disruptions. Incoming calls were being sent to voicemail and the business couldn’t make outgoing calls either.
“I’m always on the go, so I have to use my phone and, you know, I think they say they average person spends like six hours on their phone. Half of mine is for work-related things," Heathcote said.
Sunflower Chef Catering wasn’t the only business having to make do.
“We had a staff outing yesterday and even the place we went - we had to fill out some waivers and so they couldn’t even access that and they couldn’t get their radio to work," Heathcote said.
SHAZAM, a debit card network and debit card processor, says that the service disruptions seemed to be on and off.
“You could be at a point of sale in West Des Moines and have your card declined and then standing at an ATM across the street and have it go through and then five seconds later at the same point of sale machine, the transaction went through," SHAZAM's Patrick Dix said.
These kinds of disruptions can interfere with ATMs, card payments at shops and Apple Pay.
Dix noted that since SHAZAM has alternative routes for transactions, the day was pretty average. Dix also clarified SHAZAM itself never went down.
As of 12:30 a.m. Friday, almost all service has been restored.
"It's a relief, you know? Just no more stress. I don't have to worry about it. Everything seemed to be back to normal," Heathcote said.