VyStar CU’s Multi-Day Outage Outrages Members
More than 13,000 comments have been posted to VyStar's Facebook page since the online/mobile banking outage began on May 13.
On the evening of May 13, the Jacksonville, Fla.-based VyStar Credit Union attempted to switch over to a new online and mobile banking platform. The brief outage, as explained to members, was planned to last for two days. As May 20 rolled around, seven days later, the $12.3 billion credit union’s 822,000 members still were offline and furious.
As of Friday morning there were more than 13,444 comments posted on the VyStar Facebook page about the outage. While many comments asked people to not take out their frustrations on branch or call center staff, most comments were more angry in tone. A small sample of the posts included:
“How in the Hell Does a Credit Union go a week with its online systems completely DOWN in 2022???”
“I will definitely be leaving Vystar after this! Ridiculous!”
“VyStar, every day this nightmare lingers hurts us & makes you look incompetent. How about making some effort to actually communicate WHEN this might be fixed. I actually wonder if anyone even cares. I sure don’t see it in this instance.”
“As soon as the dust settles I am definitely moving to another bank and I know many people that are doing the same thing.”
According to social media posts from VyStar, online transfers made since May 15 have been delayed.
Other than 12 posts on Facebook, and similar posts on Twitter and on LinkedIn apologizing to members and directing them to call the contact center, go to a branch or use the credit union’s ATM, there were no statements directly from VyStar executives until Thursday, May 19.
VyStar Chief Member Experience Officer Joel Swanson posted a two-minute video with an update on the status of the outage. He said, “Our entire team is working tirelessly to make our new online banking platform run smoothly and we’ve committed all available resources and enlisted the help of several third-party experts. I, and VyStar’s entire leadership team, sincerely apologize and take responsibility for the issues and the impact to our members.”
As of Sunday afternoon, Swanson’s video had been viewed more than 23,000 times on YouTube.
Swanson did not give a timeline of when the issue might be fixed, but did say the credit union’s core system was “fully operational and members’ account information is completely secure.” He stated that testing was done before attempting to switch to the new platform. “We felt confident that we were ready to launch the platform. Unfortunately, real-world behavior presented unforeseen challenges,” he said.
Swanson did not indicate what the challenges were.
According to an email response to CU Times Friday evening from an unnamed Vystar spokesperson, they said, “This is a complex, multi-vendor project. Our teams continue to work to ensure that all issues with our Online Banking system are identified, resolved and the system is thoroughly tested before it is brought back on line. Every option is on the table to bring service back to our members as quickly as possible.”
As of Sunday, the online and mobile banking platform was still unavailable to use. According to VyStar’s website, select branches were open for four hours Sunday afternoon.
When asked when they believed the issue would be resolved a VyStar spokesperson echoed Swanson’s statement. “Every option is on the table to bring service back to our members. We have made substantial progress and continue to work with third-party experts to bring the fully functioning, accurate Online Banking platform live as quickly as possible,” the spokesperson said.
According to the Florida Department of Financial Regulation, officials confirmed Friday they were aware of the outage, but could not state if or how many complaints had been filed by VyStar members.
Last July, VyStar signed a deal with the Jacksonville, Fla.-based Nymbus as the credit union’s online and mobile banking partner. It’s unclear what third-party experts the credit union is working with to resolve the issue. VyStar confirmed that “Nymbus is one of the many partners with whom we work.”
CU Times will update this story as information becomes available.