Deborah Yedlin, president and CEO of the Calgary Chamber of Commerce, called it a \u0027nightmare\u0027 scenario for local businesses as the Calgary Stampede kicked off…
The Toronto-based telecommunications giant’s services blacked out Friday morning, leaving many customers without internet or phone access and disrupting the availability of 911 services and debit transactions across the country. Service was mostly restored by Saturday morning.
Stampede is generally a big boost for businesses in and around the festival, but Casey and Dimitriadis said things are off to a slower start after the Day 1 speed bump. Both businesses are left trying to close unpaid bills left in the wake of the outage. Dimitriadis said he’s not too worried about the open tabs, saying many of them were regulars he trusts will be back soon. He noted multiple interactions he overheard as the business crowd poured in for lunch, unwillingly unglued from their devices and unable to contact colleagues or check their work email during their lunch hour.
“I’m a Rogers customer, so I wasn’t getting emails, I wasn’t getting texts. … It’s shocking how exposed we are when we don’t have any ability to access our technology right now.”