Poor internet service cost us, say traders

POOR mobile signal during this year’s Rewind South festival last weekend cost businesses income, it has been claimed.

Traders said slow mobile data internet connection meant they could not capitalise on the increased number of visitors to the town on Saturday and Sunday.

Klaire Silver, who runs The Witches’ Kitchen in Woodcote, had a stall at the annual Vegan Fiesta in the Market Place and said that a signal was “non-existent” when trying to take electronic payments.

This meant there were times when she had to turn away business or use another trader’s card machine instead.

Ms Silver said: “It’s just frustrating and embarrassing having to have to walk around the back of this gazebo and hold the machine in the air, just trying to get a signal. It’s not a very good look when you’ve got somebody there waiting.

“The dip in signal is obviously worse when there are lots more people about and in the end another trader kindly tethered me up to their phone so that I was able to use it. There was only one cashpoint and somebody said that the queue was round the block.”

Jo Eddon, who runs a Honeys of Henley stall at the farmers market twice a month, said the lack of signal has got worse over the last three months.

She said: “The ability to connect by using your mobile data to then process your electronic payments has been absolutely appalling for months. I’ve lost customers when people have tried to pay electronically.

“They stand there with me for minutes and minutes and while a minute doesn’t sound like very long, to put it into perspective, electronic payments are usually processed within about 10 seconds.

“In that time a customer may then go and say, ‘don’t worry, I’ll go to the cashpoint and get cash’ but then they come back and say they couldn’t get any because the cashpoint is either broken or empty. That could be a
situation where I’m losing anything from, on average, £10 up to £20. It could be something like an eighth of what I take on the day.”

Ms Eddon said that large-scale events such as Rewind and Henley Royal Regatta, where similar issues were reported this year, added an unfair strain on the town’s cellular network.

She said: “It’s way worse when the town is hosting events like the regatta, like Henley Festival because they divert the signal to accommodate all the visitors down by the riverside. That’s really unfair.”

During the regatta in July, the organisers installed two temporary masts which traders say improved the situation but did not solve it.

Sarah Zeneli, who organises Henley Vegan Fiesta, said: “During this year’s regatta it was fine in the morning and then all of a sudden, in the afternoon, payments just took a really long time to go through.

“We try to tell customers to bring cash with them, but there is a lack of cash machines in Henley and i’ve spoken spoken to the town council about it.”

Last month, town councillor Gill Dodds raised the issue at a meeting after being unable to pay with card when she visited Gabriel Machin butchers in Market Place.

She said: “All the shops were affected. That’s why I raised it at and it seemed to strike a chord with what other people are experiencing. I think the message really was to the Mayor that when they have a wash-up meeting after these events, this is a big issue that they should have a look at. It is a big problem.”

Town clerk Sheridan Jacklin-Edward said that it had plans to install a new cash point and were talking with the organisers of the royal regatta to understand how to improve the issue for future events.

He said: “We have been speaking with Ed Warner at the regatta to understand the situation better and see what we can do to alleviate the problem around next year’s event.”

Paul Carey, the town centre manager, said that he is lining up a contractor to commence work on installing a new cashpoint next month on the Waitrose car park side of Gardiner Place.