An Update for our Customers
Fires that have devastated large parts of Australia have sadly also hit the NSW South Coast community where we are headquartered. Like many other businesses and residents, we have been impacted – and I want to be open with our customers how those impacts will affect you.
We do not yet have power to our Moruya office and thus it remains closed; however, our disaster relief plans have been launched, and we will be in touch with our affected customers with further information.
Fires first broke out in our local community in late November and then escalated dramatically on New Year’s Eve.
The local community and our people are physically and mentally tired. Some of our people have lost their homes, some of them had an experience they did not think they would survive, some have worked around the clock to defend their properties. Everyone has been breathing in smoke and soot for weeks.
Like so many people across the country, everybody has a close friend or relative who has lost everything.
Our people need a rest before they can return to work to provide you with a great all-round customer experience. I’d like to thank you for your continued understanding and support – and ask that you continue a little longer.
Our Moruya office will remain closed until Monday 13 January, at which time we expect to be back at full capacity.
During this time, we will be operating at reduced capacity. Our Bendigo office is taking customer service calls. However, most of our technical support staff and back-office staff are concentrated in Moruya, so there will be some delays for our customers. If your enquiry is not time critical, we ask that you first visit www.southernphone.com.au to try and answer your query or delay making contact until we have our Moruya office fully operational again.
Outside of the bushfire affected areas, your phone, mobile and internet services will not be impacted and will operate as normal.
While many parts of Australia still have significant fire threat to be faced, the Southern Phone family and our local community are in a position where we can now start to move to a recovery phase.
All of us at Southern Phone thank the tremendous efforts of the volunteers of the RFS, other emergency services, volunteers running evacuation centres, council staff cutting containment lines and co-ordinating the emergency response - and the countless local unrecognised heroes who have helped in some way. A true community effort.
I understand that you may be frustrated that we have been operating at reduced capacity, however I ask for your continued understanding and support while we start to ramp Southern Phone back up over the next week.
Regards – David Joss, CEO
5th Jan 2020