‘Very disappointed’: AussieSuper plagued by upgrade issues

“I feel stonewalled. I feel that there hasn’t been a level of truth and honesty, I do not believe that as a result there will be an appropriate level of accountability within the company.”

Others impacted by the tech issues are those who have chosen the Member Direct option at AustralianSuper, which is essentially a self-managed super account which allows members to actively manage their money.

Sydney self-employed financial advisor Greg, who did not want to use his surname, said most of his retirement savings were in a Member Direct account, which he used to be able to access through the super fund’s app.

However, he hasn’t been able to log in on his phone for weeks, instead receiving an error message.

“You had that flexibility with Member Direct, I could always pick the mobile phone up, and I could just act on my buy, sells, whenever I wanted to. And it worked fine. When they changed the app, all of a sudden that went, that accessibility,” he said.

Greg said he preferred to use his phone to do his personal finances rather than his work laptop.

“My biggest frustration is I haven’t been able to go in and do what I was told I would be able to do,” he said. “I feel very disappointed at what used to be a business that I know provided good customer service.”

He said after struggling to get answers, he has started looking into other self-managed super funds.

In response to a series of questions, an AustralianSuper spokesman said “almost all” members are currently able to access and use the upgraded member portal and mobile app.

“We know that some issues have emerged that have impacted a small number of members. AustralianSuper apologises to affected members and is working to resolve the remaining issues as quickly as possible,” he said.

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“For members affected, the fund has processes in place for them to access and transact on their account. We understand that this is frustrating for affected members and would like to reassure all members that their information and account is secure.”

The spokesman said the tech upgrade had led to an increase in member engagement. The fund would not say exactly how many members continued to be affected.

APRA has received a handful of complaints about the issues and has been engaging with AustralianSuper to understand the cause of the problems and what the fund is doing to rectify them.

During AustralianSuper’s annual members’ meeting on November 29, Shawn Blackmore, the fund’s head of member experience, said despite the “best of plans and thorough testing, a few issues emerged” following the digital upgrade.

This included login issues, which he said had been resolved, and four or five unplanned outages.

“Now, what I’d like to do is, on behalf of the fund, apologise to any members that were inconvenienced by this. We didn’t set out to have these issues but we’ve had a good team available 24/7, that when they’ve been identified, to be able to work and respond, to monitor and address the fixes where required, and we will continue to do that throughout the foreseeable future,” he said.

Regulators have been putting pressure on superannuation funds to improve their customer experience. An ASIC review of super trustees compliance with complaints handling released in December found that some trustees had sub-standard arrangements for managing complaints, putting the funds on notice to improve.

The review prompted financial services minister Stephen Jones to warn super funds in a speech last month that super trustees must focus on improving customer experience.

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