UNI clients locked out of electronic banking services

For many clients of UNI Financial Cooperation, the nightmare of technical difficulties continued for a second day on Tuesday, and the bank wasn't saying much.

A planned outage over the weekend while the bank completed a transition of online services was supposed to end Monday, but many clients continue to struggle to log-on or access services.

On Tuesday, the bank's Dieppe branch erected tents outside its doors to keep the rain off the line of clients waiting to get into the bank. There were small lineups at both of the branch's main entrances early Tuesday afternoon.

Melissa Quigley, a UNI client who lives in Dieppe, said she had problems getting a new bank card late last week, and she waited for three hours at the branch on Monday to get one.

Her card worked after that, but there were more problems on Tuesday. She said it was her payday and nothing came in.

"No paycheque came in, so the bills aren't getting paid, but apparently they're working on it right now," she said.

As for what she has heard from the bank, she said "Not a whole lot."

"Just that they're working on it," said Quigley. "They don't have a timeline so we're not sure when we're going to get the money."

She said she can't do e-transfers or access her accounts to check her balances.  

Quigley said she plans to wait and see for now. Others on social media were not as patient, with some threatening to close their accounts and others asking whether the bank would compensate clients for bills they're not able to pay.

Many were accused the bank of not communicating with clients.

UNI did not make anyone available for an interview about the technical issues on Tuesday.

The City of Edmundston posted Tuesday afternoon that UNI clients would no longer have the city available as a payee on their online banking app, an issue they said UNI is supposed to fix. In the meantime, the city encouraged residents to pay their electric bills, if due, through Service New Brunswick's website.

The online transition and change to new bank cards follows UNI's decision in March to separate their services from Desjardins Group in Quebec. 

Robert Moreau, president and CEO of UNI, told Radio-Canada at the time that UNI had always been an independent organization, but he called it a change of providers.