An Internet service outage Thursday forced Chico business owners to resort to old-fashioned technologies.
Only businesses using AT&T; Internet services were affected. The outage was caused by a cable cut from a farm construction project near Richvale, wrote AT&T; spokesman Alexander Carey in an email to the Orion.
Technicians repaired the cut line and Internet access was back up by Friday afternoon, Carey wrote.
Connections went down for Gogi’s Cafe on Salem Street around 3 p.m. Thursday, said Vinay Kumar, the owner.
“It was hectic for everyone,” Kumar said. “Our life is connected to the Internet.”
Gogi’s credit card system requires a Wi-Fi connection, he said. Without a backup system, they only accepted cash payments.
Regular customers who didn’t have cash were allowed to eat for free, Kumar said.
“We were not going to tell them that they couldn’t eat,” he said.
Pita Pit employees had to ring customers’ credit cards through a dial-up processor, said Scott Dakof, the restaurant owner.
Cash transactions required an old-fashioned register. A fax machine was used to send catering receipts.
“Everything is a little easier when facilitated through the internet,” Dakoff said.
A credit card imprinter was used at the Naked Lounge, said Derek Carpenter, a barista.
Many of the Naked Lounge’s patrons are students who need to use the Web, said Trevor Hill, another barista.
Both the Naked Lounge and Pita Pit use Pandora for background music and had to switch to radio or plug in their iPods.
Linda Johnson, owner of Trips and Travel on West Third Street, couldn’t issue airline tickets, she said. She had to go home to finish transactions.
“I had to call a lot of people back today,” Johnson said.
Mozes Zarate can be reached at [email protected] or @theorion_news on Twitter.
