Fridays are usually the busiest days for Abigail Hitchens.
The florist from Collingwood, Ont., gets calls for everything from events and birthdays to anniversaries and gatherings.
Sometimes, it's just for a "spur of the moment" weekend gift.
On days like that, Hitchens will typically sell out on flowers.
"Not today," she said in an email to CTVNews.ca. "My phone isn't ringing — nor are many emails working. Nor can I accept payment via e-transfer. I got rid of the Visa terminal at the beginning of COVID. Last time this outage happened I lost $900 in sales. Today is looking to be at least $1,500."
Hitchens joins many people around Canada who scrambled to get their working lives in order as a massive Rogers network outage on Friday disabled customers' mobile services and internet connections.
Not only were businesses such as Hitchens' affected, so too were banks, passport offices, airports and hospitals.
People were also unable to make debit payments and in some cases may have difficulty calling 911. Some resorted to standing outside coffee shops in an effort to reconnect online.
The outage also led to many air travellers missing important notifications regarding their flights and compounded baggage woes at Toronto Pearson International Airport.
Heather Clark and her husband did not receive a notification letting them know that their flight to Toronto from Victoria was delayed by five hours. In Toronto, they’re now dealing with missing luggage.
“I'm very frustrated, I'm tired,†Clark told CTV National on Friday from Pearson airport.
The couple missed their connecting flight and was worried about how to catch a ride if they left the airport without functioning cell service.
“We're pretty much stranded,†she said. “It does feel like the dark ages…â€
Air Canada has also notified customers that its call centres were down on Friday because of the outage, and passengers can no longer get in touch with staff regarding their missing baggage.
On Friday evening, services were "starting to recover."
The company has not disclosed exactly what caused the outage or how many customers are affected. A spokesperson for Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino confirmed to CTV News that the outage was not due to a cyberattack.
Hitchens told CTVNews.ca that she relies on Fridays to make up for slower days earlier in the week.
She and many others responded to a CTVNews.ca callout asking readers to share their experiences during the service outage.
The responses were emailed to CTVNews.ca and have not all been independently verified.
As someone with a child to feed and bills to pay, Hitchens says a $1,500 loss like the one she is expecting Friday is "huge" for a small-business owner such as herself.
"It may not seem like a lot of money to many people, but after two years of COVID and no event work, these small sums are what keep the lights on for us as we work to recover two years of losses," she said
"… Rogers is becoming unreliable and absolutely miserable to deal with while being exorbitantly expensive for what we get."
Other small-business owners expressed similar frustrations with the Rogers outage and the impact this will have as they try to recover from the economic toll of the COVID-19 pandemic.
One person said he has been unable to receive donations for his non-profit, while one pharmacist said he can't receive faxes from doctors' offices and is worried about the impact this will have on patients.
At least two people who wrote to CTVNews.ca said they were scheduled to speak to their doctors and surgeons by phone but were unable to.
The situation is also affecting customers in other ways including their home security systems, online school work and paying bills.
Some questioned why Rogers didn't inform them of the outage. Others say if this continues, they will have no choice but to switch to another service provider.
The outage even affected customers abroad.
Pamela Tribiger told CTVNews.ca she is in Northern Ireland on holiday with her family and is using her phone to navigate.
Suddenly, she says she had no way of finding their destinations or Airbnb.
"It was panic inducing being in a foreign country and completely cut off," she said.
Luckily, they were able to find Wi-Fi at an information centre and got directions to their Airbnb that way.
Sabrina Brosnan from Vancouver said she is currently looking to get assistance for overdue rent and is unable to resolve the matter because of the outage.
"This is extremely distressing to many who are trying to get through to the government and get financial or medical assistance, not to mention all those whom are trying to get a passport or other assistance from the government," Brosnan wrote to CTVNews.ca.
"They should be able to keep this sort of thing from happening, I've had to go to my local library to check email and to send this to you, not that I'm complaining about going to my library, but we are supposed to be past this kind of outage issue area with these companies."
With files from CTV National News' Adrian Ghobrial, The Canadian Press and CTVNews.ca's Rhythm Sachdeva
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