Yesterday was Leap Day, that means that for the primary time in 4 years, it was February 29. That’s usually a unusual, astronomical factoid (or a really special birthday for some). But that distinctive calendar date broke fuel station cost techniques throughout New Zealand for a lot of the day.

As reported by quite a few worldwide shops, self-serve pumps in New Zealand had been unable to just accept card funds as a consequence of an issue with the fuel pumps’ cost processing software program. The New Zealand Herald reported that the outage lasted “more than 10 hours.” This successfully shuttered some fuel stations, whereas others needed to depend on in-store funds. The outage affected suppliers together with Allied Petroleum, BP, Gull, Waitomo, and Z Energy. It has now reportedly been fastened.

In-house cost options, resembling BP gas playing cards and the Waitomo app, reportedly nonetheless labored throughout the outage.

As famous by Bloomberg, New Zealand is likely one of the first nations to expertise February 29 quadrennially due to its location. The fuel pump breakdown despatched stakeholders right into a frenzy as they tried to resolve the issue brought on by software program being unequipped to course of the bonus day.

John Scott, the CEO of Invenco Group, the supplier of the self-payment terminals that malfunctioned, confirmed to Reuters {that a} “leap year glitch” triggered the issue. Scott mentioned the issue solely affected New Zealand code. Invenco is investigating for extra details about what triggered the glitch.

Scott additionally instructed The New Zealand Herald that Invenco labored with Worldline because it rolled out the repair. France-headquartered Worldline makes software program for processing card funds. Worldline claimed that every one non-Invenco terminals utilizing its expertise continued to work throughout the outage, per the Otago Daily Times.

The outage highlights how in depth folks’s reliance on expertise has grow to be and the way an error primarily based on one thing as trivial as a calendar date can upturn whole companies and disrupt folks’s day. While some fuel stations had been nonetheless capable of settle for different types of funds, those who relied on the damaged terminals discovered themselves lacking out on enterprise. RNZ reported chatting with somebody who was declined service by 4 fuel stations because of the outage.

As the businesses concerned work to problem apologies—and, in some cases, reductions—to make up for the inconvenience, there’s hope that the size and embarrassment related to the outage will assist forestall related occasions.

A consultant for Allied Petroleum, when prompted through Facebook to “maybe remember Leap Day in four years’ time,” responded: “We’ll add it to our Outlook reminders 😕”.

This story initially appeared on Ars Technica.