Sainsbury’s And Waitrose Hit By Online Christmas Order Delays

Sainsbury’s has acknowledged that some customers’ Christmas orders were wrongly cancelled due to a Sunday evening computer failure, while Waitrose also apologised for an online fault that affected deliveries.

Asda has also said some customers experienced technical problems.

Cancellations

The Sainsbury’s fault resulted in the cancellation of hundreds of online orders, with some being given redelivery dates after Christmas. The supermarket’s website was also unavailable for about half an hour.

Sainsbury’s said its website is now running normally, and said all Christmas orders would be fulfilled on time. The supermarket apologised to customers and said it is investigating the issue. Measures have been taken to prevent the problem from re-occurring, the company said.

“Some customers experienced difficulties with booking or amending their delivery slot,” Sainsbury’s said in a statement. “We’re very sorry for the inconvenience caused. We would like to reassure customers who did not experience issues on the website last night that their confirmed orders will be delivered as expected.”

Twitter complaints

Jenny Grasham-Whalley of Sutton Coldfield told the BBC that Sainsbury’s offered her an alternative delivery date for her Christmas shopping on December 27.

“That date is as much use as a chocolate teapot,” she said. She was offered a £50 voucher in apology.

Waitrose said that an IT issue resulted in a “systems fault” that affected picking orders, and that as a result there has been a delay to some customers’ orders.

Like Sainsbury’s, it said all Christmas orders would be fulfilled on time, although it admitted some customers had found it easier to collect their orders from a local branch.

“The temporary IT problem yesterday was swiftly and successfully fixed,” Waitrose stated.

On Twitter scores of customers complained of missed delivery slots, “appalling” difficulties getting a response from the company and website unavailability.

Asda said that while a “handful” of customers experienced technical problems, the supermarket’s website had not crashed.

Marks and Spencer and Yodel warned of delivery delays earlier this month due to overwhelming demand.

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