The problems come as today was predicted to be Britain’s busiest shopping day of the year – and as a report reveals the soaring number of high street stores in ‘significant’ financial distress.
After the supermarket IT issues at the weekend, angry shoppers went on Twitter to complain about the poor service and a lack of information.
Waitrose customer Paul May complained of ‘appalling’ service. He tweeted: ‘No delivery last night, no call to say it wasn’t calling – no call today to rearrange – Xmas stuff missing.’
Fiona Turner posted yesterday: ‘Still waiting for my Christmas shop since 8pm last night. Not impressed as now have to sort out the shop with a 6month old!”
Nadine Gibbs wrote: ‘@waitrose you cancel my Xmas food shop (inclusive of turkey) no notice and no one answering the phone to resolve. So angry, 3 days b4 Xmas.’
The Sainsbury’s glitch affected customers between 9.20pm and 9.50pm on Sunday night – with some saying their orders disappeared entirely.
Vikki Fuller, from Frimley, Surrey, said she lost her order despite booking a delivery slot three weeks ago and now has to visit the store for her Christmas shopping.
Emma Mottram, from South East London, said she panicked when the website crashed, leaving her unable to access it.
Asda customer Patrick Harper tweeted: ‘Entire food delivery for our Christmas holiday just cancelled by @asda but they can deliver... on the 29th! Shocking service.’ Another, Anne Gregory, added: ‘Terrible customer service, they’ve taken my money and left us with no food!’
Waitrose said the number of customers involved was in the low hundreds, Sainsbury’s said fewer than 100 of its orders were affected, while Asda said around 40 of its customers had problems. However, Waitrose said it was now ‘back on track’ with orders.
Sainsbury’s said its ‘brief technical issue’ had been fixed, adding: ‘We would like to reassure all customers who have orders outstanding that they will receive their deliveries before Christmas.’
And Asda said: ‘We have been reinstating these orders as a priority today so no-one will miss out on their Asda order, and we’re also giving them a gesture of goodwill to say sorry for the inconvenience.’
Meanwhile, research reveals the financial difficulties faced by high street stores.
