Waitrose and Sainsbury’s cancel hundreds of Christmas orders as websites crash

Customers brand new delivery dates of 27 December as 'about as much use as a chocolate teapot'

Waitrose customers were "fuming" at Christmas order cancellations

Sainsbury’s and Waitrose have cancelled hundreds of Christmas shopping deliveries due to website meltdowns in the run-up to Christmas.

Last night Sainsbury’s accidentally cancelled online orders after suffering a computer failure. Some customers were offered redelivery dates after Christmas Day.

Elsewhere, the Waitrose website went “into meltdown” according to staff, leading to failed deliveries last night and this morning.

Sainsbury’s customer, Jenny Grasham-Whalley, from Sutton Coldfield in the West Midlands, was offered a new delivery date for her Christmas shopping: 27 December.

“That date is as much use as a chocolate teapot,” she told the BBC. She was offered a £50 voucher as an apology.

Waitrose customer and Twitter user @KEH001 was "fuming" and called the glitch an “absolute shambles”, threatening to go “back to M&S” following the disappearance of the turkey order.

The negative attention was particularly bad timing for the supermarkets, given that today - "Mayhem Monday" – is when 36 per cent of shoppers intend to make their main Christmas food and drink purchases, according to a survey by BBC Good Food.

Both supermarkets were quick to reassure shoppers.

Waitrose said all Christmas orders would be fulfilled and that in some cases customers had chosen to collect their order from a local branch. “The temporary IT problem yesterday was swiftly and successfully fixed,” said a spokesperson. “We have been in touch with any customers who might have a slight delay to their order to apologise and to arrange a delivery time to suit them.”

Sainsbury’s said: “We experienced a brief technical issue with our website last night, which has now been fixed.

“Some customers experienced difficulties with booking or amending their delivery slot. 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.”