The CEO of Sainsbury’s has apologised after a technical problem caused the cancellation of thousands of online grocery deliveries.
The large supermarket company stated that an overnight software update meant that most online orders could not be fulfilled on Saturday.
However, the problem also led to additional issues as some stores were unable to accept contactless payments, requiring shoppers to use a physical bank card or cash.
Customers were kept uninformed because the technical problems prevented Sainsbury’s from directly contacting them.
In an email to customers today, the CEO Simon Robert confirmed that the grocery delivery service is now operational again and shoppers can use contactless payments at the tills.
He stated: ‘I want to apologize to you and every customer who has been affected by the problem and to thank you for your patience and understanding.
‘I truly understand how important it is for everyone to be able to shop with us conveniently and easily, whenever and however you want, and I am sorry if you have not received your usual service from Sainsbury’s this weekend.’
Customers who did not receive their online grocery orders over the weekend can ‘now place a new order for delivery from tomorrow’.
‘We will automatically add a voucher to your online wallet in the next few days to apologize for the inconvenience,’ Robert explained.
Sainsbury’s contact center teams are ‘working very hard to help customers who have been affected by the problem and need further assistance’
He emphasized that the staff ‘worked hard’ to fix the technical problem.
‘I’m proud of the way all our team have stepped up to manage the unexpected challenge that we know so many of our customers have experienced this weekend,’ the CEO said.
Argos, the catalogue shop owned by Sainsbury’s, also had orders affected by the software update.
A few Tesco customers were affected by a different technical issue that caused their deliveries to not arrive on Saturday. In-store shopping was not impacted.
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