A newspaper outlet announced that Tesco’s home delivery service was flung into disarray as the supermarket withdrew all orders after 1 pm and told customers it was unable to reschedule them.
Customers calling to enquire about their orders were being met with a message informing them that all deliveries had been cancelled due to technical problems.
Tesco is the biggest supermarket in the United Kingdom and delivers about a million online orders every week, meaning tens of thousands of customers were likely to have been affected by the issue.
The recorded message said that due to technical problems they’d had to withdraw all orders after 1 pm and that if customers’ orders were due after 1 pm that they’d not been charged and they were unable to reschedule their orders.
Fed-up shoppers slammed the company for leaving them with no food for the weekend, with many saying they’d booked weeks in advance, with some only being offered a £5 voucher as compensation.
One unhappy consumer told a newspaper outlet that they worked full time and it was difficult to navigate work, childcare and shopping and this had just been a huge inconvenience along with a loss of money when everything counts at the moment, now out of pocket almost £20 with taxi and delivery charge.
They said that this was the knock-on effect that was created by a giant company that makes millions of pounds in earnings yet can’t have a computer system fit for purpose, and she added that when she asked about compensation a woman at Tesco’s customer service said that it would be agreed by the hierarchy and didn’t know when or by how much.
She said that it was only when she pushed and said that online forums had stated they were being awarded compensation that she reluctantly said she would load a £10 voucher into her account which was still not there, and that she felt the eye roll she was doing down the phone, she couldn’t care any less if she could have tried.
DownDetector, which tracks problems with company websites and apps, documented a wave in reports from 1 pm, which still seem to be ongoing.
One woman commented on the website that she was absolutely furious to have her order cancelled and that two hours before her delivery was due and after being on the phone, she was offered a £5 voucher. She said that she didn’t want a voucher, she just wanted to do her weekly shopping.
It’s actually no joke for those people without transportation and miles away from shops who depend on online shopping. Particularly with online shopping habits firmly being embedded, customers now expect seamless, timely experiences that they’re not getting, so retailers need to deliver a harmonious shopping experience across online channels and brick-and-mortar stores.
Tesco said that it was a technical issue, but perhaps it was because of the scarcity of delivery drivers due to work conditions, tight schedules, long stressful hours and minimum wage. Wait for it, next they’ll be going on strike!
And although it’s extremely irritating for the average person, what about pensioners and disabled people who depend on online shopping, and if disabled and Diabetic, then this could be catastrophic, and because online shopping appears to be a thing these days, there should be a penalty system for non-delivery for all companies, and it’s not that they withdrew their orders, it’s that they cancelled all orders after 1 pm but didn’t inform customers until hours later, so they missed their opportunity to get an alternative from another store.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 