Sainsbury’s CEO apologises for IT issues

Sainsbury’s CEO Simon Roberts has apologised to customers after an IT glitch led the supermarket to cancel the vast majority of online orders, and left it temporarily unable to take contactless card payments in a significant number of stores over the weekend.

Early on Saturday morning, Sainsbury’s notified customers via its social channels that an “overnight software update” had led to issues with its online groceries service and its ability to process contactless payments in stores. As a result, Sainsbury’s would be unable to fulfil “the vast majority of online orders” and was unable to contact customers, it said. Its click & collect services and online ordering at Argos were also affected.

In an email to customers on Sunday, Roberts confirmed the “technical issue” had been resolved, and all affected systems were back online. Sainsbury’s contactless payment services were fully operational, he also confirmed.

“I want to apologise to you and every customer that has been affected by the issue and to thank you for your patience and for bearing with us,” said Roberts.

“I really understand how important it is for everyone to be able to shop with us conveniently and easily, whenever and however you want to, and I am sorry if you have not received your usual service from Sainsbury’s this weekend.” 

The issue left a significant number of Sainsbury’s customers without deliveries on Saturday, and with little way of contacting Sainsbury’s for an update. Customers were able to place orders again from Sunday morning.

Roberts had previously written to customers on Saturday to notify them that any cancelled orders would be refunded. Over the coming days, affected customers would also automatically be issued with goodwill vouchers in their online wallet, he said. 

“Our contact centre teams are working very hard to do everything they can to help customers who have been affected by the issue and need further assistance. Thank you for bearing with us while we work to answer any specific questions you may have as soon as possible,” Roberts said.

“I would also like to thank all our colleagues who have worked so hard to resolve this issue and support our customers. I’m proud of the way all our team have stepped up to manage the unexpected challenges that we know so many of our customers have experienced this weekend,” he added.

It came in what was a weekend of IT chaos for food giants, with Tesco having to cancel a smaller proportion of online orders as a result of an IT issue, which was resolved on Saturday. On Friday, McDonald’s chains in several regions globally were also hit by an IT error that affected customer orders.