Consumers frustrated with supermarket online delivery issues

Wednesday, December 24, 2014 - 20:05 by Graham Miller

Both Asda and Sainsbury’s have come under criticism this week, as customers experienced issues when placing online orders for their groceries ahead of Christmas, according to the London Evening Standard.

Problems appear to have arisen after certain people who had previously arranged for food and drink to be delivered to their homes with these major supermarket chains, found that their orders had been postponed and their delivery slots cancelled.

Meanwhile, when attempting to get in touch with customer service representatives, a number of frustrated consumers found that doing so was nearly impossible, as a result of support systems being overburdened by the festive crush.

In a statement, Sainsbury’s admitted that it had been having problems with its website earlier this week, but said that solutions have since been found and people can now carry out safe shopping online without issue.

A spokesperson for Asda had a similar message, stating that a small number of customers had been impacted by problems and that it was now carrying out an investigation to discover the cause.

These kinds of incidents are bound to happen during the run up to Christmas, because even the largest retailers in the country are pushed beyond normal limits of capacity. And it is generally a tiny minority that encounter problems, with the rest of the country able to carry out safe shopping online and receive deliveries on schedule, as anticipated.

In fact, many retailers have been fulfilling orders early, to account for the flurry of last minute purchases that are anticipated. This has been beneficial for consumers in many cases, meaning that orders placed with the more affordable delivery options selected are coming as quickly as express services.

It is now too late for most to make pre-Christmas purchases online. But in years to come, and with Amazon’s 1 hour delivery scheme in the offing, things could change.