What do you call a Christmas dinner without the turkey and trimmings?

That’s the question disgruntled Ocado customers in London have been facing after their festive orders arrived today without any frozen or chilled items.

Ocado explained a “temporary issue” at one of its fulfilment centres meant shoppers were getting their Christmas dinner deliveries without most of the actual dinner.

“We are aware a small proportion of orders were not delivered as expected,” Ocado Retail said in a statement, adding that it was “proactively reaching out to apologise to those affected”.

The news came just hours after Morrisons made national headlines for its own, much bigger technical difficulties.

System issues across the UK meant customers who had ventured in-store were unable to access any loyalty discounts on their festive shopping, while those waiting at home for online delivery or click & collect slots were faced with last-minute cancellations and unexpected delays.

It meant shoppers at home were left with nothing, while those in-store were being asked to pay significantly more for their shopping. Morrisons soon began trending on social media, where angry customers demanded refunds, declaring their Christmas was ruined and pointing out that the supermarket was “conveniently” waiting to let shoppers fill their trolley before letting them know of the problems. 

For its part, Morrisons was quick to act, making the discounted loyalty prices the regular price for all customers. It then went even further, giving all loyalty customers an additional 10% discount on their entire shop until stores close on Christmas Eve. (Ocado take note: that’s how to do an apology.)

Bad timing and trust issues

For both tech issues to happen today – on what is expected to be the busiest grocery shopping day of the year – is spectacularly bad timing.

Earlier this month, it was predicted that supermarket sales, comprising both grocery and non-grocery, will exceed £13bn for the first time this December. There’s a lot of money at stake, and with costs rising and food inflation continuing to creep higher, supermarkets have pulled out the stops to make sure their deals and discounts are as attractive as possible.

Most of these lower prices are only available through loyalty schemes, meaning that, as in Morrisons’ case, shoppers will feel rightly cheated if they can’t access them. Morrisons is offering refunds to customers who paid the higher price earlier this morning – but will that be enough?

With so much at stake, it’s crucial consumers feel they can rely on their chosen supermarket to deliver a seamless, efficient and reliable service.

For Ocado, the trust issue is particularly thorny, as shoppers who had booked a delivery slot today were only able to do so if they had spent a minimum of £90.

One customer posted online saying they’d be going back to Waitrose next year, adding that Ocado had made what should be a stress-free delivery “stressful”, adding simply: “You are rubbish.”

Ouch.

Today’s issues would have been problematic at any time of the year, but for the systems to go down so close to Christmas will leave many disgruntled consumers wondering where to take their business in the future.

Indeed, Iceland has already gone on record saying it has seen sales double this morning due to Morrisons’ technical issues.

The supermarket said it had been “inundated with last-minute orders” and experienced three times as many website visitors as normal as “Christmas wasn’t ruined for families who switched to us”.

A very Merry Christmas indeed.

Topics