Waitrose large electric van

Source: Waitrose

The issue affected online orders scheduled for Wednesday morning

Waitrose has apologised to customers after its latest IT glitch meant it had to cancel a “large volume” of online deliveries.

The technical issue, which occurred on Tuesday evening, led to numerous online orders scheduled for Wednesday being cancelled. Customers were notified with a text message stating there had been a “technical issue”, with several taking to social media to voice their frustration.

“Due to an IT issue, we have had to cancel a large volume of deliveries today,” Waitrose tweeted in reply to a shopper.

Waitrose did not confirm how many customers were affected but said the glitch was resolved and customers had been able to reorder. The issue only affected online orders.

A Waitrose spokesman said: “We’re very sorry some customer orders were impacted following a technical issue. While quickly resolved, we’ve apologised to affected customers, and will be offering them a goodwill gesture.”

It’s the latest in a series of IT-related issues for the high-end supermarket over the past year.

A large number of stores were left with a shortage of salad, fresh veg, bakery products and condiments in the build up to the May 2023 bank holiday after an IT update affected the supermarket’s delivery systems.

Read more: Waitrose denies IT system woes are causing poor availability ahead of Christmas

Latest accounts for the Waitrose business posted in May show its pretax losses accelerated dramatically to £217.3m in the year to 28 January 2023, down from a profit of £14.7m the year before.

The supermarket said shortages resulting from a warehouse fire and an update to its merchandising system were a significant reason for the losses, contributing to one-off cost impairments totalling £152m.

Customer service representatives for Waitrose told shoppers the latest glitch was “in no way connected” to IT issues earlier in the year.

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