IT glitch hits store deliveries

Sainsbury’s customers were left sweating over the contents of their Christmas dinner, after the supermarket admitted a website glitch had led to a number of deliveries being cancelled.

As the supermarket chain revealed its untimely problems, department store Fortnum & Mason said hundreds of customers would not receive its world-famous hampers after a “severe” IT failure.

Sainsbury’s said the affected customers discovered their online delivery slot had gone when they reviewed their festive order.

While some deliveries were re-booked, others could not be altered and Sainsbury’s has been forced to fund a gesture of goodwill to customers who have been left empty handed.

Fortnum, which sends out thousands of hampers stocked with fine food and wines, apologised and said it had taken on more staff and would be delivering orders on Christmas Eve in a bid to make up for the failure.

The 300-year-old Piccadilly emporium put the problems down to a combination of a new computer system and a tripling of trade in December.

Sainsbury’s said fewer than 100 customers had been impacted by the problem on its website.

A spokeswoman for the supermarket said: “We apologise unreservedly to customers who have been inconvenienced in any way.”

A spokeswoman for Fortnum said: “We are very sorry that this situation has occurred and are doing everything in our power to rectify it.”