Getty ImagesSome Morrisons customers faced further delays to their Christmas orders more than 24 hours after the supermarket experienced what it called “systems issues” on Monday.
One customer told the BBC she was left waiting with around £200 worth of groceries, and another said he struggled to get answers from the company about his Christmas shop.
It comes after chaotic scenes at the UK’s fifth-largest supermarket on December 23 – the biggest grocery shopping day of the year – which saw deliveries canceled and discounts not being applied.
Morrisons apologized and said deliveries were back to normal, but has yet to reveal the cause of the problems despite repeated requests from the BBC.
“Today the Morrisons store experience has returned to normal, but all More Card customers will still get 10% off their entire store in store throughout the day,” the supermarket told BBC News on Tuesday morning.
She added: “Click and Collect and home deliveries are operating as usual. We are determined not to let any customer down this Christmas.”
“In limbo”
A Morrisons customer in Worcestershire, who did not want to be named, received a text message on Monday saying her delivery had been delayed.
Early Tuesday morning, she had not heard from Morrisons and had not received the delivery.
The customer had an order worth around £200 and had kept vouchers throughout the year to get it down to £100.
She said the lack of communication had left her “in limbo”, wondering if she would “go out today and spend £200 and then come home and get Morrison’s £200 worth of shopping”.
She finally received her order later on Tuesday.
The problems began early Monday morning, when customers who had ordered for Christmas began receiving emails saying their deliveries would be delayed or cancelled.
Then, when the stores opened, customers inside the store discovered that their coupons were not being accepted at the point of sale.
In response, Morrisons has implemented a 10% discount for members of its More Card loyalty program and applied other discounts to non-More Cardholders.
Another Morrisons customer, Matthew Welsh in Northumberland, had his delivery canceled on Monday morning.
He said the manager he spoke to when he phoned was “less than helpful.”
Matthew told BBC News: “The manager said he needed to wait until the problem was resolved and then get back to me, which he didn’t do.”
He added: “I have since discovered that four other people in the village I live in also had their Christmas deliveries canceled yesterday as well.”
The BBC spoke to two other people in Northumberland who had spoken Deliveries were canceled yesterday.
Morrisons insists these cancellations were separate from the major “systems issues” it experienced, but did not go into further detail. It also did not explain the cause of the problems in its systems.
Mr. Welsh ended up buying groceries locally.
“I will be switching to another supermarket, but I will never use Morrisons again for anything,” he said.
Since publishing this story, Morrisons has been in contact with Mr Welsh to offer to deliver the order and add points to his card.
“We will not forget”
Consumer expert Kate Hardcastle says the supermarket chain needs to be more transparent with its customers about what happened.
“It’s something that won’t be forgotten very quickly in the new year,” she told the BBC.
“I think it’s about trying to lean in, do the best they can, and be very honest about it,” she adds.
The way supermarkets use loyalty programs has changed in recent years, from offering points to offering member discounts.
“If we’re going to see retailers implementing these systems where you can only get to a certain price through charts, you definitely have to make sure they’re watertight,” she says.
“Our grocery stores are built on legacy IT systems that can be really affected at sensitive times of the year… It’s about trying to understand how in the new year they can work with their loyal customers to make up for that.”
