Sainsbury’s and Tesco apologise for ‘inconvenience’ to customers after in store and online ‘technical issues’

“Technical issues” that affected Sainsbury’s in store contactless payments and online delivery services have been resolved after causing chaos for shoppers.

The supermarket said on Saturday morning that it was unable to fulfil the “vast majority” of online deliveries, while staff waited outside some stores to tell customers they could only pay with cash.

Tesco also cancelled some online orders as both supermarkets said they were experiencing technical problems.

In an update this afternoon, Sainsbury’s said: “We can confirm that contactless payments are now back up and running in all our stores, alongside all other forms of payment.

“Our Groceries Online ordering system is working as normal and customers can place an order for delivery anytime from tomorrow.”

The supermarket chain apologised to customers for the “inconvenience” caused and thanked them for “bearing with us”.

All stores remained open during the technical blunder, the supermarket said, and the “majority” of chip and pin transactions were working.

Argos, which is owned by Sainsbury’s, was also affected by the software update, meaning customers may have experienced issues with ordering new items or collecting orders in-store.

A customer at a Sainsbury’s in Farnham told Sky News they visited the store at around 4pm and there were “no problems”.

“The only thing not working were the handheld smart shop devices, but you can pay the normal way at the tills,” they said.

Tesco also experienced problems

Tesco said hours after the announcement by Sainsbury’s that it was also experiencing “a technical issue”, meaning it “had to cancel some online orders that were due for delivery today”.

The supermarket chain apologised to customers, and later said the issue had been resolved, but orders for later in the day were still affected.

Customers whose order was impacted should have received an email and were able to place a new order and view available slots.

Tesco said customers would not be charged for any cancelled orders.

Shoppers abandoned trolleys at checkouts

The technical error had caused chaos for customers across the UK, some of whom vented their frustration about being unable to pay with contactless methods.

Mary Griffin told Sky News: “Surely IT can have a backup of some description so that they can take card payments. I just find that they’re going to lose some customers today.”

Another affected customer, who tried to use the tills at a Sainsbury’s in the town of Prestwick in Ayrshire, Scotland, said everyone in line was abandoning their shopping as their cards were being declined.

“Some staff were saying to put your card in the machine and use your pin but this didn’t work,” they told Sky News.

“Everyone was leaving their shopping and staff were having to clear it away.

“This was obviously more serious than Sainsbury’s are making out.”

Meanwhile, Jason Jerome, from Dawlish in Devon said his local Sainsbury’s store was “crazy” this morning, with tills “six or seven deep”.

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“Bless the staff, they were trying their hardest to alleviate people’s fears. It was just so busy, it was crazy.”

“It must’ve took me an extra 20 minutes just waiting in the queue,” he said.

The supermarket had assured customers on X that their personal data was “still be safe and secure even with the issues going on”.

Its page on the social media site was inundated with customers’ complaints that their orders had not arrived this morning.