Morrisons customers say Christmas deliveries and discounts down

Morrisons has apologised after experiencing technical issues impacting discounts and online deliveries nationwide.

Customers faced challenges using loyalty card discounts and had Christmas deliveries delayed on Monday morning.

The supermarket chain mentioned it was investigating the problems in-store and online, but did not disclose the cause of the disruption. All stores had returned to normal operations by Monday evening, according to the BBC.

To address the issues at the checkout, Morrisons has applied loyalty discounts to all customers and set the top 100 More Card prices as the regular price for all shoppers, even non-members.

More Card holders will also receive an additional 10% off their total purchase as a gesture of apology.

These measures will remain in effect until the end of Tuesday, as stated by Morrisons.

Customers who shopped before the introduction of the 10% discount on Monday can return to the store to avail of the discount, Morrisons confirmed.

The company advised some home deliveries might be delayed, and click-and-collect customers should await an email before visiting stores.

However, some customers reported that their online orders, including Christmas Day food items, were entirely canceled.

Others mentioned experiencing similar issues prior to this incident, occurring over the weekend and in recent months.

One customer reported missing out on approximately £20 of discounts.

Steve Weatherby from Huddersfield recounted his experience, stating that he should have paid nothing at the checkout after factoring in all discounts and vouchers, but ended up paying £90 instead of £70.

He also mentioned that staff seemed unaware of the situation, causing distress.

Another customer, Moira Gray from Northumberland, shared that her online order, placed well in advance for Christmas, was abruptly canceled due to illness, causing significant stress.

Lorraine Calvo, another affected customer, had her delivery canceled with little notice, jeopardizing her Christmas supply.

Following the publication of the story, Morrisons reached out to Ms. Gray and Ms. Calvo, committing to delivering their orders free of charge on Monday.

They clarified that the cancellations were not related to the main systems issue and would be addressed by customer services.

They assured customers that any isolated cancellations would be resolved promptly by their team.

Before the disruption, Morrisons had been advertising significant discounts for Christmas, including vegetables for as low as 10p.

Retail analyst Natalie Berg described the tech glitch on one of the busiest shopping days as a nightmare scenario that could impact trust and profitability.

Monday was anticipated to be the peak shopping day for supermarkets this year, as per retail analysts Kantar, with projected sales exceeding £13bn, marking a record high for December.

Morrisons holds the fifth-largest market share in the UK grocery sector, capturing 8.6% of the market leading up to 1 December 2024, according to Kantar.

The Grocer’s news editor Ronan Hegarty emphasized that shoppers could feel deceived if they missed out on deals due to tech issues.

In addition to in-store problems, the Morrisons website experienced downtime in the morning with server-related errors showing on certain pages.