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Middle-class Brits are facing a Christmas nightmare after Ocado shoppers were left without festive staples in their orders.
Scores of well-off Londoners were left without key ingredients for their Christmas dinners after a ‘robot’ malfunctioned at the upmarket food retailer’s £185million delivery centre.
Long-booked Christmas shops were delivered to Londoners over the weekend without any chilled of frozen foods, with some claiming dozens of items were missing.
The news comes as Morrisons triggered Christmas panic after online orders for scores of customers were cancelled just two days before Christmas.
One Ocado shopper said ‘literally the entire Christmas dinner bar the parsnips was missing’ from their order, reported London Centric.
‘Well @Ocado you’ve properly let yourself down. Over 30 items, all of our chilled Xmas food is not arriving… How can you trust online delivery if you can’t even make Christmas?! Disgraceful,’ one outraged shopper wrote on social media.
Taking to X, another person wrote: ‘Basic staples like milk, butter and carrots missing from my Christmas shop? This is quite honestly ridiculous.’
A third customer raged: ‘Ocado. What’s the point in me ordering weeks in advance, waiting up to book a Christmas delivery slot, only for tons of stuff to be substituted or even just missing. For the second year running, there won’t be a third!’
Score of customers were left without key staples of a Christmas dinner after a malfunction at Ocado’s delivery centre (file image)
Customers said they were left without almost all the items needed for their Christmas dinner (file image)
Shoppers took to social media to share their outrage over the delivery error
The malfunction took place at Ocado’s hi-tech 563,000sq ft Erith centre, which is the world’s largest automated warehouse for food deliveries, dealing with 200,000 orders a week.
‘We are aware that a small proportion of orders were not delivered as expected. This does not meet our usual high standards and we understand the inconvenience this will have caused, especially at this time of year. We are proactively reaching out to apologise to those affected,’ a spokeswoman added.
The festive shopping woes came as Morrisons customers were today left reeling after the supermarket giant cancelled home deliveries and festive shops for scores of Brits.
The shopping chain said its More rewards card is facing difficulties, with customers unable to get discounts on their food shops.
Some shoppers have also raged that their online orders have been cancelled or delayed, with Morrisons saying click-and-collect purchases are mostly affected.
The chaos comes on what is predicted to be the busiest shopping day of the year for supermarkets ahead of the Christmas rush.
Morrisons has apologised for the mayhem and said it was ‘experiencing some system issues’ that were impacting ‘some’ discount cards and collection orders.
‘For More Card customers who have Morrisons Fivers to redeem, these will be done manually in store by colleagues. And if More Card prices are not registering, we will apply a 10% discount to the customer’s entire shop,’ it added in a statement online.
The error took place at Ocado’s hi-tech 563,000sq ft Erith centre (pictured), which is the world’s largest automated warehouse for food deliveries, dealing with 200,000 orders a week.
Meanwhile Morrisons customers were also facing chaos today after the retailer for forced to cancel their shopping orders just two days before Christmas (file image)
The shopping giant says an issue with its More rewards card scheme is to blame (file image)
‘For Click and Collect orders, we are asking customers to wait for an email to inform them that their order is ready for collection before heading to store. Some home delivery orders may be arriving late today – and we will be communicating directly with those customers affected.
‘We sincerely apologise to our customers for this inconvenience.’
But fuming shoppers have taken to social media to vent their anger, with one demanding Morrisons to ‘get a f***ing grip’, while another raged on X: ‘Hope @Morrisons loses a s*** ton of money today for the simple fact they knew the more cards wasn’t working but don’t say on entry instead they wait till your at the till…
‘I left like £100 – £150 worth of shopping just at the till because of the more saving I would have lost.’
Morrisons’ website also went down, with a ‘502 bad gateway’ error message on some pages, leaving some customers panicking.
One person on X – former known as Twitter until it was bought and rebranded by the world’s richest man, Elon Musk – wrote: ‘Hope you’re not hoping to get any deals at today or use your card. Conveniently they are all down across all stores! Busiest shopping day of the year! No refunds apparently either.’
On the Morrisons’ Facebook page, outraged shoppers have also claimed their Christmas deliveries ordered a month ago have been cancelled.
‘Half my Christmas shopping isn’t coming including the turkey and puddings and they were ordered a month ago,’ one person wrote under a post advertising discounts.
Furious customers have since taken to social media to slam the retailer for the ‘shambles’
Customers on social media have lashed out over the cancellations and issues with Morrisons’ ‘More’ discount card scheme
Other customers hit out at Ocado’s Christmas delivery woes over the weekend
Others claimed on X they had orders cancelled without any warning.
‘Thanks so much @Morrisons for cancelling my delivery without any warning. No contact, no email, phone call, nothing to explain why. Superb customer service,’ wrote one woman on X.
Lorraine Calvo from Longhorsley, Northumberland, placed her food order with the supermarket seven weeks ago and was due to receive it between 5pm and 6pm today.
But this morning she received a message notifying her that the order had been cancelled, leaving Lorraine stranded as her disability means that she can’t get to the shops in person.
Lorraine said: ‘I rang them up and they said there’s nothing they can do. I’ve looked at all of the other supermarkets and even the Co-op doesn’t deliver where I am or Deliveroo. I’m just stuck.
‘I’ve got no family here so there’s nobody that can go and get anything for me. It’s not just my Christmas shop, it’s my whole weekly shop because I just get it delivered once a week.
‘I normally use Sainsbury’s or Tesco’s, but I was trying to find a Christmas slot and this is the only one I could find. I won’t ever be using them again.’
The supermarket chain has been advertising heavy discounts in the run-up on Christmas dinner food, including vegetables, in the last week.
Morrisons shoppers were left outraged over the issue with click-and-collect deliveries
Morrisons released an updated statement, saying: ‘Today we are experiencing some system issues which are affecting our More Card customers. For More Card customers who have Morrisons Fivers to redeem, these will be done manually in store by colleagues.
‘All our stores have now made the top 100 More Card prices the regular price – including the 10p veg deal, turkeys, spirits and champagne. And in addition we will give More Card customers an extra 10% off their entire shop as an apology.’
Retail analysts at Kantar say today is expected to be the busiest day of the year for shops as millions of Brits rush to their local supermarkets to stock up on last-minute food and drink for Christmas.
Supermarket sales were expected to continue grow, exceeding £13billion over the four weeks of December for the first time ever.
It comes as the cost of an average Christmas dinner for four ballooned by 6.5 per cent, rising to £32.57.