Woolworths customers furious after online orders cancelled

Woolworths customers have been left fuming after their online orders were abruptly cancelled without warning and with little explanation.

The supermarket giant’s social media pages have been flooded with complaints after customers who had put in an online order to be delivered on Sunday were left waiting and wondering if it would ever arrive.

A Woolworths spokesperson confirmed customers across Australia were affected and that a “technical issue” was to blame.

It is understood the issue is related to a backend system for eCommerce which assists in fulfilling orders that have been placed.

“Yesterday morning we experienced a technical issue which affected a number of yesterday’s online orders,” they said in a written statement to The Nightly.

“The issue was resolved and our teams worked hard to ensure the majority of customer orders were completed.

“Unfortunately some online orders were cancelled as a result of the disruption. These customers were sent notification and will receive a full refund, in line with our standard procedures.

“We sincerely apologise to any customers whose order was cancelled or delayed.”

The spokesperson said the system was back up and running and orders for Monday would not be affected.

One angry customer took to social media to complain about Woolworths’ handling of the outage.

Nine hours after her order was due to arrive, its status still showed it was being “picked” and declared the service as “absolutely disgusting”, she wrote.

She said Woolworths knew online orders were affected and yet “thousands of us are left waiting to even hear an update”.

“I work in ICT. It’s not difficult to send a mass text to customers advising all orders have been cancelled and will be refunded.”

Another who also took to social media to vent her frustration wrote: “I went into my store and he said that due to a technical issue all orders that were to be collected between 10am and 4pm were cancelled. Apparently they were sending out texts or emails but I didn’t receive anything.”

And yet another put out this plea: “Where are our groceries? Went to collect my order and was told it had been cancelled $320 spent. I have a small child and family to feed. This is completely unacceptable. I am not able to get hold of anyone for a refund to shop elsewhere.

“This is beyond the pale.”

The time taken for refunds to hit customers’ bank accounts will depend on their bank’s system.

It is understood Woolworths has released all the holds on cancelled orders so those funds should become available to customers once their bank lifts the pending transaction on their account.