Sainsbury's Online Groceries - Today's Computer Failure

melb01

Bad news for many today, including me, with seriously delayed deliveries and missed orders!

Very difficult to understand computer failure of this type in 2014 - Sainsbury's need a proper Business Continuity plan. Perhaps, they should get out of the online grocery business - let Ocado provide the technology!

Hate to think of the cost of all of this to Sainsburys, not just real costs but the damage to their reputation.

Mel

Monkeyballs

To be fair events like that should be rare and "catastrophic" outages rarer still so the cost probably outweighs the benefit (to them)...

You're right that the main damage inflicted to their reputation (with the help of posts like yours LOL) and while it's not an excuse I've been one of the folk stuck in a call centre being shouted at for things out of my control and the best I could offer was an apology as I wrote your details on a post-it note

MB

melb01

Rare event indeed, but a few more like yesterday, and Sainsbury's bottom line will be seriously impacted.

Yesterdays problems meant that picking lists could not be printed, and very inefficient 'manual' picking from the customer's shopping list had to be done. Discounts and Nectar were not applied, and checkout at the till had to be done manually.

Until this happened, I didn't realise how highly leveraged the online grocery business is, and, of course, very visible to the end customer. By which, I mean that if online fails:-
1. Delivery slots are missed or deliveries are delayed to the following day. Big impact on customer satisfaction.
2. Staff have to be diverted from other store activities to support inefficient picking methods. Impact on store customers - less checkouts or product on shelves.
3. Delivery charges need to be waived to ensure repeat business. Plus, in many cases, compensation - i.e. a "Goodwill Refund" - has to be paid.
4. There is the temptation for staff working on catch-up deliveries to cut corners, and make mistakes. Overtime is normally required.

So, a simple "computer failure", within, obviously, a poorly designed system, causes a cascade of further issues, and everything becomes highly time sensitive, costly and pressured.

Of course, it has been known for computer failings to bring an organisation down - I don't think so with Sainsbury's. But, if they put all their eggs in to this basket, and have more of these failures, then profitability will be hit, and then they are a takeover target.

Mel

4743hudsonj

Wow, im glad i cancelled my order. Funnily enough it was my first ever online grocery shop (using the £15 off code). On friday i changed my slot, got confirmation by email but then i had an email saying they couldn't deliver my slot. This meant id have to wait an extra day for my food. I promptly cancelled my order and tried Ocado with £20 off. Glad i did and for about £2 more ive got everything i did at sainsbury's and more. Better quality i imagine too.

xnatillyx

We ordered our sainsburys delivery yesterday.
We use them for our online shopping and haven't had a problem.

We thankfully weren't affected by the computer issues , my fiance read about it and panicked thinking we wouldn't get the shopping. We needed it as a few important things we had run out of. So he was relieved.

Sucks for those it affected but this is a rare issue. On the whole there is never a problem.

tomtontom

Annoying and inconvenient, but these things happen, even with the most advanced of computer system. 99.9% of customers will have forgotten about this in a week, I doubt it will make the slightest difference to profits or customer loyalty, as most people keep these things in perspective.

melb01

tomtontom wrote: »

Annoying and inconvenient, but these things happen, even with the most advanced of computer system. 99.9% of customers will have forgotten about this in a week, I doubt it will make the slightest difference to profits or customer loyalty, as most people keep these things in perspective.

tomtomtom:

I admire your faith in the wonders of technology, and of management to actually understand the technology!

Anyway, my basic point is that on-line groceries is a game changer for the supermarkets - there's nowhere to hide when it goes wrong. If more and more supermarkets move to online with £25( £20 and £10 ) discounts off £60 ( £50 ) purchases, in other words a price war, then profitability is hit anyway, and any "computer problem" across 100 or so stores is real bad news.

If you or I believe that supermarkets only make 6% ROI, then a 20% discount off the selling price is a large amount to being with.

I think there's going to be further selling price shakeouts anyway because of Aldi and Lidl - all good news, of course, for us the customer.. Don't buy supermarket shares!

As to "99.9% having forgot about it in a week", I disagree. I only need one exceptionally bad experience with something that should be routine, to say "Never again" - I'm sure lots of folk are like that. Lots of folks did it a few years back with British owned, British manufactured cars - where are they now?

Mel

jennie44

I've had no problem with Sainsbury's online this afternoon.

melb01

jennie44 wrote: »

I've had no problem with Sainsbury's online this afternoon.

I would hope not - Friday, 23rd May was the computer failure day, and I understand it wasn't nationwide, but in about 100 supermarkets. If the failure carried on for three days it would be reported in the national press and shareholders would want to know.

haynick

melb01 wrote: »

Bad news for many today, including me, with seriously delayed deliveries and missed orders!

Very difficult to understand computer failure of this type in 2014 - Sainsbury's need a proper Business Continuity plan. Perhaps, they should get out of the online grocery business - let Ocado provide the technology!

Hate to think of the cost of all of this to Sainsburys, not just real costs but the damage to their reputation.

Mel

It was one day of problems - stuff like this happens its how companies deal with it afterwards that matters.

Regarding Ocado I don't think they should let Ocado provide the tech. Ocado still have not made a profit after years of being in business.

topdaddy_2

Ive never had problems with sainburys online and a one off problem wouldnt put me off. Tried tescos online three times when Enfield opened. They never managed to deliver any online shopping and now never will.