IT Failures Hit Xmas Food & Drink Deliveries

Last Christmas it was snow that disrupted festive food deliveries, this year IT failures are hampering families' plans.

Sainsbury (LSE: SBRY.L - news) 's customers are among those affected - the supermarket has admitted a website glitch means a number of deliveries have been cancelled.

Department store Fortnum & Mason has confirmed hundreds of its customers will not receive its world-famous hampers, some of which cost £5,000.

Sainsbury's, the UK's third biggest grocer, believes fewer than 100 homes were hit by a website glitch that meant their online delivery slot had gone when they reviewed their festive order.

While some deliveries were re-booked, others could not be altered.

As a result, Sainsbury's has been forced to fund a gesture of goodwill to those left empty handed.

Fortnum, which sends out thousands of hampers stocked with fine food and wines, has also apologised and said it had now taken on more staff and will continue deliveries on Christmas Eve to help make up for the "severe" failure.

The 300-year-old emporium, whose distinctive wicker baskets have been favourites of the rich and famous from Queen Victoria to Elizabeth Taylor, put the problems down to a combination of a new computer system and a tripling of trade in December.

A spokeswoman said: "A combination of the well reported 'late Christmas buying season'...and the introduction of a new IT infrastructure across the business in 2011 has put extreme pressure on our operations."

"We are very sorry that this situation has occurred and are doing everything in our power to rectify it for our customers, so that we can deliver the excellence of service that they expect."

The company said it will offer a full refund to customers that do not receive their order.

Last Christmas, several internet retailers stopped taking orders for deliveries in Scotland and freight experts warned families in many parts of Britain that they might not get their Christmas gifts amid heavy snowfall and extreme conditions.