Tesco Stores Hit By IT Glitch

Tue, 12 May 2009
 
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Tesco has apologised to shoppers after an IT bug caused a major till breakdown in more than 100 of its stores yesterday morning.

The computer glitch, caused by a routine IT system update, crippled the stores' main checkouts for three hours on the day the chain relaunched its Clubcard loyalty scheme.

Angry customers reported lengthy queues were at stores across the UK, including supermarkets in Birmingham, central London, Liverpool, York, Kent, Cumbria, Hertfordshire, Edinburgh and Northern Ireland .

Tesco said the IT glitch forced some stores to close, but the majority remained open as customers were able to use the self-service checkouts, which were not affected.

A spokeswoman for the supermarket giant said: "Tesco has apologised to customers for any inconvenience caused as a result of a computer problem which caused tills at some stores to stop working for a short time today."

"The problem was quickly identified and fixed within minutes, meaning only a handful of stores could not serve customers."

"Most stores were either unaffected or able to use their self scanning checkouts which were not affected by the computer glitch. Extra staff were allocated to these checkouts to ensure customers could continue shopping with the minimum of disruption."

"Home deliveries were unaffected and any petrol filling stations involved continued serving customers through 'pay at pump', which is available on the vast majority of pumps."

Tesco refused to comment on how much the IT problem had cost the chain in lost sales .

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