Tesco customers have been left furious after having to wait hours in a virtual queue to secure a Christmas delivery slot.
This morning the supermarket released slots for the week starting 21 December - but only to their delivery saver customers who pay a subscription fee.
1 day ago Christmas delivery slots at Asda, Tesco, Sainsbury's and M&S 'sold out' leaving customers to face store queues. The coronavirus pandemic has caused a surge in demand for delivery slots. Online food shopping is easy at Tesco. You can also buy homeware and earn money-saving Clubcard points. Book a grocery delivery or Click+Collect slot today. You need to have a slot booked between the 20–24 December. You can then start adding Festive Food to Order items to your basket. Just remember to check out to secure your slot and your pre-ordered products before 14 December. Also remember to check out any changes you make to your order, so all the items in your basket are saved.
But after waking up to log on at 7am, many complained they had still not been given a slot after two-and-a-half hours of waiting.
One person posted on Twitter: 'What an absolute joke. Been a delivery customer for years, have delivery saver.
Almost two and a half hours waiting and still in the queue 😡
Take a look at the following tips to help you manage your Christmas shopping with Tesco Try Click+Collect or Flexi saver delivery slots These usually have more availability and Click+Collect slots are just £1.50. If you can't find a slot for one week, try looking at availability for another week. Our December slots are now open to all If you can't find a delivery slot, try Click+Collect instead. Also, as we've got order and item limits in place, why not try and do.
— Sonia Bradley (@50N1ABR4DL3Y) November 13, 2020'Went on at 6.45am. Been in the queue for two hours and 20 minutes. What is happening? Should I just shop elsewhere this Christmas?'
Another user posted: 'Been waiting 2.5 hours now (since 6.59) in a queue for Christmas slot. What's happening? Am I lost in cyber hell somewhere?'
Customers were faced with a message that read: 'You are currently in a queue - we'll put you through as soon as we can.'
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On its Twitter page, the supermarket posted: 'A lot of customers are using our website and app at the moment. So we're temporarily using a virtual waiting room to help manage the flow.
'We're sorry if things take a bit longer than usual.'
Anyone else still in the online Tesco queue for a Christmas slot?! #tescopic.twitter.com/f4qKOrng2l
— SEN Resources Blog (@senresourceblog) November 13, 2020While some were given slots after a long wait, others were unsuccessful and forced to shop for their Christmas dinner supplies elsewhere.
Those who did manage to book complained festive essentials like turkeys were not yet available.
There was also no mention of people on the government's vulnerable list, who are entitled to priority delivery slots because of coronavirus.
@Tesco been waiting 2.5 hours now (since 6.59) in a queue for Christmas slot. What's happening? Am I lost in cyber hell somewhere?
— annie (@annie6724) November 13, 2020A Tesco spokesman said: 'Demand for online slots over the festive period is high, and we have more slots this Christmas than ever before.
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'We are experiencing high volumes of traffic to our website and groceries app and are temporarily limiting the number of customers using it.'
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They apologised for the inconvenience and claimed home delivery and click and collect slots are still available for the Christmas period.