M&S ‘cyber Incident’

[user1471427667]

Hi,
not sure what is going with M&S. Firstly, last week they were wrongly advertising 15% off everything but when you got to checkout it didn’t go through and just called it a ‘glitch’. Then, I went into store on Monday and while queuing at checkout I heard the cashier explain that all their tills were offline and they were unable to honour any sparks online offers. As I had a 20% off voucher for some trousers, I decided to wait and order them online instead, thinking it was just a problem with my local store.
I placed an order online on Wednesday for 3 items, my money was debited from my card as usual and I was sent an email with order details saying my items would be ready to collect in storeon Saturday - all good.
As I’m checking my order this morning, I see the items haven’t even been despatched yet. Then this afternoon, I see the following message on the website ( I was unaware of this and wonder why, if they knew this on Tuesday, did they take my money for my order on Wednesday?)
I also realise, I cancelled another order last week and I’ve yet to receive a refund ( usually get them within 48hrs)

i wondered about whether they had insurance for such attacks as well.
Such a terrible time of year for this to have happened to them, only worse time would have been the run up to Christmas. As it is, everyone is looking to buy new clothes for summer wardrobe/ holidays. I’m going to actually go into store tomorrow- second time in a week! Don’t think I’ve been so frequently in years, just shows how reliant on online shopping I’ve become.

Harrods? It's on BBC news tonight.

DH and I went to a store today to try on suits. I did warn him that stock control is usually dire nowadays but was pleasantly surprised to find multiples of each size, and lots of choice of styles and colourways. Or maybe the men’s department is always like that?

I did feel nostalgic for the days when you could go shopping and actually come home with an outfit, rather than having to place an order and wait.

It is funny isn’t it, how used to online shopping we have become. I walked into town this morning in the beautiful sunshine, found the trousers I wanted in the size and length I wanted ( realise this was lucky though as there were only 3 pairs on the rail). Very quiet at the tills too. I should have paid by cash really to complete the ‘ old school’ experience!

Read the BBC story tonight. Co op tried to downplay the hack and control the story as I suggested they would. But the hackers have sent details to the BBC of what they have done/obtained.

@Gonegrey31How did you return your items? I’ve got an online order that I’m trying to return through a food hall, but they’re not accepting any returns. I asked if I could return it to a clothing store and they’re saying that’s not possible either. I’m starting to lose patience.

I’m sure it states on their website that they are accepting returns to home and clothing stores ( not food halls). So maybe the staff member was unaware of this? I’ve found they answer very quickly on their Twitter account if you send them a DM ( I’d never used Twitter before this!)

@Gonegrey31 here you go - the bit where it says you take returns to clothing/home stores

I returned items last week to a clothes store. The refund went through promptly the following day.
I don't think you can return to a food store yet as they're still locked out of that returns system.
Anyone who's still having issues with returns should sort it out with customer services.

Nix32 I returned the clothing to a large M&S that also has a food hall within it . Obviously took the clothes to a clothing check out till .

I managed to have mine collected fromhome yesterday after arranging the return online / label etc. Haven’t had any confirmation yet tho.

Latest update below. It’s been about 10 days now and no end in sight. Must be costing them so much. Hope they can survive this. Would normally spend some of my b/h weekend browsing and ordering clothes online from them

I spent £92 online on the 23rd then got an email yesterday saying it's been cancelled and they sent me a £100 gift voucher as my 'refund'.

I don't mind too much as I'll wait til they're back up and running and use it. But pretty cheeky to refund cash as a gift voucher no?

No, they can’t do this. Their own terms and conditions of refunds say they will refund with the same method you paid with. So, if you didn’t pay by gift voucher, they shouldn’t refund using then.
You have also had a long wait for your refund. My order was on 23rd too and got cancelled on 29th and had refund via card the following day.
If you are happy with gift vouchers, then fine but personally I would be asking them why they are refunding you this way ( quickest response seems to be via their Twitter account)

Also, just beware this could be a scam and don’t click on any links in such emails

Went to our city centre large food hall this morning and huge gaps on both chilled food and other products

Thank you. It's a cheek to refund on voucher but like I say, I will use it as I want the things when they allow online orders again!

I think it’s very odd. If I were you I’d be checking through M&S website/ Twitter a/c ( not by replying to email) that the refund offer plus voucher itself is legit

So far my city Centre food/clothing/ home store seems ‘normal’. Food shelves well stocked ( although being a warm bank holiday weekend, customers buying loads) On Saturday morning, there were staff refilling with huge trolley’s full of chilled food - mainly barbecue type stuff.
Clothing is what it’s been for the last few years ie. Only a few sizes available for each item, which is annoying as it’s never my size (8). I’d hoped at the start of this that as they kept urging customers to go into store to buy, that they’d put more items/sizes in store, but I guess if they have no access their stock levels than difficult to know what they need.
Is it stupid/naive/ old school to suggest that they could get someone from each store to physically do a stock check and ring in the numbers to head office?

Fresh food stocks in our local store were almost back to normal and staff were scanning shelves, obviously re-populating their inventory. Yellow stickers have returned but they're generic ones at round number price points and just appear on the receipt as "reduced" with no reference to the product.

Long shelf life ambient foods were vastly depleted, though. Very few tins and jars in particular. Not much white wine left but lots of red!

Thanks for that, rushes out to get white wine I did notice doing my Ocado order that M&S long shelf life stuff was still showing as out of stock. Pp mentioned jams and biscuits so I checked their own brand and a lot were still out of stock when I go to add to my order.
Over 2 weeks since this happened and I can’t imagine how much money it’s costing M&S. Someone earlier ( who is techie) was saying when a big sophisticated attack like this happens, there are three options

1. Close the business
2. Give into attackers demands and pay the ransom
3. Build new systems for everything ( very costly and time consuming) I presume M&S are doing option 3.

Long term, 3 is the only decision. If you give in and pay the ransom once, it would surely be a case of rinse and repeat for the cyber pirates.

Agree. I just hope they can survive until they can get back up and running. What is happening to the staff who work in the warehouses preparing the orders?

A lot were agency and was laid off. I know somebody personally.

That’s sad to hear. So many knock on affects .