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 wouldn't be very happy with that, I would think legally they have to refund you properly, I also have the M&S credit card, it is on the account although my last order on Friday which I did receive on Saturday was bought with vouchers I get from the card. I hope our cards haven't been compromised. When Next had people not able to shop the VIP sale because of a tech glitch they sent everyone a £10 voucher as a goodwill gesture, maybe M&S should do something like this.

I picked up a food order yesterday. On twitter they replied to someone saying food orders are fine but you won’t get a dispatch / ready to collect email. So just go at 9am and collect your food. It’s all being done manually in store so technically someone could turn up and say they’ve ordered more than they have.
Not great, but least the food arrived.

For those saying M&S are handling it well, I dont get why more info is being given on twitter replies rather than officially. Like on twitter they are saying food orders are fine but orders made on the day they suspended online orders are likely to be cancelled. Why not put an official statement out saying all this?? Would save a tonne of queries for a start.

Still had no communication from M&S since Wednesday when I placed online order. Standard Email Wednesday to say thank you for order and it would be ready to collect Saturday 26th. Nothing since and order still shows as ‘waiting to despatch’
Refund from another order from a week ago is still showing in my pending transactions. They usually clear in a day or two but this has been over a week now.

They have to refund you the same way you paid ( look at their refund terms and conditions policy which clearly states this) did you pay by gift vouchers?
As a pp said, don’t click on anything in case it’s a scam email

This is good to know and will hopefully help people with food orders.
I don’t have Twitter account but used to be able to see most accounts like big companies etc. When I try see M&S ac it asks me to log in to Twitter a/c.
Dont want to get a Twitter a/c or help Elon Musk in anyway!
An email saying what is happening to my order from M&S would be appreciated though

Thanks for that. In the end I decided to cancel the order and reorder from Sainburys. I got an email from M&S saying something had gone wrong and sorry they had to cancel my order so I have no idea what’s going on!

Well no word on my order (other than the email saying it will be delayed by up to 48h - and was initially ordered to collect on Friday)

So, 48hrs have passed since the original collection date and still no word that you can collect it?
I guess they are trying not to cancel orders as more annoying for customers but also, less revenue for them.
I hope you hear tomorrow one way or another. I’ve kind of given up thinking I’ll ever anything about my order. Will wait until mid week and then brave the phone lines to cancel my order. Does anyone know if there is an email address? All I can see under the help section is a phone number and online chatbots!

Huge gaps in the food hall, this morning and, just like Tuesday, a lack of yellow stickers, which suggest to me that the issue is affecting more than just customer interactions but also their own inventory systems and stock ordering.

Just quickly scan reading this article on BBC website and it says contactless now working and gift vouchers ( someone on this thread was asking about gift vouchers)

Placed a large online clothing order with M&S on Thursday, due to be delivered tomorrow. Received an email this morning to say the whole thing had been cancelled, no explanation but I’m guessing it’s linked… annoying as it contained things I need for this weekend!

Ah, that’s a shame. I guess at least you know and they actually contacted you BEFORE your order was even due, which is something. Maybe they are catching up with orders a bit as nobody would have been able to place one since Friday .
I got an email this morning!!! Saying my order placed on Wednesday that was due to be collected on Saturday (26th) was delayed for ‘up to 48 hrs’. Erm, 48hrs would take it to today! Anyway, just glad that I got an email as thought they were ghosting me ;-)
Has anyone had the ‘48 hr delay’ email and gone on to actually get their order?

I made a click and collect order on 19 April. Meant to be able to collect on 22 April, I had an email to say it was delayed and heard nothing since. I messaged on twitter to ask to cancel it and was told I can’t and to wait for updates. No idea if it will be cancelled or turn up eventually.

If it’s the case that M&S have been ‘locked out’ of their own system by the attack then they won’t be able to go into them to cancel orders. I also think the emails a lot of us have got re delay 48 hours has just been generated automatically once the allocated collect time has come and gone. That’s why it’s the standard email that’s always sent random doesn’t mention the cyber attack and says it’s been delayed ‘up to 48 hours’ which is clearly not accurate.
If they fail to access the systems for another few days then a lot of orders will go over the time limit for being collected and will automatically be cancelled and refunds generated . This happened to me once, a year ago when I forgot I placed an order and went on holiday. After a week of not picking up order, it was cancelled and refunded.

I got an email yesterday to say the order I placed on Friday morning has been cancelled. Annoying, but not unexpected.

I wonder how long it'll take them to sort out, they must be losing vast amounts in sales.

That makes sense. I’m meant to collect from the town where I work and I’m in the office on Thursday (the last day for collection when I ordered). So hopefully it’s either resolved by then and the order will be there / on its way or they’ll be refunding that day so I can try and find items in store. It’s a few bits for a holiday in a couple of weeks - 1st world problem I know!

Fingers crossed for you Lily. Yes, of course it’s 1st world problems, but we are still allowed to be slightly put out/ annoyed by things whilst acknowledging how it’s not important at all in the grand scheme of things.
Im probably more worried about my refund from about 8 days ago ( before any mention of cyber attack) it’s been sitting in my ‘pending transactions’ but just won’t clear.

I think my window for collecting my order runs out next Monday, so if I hear nothing by then or keep getting ‘delayed by 48hrs’ emails until then, then it will automatically be cancelled and refunded on the date. ( If you check your click and collect order it says ‘collect by … and then a date usually about 10 days after you place order)

Two updates I’ve read on BBC have said M&S will cancel and refund orders made on Friday. I don’t know why they are specifically naming Friday. What about orders placed earlier that week when the cyber attack was known about by M&S but they hadn’t told all customers at that point?

Between this and the outages in Portugal, Spain etc I’m more and more convinced we should stop increasing our reliance on tech so much… Major outages are going to cause absolute mayhem.

I agree. Not sure quite how we do that but there should at least be back up systems that are much more basic- pen and paper! Also, don’t think we should ever go completely cashless, so wrong in multiple ways. It’s happened so fast, with Covid escalating the move to cashless.

The atmosphere in store today was horrible! Felt cold and the lights wasn't bright (ok that sounds odd but hopefully you know what I mean) just felt like a business in trouble.

They must be losing so much in online sales! I never buy in store but buy plenty of clothes, bra’s, home stuff etc. through their app.

I did have to go in last week as I had forgotten my lunch for the office - no card payments, thank god I had €5 cash. The staff in my local aren’t great at the best of times but were very pissed off!! Would hate to be working there right now.

I placed two online orders last Tuesday. The money went out of my account last Wednesday. Since then I've heard nothing, no excuses, no emails, no updates. They've not been dispatched & were due in-store by tomorrow.

The issue I have was that they would have known that there were major problems by Wednesday but they were still happy to take the money. I can see there's been no stock updates since last tuesday & maybe they are completely locked out of their system. In which case they should have issued a blanket refund to everyone who has ordered online.

This! Placed my order last Wednesday, I was unaware of any problems but M&S were well aware of problems. There should be a blanket refund for everyone’s orders at this point. Of course it will cost them but it’s the best way to keep customer trust and increases likelihood they will reorder when system is eventually sorted. It’s the not knowing and just waiting around knowing the chances are order will be cancelled anyway at some point.
I was going to go into store tomorrow and try and buy the items that I’ve ordered, but I’m honestly getting a bad feeling about all this and what the end result might be and I don’t want to be out of pocket even more than I am right now