Can someone explain this M&S situation to me like I’m concussed please?

[BottleBlondeMachiavelli]

Is it safe to order if I can get an order to go through?

Am I “just” looking at a long indeterminate delay? Or could I lose money and have to chase for a refund?

Is it safe to order with my credit card? Should I use PayPal? Credit card via PayPal?

Should I be deleting all my saved payment details from the site/app?

The food hall in my local M&S was fairly full of stock, didn't really see any more empty than usual

Or go to a bricks and mortar M&S shop which is functioning normally.

Frustratingly I am wanting to buy something that is only available online.

I got a refund even though I'd had a discount. I then visited my local store and they gave me the same discount from the item that had been cancelled.

The difficulty with honouring orders is that once the online ordering is restored, thousands of people will start ordering because it's been down. The warehouse staff (who have been told to stay at home - I do hope they will be paid) would have a heck of a job filling the back orders and staying on top of the new orders.

M&S takes £3.5m a day online so it makes more sense to refund everyone and begin again.

What shocks me is that they were vulnerable in the first place. It has always been the first item on IT risk registers wherever I've worked.

These sites are virtual. They reside in a cloud. M&S want a website. They commission someone to build it. That company will use another company to provide parts of the site. There are hosts and servers passing the data back and forth. There isn't a M&S data centre. So any part of the chain that isn't secure is vulnerable. Security comes at a cost and no one wants to pay the cost. What's the least we can pay? Is everyones thought

You know then that what IT security want is often dismissed as scaremongering to get more money that could go to shareholders etc.

I saw an Ocado van delivering down the lane here a couple of hours ago so 🤞 for your shop.

A lot of M&S’s stock is sold through Ocado so you might have some luck there. Also M&S might be on uber and deliveroo etc in your area.

Well you could if they had anything like decent stock levels…but they don’t, and never do

I was in M&s foodhall earlier today, some gaps on shelves. Didn't bother to ask if it was due to the hack or just pre bank holiday madness.

Yes, I bought some trousers in store yesterday

London Bridge M&S food was looking a bit tragically denuded when I went in hoping for some Friday night Gins in Tins just now.

Ocado may deliver on behalf of M&S but are a separate organisation with a separate IT system

Manchester City centre a flagship store has barely any fresh produce, a handful of sandwiches, lots of gaps and lots of shelves with the same thing on them. The staff have had a nightmare with it all.

I feel sorry for the staff, I hope shoppers aren't giving them a hard time

Brilliant advice, I’ll bet they haven’t thought of that. I’ll bet they don’t have people working around the clock on it for 2 weeks since it happened.

Two weeks is unacceptable for any large business. Even small businesses have things sorted within a day or two.

If you're going to use just Paypal in the future, this is something that I learnt only recently about Section 75 protections.

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/paypal-section75/

Was told in the cafe yesterday that Sparks was up and running. I had already missed 3 going on my card for drinks. So scanned it yesterday but on checking it hasn't updated. Also noticed in the food hall some large gaps on the shelves. Signs saying I'll be back soon. Had a list of items for an elderly relative and 4 out of the seven weren't available. Also has anyone noticed that it's nearly impossible to buy their cooked chicken. Some appear sporadically on the shelves and this was before the cyber attack.

I ordered £100 of items the day before the breach and used Sparks discounts. Received a full refund within two days. Was in three batches weirdly (four items ordered).

I had a money off food hall spend voucher that should have come off last week’s shop, but it didn’t. It expires this weekend and I won’t be able to use it (again!) as I’m away. Contacted M&S but they’ve replied saying they won’t honour the discount or extend the expiry. They’re now going to lose more profit, because I’ll go to Waitrose instead!

Small businesses have less complicated IT systems and, I suspect, less persistent hackers.

Talking of Staff… has this hit payroll too?

Ocado’s automation of their warehouses is amazing:

They have had issues with ordering some items for the food hall.