wtf is going on with M&S website?!

[bumblenbean]

Has anyone else found their website almost completely unusable recently? As if the hacking / website being down debacle wasn’t bad enough, I cannot now browse or order on website without it crashing/ reloading constantly, freezing and taking ages to load. No issue on other websites.

Finally managed to place an order - item is poor quality, so thought I’d write a review (never done one before on there) - press ‘write a review’ button and after getting the blue circle of doom for about a minute it just keeps reloading the help and support page!

So not only is the experience a pile of shite at the moment, I can’t even write a review!

Not sure what’s going on- used to love M&S but am getting sick of the constant issues.

Is it just me??

yes!
Stock is also terrible. I’ve been trying to buy underwear and everything is out of stock!

I'm trying to do click and collect and it seems to have completely disappeared as an option.

I missed the beauty box for the first time in years as it never came on the website and I never go to an actual shop these days!

I think it’s still part of the hacking incident. They’ve had to make a lot of unplanned changes behind the scenes. You’ve no idea how many interlocking computer systems and programs there are that will all have had to be reviewed and changes made to make sure this can’t happen again.

Usually those would be months or even years in the planning.
Hopefully they can overcome this and their business hasn’t been irreversibly damaged. We don’t want to lose another icon from the high street.

It’s been a bit better the last week. I even got a 20% off womenswear loaded to my sparks. So assumed things were slowly getting better.

Yes I work in cybersecurity so I am completely aware of what hapenned and how badly affected they have been. I am surprised that they havent either temporarily or permanently moved their website and associated ordering/stock systems to a new cloud platform by now though. I am also surprised that they are charging for home delivery while they can't offer Click and Collect.

They are in a very sensitive time post-hack - need to recoup huge losses but lots of people will go elsewhere for school uniform, homeware etc and will find they can get similar items and won't come back.

Yes, it keeps glitching for me. But also nothing in my size in stock.

M&S had a cyber attack and ceased all online orders even if you go directly into store. It's lasted ages! I didn't think it would still be an issue.

I am surprised that they havent either temporarily or permanently moved their website and associated ordering/stock systems to a new cloud platform by now though.

@teksquad Out of interest, how do you know they haven't? It wouldn't affect the domain name, you'd just point the lookup to the new location, and it shouldn't affect the look of the front end, so how can you tell they haven't done this?

I ordered last week as I had 20% off underwear and free delivery with my sparks card and I had no issues it was really quick and easy, everything I wanted was in stock.

Delivery was very quick I ordered Monday late afternoon and got the parcel on Wednesday morning.

Click and collect is not back since the hack

Yep stock awful. Also I was in the shop on Thursday and saw a lovely gingham dress on the mannequin, went to show DH on line and it just doesn’t exist 🤷🏻‍♀️ And no, I’m not hallucinating as I was with my DM who is also baffled x

I can't tell but I would expect if they had things would be closer to back to normal by now. A local council I worked with was absolutely trashed in their own datacentres and couldn't really recover as their backups also got deleted so they pretty much started from scratch in one of the cloud providers and then most of the functions, voting cards, refuse collection etc came back pretty quickly as it was quicker to start again than try and recover all the old stuff. I imagine its all a work in progress behind the scenes, don't envy any of their IT workers, it's very stressful.

Thanks for explaining, yes, I think you're right that if they'd moved it all, it would be considerably better functioning by now.

I had no offers on my sparks card at all which I find unusual but I ordered successfully on Thursday night using the app and it all arrived today. I would say though they have no stock or sizes of girls underwear of all things. Quite bizarre.

I can’t log into my account since the attack. I keep being told to reset password but the link never comes . I rang their support team … they said delete account and start again … I asked what about my rewards … they had no clue

It’s always been slow now it’s almost unusable.. also no click and collect yet

Glad it’s not just me (although sorry others are suffering similar frustration!) - thought I was going mad, but seems there are still glitches.

Such a shame as it’s great for staples and like PP said we don’t want to lose a high street store - but after a while the inconvenience becomes intolerable.

I guess I’ll have to head in-store!

I think you have all massively underestimated just how much of an impact this hacking has caused M&S. Their entire system has gone. Completely scrambled and unusable. Their entire business platform gone. Click and collect isn’t working because the stock inventory system isn’t yet relinked up.
It takes months or years to build web systems as complex as what they had. Even with the best web development teams.

Watched a financial piece on TV this week. They reckon November before it's 100 percent.

Impatient, self-centered, entitled.

This was a serious cyber-attack intended to destroy the company and which has caused massive financial loss.

But, boo-hoo, you can’t post a review 🎻

That’s broadly what everybody I know web development wise has said. 6 - 9 months to get back to where they were. They have trebled their web development team since the attack.

I think people just don’t actually understand how wiped out they were. Or the logistics of running such a huge organisation with multiple warehouses, even more shops and an online food delivery service. It was a huge dynamic web based system.

I usually order online, but decided to go into the store last week. The sale is amazing and M&S has really hit it out of the ballpark fashion wise. My Sparks card had load the 20% off, so used it.

As someone who has not been inside a M&S clothing store since last December as I tend to shop online, reading this thread has made me want to support the company with in person shopping. I bought a wedding guest outfit for £50> !!!

They still haven't sorted it so people from Northern Ireland can purchase so I've given up looking.

Yeah, we still can’t use online ordering in Ireland. Nor can we check the stock in store.