Woolworths glitch impacts 60 customers, one without groceries after system fault

A family with two young children have been left with no groceries delivered and is at a loss of $400. Photo / Google Maps

A technical fault at Woolworths has impacted 60 people, leaving one customer without groceries or a refund, after the supermarket failed to deliver their prepaid orders.

A Wainui family of four lost their $400 fortnightly shop and were left without food for their children’s lunches due to the glitch.

A Woolworths New Zealand spokesperson said the family’s order was among those affected by a system failure between 3.15pm and 4pm on October 14 at the Greville Rd store.

“We did our best to contact those customers impacted, but unfortunately, some customers did not receive the text or email notification advising of the issue [due to the technical fault].

“We sincerely apologise for the frustration caused and will contact the customer directly to explain the non-delivery and sort out a solution.”

Dan Louden told the Herald his wife placed the online order at lunchtime on Tuesday because they couldn’t collect it between other commitments. The delivery was due to arrive between 3.15pm and 5.45pm.

They didn’t receive the groceries until late yesterday.

At 7pm, with dinner half-prepared, Louden’s wife called Woolworths to find out what was happening. The family’s dinner was half made, and they needed ingredients from the order.

Louden wasn’t set to finish work until after 9pm and couldn’t stop at the supermarket on the way home.

“I’m at work with the car, and she’s sitting at home waiting for the food to turn up.”

He said they were eventually told the order would arrive the next day due to “system errors” and “technical issues”.

“To have known way earlier would have been great; the problem is they’ve already taken the payment,” Louden said.

Louden said he was concerned about how the issue might have affected elderly customers or vulnerable people who relied on the delivery service.

A Woolworths New Zealand spokesperson said the family’s order was among those affected by a system failure between 3.15pm and 4pm on October 14 at the Greville Rd store.

‘Left us high and dry’

“They got all of our grocery money, and we hadn’t received any food for the kids.

”What are we supposed to do in the meantime? I can’t just pull magical money.”

Louden said one of his children had ADHD and was particular about what they ate, making the situation harder.

“There was no option. It’s not like we could just go on to Uber and order something from there because they’ve got our money,” he said.

“They just left us high and dry.”

Sign up to The Daily H, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.