Sainsbury’s customers have been unable to pay for their shopping after a contactless glitch hit stores across the country.
The supermarket, which has repeatedly encouraged shoppers to pay via contactless to prevent Covid-19 transmission, apologised and said it has solved the issue.
A number of people were annoyed to have travelled to their local Sainsbury’s without being able to buy anything.
“Thank you [for] wasting one hour of my time today, by me driving to a store […] only to find I can’t pay,” complained one.
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“As if I’ve got to walk all the way home to get my card because Sainsbury’s contactless wasn’t working,” vented another.
@sainsburys thank you wasting 1 hour of my time today, by me driving to a store doing a shop only to find I can’t pay as the contactless isn’t working. Signs on store might be good
— nick briggs🏴🤔 (@nickbriggs72) June 16, 2021
As if I’ve got to walk all the way home to get my card because Sainsbury’s contactless wasn’t working 😤
— Shan🐾 (@figaments) June 16, 2021
Other shoppers were outraged that staff did not tell them about the contactless glitch until they reached the till.
“Your whole contactless system is down in Sainsbury’s in Balham and no one is being told!” one customer tweeted.
“There is a huge queue […] and loads of people are just having to leave without their shopping.”
One woman claimed she had “wasted 40 minutes” at the Nuneaton branch, and told customer service they should inform “people prior to going in and doing their shop”.
“This contactless payment issue in your stores needs to be communicated to customers,” a Twitter user said.
“The staff in the Bitterne Sainsburys were particularly useless, letting people waste their time shopping for things we can’t actually pay for.”
@sainsburys your whole contactless system is down in Sainsbury’s in Balham and no one is being told! There is a huge queue because no one is being told the system is down and loads of people are just having to leave without their shopping
— Emma (@Emma_McGuckian) June 16, 2021
@sainsburys This contactless payment issue in your stores needs to be communicated to customers. The staff in the Bitterne Sainsburys were particularly useless, letting people waste their time shopping for things we can’t actually pay for. When will it be fixed?
— Dave Moore (@davieremixed) June 16, 2021
@sainsburys would be good if you told people prior to going in and doing their shop that your tills aren’t accepting card payments! Just wasted 40 minutes on my day off doing shopping I can’t buy!
— Sarah Guest (@guesty82) June 16, 2021
However, at least one shopper was impressed with the staff, praising a till worker who “insisted on paying” for his purchases.
“I text[ed] him my number and he sent me his bank details so I could repay him,” he added.
“My faith in humanity has been restored.”
My faith in humanity has been restored. Sainsbury’s had a contactless payment issue tonight so I couldn’t pay at the till. The chap behind insisted on paying. I text him my number and he sent me his bank details so I could repay him. What a lovely chap
— Paul Lewis (@paulianlewis) June 16, 2021
“Contactless payments were briefly unavailable in our stores this afternoon,” a Sainsbury’s spokesperson told The Sun.
“We’re back up and running and apologise to our customers for any inconvenience this caused.”
Big 4 rival Tesco had the opposite problem earlier this week, when it emerged that people with Monzo bank accounts had been charged twice for their shopping.
Some customers claimed they had been tipped into their overdraft, leaving them unable to get to work or facing a fine from their bank.
Tesco said it aimed to refund any duplicate charges within a day.
