Fortnum & Mason has denied experiencing online issues despite a raft of customer complaints about difficulties in ordering online and contacting customer services.
Customers of the upmarket retailer, known for its seasonal luxury hampers, have taken to social media and review websites to complain about the difficulty in navigating site glitches, with some shoppers claiming to have been charged multiple times with repeat transactions.
However, a Fortnum & Mason spokesperson told The Guardian: “We’re not experiencing any issues with our site, but we are very busy, and Christmas demand has definitely arrived late this year. That said, we are delivering customer orders on time and in full.”
Other complaints have been directed towards the retailer’s customer services team, particularly the time it took for shoppers to get through to advisers.
One user attached a screenshot of her phone, showing a call waiting time of one hour and 27 minutes, adding: “This is the hold time.”
Another customer contacted the newspaper, claiming she has been charged multiple times for an e-gift card in her attempt to pay, and called the incident a “fiasco”.
“When it didn’t work with the credit card, I tried with my bank debit card,” the customer said. “The same thing happened. There was no confirmation, and when I clicked pay, there was no [confirmation] email. I checked my bank account and £50 had gone out.”
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She concluded that it was only from calling and being placed on hold with Fortnum & Mason for one hour that she was able to stop the payments, adding if she had not done so, she would have paid £200 “and received nothing in return”.
Shoppers have also been turning to review website Trust Pilot to voice their complaints with Fortnum & Mason’s customer service.
One commenter said: “I have been trying to get hold of someone for 2 days by phone, webchat and WhatsApp without a response from any. I am still on-hold as I type.”
Another named Colin described Fortnum & Mason’s service as “horrendous”, adding: “There is simply no excuse for ignoring attempts to connect for hours or days.”
“Their [Fortnum & Mason] “fast” chat, WhatsApp, Apple Messenger, go completely without any sort of response outside of an automated “Sorry it’s taking so long” and a promise “10 minutes” and “shortly”. It is now 8 hours.”
“Email is similarly ignored. Calls ring and hold for 20 minutes at least until callers ring off in frustration. All made worse by the fact that this attempt to connect is based on a re-order for an initial order that F&M failed to despatch. Horrendous.”
The retailer said: “We have the same setup as always on customer service in terms of answering calls – we always bring in extra support for this very busy period. We’re definitely seeing a lot of late demand this year, so we’re encouraging customers to use our live chat and other channels rather than email so that we can service their queries as quickly as possible.”
