Upmarket London department store Fortnum & Mason has been forced to admit that it has still not delivered all the hampers customers ordered for Christmas after being rocked by a data and operational cock-up in December.
The company, whose luxury hampers cost up to £5,000 a pop, blamed the issue on the technical complications related to a systems upgrade and a threefold increase in online transactions compared with the 2010.
A spokeswoman said: “Fortnum & Mason experienced severe issues with IT infrastructure that caused delays to some Christmas deliveries. This was not acceptable and we are working with our suppliers to ensure that we do not disappoint our customers again in the future.”
Fortnum & Mason claimed that “the vast majority” of customers received their orders before Christmas, but did not confirm how many were still awaiting deliveries. The last order dates for Christmas for UK delivery was 19 December.
To rectify the problems, the company said that it employed more than 100 customer service staff and increased the number of employees working overtime and in its warehouses.
“Everyone in the business, from the managing director [Beverley Aspinall] to the temporary Christmas staff, is working hard to rectify the problems.
“We will offer a full refund to anyone who did not receive their order and our customer service team is working through any outstanding issues on orders,” the spokeswoman added.
It wasn’t just a Dec cock up. I ordered two in October and neither arrived. After many hours of calls over several days I eventually got one delivered. Truly appalling customer service. The customer service rep told me they were training extra staff for December to cope with Xmas rush!