Waitrose managing director Mark Price has been forced to make another snivelling apology after the supermarket’s website experienced a fourth week of problems, but has insisted rectifying the issue is a “top priority”.
The company has warned on a web forum that the work to increase the speed of the site was “taking a little longer than expected”.
The site was designed by digital agency Grand Union, although the agency is not responsible for maintenance. It took two years to build at a cost of more than £10m, but has been experiencing speed and operational issues since launch last month.
Waitrose has already apologised once, but Price has now had to say sorry again. In a note posted on the site’s forum, Price said: “We’ve just carried out the biggest-ever transformation of an online shopping site and, as with all new websites, there are some problems and I’m very sorry about these.
“I know that you may have had a frustrating and time-consuming experience – please accept my sincere apologies if that’s the case. Getting the new Waitrose.com working perfectly is top priority for us.
“Thank you for taking the trouble to give us your comments. We are using what you’re telling us to prioritise the changes we need to make.”
Waitrose has said order volumes are up 25 per cent on last year, but since the launch, angry Waitrose customers have complained about the challenges they experienced on the website.
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