M&S reveals cyber ‘incident’ which triggered crippling IT outage is STILL ongoing
MARKS and Spencer shoppers have been warned of a “cyber incident” as a widespread outage continues.
Customers were turned away at tills yesterday after contactless payments and click-and-collect orders were affected.
In a statement today, M&S Chief Executive Stuart Machin, warned shoppers of some “small changes” to store operations.
His message was shared on social media and read: “I’m writing to you to let you know that over the last few days M&S has been managing a cyber incident.
“To protect you and the business, it was necessary to temporarily make some small changes to our store operations, and I am sincerely sorry if you experiences any inconvenience.
“Importantly, our stores remain open, and our website and App are operating as normal.
“There is no need for you to take any action at this time and if the situation changes, we will let you know.”
One shopper posted: “Couldn’t collect my order. I appreciate your response”.
“I wish I’d known this before I travelled to return and collect a parcel and buy 2 gift cards for birthdays. Please inform us when everything is back up and running,” slammed another.
A third joked: “On no is Percy okay?”
Mr Machin’s statement added: “There may be some limited delays to your Click and Collect order, which we are working hard to resolve.
“I know how much our customers trust M&S, and that trust is incredibly precious to us.
“We’ve been working hard with the best experts to manage this, and I want to thank them and my colleagues for their hard work”.
It comes after customers complained of issues in stores, as well as with click and collect, across the bank holiday.
Shoppers took to X unsure whether others had experienced the same problem.
One person wrote: “Is there an issue today with payment systems in just BW or Nationwide. Needed work trousers and had gift cards to spend. Told couldn’t spent £58 on a card. Went back 2 hours later and told it was still down – was going to refund and use cards?!”
Another warned others: “Popped into the Harrow store today to collect some food items after the gym, so didn’t have my physical bank card with me … you know what I am going to say, but your contactless systems and also collection kiosks have been out of service for at least 48hrs.”
Some customers even suggested the problem has been an issue since Saturday.
One user put: “@marksandspencer I’ve tried to return some clothing to the Camden store and have been told that your WiFi has been down company wide since Saturday so I can’t return them.
“Nothing on social media about this – is it true? Now need an extension on return time as going away.”
Another said: “In a queue with 10 customers at @marksandspencer, I was the only person remaining when they announced that their contactless service was not working on their card machine.
“Welcome to a world where they will stop you from using facilities whenever they want. Cash.”
Someone else put: “When you drive 20 minutes for breakfast at the cafe but there’s a company wide issue, contactless isn’t working and they decide to close the cafe.”
A fourth claimed: “Bexley heath store system has been since Saturday and can’t process returns, apply pay or contactless. Why is there no communication from the team.”
One user asked: “hello, we were in store earlier and couldn’t use gift cards or contactless to pay. Has this now be resolved?”
A spokesperson for Marks and Spencer said yesterday: “Our stores are open today but we are experiencing some technical issues meaning that we cannot accept contactless payments or process click and collect orders.
“We are really sorry for any inconvenience and hope to resolve these issues soon. Our colleagues are on hand in store to help customers however they can.”
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