Online deliver service Ocado has temporarily closed their website as they struggle to cope with demand during the coronavirus pandemic.
When customers visit their website, they now get a message saying that the site will be closed for four days to allow them to complete essential work to distribute delivery slots.
CEO Melanie Smith said: ‘Like all supermarkets, we are working round the clock to keep up with high demand and make sure all of our customers get what they need at this time – especially those more vulnerable and in isolation.
‘As a result, we have made a decision to temporarily close access to Ocado.com so you will not be able to edit an existing order or book a new delivery for the next few days.
‘This temporary closure will allow us to complete essential work that will help to make sure distribution of products and delivery slots is as fair and accessible as possible for all our loyal customers.’
She explained that all slots are booked for the next four days and that those with deliveries booked for tomorrow or Friday have already missed the cut-off time to edit any details but they were told that they would still receive their order as planned.
Melanie added that they planned to open the website on Saturday and said customers with slots booked from then onwards will be contacted with details of how they can edit orders.
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The statement continued: ‘We are very sorry to cause any inconvenience. We’re managing a simply staggering amount of traffic to our website right now and more demand for products and deliveries than we can meet.
‘Our first priority has to be to keep our service up and running and to play our part in feeding the nation.
‘I’d also like to take this chance to thank our amazing drivers and warehouse staff who are working tirelessly to deliver groceries to as many people as possible in these uncertain times. Their dedication and hard work is truly amazing.
‘Thank you for your patience and understanding at these unprecedented and challenging times.’
The website had been running a queueing system this week and stopped taking new customers, after experiencing technical problems over the weekend.
When existing customers logged into the app, they were told their place in the queue and how long the wait would be.
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