THOUSANDS of Boots shoppers are being forced to wait for more than an hour in a queue just to get on its website.
The pharmacy’s online outlet is struggling to cope with demand as hundreds of thousands of customers flood to the website at once.
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Shoppers are reporting being put in a virtual queue of more than 146,000 people on Saturday afternoon.
Customers who log onto the website are automatically put into a “virtual” queue.
A message on the site reads: “We’re limiting the amount of people shopping the website to help ensure everyone gets what they need. Please do not close this page.”
On Wednesday the government revealed that Boots is one of the retailers that it’s working with to distribute coronavirus home test kits and that they could be made available “within days”.
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But yesterday, Boots made it clear that it will not be selling testing kits to the public at this stage.
On its website, the retailer warns: “Boots is proud to support the government and the NHS is testing staff for COVID-19 at drive through testing stations.
“Testing will not take place in stores and we will not be selling COVID-19 testing kits.”
The warning has stopped thousands of shoppers rushing to the website this weekend.
Alongside a screenshot of being placed in a queue of 13,720 people, Dorest Owl wrote on Twitter: “I wouldn’t bother trying to log onto the @BootsUK website if I were you…”
Russell wrote: “@BootsUK Your virtual queue is mindbogglingly stupid and useless. After being in queue for 5 hours and then 3 hours it says I missed my chance as the spots are only valid for 10 minutes.”
And June added: “@BootsUK with your website being inundated with shoppers – perhaps it would be a good idea to give priority to those who have had an online account with you for years. I am disabled and rely on deliveries.”
Chanel said: “Are you joking? All I want is some skincare.”
“Can everyone just GET OFF THE @BootsUK WEBSITE FOR 5MINS,” a frustrated Emily wrote.
And Andy simply said: “@BootsUK having a laugh aren’t you?”
Pharmacies are among the essential shops that are allowed to stay open during a government lock down.
Superdrug is keeping stores open where possible although it is operating shorter hours to give staff a break.
Superdrug isn’t one of the retailers working with the government on the COVID-19 testing kits and it’s website is working fine this morning, although customers may experience some delays with deliveries due to high demand.
Lloyds Pharmacy isn’t working on the testing kits either and its website is also running as normal.
A spokesperson for Boot told The Sun that the website was experiencing “very, very high demand”, which is why it has introduced a temporary queueing system.
They said: “We are prioritising the processing and shipping of essential items on Boots.com, and so we are also limiting sales on our site of some products.
“We are doing everything possible to manage essential deliveries to our customers and we thank them for their patience, and all our warehouse colleagues for their support at this time.
“We are not planning for this to be a long term issue and believe that we should return to a more normal place as soon as possible.”
