Tesco has apologised to customers impacted by a technical error earlier today, which resulted in supermarket shoppers being unable to make payments or complete grocery deliveries.
Britain's biggest supermarket encountered technical difficulties affecting its payment infrastructure on Wednesday morning, days after a similar outage impacted Vodafone customers.
The malfunction disrupted transactions across multiple channels, with customers experiencing failures when attempting to pay for home deliveries and when shopping in physical locations.
According to monitoring service DownDetector, more than 200 individuals logged complaints about the supermarket giant's payment platforms during today's incident.
Tesco has said 'sorry' after a payment error
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The supermarket confirmed the technical problems had been rectified after the morning disruption and directly apologised to any shoppers who were affected by the issue.
Whilst the retailer acknowledged the incident, they emphasised that the vast majority of transactions continued to function without interruption throughout the affected period.
A Tesco spokesperson shared: "We have resolved an issue that briefly affected a small number of our customers earlier this morning. We’re sorry for the inconvenience.”
Shoppers reported receiving notifications that their grocery delivery payments had been unsuccessful, with many subsequently discovering they couldn't access the company's mobile application to rectify the situation.
Supermarket shoppers are increasingly
| GETTYSocial media platforms became a forum for frustrated customers sharing their experiences, with one user posting on X: "Tesco, seems there is a problem with your payment system.
"I got message saying my payment has failed for today's delivery. When I try to update payment details, the system fails to proceed. I have tried on web as well as app but there is no luck."
Another added: "Tesco sort your app out! Keeps saying payment issue and won’t let me add card. Having this every week now."
One customer shared on X: "Same here! it's so annoying, Tesco should reimburse all of us affected and pay for the order that we will all miss."
Notably, the payment failures created particular difficulties for those expecting scheduled deliveries.
The technical problems follow several days after Vodafone users faced widespread connectivity issues, when thousands lost access to both broadband and mobile services across the network.
Other major supermarkets, as well as high street banks, have experienced similar payment errors and IT outages, which have affected online and app services.
Recent research carried out by LINK, the UK’s cash access and ATM network, found that cash remains trusted payment method, with customers saying it gives them more control of their spending.
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Tesco customers reported payment issues earlier this morning
|DOWNDETECTOR
While contactless card payments are seen as the most convenient and quickest form of payment by a significant majority of consumers, cash is seen as the most reassuring for staying within a budget and fully understanding the cost of shopping too.
Almost two-thirds of consumers polled (65 per cent) also said cash protects them from fraud compared to (22 per cent) contactless card and (18 per cent) digital wallets.
Nearly two-thirds (65 per cent) said cash gives them confidence that nothing would go wrong, such as a payment outage, while 68 per cent also highlighting that using cash is good for retailers.
Graham Mott, LINK Director of Strategy. "Cash remains a critical part of the UK’s payment landscape. This research shows that, while digital payments are growing, cash continues to play a vital role in financial inclusion, budgeting, and consumer choice."