A global IT meltdown has sent shockwaves across the planet today, causing chaos for flights, online banking, payments, and a slew of other services.
The culprit appears to be a faulty system update from Microsoft, throwing a wrench into the world’s infrastructure. Tech experts have dubbed it as what could be the ‘largest IT outage in history.
Brits are facing their own set of challenges, particularly at supermarkets where card payments have hit a snag. We’re on top of the latest developments and will bring you updates as retailers respond to the crisis.
Morrisons
Birmingham Live reports that Morrisons customers have been left to resort to old-school chip and pin this morning, as contactless seems to have taken a nosedive in some stores.
Shoppers have voiced their frustrations, with one stating: “No contactless payment in Morrisons this morning — cash or chip and pin only.”
Another advised: “Morrisons, contactless payment is down, chip and pin is working so please remember your card! Cheers ta! “.
The supermarket’s representative has acknowledged the hiccup, saying: “We are experiencing some issues with payment in some stores this morning. We are working hard with our partners to resolve this issue.”
Asda
Over at Asda, it’s business as usual, with a spokeswoman confirming the store has dodged the IT bullet, reports the Mirror.
Sainsbury’s
Meanwhile, Sainsbury’s customers haven’t been as lucky, with DownDetector lighting up with hundreds of complaints about card payment troubles this morning.
Social media has been abuzz with frustrated customers this morning, as one shopper vented: “@sainsburys You are obviously having a major issue with your phone lines this morning. I have a store collection to pick up later and my card has been declined, are we able to pay in store before picking up if unable to pay via phoneline?”.
Waitrose
Over at Waitrose, the situation seemed equally chaotic with reports on social media platform X, previously known as Twitter, indicating that some stores are struggling with card machine failures. A tweet from a customer reads: “Petersfield @waitrose is among the stores unable to process card payments this morning. It’s linked to the global IT outage. People have been queuing at nearby Santander for cash.”
Co-op
A spokesperson for Co-op said: “Our stores have not experienced any significant impact in relation to the global IT outage, with all cash and card payments running as usual. We’ll continue to closely monitor the situation.”
Tesco
Tesco shoppers experienced a rocky start too, with DownDetector lighting up with hundreds of complaints earlier today. Thankfully, normal service appears to have resumed, as one relieved customer shared on X: “I’ve just been to Tesco and it’s all working fine.”
Iceland
Meanwhile, Iceland has managed to steer clear of the chaos, with a spokesperson confirming that the supermarket chain has not been hit by the IT outage.
This article previously stated that Co-op stores had been accepting cash only due to the outage. This is not the case and Co-op stores have not experienced any significant impact in relation to the global IT outage, with all cash and card payments running as usual. We are happy to clarify the issue.