Latest news with #marksandspencer
Yahoo
25-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
M&S 'truly sorry' as it pauses online and app orders following cyber attack
Marks and Spencer (M&S) has paused all online and app orders following a cyber attack. M&S has been battling to contain the cyber incident all week after customers reported issues making payments and delays to orders last weekend. On Tuesday (April 22), the high street retail giant apologised to shoppers as it confirmed it had to make 'minor, temporary changes' to its store operations to protect customers and the business. — M&S (@marksandspencer) April 23, 2025 As a result of the cyber incident, M&S is still not taking contactless payment,s and there have been disruptions to click and collect orders. Now M&S has revealed it has paused all orders through its website and apps. An update from M&S — M&S (@marksandspencer) April 25, 2025 A spokesperson, via a post on X (formerly Twitter), said: "As part of our proactive management of a cyber incident, we have made the decision to pause taking orders via our M& websites and apps. "Our product range remains available to browse online. "We are truly sorry for this inconvenience. Our stores are open to welcome customers. "We informed customers on Tuesday that there was no need for them to take action. Recommended reading: Warning to M&S customers over delays to orders amid cyber attack on retail chain Is M&S's new Dubai-style chocolate worth £8.50? I did a taste test to find out M&S discontinues popular home range leaving shoppers 'devastated' "That remains the case, and if the situation changes we will let them know. "Our experienced team - supported by leading cyber experts - is working extremely hard to restart online and app shopping. "We are incredibly grateful to our customers, colleagues and partners for their understanding and support." At this current time, the app still seems to be having problems.
Irish Daily Mirror
24-04-2025
- Business
- Irish Daily Mirror
Marks & Spencer issues contactless payment warning after cyber attack
Marks and Spencer has issued an update after its stores were impacted by a 'cyber incident' earlier this week. In a new post on social media, the supermarket has warned that it still is not processing contactless payments in stores. M&S also said there is disruption to its click and collect service. It comes after customers took to social media over the weekend to complain that they were unable to pay using contactless methods or collect online orders. M&S said it is currently working with cyber security experts to investigate the issue. One shopper said: "Went to @marksandspencer did a full food shop only to be told that I can't use contactless, had to walk away from a whole food shop." Another said: "Just went to pay for a full basket of shopping only to be told that your contactless payments aren't working." In a new social media post, M&S said: "We promised to keep you informed about the cyber incident that has led to disruption to some of our services. You can continue to shop in our stores, on our website and through our app but there may be some changes which may inconvenience you over the coming days. "In particular, we are currently not processing contactless payments and there is disruption to the collection of Click and Collect orders in our stores. Serving our customers, and protecting our business is our priority, and we are working incredibly hard to restore our services. "We are really sorry for any inconvenience and we'll continue to keep you updated. Thank you for shopping with us and for your continued support. We appreciate your patience and understanding." In an email to customers earlier this week, M&S chief executive Stuart Machin said: 'I'm writing 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 experienced any inconvenience. 'Importantly, our stores remain open, and our website and App are operating as normal. There is no need for you take any action at this time and if the situation changes, we will let you know. There may be some limited delays to your Click & Collect order, which we are working hard to resolve.' Jake Moore, global cybersecurity adviser at internet security firm Eset, said: 'This highlights the significant impact cyber attacks can have in the public domain. 'Many ransomware attacks are dealt with behind the scenes which can make people think the problems are eroding but when customers are directly affected, the knock-on effects are far more widely noted. 'Luckily, it seems no customer data has been taken in the attack but this situation widens the reality that card-only payments may not yet be the answer in a time when cyber attacks are just as prevalent as they've ever been.'
Daily Mail
23-04-2025
- Daily Mail
SARAH VINE: Forget tariffs... it's a proper crisis when the tills break down at our beloved M&S!
Forget the ravens in the Tower of London. Forget the King asleep in his cave and the eagles circling the mountain top. The surest sign that the Kingdom is in mortal peril is the news that the tills stopped working at Marks & Spencer over the Easter weekend. As portents of doom go, this must surely be a serious one. The Pope may be dead, but what about the fact that in Bexleyheath shoppers can't use their contactless cards? Did Nostradamus mention this in his Les Propheties? He might have done. 'And on the day of the Risen Christ / In the year of our Lord two thousand and twenty-five/ the tillers of Spencer and Marc shalt fayle and fall silent / And the people will be refused their three-pack loin coverings and porcine confectionery / And verily Sparks will fly.' Chilling. The panic was palpable. There was righteous anger on social media. 'I've tried to return some clothing to the Camden store and have been told that your wi-fi has been down company-wide since Saturday so I can't return them,' fumed one customer. Another: 'Went to @marksandspencer did a full food shop only to be told that I can't use contactless. Heading to Waitrose now instead.' Some reported apocalyptic scenes: 'In a queue with ten customers at @marksandspencer, I was the only person remaining when they announced that their contactless service was not working on their card machine.' (Which begs the question: what happened to the others?) Yet another: '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.' Setting aside the fact that driving 20 minutes to find breakfast in a supermarket cafe seems a little excessive, the strength of feeling at what is, after all, a fairly minor inconvenience, offers an interesting insight into the importance of Marks & Spencer in the national conscience. Or, to coin a phrase, this isn't just any technical glitch, this is an M&S technical glitch. No store, not even John Lewis, comes close to Marks and Sparks in the hearts of British shoppers. It is as quintessentially British as the Royal Family, rain-lashed beaches and endless cups of milky tea. It is the closest we have these days to a national identity we all share. It also – despite the occasional hiccup – represents quality, reliability, consistency. No wonder the general public was so freaked out by this meltdown. In an uncertain and troubling world, M&S stands as a beacon of stability against the wild seas of misfortune (and, let's face it, those seas have been quite wild of late). Everything else may be crashing down around our heads, but so long as you can get a prawn sandwich and a packet of Percy Pigs from M&S, all is well. It's civilisation. The Greeks invented democracy, the Romans devised the aqueducts, we built Marks and Sparks. Indeed, growing up in Rome, my mother's first port of call on trips home was always M&S. The flagship store in Oxford Street was her favourite: she once disappeared for five hours into its comforting embrace, stocking up on pyjamas and underwear to take back with her. I found her in the food hall buying all the raspberry jellies (her favourite). Her mother was the same. My grandfather had strict instructions for the weekly shop. The basics were to be obtained from Sainsbury's. But the important groceries – real fruit juice, certain vegetables, quiche and good apples – were to be procured strictly at Marks. They were eked out during the week, small slices of delicious luxury. Even now, when I'm feeling a bit discombobulated, I find a trip to Marks soothing. The clothes are neither too cheap nor too expensive, neither too fashion forward nor too frumpy. Some years they're better than others (this year is an especially good one) but, overall, the quality is consistent. One of the oldest items of clothing I own is a wool cape I bought there in the Nineties; my daughter recently discovered it and won't stop wearing it. Marks and Sparks caters for everyone – tall, short, fat, thin, old, young. But at its essence its secret is simple: affordable quality. But also trust, reliability, a fair price for a good product – in other words, old-fashioned British values. Better get those tills fixed, guys; we don't want a revolution. There should be plenty of sympathy for Marianne It seems rather sad that Marianne Faithfull – singer, model, rock 'n' roll muse and the inspiration for Rolling Stones classics such as Wild Horses and You Can't Always Get What You Want – died leaving assets worth just £35,000. For a few years she was instrumental to the image of the band and its leading man, Mick Jagger. Indeed, arguably the Stones would not have been so successful were it not for the glamour her bohemian lifestyle lent them. One of their most famous songs, Sympathy For The Devil, was inspired by The Master And Margarita, a novel by Mikhail Bulgakov, which Faithfull introduced Jagger to – and yet what thanks did she get? Hers is a tale familiar to so many women who give their all to support the men they love then somehow find themselves with no one to turn to in their hour of need. I understand that Prince Andrew is a problematic character for the Royal Family, but I really don't see why this has any bearing on his right to attend church with them at Easter. Indeed, I would have thought that if anything, he should be encouraged to atone for his sins. Now that we finally have clarity on the definition of a woman, can we please stop using the term 'cis'? It's ugly, derogatory – and, crucially, redundant. Males who mark their territory with urine are common in the animal kingdom. I thought humans were more sophisticated – but judging by the actions of trans protesters last week, apparently not. Cries of 'we pee where we want' and 'I love p***ing on Terfs' accompanied footage of activists in a ladies' loo, aggressively chanting 'Where we do our business is none of your business!' As someone who has owned several male pets, I'm afraid there's only one cure for this kind of behaviour. A quick trip to the vet should fix it. Following Newsnight's decision to almost completely ignore last week's Supreme Court ruling on the definition of a woman, the BBC's comedy show, Have I Got News For You, failed to mention it at all – despite it being the leading news item of the week. You might have thought that, as seasoned satirists, show regulars Paul Merton and Ian Hislop and their guests – including Julian Clary, who is known for his waspish wit – would have mined the comedy seam of the highest court in the land being forced to state the bleeding obvious. But no, not a peep. Why do we fund band's sick stunt? Whatever you think of the Israel/Palestine conflict, projecting 'Free Palestine, F**k Israel' on stage at a music festival is at best offensive, at worst an endorsement of terrorist acts given the atrocities committed on October 7, 2023. That is what the band Kneecap chose to do at Coachella. This is the group given £14,250 of arts funding at the behest of this Government – after the Tories tried to block it. Should taxpayers' money really be going to supporters of terrorists?
Daily Mail
22-04-2025
- Business
- Daily Mail
Marks & Spencer confirms major service is STILL down following contactless payments chaos
Marks & Spencer has confirmed one of its major services is still down after a glitch with its contactless payments sparked chaos during the Easter break. The high street giant was forced to apologise after furious shoppers demanded answers over the bank holiday weekend payments blunder, which left some customers claiming they had to abandon full weekly shops at the till. The issue with the contactless payment has today been fixed. But Marks & Spencers has admitted the misery for some customers may not yet be over. The retailer has today warned its click-and-collect orders are still facing 'issues' that the supermarket chain is attempting to fix. After one customer demanded an update, a spokeswoman for M&S wrote on X: 'Hi Molly, we're working with our teams to get this resolved as quickly as possible but currently don't have a timeframe on when this will be. If you're worried about collecting your order late, please pop us a DM with your order number so we can look into it further.' In another comment, an M&S official added: 'We're sorry about the issues over the weekend. The contactless payment issue over the Easter bank holiday weekend was the second major IT glitch suffered by the retailer in the past year. Earlier in May, the department store chain saw both its website and app taken offline for several hours following a third-party service failure. A spokeswoman for M&S said the issues were still on going but that the company was seeking to fix them as quickly as possible The technical gaffe over the Easter weekend left customers furious, with many taking to social media to vent their anger. One person wrote: 'Went to @marksandspencer did a full food shop only to be told that I can't use contactless, had to walk away from a whole food shop. Heading to Waitrose now instead.' Another wrote: '@marksandspencer hello, we were in store earlier and couldn't use gift cards or contactless to pay. Has this now be resolved?' Others suggested that contactless payments have been down since Saturday. There are also several tweets from Saturday reporting contactless was down. One warned: '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.' Another wrote: '@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.' A third 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.' Several shoppers have demanded answers, with M&S saying there are 'technical issues' A fourth claimed: '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 fifth fumed: 'Bexleyheath store system has been since Saturday and can't process returns, apply pay or contactless. Why is there no communication from the team.' Responding to a customer on X this past weekend, a representative for M&S said: 'I'm really sorry to hear about the poor experience you had - I completely understand your frustration. 'We've had a nationwide issue with contactless payments in store and our software engineers are working hard to resolve this as quickly as possible.' At 4.30pm on Easter Monday, customers were still reporting issues with contactless payments. The glitch has since been resolved.
