Sainsbury’s customers have had their online orders cancelled and accounts blocked by the retailer due to supposed “fraudulent activity” despite it providing no evidence.
A number of customers have complained of being told by Sainsbury’s hours before their delivery was due that their orders would not be arriving.
After contacting Sainsbury’s customer service teams, these customers were informed that their accounts had been barred due to suspected fraudulent activity, but that they were unable to discuss any details.
According to the Financial Times, which first reported the story, many customers were also forced to wait up to five days to get their money refunded.
Customers have taken to the online review website Trustpilot to voice their complaints, many of which have also struggled to secure an online delivery slot during lockdown.
Deborah Depaah said that after missing a delivery, she was informed her account was locked for “security reasons” and that Sainbsury’s was unable to give her an “exact reason” for the action.
“If I was such a threat why did they collect money?” Depaah questioned.
Another customer Cydelle Stewart who was shielding during the first lockdown, told the Financial Times that her £181.80 order was cancelled, but her account had been charged.
Stewart was told by Sainsbury’s that her account was “prohibited”, which indicated fraudulent activity was detected, however when she called her bank no evidence of fraudulent activity could be found.
While Sainsbury’s refunded the money the following day, Stewart’s account remained blocked and she was told she could appeal to have it re-opened.
Numerous other examples can be found on Trustpilot, including customers who are clinically vulnerable and had purchased 12 month delivery passes, where customers were not given any clear reasons for their accounts being permanently blocked.
Sainsbury’s said in a statement: “We serve hundreds of thousands of customers through our online delivery service every week. We have processes in place to protect customer accounts and it’s rare for these to be triggered incorrectly.
“In the rare cases these are triggered incorrectly we will reactivate them as soon as it is brought to our attention. We’re looking into what could have triggered them in this case.”
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67 Comments. Leave new
My account blocked tonight just 2 days before scheduled delivery. No reason and help centre said could give no information. Had no previous problems with past deliveries and have used them for many years. Wife and I in mid ups. Have no shops anywhere near us. Live in rural Shropshire. Don’t know how we can get supplies
My delivery and order have vanished from phone
Come on! If my account was compromised I would hope that Sainsburys or any other high street retailers, should communicate to their customers and act accordingly. Sometimes this is necessary to keep us all safe and trust who we are shopping with.
I agree. They may not have given an explanation but if there’s an automatic system that protects customers, isn’t that good? I do think they should put on extra deliveries for those customers who went without and still haven’t been able to get their groceries however.
How can it be good if the wrong ones are getting blacklisted?
Are you thick, just like Wendy said how can the system be good if it’s blocking the wrong people you sausage !
Being rude and a ignorant twat is not helping calling people thick how rude you sound like the type of person that I get home deliveries to avoid
Agreed, sainsburys will be following a process that protects everyone and keeps them insured. Some of the individual customers stories are sad, but I’m sure inaction would have had more far reaching consequences.
Could it be staff?
Use aldi or lidi. Better quality
Aldi and Lidl don’t deliver. When you’re highly vulnerable and sheltering that is essential.
They don’t deliver
I am both disabled and a keyworker, and have had Sainsbury’s online deliveries since they started, but could get no deliveries over the first wave of covid, and often had to go to Asda late at night at the end of an 88 hour week.
Now they’re back, their standards are appalling.
Asda here I come.
We use Asda but occasionally we’ve had deliveries not arriving and if you want to know anything you get through to a call centre in the Philippines who tell you that your delivery is on the van and coming anytime. All sorts of lies to get you off the line!
Unfortunately technology has gone on a pace and sounds like at Sainsbury’s it has overtaken the humans who operate it. If a debit card is compromised its usually your bank that flags it up first so most oeople will know already. Sainsbury needs to improve theirsecurity and ops centre or more importantly the people who work there. Glad Ishop at Waitrose!!
My sympathies; I believe this Chain ashore needs to re-evaluate its priorities. Actually, I don’t have the time or, basically the inclination to offer words of advise to make grocery shopping less of a nightmare with this store.
When I returned to England from a stay in Africa – Yes, a 3rd World Country!! I virtually picked up where I left off *I thought,
I experienced the same. I emailed the head honcho of Sainsbury’s but was told my account has been blocked for no good reason .
Went to order for next week and appears they have changed their slots .all normal slots booked at £4.then they have this saver option they are normal priced but a 4 hour window.
4 hr window but will get a message with a 1hr slot in the morning
Are all Sainsbury’s delivery drivers this hansom?
Yes
Yes
Mine was blocked due to ‘fraudulent activity even though I have been a customer for over 19 years. I called as my delivery didn’t turn up and was told very sheepishly that they didn’t know why. My nectar points nosedive but they didn’t know why. I don’t trust Sainsbury’s any more so goodbye to them and hello Tesco
My experience is that Sainsbury’s don’t take monies until the order is picked ready for delivery on delivery day. I have had no problems whatsoever and find the delivery drivers to be great ambassadors for the company. It is reassuring that there are checks and systems to identify potential security breaches. I feel sorry for those customers who are unfairly affected by these measures and trust that Sainsbury’s will react quickly to genuine complaints and concerns offering compensation where appropriate
Yes they take the money and then cancel the order and it can take up to 5 days to get your money back. I have had my account cancelled once and my order CANCELLED 3 times!! It has nothing to do with my bank!
The last time I tried to order they tried to take £7 for an order that was over £40. Also their prices for similar items were 20 to 30% higher than Tesco.
I have gone back to Tesco as you can rely on them while shielding!
Doesn’t seem like any of You live in The Real World of Technology!
Their system has been hacked!
Deal with it!
And it’s your own Banks that delay refunds! Read the Fine Print! Refunds are anywhere from 3-7 working days!
Stop your whining, and think out of the Box!
Get a family member or friend to shop for you until this mess is sorted.
I had three emails from Sainsbury’s at 9 o’clock last night saying that I had tried to change my password unsuccessfully and they were blocking my account fortunately for me I didn’t have an order in process , You can keep your card details on your account with Sainsbury’s if someone was to get access to your account they could do a food order and change the delivery addresses or even click and collect that way they don’t even need an address , on your Sainsbury’s account change your password make sure you haven’t kept your payment details on there , Check delivery address is the same as yours
Only you know the 3 digits on the back of your card!
So how could it be fraud?
Also can’t someone stealing card details and having delivery to there own address. Cos they would get caught pretty quick
They called me because they had problems to receive the payment. They asked my for this 3 number and I not tell this number by phone. I said please cancel this order and I am going to buy again and pay online because I can’t tell you this 3,secret number. They decided to cancel my account because I prefer to pay myself online. My bank told me that this 3 number in you card are secret and don’t share by phone.
Its come to my attention some people keep delivery slots NY putting one bottle of booze in it that’s just selfish IMO hope people a no do this get banned someone may need that slot desperate.
Everyone does that, it’s how you reserve a slot. No one wants to sit and do a full shop as soon as they get a slot. I always save my slot with a bottle of champagne!
Yes of course it is, blame the staff, horrible nasty keyworkers…. sack them all… OMG!!
Omg…..you obviously don’t work in retail…. I have worked all throu lockdown….what about you horrible rude customers. We get paid to be polite and deliver customer service….not put up with rude customers. Would you let someone speak to your parents the way we get spoke to on a daily basis and want them sacking…..I very much doubt it
Stopped using Sainsbury’s in the summer after 3 disastrous deliveries due to them smashing so much of my delivery. Found out it was sent from their Oldbury store 10 miles away, rather than Mere Green or Castle Vale stores, both within 3 miles from my home and who were fine in the past.
Looks like 1984 has reached Braintree…
I had an order booked for delivery from sainsbury today. I’ve used them in the past but not for a while. I got a txt this morning saying “delivery is on the way” 2 hours later I got a txt saying my “order was cancelled”. I tried logging in to my account and it says its locked. I called and was told my account had been prohibited and would I like to appeal. Since I have obviously been accused of a crime, trialled, convicted and sentence carried out already, I asked if I might know the reason why I have been prohibited before I appealed the sentence. I was told “I am not at Liberty to divulge that information”. So I asked why he knew and was allowed to know, but me, the accused and convicted, was not allowed to know, his response was “I don’t know”.
I have lodged an “appeal” to a sentence for a crime I am not allowed to know about.
This is exactly what happened to me. Feel like a criminal..
Exec office has just told me they have the right cancel and prohibit accounts whenever they want. They cant tell why I received my second delivery while my account was prohibited???
Got Argos card and shop with sainsbury but they closed and blocked account saying fraudulent activity spotted but I shop using my argos card to my house were its registered and they both seem to 1 and the same company so how did they pull that off
My guess was they couldn’t fulfill so they were just doing this
Glad I don’t shop at Sainsbury. I’ll stick to Tesco I think, they don’t do stuff like this !
I have used Morrison’s, but they are rubbish, use Tesco’s now and they are brilliant, even if they havnt got the brand name of what you want, they use a substitute, something Morrison’s never did, your order was always short of stuff
I was told my my delivery driver that Sainsbury’s were cancelling orders at the last minute as they did not have enough delivery people!!
Yes that makes more sense.
Ye that’s what they want to stop ordering on line
I have just received my order delivered bya very cheerful and helpful driver I completely trust this company
I have just received my order delivered bya very cheerful and helpful driver I completely trust this company
After reading all the complaints from folk who won’t use Sainsbury’s again. I’d like to place on record my greatful thanks for all my deliveries. Always come at my booked delivery time and always by cheerful drivers. I’m more than satisfied. Thank you Sainsbury’s.
Elizabeth
This has been a very long ongoing saga, with Saisburys and thought I was alone until I saw this post. I placed 2 orders on the same day, when the 1st one was due I was told 50mins before that it was cancelled. Called the customer service team, although not sure why they are called that as they cant help with anything. After god knows how many attempts to get answers I was at a loss and was told that my second order was cancelled due to account being prohibited.. guess what, my second delivery actually arrived. When I phone customer service team. They said “it must have slipped through the net as your not have recieved it as your account is on hold” so confused now. I wrote to the executive office who have been as useful as a chocolate fire place. Waited over 10 days for my 1st refund and had to chase for that….
You then read that sainsbury’s are losing money??? Not surprising if they shutting lots of peoples accounts down.
This is a much longer story with ongoing after math. But thought I would share. Never will I use them again after making me feel like some sort of criminal
This has been a very long ongoing saga, with Saisburys and thought I was alone until I saw this post. I placed 2 orders on the same day, when the 1st one was due I was told 50mins before that it was cancelled. Called the customer service team, although not sure why they are called that as they cant help with anything. After god knows how many attempts to get answers I was at a loss and was told that my second order was cancelled due to account being prohibited.. guess what, my second delivery actually arrived. When I phone customer service team. They said “it must have slipped through the net as your not have recieved it as your account is on hold” so confused now. I wrote to the executive office who have been as useful as a chocolate fire place. Waited over 10 days for my 1st refund and had to chase for that….
You then read that sainsbury’s are losing money??? Not surprising if they shutting lots of peoples accounts down.
This is a much longer story with ongoing after math. But thought I would share. Never will I use them again after making me feel like some sort of criminal
You cant beat Tesco
This is exactly what happened to me. Feel like a criminal..
Exec office has just told me they have the right cancel and prohibit accounts whenever they want. They cant tell why I received my second delivery while my account was prohibited???
Oh look bad press about Sainsbury’s now . . . I wonder why?! I’ve had my order cancelled by Waitrose at last minute – It happens. I’ll be surprised if Sainsbury’s are not prioritising vulnerable people, even when orders are unfortunately cancelled!
This is a load of crap. I know someone who is a delivery driver for Sainsbury’s and this just sounds like a Karen getting pissy
Waitrose much better service , always polite friendly drivers , customer service is excellent!
I’d use anyone but sainsbury if I was you, this company has nosedived since buying Argos, they are trying to cutback so much to recuperate lost revenue by buying a lump of dung, so problems are going to get worse.
If you know any vulnerable or elderly then help them out and go to lidl or aldi to save them money.
Probably come out sooner or later that they’ve been compromised and data stolen. They closed our account for no reason, “security” or whatever, couldn’t get any info out of them. Shopped with them regularly for many years both in store and online. Pathetic.
I had my delivery cancelled. No one rang to explain why. Upon ringing Customer services I was told my account was closed on suspicion of fraud in an unprofessional rude way which upset me. I rang the next day so I could speak to someone else (who was very nice and understanding). She told me that my account had been closed as I had rang up to complain too many times about problems with my online deliveries. For example brown salad with two days left on the best before date. Battered pack of 6 cans of Pepsi Max. One can of which was empty. I have ALWAYS offered photos. Which where rejected. I could go on. Disgusting customer service. Will never EVER shop there again.
Appalling behaviour by Sainsbury’s….My mother in law who is 86 years old lives on her own and is shielding was sent a priority booking for online delivery.
An order was placed and she had to wait for a slot which was for a week later…all ok.
On the morning of delivery we received an email confirming delivery time and 10 minutes later another to say her delivery was cancelled due to some difficulty ( wouldn’t say what ) with her payment.
My husband & myself are also shielding since the recent COVID requests only to go out in extreme circumstances, ( we both have respiratory problems )so we are unable to do her shopping in recent weeks.
My husband ( her only contact )had been doing her shopping since last March using the same card (which is in mother’s name ) by the way.
On phoning Sainsbury’s my husband was told the card used for order was invalid, which it isn’t !! He even offered to pay with another card but was told no the order was cancelled.
The government has told everyone to do their upmost to comply with new COVID rules and unfortunately Sainsbury’s is not helping in this.
Just to add when he rang Sainsbury’s to ask why this was happening he asked to speak to a manager as the person dealing with the call was not helpful, this was refused.
I want to add that he then risked himself and myself by having to drive to the local Sainsbury’s ( 8 miles away ) and buy her shopping using the same bank card…yes the same one they said was invalid.
Come on Sainsbury’s what are you playing at ….
Same thing happens to me yesterday, a day before my delivery. Called and they said account is locked by the risk prevention team to due to fraudulent activity and I can appeal. Appeal? Appeal for what and they don’t even know the reason.
Has someone appealed and account unlocked?
why has Sainsbury blocked my food delivery account..and wont give a reason leave me just hanging on phone not good public relations Sainsbury.
Sainsbury’s has locked me out of my grocery account for over 2 weeks now! Have phoned customer service numerous times only to be told I will be contacted by their technical staff within 72 hours, which of course they never do. Seems I’m not the only one with this problem. What a bizarre way to treat their loyal customers. It’s almost like they are trying to sabotage their own business by blocking accounts and offering no help to rectify it.
What a dreadful shambles .. Something very fishy going on.
Avoid them and stick to better suppliers who value their customers
Account closed of long time customer with no explanation.
===================================================
Avoid them, setting aside the fact that they provide no bags and we have to navigate potentially 100’s of loose items, my account has been cancelled with no notice or info. When I called “customer services” , they said that “there was suspect activity” on the account. Odd that they took money for an order they didn’t deliver on and then turned up at 0600 2 days later with no notice. Of course no one was available to collect the order. Never mind that this was the 2nd time they had cancelled my account with no explanation. Do your self a favour…. stick to Ocado, Amazon or any other, better service. So frustrating to learn that one could be either accused of being fraudulent or have suspicious activity on ones account with no communication. In an age when companies like Amazon and Ocado are changing the game, Sainsburys chooses to treat LONG TIME customers (now EX) like this. Lets see how this business model works out for them as it seems Im not the only one being affected.
This has just happened to me and was told that they don’t have to give any reason for closing a groceries account in line with their terms and conditions but can’t tell me which terms and conditions or any other info – i am just not welcome to use groceries online anymore. Did anyone else ever get any more info? surely under Data protection, we are entitled to the information they hold on us. Have googled and looks like if unsatisfactory response from retailer, you can write to Groceries Code Adjudicator – surely this needs investigating?
Don’t bother with Sainsbury’s online anymore, they are rubbish!!! Their online staff are pretty damn useless! I have had 3 deliveries never delivered and they still owe me £144 from about 3 weeks ago which I am still trying to get back. They lie online too and they have zero customer service skills, it’s painful trying to talk to them!!!!!. Tesco are much better now.
I so agree with ‘Bloggs’ ; It was painful speaking to customer services!
Painful, annoying, pointless and frustrating! The lady had about as much cheerfulness, as someone on death row!
I’m pretty sure I was put on hold for so long; so that the woman could go eat a sandwich.. ….so I did the same!
…………………I ate 2 cheese and pickle sandwiches , a frangipan cake and and a juice and a full on family convo; all while being on hold!
They cancelled my account too. I have received a delivery that it was changed for next day. They said that my delivery was cancelled, but they delivered food and they didn’t taken the money. Now when I am going to buy I realised that my account is cancelled.
Had the same thing happen… rang this week to be told my account is prohibited based on my last order. What a croc of crap! 😒😤
Well my last order was years ago and my account was locked during lockdown! 🧐
Customer service seemed like they could not care less! The phone was put down on me the first time! 🤨
Cancelling people’s accounts with no good explanation!
No communication until you call them in person; for all the good that does🤷🏻♀️😏
Shocking from Sainsbury’s; even more so, seeing this happening on a massive scale! 🤦🏼♀️
This company has gone way down hill!
Maybe we should stick to the other retailers that don’t treat customers in this way! 👌
The drivers have always been great but this problem is within management and customer services. Some sort of corruption going on within, it seems!
Avoid Sainsbury’s if you can.. is all the advice I can give! Strange occurrences and unethical operations going on within it seems!!! 👹
Further to my previous post, it has been a long battle with Sainsbury to get any information at all. All they would tell me is that my account was closed and in line with their terms and conditions they didn’t have to tell me why. I emailed CEO office and after several emails, was told it was because the £ for a previous order had been issued a chargeback (when your bank claims it back) but as I had the order, I had basically committed fraud. they would only give me the order number (which was no use as couldn’t access my account) but I filed a Subject Access Request under Data Protection for all data held on me and got £ and date from that (also found they had another address on my file, which was nothing to do with me!) . They have since come back saying they have realised it is an error and that their team mistakenly processed an item as a chargeback and we’ve put £25 in your account. No proper apology for accusing me of fraud and based on the comments here and elsewhere online, I am not alone and seems a breakdown in their process. Having done some investigation, there doesn’t appear to be any form of Ombudsman where you can escalate these complaints to so Sainsbury get away with treated their customers like dirt. The whole experience made me feel awful (even though I knew I hadn’t done anything) and don’t like to think how someone with less than stable mental health would be impacted or someone who is still isolating who relies on groceries to be delivered. Not sure if the journalist from this article has done a follow up but maybe it is time to get someone like Daily Mail involved so that Sainsbury is held to account. I did message Martin Lewis, Money Savings Expert but no reply yet.