A popular supermarket chain is not able to fulfil online grocery orders or accept contactless payments in store after a software error.

Sainsbury’s, which has supermarkets at Bamber Bridge and Preston as well as a number of smaller Local stores, has attributed to issue to an ‘overnight software update’ error.

Contactless payments are not available in store and online shopping orders will not be delivered today as a result.

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Sainsbury’s has said that stores are open as usual and accepting chip and pin payments, but there are reports, not addressed by the supermarket, that there have also been issues with this. Cash payments are also available. Argos, which is owned by Sainsbury’s, has also been hit with issues in processing orders.

A spokesperson for Sainsbury’s said: “Due to an error with an overnight software update, we are experiencing issues with contactless payments and will not be able to deliver the vast majority of today’s Groceries Online orders. Our stores are open as usual, accepting chip and pin and cash payments.

“We are unable to contact customers directly but our online ordering system is working as normal and customers can place a new order now for delivery any time from tomorrow. We apologise to customers for the inconvenience and are working hard to fix the issue.”

Tesco stores are experiencing a similar issue with processing online deliveries, though it has reportedly affected a smaller number of customers.

A spokesperson from Tesco said: “We are working to fix a technical issue which has meant we have had to cancel some online orders that were due for delivery today. We’re sorry for the inconvenience.”

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