Tesco website crashes as thousands log on to book Christmas delivery slots

Tesco has said its website is back up and running after it crashed under the weight of more than 290,000 people queuing for a prized Christmas delivery slot.

On Tuesday, customers who logged onto the website to secure a delivery between December 12 to 24 complained of a queue of over 100,000 by 6am and a crashing site.

Customers reported they were in a queue numbering more than 290,000 at one point.

Delivery Saver customers – those who pay a fee for priority access – were told they could book a slot from 6am on November 15, but some complained that the queue was opened before the advertised time.

The supermarket said it would be releasing more slots on November 22 at 6am.

A Tesco spokesperson said the website struggled under the sheer number of people logging on rather than any technological problem.

While delivery slots were still available in the days before Christmas, they were disappearing fast, and he urged customers to consider ‘Click and Collect’ as an option for managing festive shopping.

Tesco is relatively late to open bookings for its Christmas delivery slots, with most other supermarkets having released them last month.

Shoppers had been expected to seek out the slots in greater numbers than usual this year as they set tighter budgets and seek to spread the cost of Christmas in an effort to cope with cost of living pressures.