B&Q and Homebase shoppers affected by computer glitch

Supermarkets across the UK were hit by problems with card payment systems over the weekend which left thousands of shoppers unable to pay for their goods.

All 872 Sainsbury stores were affected by a technical glitch which lasted for around 20 minutes on Saturday afternoon.

Till staff at Waitrose, Homebase and B&Q were also unable with to process credit or debit card payments, causing long queues at checkouts and at cash tills outside stores as shoppers resorted to paying for their shopping with cash.

Waitrose said it was able to deal with 95 per cent of payments using its back-up system, while B&Q said it used a manual card payment equipment at its 330 stores to process transactions.

A spokesman for Barclaycard, one of the firms operating payment terminals, said the company had "experienced a technical issue between 14.12 and 14.30 hours that meant card payments could not be made in some large retailers".

"We would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused by this issue and we are conducting a thorough investigation into the cause of this issue." he added.

Source : Supermarket.co.uk