More on KentOnline
More on KentOnline
A woman's Christmas food order from M&S has been cancelled - and the food chain still hasn't officially told her.
Lisa Parr was expecting to tuck into a high end turkey, gammon and all the trimmings tomorrow, which she was due to collect yesterday from the Dover store.
But because of port traffic chaos on the M20, A20 and through the town, she heard her food was not there.
Now, past midday on Christmas Eve, she is still waiting for the grocery chain to tell her and she's warning others to check with the store before risking the journey and getting stuck in traffic.
Ms Parr, who lives in Folkestone, called the branch in St James this morning.
She said: "I rang and said I was part of the logistics supply chain so I could get through to someone.
"They put me through to the deputy manager. I told her I was actually a customer and the manager said: 'Your lorry won't be coming in with your food because of the traffic. We can refund you'."
The employee did not take their name or process a refund. Ms Parr added: "It's gone 12 o'clock and they've still not phoned us."
But now, M&S has told us there is an alternative store for collection and they have contacted all customers concerned to tell them about the issue.
It was eight weeks ago she placed her order thinking Christmas dinner was pretty much boxed off.
Online ordering involves picking items from the Christmas list on the website, paying half the amount as a deposit, and then paying the remainder when you pick up your bags from the store.
It was due for collection yesterday (Wednesday, December 23).
M&S wrote to her and asked her to instead collect it today (Christmas Eve) between 7am and 7pm because of the problems with lorries.
"People will be turning up and M&S won't have the food and will have to scrimp and save to get food to put on the table..."
After hearing unofficially that the food won't be there, she said: "I'm very lucky, we went out this morning and did our full Christmas shop in Morrisons in Folkestone.
"We're in the position where we have money and were able to do that.
"In this pandemic people have been saving up for their Christmas food. I'm quite heartfelt that people will be tuning up and M&S won't have the food and will have to scrimp and save to get food to put on the table in a short time.
"I understand the situation in Dover is unique, but they should be calling people to let them know so they can make other arrangements while they can."
M&S press and corporate departments have been called and emailed for a comment.
At noon the company tweeted: "All of our Foodhalls are open and stocked with all your last-minute Christmas Eve essentials! Happy (almost) Christmas, everyone."
This afternoon an M&S spokesman said: “Due to the current travel situation in and around Dover, we are unable to get customer Christmas food orders to our Dover Simply Food store for them to pick up.
"We are very sorry for the inconvenience this will cause and we have contacted all affected customers to refund their deposits and provide a gesture of goodwill.
"The nearest M&S store for local customers is Canterbury which is fully stocked with our Christmas food range and our colleagues there are ready to support customers.”
