A man whose wife is clinically extremely vulnerable was offered a voucher to take to the shops after their Tesco delivery was delayed by two days due to a "technical issue" at a distribution centre.

Michael and Joy Leeks, from Sutton Valence, near Maidstone, have not been to the shops since the first lockdown after Joy was classed as clinically extremely vulnerable (CEV), meaning she is at a very high risk of severe illness from coronavirus.

As a result, the couple had been given priority delivery by Tesco and were expecting their food between 2pm and 10pm on Friday.

After receiving no update about their shopping by 8pm, Mr Leeks, 74, rang the Tesco helpline and was told that because of a "system failure" at the Aylesford distribution centre, his delivery would not be made that day.

He was also told that 900 other customers had been affected. Mr Leeks was assured a note would be put on his delivery, for the couple to be made a priority the next day.

Mr Leeks was then shocked to see later that evening that his delivery would not arrive until Sunday, between 5pm and 9pm.

Late on Friday night he rang the helpline and requested to speak to a manager and was put through to an office in Dundee, Scotland.

Mr Leeks said: "He knew nothing of the system failure and just kept saying he was sorry but the only delivery possible was Sunday evening.

"I told him my wife was a CEV and we were going to get no food for Friday, none for Saturday and none for Sunday, what were we supposed to do?

"At this point, he shocked me by saying that all he could do was to send me an electronic gift card which I could take to my nearest store and exchange for food.

"I just laughed at him and said 'you can't be serious, why do you think you have given us a priority slot? The press will have a field day at that."

Clinically extremely vulnerable people are advised not to go the shops but instead use online shopping or ask a friend or relative to pick the food up.

"They had no back up procedures. Systems fail all of the time, you expect there to be contingency plans."

Their food was eventually delivered at 8.15pm on Sunday. Mr Leeks said the delivery service was normally very good, but this time they felt "let down".

The couple ran out of essentials such as bread and milk but were able to get by using what was in the freezer.

He said: "It is the frustration. We feel let down, it's a loss of trust."

"They had no back up procedures. Systems fail all of the time, you expect there to be contingency plans."

Mr Leeks, who is retired, also feels the company's communication was not good enough, as he had to ring and find out what happened to his delivery rather than getting proactive updates.

"There must have been a lot of people who just didn't know what was going on and sitting and waiting," he said.

A spokesman for Tesco said: "Our colleagues are working hard to deliver more online orders than ever before.

"However, due to a technical issue in our distribution centre, we had to cancel a small number of deliveries on Thursday and Friday.

"We are very sorry for the inconvenience this has caused and would like to apologise to any customers affected.”

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