Waitrose loyalty app is hit by a middle-class backlash

WAITROSE has abandoned a digital revamp of its loyalty scheme after thousands of complaints in its first month.

Under the new system, customers had to show cashiers their money-off vouchers on a phone app, but many struggled to work it or found there was no mobile reception in stores.

After a flood of calls to the customer hotline and criticism on social media, it will revert to sending paper vouchers to its mainly middleclass customers and reintroduce the option of printing out online versions at home.

The retailer offers more than 50million vouchers a year to customers on its myWaitrose loyalty programme, and bosses hoped that the shift to a digital-only system on February 22 would reduce postal and printing costs. However, one staff member told The Mail on Sunday: ‘This relaunch has caused so many problems for staff and customers who were frustrated and upset. The helplines have been inundated with complaints – maybe tens of thousands.

‘We have very loyal, traditional customers who like doing things as they always have. They don’t like change.

‘That’s especially the case among our older shoppers and those who are less savvy with technology.’

A Waitrose spokesman said last night: ‘We will continue to update myWaitrose to make the benefits easily accessible.’