Tesco's online Christmas delivery slots are available to book from 13 November at 7am for the chain's Delivery Saver customers. Non delivery saver customers can book their Christmas food shop from. Tesco has apologised after its grocery website was overwhelmed with shoppers trying to book delivery slots for Christmas. Customers complained they had been forced to join an online queue for hours. The scramble to book a coveted Christmas delivery slot has seen Tesco customers stuck in virtual queues since before 7am this morning. The supermarket now has more than 1.5million slots a week,.

Tesco customers have been left furious after having to wait hours in a virtual queue to secure a Christmas delivery slot.

This morning the supermarket released slots for the week starting 21 December - but only to their delivery saver customers who pay a subscription fee.

But after waking up to log on at 7am, many complained they had still not been given a slot after two-and-a-half hours of waiting.

One person posted on Twitter: 'What an absolute joke. Been a delivery customer for years, have delivery saver.

Almost two and a half hours waiting and still in the queue 😡

— Sonia Bradley (@50N1ABR4DL3Y) November 13, 2020

'Went on at 6.45am. Been in the queue for two hours and 20 minutes. What is happening? Should I just shop elsewhere this Christmas?'

Another user posted: 'Been waiting 2.5 hours now (since 6.59) in a queue for Christmas slot. What's happening? Am I lost in cyber hell somewhere?'

Customers were faced with a message that read: 'You are currently in a queue - we'll put you through as soon as we can.'

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On its Twitter page, the supermarket posted: 'A lot of customers are using our website and app at the moment. So we're temporarily using a virtual waiting room to help manage the flow.

'We're sorry if things take a bit longer than usual.'

Anyone else still in the online Tesco queue for a Christmas slot?! #tescopic.twitter.com/f4qKOrng2l

— SEN Resources Blog (@senresourceblog) November 13, 2020

While some were given slots after a long wait, others were unsuccessful and forced to shop for their Christmas dinner supplies elsewhere.

Those who did manage to book complained festive essentials like turkeys were not yet available.

There was also no mention of people on the government's vulnerable list, who are entitled to priority delivery slots because of coronavirus.

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@Tesco been waiting 2.5 hours now (since 6.59) in a queue for Christmas slot. What's happening? Am I lost in cyber hell somewhere?

— annie (@annie6724) November 13, 2020

A Tesco spokesman said: 'Demand for online slots over the festive period is high, and we have more slots this Christmas than ever before.

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'We are experiencing high volumes of traffic to our website and groceries app and are temporarily limiting the number of customers using it.'

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They apologised for the inconvenience and claimed home delivery and click and collect slots are still available for the Christmas period.