Dixons.co.uk and its sister websites are trading again after some 17 hours out of action following damage to cables as a result of roadworks.
The PC World, Currys and Dixons websites are believed to have gone down at 8am yesterday morning and were only back in action at around 1am today.
Yesterday morning, visitors to the site were met with news that the sites were down because of a sale, but in the afternoon that holding page was replaced with news that the sites were down for maintenance.
A spokesman for the Dixons Retail group, which owns all three sites, said that in fact the problem lay elsewhere. “We are working to fix the issue as soon as possible,” he said. “It would appear fibres have been damaged as a result of roadworks.”
Customers took to Twitter to bemoan the fact that the sites were down today. @joannejacobs said: “UK people forced to shop for computer goods at actual shops when PC World, Currys, Dixons all fail.” The sites were missing out on trade, according to @CraigDean, who said: “Trying to order a TV for the mother but Currys, Dixons and PC World’s websites have been down since early this morning.”
These are sales that Dixons can ill-afford to lose. In the 12 weeks to January 17, its latest trading update showed, 19% of its sales were generated online. Total sales over the period fell by 3% and like-for-like sales by 5%. In the UK total sales were down by 6% and by 7% on a like-for-like basis.
