UPDATE: 6:00 p.m. ― Issues with the credit card system at Macy’s stores have been resolved, a company spokesperson told HuffPost in a statement.
“The delays we experienced this afternoon were due to a capacity-related issue that caused some transactions to take longer to process,” the statement read. “We do not anticipate any additional delays.”
PREVIOUSLY:
As if Black Friday weren’t already stressful enough, shoppers are saying that Macy’s, the major department store chain, appears to be experiencing credit and debit card system problems around the United States.
While dozens of Macy’s shoppers on social media said they weren’t able to pay at all, the company downplayed the problems in a statement to HuffPost.
“It is taking longer than usual to process some credit and gift cards in our stores, but we have added additional associates to the floor [and] are working to resolve the issue as quickly as possible,” Macy’s’ statement read.
Early Friday afternoon, social media was flooded with reports from frustrated shoppers in multiple states who said they had stood in long lines only to find out they could only pay for purchases in cash. Since it’s common for people not to carry much cash, that meant many shoppers effectively couldn’t pay at all.
Consumers attempting to buy things from the Macy’s website or the app appeared to be experiencing similar issues.
Though some social media users reported that the outages were happening “nationwide,” the full extent of the problem was unclear. Macy’s responded to several customer complaints via Twitter on Friday.