A vulnerable couple were forced to use 'emergency food parcels' after Iceland took their money but failed to deliver their groceries.

The husband and wife from Cambridge ordered and paid for food delivery with the supermarket set for April 24 but no one ever showed up, despite the status of the order changing to "delivered" on their account.

After numerous attempts to phone the shop on Histon Road, the woman decided to fill out a feedback form online. Eventually, a response from Iceland came through saying they would try to re-deliver the following day, on April 25.

On Saturday the couple waited and waited but once again the food delivery never came.

The supermarket has now apologised to the couple and refunded the order in full as well as delivering the items.

However the wife, who did not wish to be named, wants to warn other vulnerable people so they don't have the same problem.

During the pandemic, supermarkets are extremely busy and the demand for deliveries is higher than ever before. That is why certain places have set up special links for those in need, like the one used by this couple.

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This particular order was placed through the designated 'vulnerable people link' on the Iceland site as the husband suffers from a heart problem and is being treated for pneumonia.

Something which stops either of them being able to pop to the shops when deliveries don't turn up. The pair are also on universal credit and ESA so when Iceland took their money it left them in a hard situation.

When the couple were left with no food or money they had to turn to the church and the food parcels they were making and handing out. She said: "In the end, I had to get hold of the church and get a food parcel from there as a last resort.

"We live on universal credit and ESA and because Iceland took that money we had no more and no food. I asked the church for a food parcel because they are doing that for people who don't have the means to pay for any other food.

"I want other people to hear about this because they are a multi-million-pound company who are taking vulnerable people's money without giving them the food they ordered.

"It's just not really good enough. "

She added: "We work on a budget and have two volunteers to do the shopping for us because we are vulnerable. Normally one goes to Lidl for fresh bits and then the other goes to Iceland for the rest and that works well.

"Last time I ordered from them it was all fine and afterwards they sent me an email with a link for vulnerable people, so I did that this time and then got nothing.

"When I went through the normal site it worked fine and my food came but this time when I went through the vulnerable one it didn't. So the people who are most at risk are the ones without deliveries.

"My husband has pneumonia and he has something wrong with his heart. He's too high risk for us to go out ourselves and now, from all of this, he is physically sick from stress and worry about not having food.

"I had to ring the church as a last resort and one of our volunteers went out for us. I am so thankful because I don't know what I would do if we didn't have a volunteer."

Earlier this afternoon a spokesman for the supermarket issued an apology to the customer and said Iceland has now delivered the food and compensated the cost.

He said: "We have apologised to our customer for the inconvenience caused by the delay in delivering her order, which she received this afternoon.

"We have also refunded the cost of her order in full as a gesture of goodwill."