House of Fraser cancels online orders and stops accepting gift cards

House of Fraser has cancelled all online orders and taken its website offline after a dispute with a warehouse operator.

The department store, which was bought out of administration by Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct last week, said it will refund all orders that have not already been sent to customers.

The retailer said the decision was made due to delays with delivering online orders. Warehouse operator XPO Logistics stopped processing orders last week because of a payment dispute.

House of Fraser also told customers on Thursday their gift cards and vouchers will no longer be accepted online or instore.

The high street chain collapsed into administration last week, and was quickly snapped up by Mr Ashley.

The retail tycoon has since outlined his plans to make House of Fraser into the “Harrods of the high street” and has vowed to keep 80 per cent of stores open.

The Newcastle United owner also said he was looking at adding luxury brands such as Gucci and Prada to House of Fraser’s product offering, while whole floors of larger shops could be given to Sports Direct or Flannels, his other retail venture.

The chain, which employs 17,500 people across the UK and Ireland, had previously earmarked 31 of its 59 branches for closure, after admitting the costs of running the stores had become “unsustainable”.

Frank Slevin, House of Fraser’s chairman, said at the time: “Our legacy store estate has created an unsustainable cost base which, without restructuring, presents an existential threat to the business.”