Lim Chee Guan website crashes after surge in CNY pre-orders

Shortly after Lim Chee Guan launched its Chinese New Year pre-order website yesterday, the online traffic hit an unprecedented high.

Official announcements posted on its social media platforms indicated that the website would remain inaccessible yesterday as steps were being taken to resolve the technical issues.

This is the first time in Lim Chee Guan's history that festive sales for its bak kwa have pivoted online.

A spokesman for Lim Chee Guan told The New Paper: "We apologise profusely for the temporary technical issues.

"This is the first year... we had prepared for a surge of log-ins for the launch by increasing our server capacity. However, it was much greater than expected."

She added that the company will be giving a daily update on its social media and will announce when the pre-order website will be up again.

For now, a price list of all items that will be available has been posted "so that customers can plan their purchases in advance". The limit for online orders is 20kg for each customer account, while stocks last.

"As far as we can, we will try and meet all orders," said the spokesman.

For customers who have successfully placed orders before the website went down but did not receive any official acknowledgement, she urged that they contact Lim Chee Guan directly through e-mail or call in.

"We are thankful of the tremendous support and apologise sincerely for the inconveniences caused... We implore our customers to bear with us for the moment," said the spokesman.

"We will take in this experience and work to make the experience a better one in future."

Some customers understand the difficulty, such as Facebook user Magdalene Xie, who wrote: "Just received my order confirmation! Everyone be patient and the helpful staff will sort your order out! Remember we are all supporting local."