House of Fraser website offline amid reported delivery 'wrangle'

House of Fraser owed £484m to its creditors including designers like Gucci, Armani and Diesel before its collapse.

Issuing a statement over the decision to cancel and refund all orders, House of Fraser said on Facebook: "We didn't take this decision lightly, but since we can not give our customers clear assurances of when their orders will be delivered, we believe cancellation is the best option".

This came a day after it hit the off button on the houseoffraser.com website due to House of Fraser's US-owned warehouse operator, XPO Logistics, having "paused" processing orders because of a payment dispute.

A message posted on the retailer's website said it was "working hard to make some improvements", telling customers it will be "back up and running as soon as possible".

A dispute with third-party distributor XPO Logistics over non-payment has led to the closure of House of Fraser's warehouse and the cancelling of online orders.

House of Fraser will be refunding any orders made online that have yet to be delivered, and will be sending out emails to confirm this in the next few days.

"Some of the biggest brands are in a "Mexican standoff" with Mike Ashley over debt, sources said".

Sports Direct "has no legal obligation to pay suppliers money owed before its buyout as their debts were part of the administration", adds the paper, but new owners "often agree to settle at least some of the debts in the interest of good relations".

In a statement, which does not mention XPO Logistics, Sports Direct said: "Since the acquisition, the group has started meeting with various House of Fraser suppliers and concessions".

FashionUnited has contacted House of Fraser for comment, but the company hasn't replied yet. Ordered a £90 purse last Thursday.