Myer is trying to placate frustrated online shoppers with a free postage offer. The Australian up-market department store chain’s online crashed on the biggest shopping day of the year, not only upsetting buyers, but also hurting its executives financially.

The company closed its online store after encountering “technical difficulties” since the early hours of Christmas Day. As of the time of writing, it still has its apology posted on the main page of their site, telling consumers that they would be introducing their one-day sale once the site is stable.

“We will re-introduce our one day online Stocktake Sale offers once the site is stable and we are confident our valued customers can shop quickly and conveniently online. Our Stocktake sale in our 67 Myer stores will run until January 27th and all stores have extended trading hours to make it easier to shop in store,” the message on their out-of-order site reads.

The company’s failure to resolve the issue for days has been the subject of jokes on Twitter by annoyed customers.

Myer Board Meeting: “Do you know the Internet?” “The Internet?” “The Internet?” “Yes, do you know the Internet?” “It comes from IBM!”

— Benno Rice (@jeamland) December 31, 2013

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN I PRESENT THE BIGGEST JOKE IN ONLINE RETAILING IN WORLD HISTORY - http://t.co/SJ7oFxu2sx — Mark Pesce (@mpesce) December 30, 2013

Myer's CEO just encouraged listeners on @702sydney to go online. Umm...... #fail pic.twitter.com/QaOTlZAaU2

— David Fisher (@davefisher74) December 25, 2013

Myer has announced that its web site will return when DiskDoubler has finished making more room. Until then, staff will play Commander Keen. — ABCnewsIntern (@ABCnewsIntern) December 31, 2013

To appease the buyers, Myer has announced that it will offer free postage and add extra online-only specials once its site is back up.

“I know perfectly well that this is not good for our reputation in trying to compete online,” chief executive officer Bernie Brookes told The Australian Financial Review, adding that the company is “unreservedly” apologising to its customers.

Mr Brookes explained that a communication breakdown between software application and Internet servers has been identified as the reason behind the crash.

A message on Myer’s Facebook page said that they have identified the problem and are implementing the fixed.

“Our team are still running tests on our website and we hope to have you shopping online with us again soon,” the post reads.