Ocado/M&S online deliveries

[KeenCook2 Profile]

Today's once in a while Sainsbury's order arrived, and some of the (imperfectly tasty/ie economy) onions are actually sprouting! Others are, I suspect, going bad under the skin as they're pretty soggy. Asda has a very easy online complaints form, and your card is credited automatically; for Sainsbury's you have to ring them up.
Would you bother for 50p?

Quite a lot of the apples are badly bruised but we'll get through those pretty quickly - far more slowly for a kilo of onions!

[Earthmaiden Profile]

That doesn't sound very acceptable KC2. 'Wonky' or economy veg shouldn't mean old and bruised, surely?

[herbidacious Profile]

That is bad. I was surprised though, last time I had to ring Sainsbury's to complain about missing items, that it was quite easy and quick. I anticipated being put on hold for an hour.

[KeenCook2 Profile]

I just did it! And you're right, herbi, I was pleasantly surprised at how quickly I got through. I was fully settling in for a long wait! Must have picked the right time of day.

[Pampy Profile]

I would bother for 50p - for me it's the principle. If it's common practice for their "wonky" products to be lower quality, then the more people who complain and are given a refund will exert more pressure on them to stop the practice. I get very annoyed with Ocado who always seem to charge for more carrier bags then are used. A few weeks ago, I was charged for 16 when only 7 had been used. I always request a refund. If they do this with every customer order then the rewards for Ocado are huge. To put it into context, the latest figures I can find for weekly online deliveries are from 2019, when there were 300,000. Say every customer gets charged 10p extra for bags, then that equates to £30,000 a week - over £1,500,00 a year - and that's taken from figures prior to the exponential growth that they saw as the pandemic took hold.

[jeral Profile]

Pampy, I've always found Ocado bags charge differs from the number delivered, although I was annoyed last time as the shopping was crammed into half the charged number resulting in crushed biscuits/crisps and a split bag of flour. Hrmphh. Does Ocado benefit though? Bag money is supposed to be donated to a charity of choice, although I doubt it's the top item on their auditor's checklist.

Ocado here might be hiccuping at the moment as they didn't credit returned bags and there was an item missing, both almost unheard of before.

As to wonky, it definitely shouldn't mean going off. I'd let them off once - they might have thought you'd prefer something than nothing, but not after that if it looked like a pattern of fobbing off was forming.

[Sloe-Gin Profile]

Tesco has been brilliant, of late. I used to enjoy occasional deliveries from Ocado/Waitrose, but I do not like M & S. So once a blue moon, I use Waitrose for 'specials'.
I find M & S over priced and underwhelming.

[jeral Profile]

I'm curious to know if there are any long-time M&S customers on here? Given M&S must have been thought good beyond just snob value to get their decent reputation, have they gone downhill or are they producing different cheaper food to a price point for their Ocado offering (which I find very unimpressive).

Or, here's a thought, maybe it's more the case that other supermarkets' quality has improved to easily rival M&S?

[Earthmaiden Profile]

I've never liked M&S that much but they were innovative with ready to cook and ready meals and sandwiches 30 or so years ago. I think you have hit the nail on the head, other supermarkets have upped their game and offer interesting variety and good quality produce nowadays. M&S has never been a shop where you would buy all your food and supplies anyway and what it does sell seems overpriced and boringly 'safe'.

BTW, Sainsburys - and I believe Tesco, no longer provide bags.

[Pampy Profile]

Pampy, I've always found Ocado bags charge differs from the number delivered, although I was annoyed last time as the shopping was crammed into half the charged number resulting in crushed biscuits/crisps and a split bag of flour. Hrmphh. Does Ocado benefit though? Bag money is supposed to be donated to a charity of choice, although I doubt it's the top item on their auditor's checklist.

Ocado here might be hiccuping at the moment as they didn't credit returned bags and there was an item missing, both almost unheard of before.

As to wonky, it definitely shouldn't mean going off. I'd let them off once - they might have thought you'd prefer something than nothing, but not after that if it looked like a pattern of fobbing off was forming.

Ocado say that they recycle the bags so I don't think that they'd give the bag money to charity, like the other supermarkets do. Even if they do, I still wouldn't be happy to pay for something I didn't get - and if I'm donating to charity, I want to be able to pick the cause myself.

[KeenCook2 Profile]

Apologies for a repeated grouse, re garlic. I can't remember on what thread I was moaning about the fact that it all seems to come from China nowadays.
I remember reading once how it is all bleached and have been avoiding it ever since.
Now I get online deliveries it's not possible to know where it's from before it arrives as it is not usually stated on the website.
I thought I'd give the organic a try as it claimed it was in line with EU standards etc.

BUT

I did some googling and came up with this article:
https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/lif ... d=61336739

Sure enough, the Asda organic garlic I've just received is from China.

That's it, I'm never ordering it online again. Oh for a French garlic seller on a bicycle

I have just read this as well:
https://www.europarl.europa.eu/doceo/do ... 57_EN.html

In another article I read it is grown in sewage water.

I think I'm going to copy this post to thewellbeing thread!!!

[Earthmaiden Profile]

You'll have to start growing your own!

[KeenCook2 Profile]

Got a Sainsbury online order today instead of Asda yesterday, as there were so many things that weren't available I just cancelled it.

I thought I'd ordered 1 kg tomatoes ... but got a single tomato instead

They didn't have any Bramleys and subbed Braeburn, which I returned straight away, and they've already processed the refund. I had thought it would just be one of those online credits that you can't use until you next order, so I'm actually quite pleased! And means that I won't feel obliged to accept a sub in future.

If Asda does a sub and you accept it, they only charge you for the original item, even if the subbed one is more expensive. Sainsbury's, and Waitrose too, I think, charge you for the new item and just give you a credit for the difference in price that you can use on your next shop.

[dennispc Profile]

Our Sainsbury delivery puts fresh bread in bags, even though it's packed in cellophane and for frozen items.

[KeenCook2 Profile]

Well at least they didn't put the single tomato in its own bag, but combined it with the butternut squash

[liketocook Profile]

Tesco is the same, if you reject a sub it's straight refund and if you accept you'll only ever pay as much as the item you ordered was.
I'm laughing re the single tomato, I had the opposite a couple of years ago when I got 1kg of cooked ham instead of 100g! They did refund the cost difference though as the picker had obviously misread the order. There were a lot of ham sandwiches eaten in the LTC wider family that week.

[Pepper Pig Profile]

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... r-uk-which

[PatsyMFagan Profile]

Tesco is the same, if you reject a sub it's straight refund and if you accept you'll only ever pay as much as the item you ordered was.
I'm laughing re the single tomato, I had the opposite a couple of years ago when I got 1kg of cooked ham instead of 100g! They did refund the cost difference though as the picker had obviously misread the order. There were a lot of ham sandwiches eaten in the LTC wider family that week.

One of the reasons I went back to doing my own picking and packing and home delivery

I once asked for 5 carrots, and got 5 kg and another time I asked for a pack of carrots and got just one ... I also got the largest veg I had ever seen ... with carrots especially I always pick small ones

[aero280 Profile]

I have just received this month's Which? magazine.

There's a major article on supermarket deliveries and the quantitie os stuff that's delivered on or very near its "use by" date. Also meat that is within the date, but seems to be unfit for use. They used 12 mystery shoppers to buy the same 16 perishable items from each supermarket, and total up the hours left from delivery time to midnight on the use by date.

Ranking order of remaining hours per delivery (best to worst):

Tesco 264
Asda 252
Ocado 249
Sainsbury 230
Morrison 221
Waitrose 207

Tesco had no examples of damaged goods or "gone off" food.

Asda sent some stuff on its use by date and also some questionable mince.

Ocado had some out of date cream, damaged milk and questionable beef.

Sainsbury & Morrison were similar to Ocado/Asda.

Waitrose sent the least fresh stuff and a couple of packets of beef that was questionable even though within date.

[aero280 Profile]

I need to re-read the detail. The hours seem to be very low. If it's over the 16 items, then the average for Tesco is only 17 hours/item. Can't be right...