To be Furious with Ocado

[FedUpWithOcado]

Bear with me, this is long; but I would like to know if anyone else is having this problem as well..
I have a reserved delivery every Saturday morning.

Every Friday morning, I menu plan and then add items from the kitchen notice board of stock items that the family record, as we run out.

I then go onto Ocado. You edit the order, as the trolley shows items you're likely to want ascertained from previous shops. I edit it and then check out.

I later picked up DD from school bus, and she asked me to make something she really likes. I tried to edit the order, but the checkout box had disappeared, so abandoned it.

Last Saturday the delivery arrived and DH came upstairs (I've just had a knee operation) and says "How many boxes of Cook's matches do you think you need exactly? ". I said I hadn't ordered any. He then brought the Ocado paperwork and it wasn't what I'd ordered. It was the bog standard suggested shop; unedited.

Very long story short, shopping had to be hauled back out of cupboards, packed, and they eventually collected it at 8pm that evening. Had to rearrange our Saturday as DH had to go shopping.

They said we wouldn't be charged and then charged our bank account. On the Sunday I had done the family finances and transferred excess funds to a saving account. Ocado then took the money for the shopping THAT I HAD NOT HAD on the Monday. There were insufficient funds in the bank account to cover the cost of DH's main Xmas present; and as they weren't paid they wouldn't ship; so I had to pay £52 for express shipping and do all the bank transfers to meet the payment.

They still haven't refunded me. (Say they have, but it will take 5 days)

And then they've done the same today. Unpacking/putting away, hauling it back out again, going shopping ......

I'm furious and having dreadful pain in my knee. I didn't for a moment think to check, before DH had unpacked, as didn't think lightening would strike twice.

Spoke to a manager and he said he would collect it again but "We'll be wasting about £60 of food" Suggested it was my fault (have been using Ocado for over 6 years)

By this time I had seen red and said the very least he could do was donate this to any local supermarket that has an Ebola collection point, or a homeless shelter.It would at least bring some positive result from their ineptitude.

I am incandescent with bloody rage.
Has anyone else had problems with Ocado lately ???

[LadySybilLikesSloeGin]

Are you using the mobile app on your phone or the online site?

I use the online site and rarely have a problem with them (I'm not a happy bunny as they appear to have run out of port, again and delivered me the world's smallest chicken instead of the one I ordered. There's no way in hell this is going to make 6 meals. Other than this, it's been OK.

[FedUpWithOcado]

No, using the online site
Got mouldy mushrooms the other week (stuck together with mould).

Have no actual food again, unless we manage to live on Cointreau and Kitchen roll.

[ElfriqueTheSantaHelpingLizard]

No such problems here and I use both the app and desktop, but I never use the previous order or suggested shop items.
If there's a glitch you'd be better making a shopping list of regular items and just adding to that.
I edit my order at least once every time and check out again, look over the confirmation email that shows what you added and subtracted and it's always been fine.

[LadySybilLikesSloeGin]

have you tried moaning at them on Twitter? They seem to be far more helpful on here (I expect it's because LOTS of people can see the tweet )

[Mintyy]

If you're going to complain I'd suggest you edit your complaint down to two or three sentences. It will have more impact. Your knee operation and your slightly incompetent dh are all just waffle. Also, re. the first time - as the edit option had disappeared (?) and you abandoned it, then why you expect to receive the full suggested shop? You could have phoned them ... ?

[LadySybilLikesSloeGin]

IIRC, if you don't go through the checkout after you've edited it it doesn't save the changes. It looks to me like this has what's happened here, did you check your order email confirmation? I check my order email too, like Elfrigue, to make sure the changes have saved. They do charge your account after your order has been delivered and it can take up to 5 days to get a refund. I don't think this Ocado's fault, unlike not delivering my port! I placed my order last month for this... Grr!

[FedUpWithOcado]

I've never had a problem before either Elfrique. I've printed my download history and I clearly checked out at 9.17 am yesterday.

Off to investigate Twitter moaning Lady Sybil. Whilst I can get legless 10 times over to drown my sorrows, there's no such solace to be found in a diddy chicken...

[LadySybilLikesSloeGin]

I'd get pissed on the port... but they didn't bring it [eyeroll] (I know it's not a smiley but it should be).

Very odd. Gremlins in the system drinking all of the Port

[meditrina]

If the 'edit' function has vanished, it means you're past pthe cut off time for editing (which, as this was Friday evening for Saturday morning, sounds abiut right).

You need to check the confirmation email really carefully. I've had a couple of times when I was sure that items I'd changed my mind about and deleted turned up with the rest if the shop. And they were on the confirmation of order email/s and the final invoice you get just go before delivery. I'll never know if they were my slippery fingers, or if there was indeed a fault in deleting items when editing an order I'd checked out earlier.

I've never used the 'shopping list' function, but it sounds as if it might be a better bet than using the 'suggested items from previous shops'. I had a look at my suggested order, out of nosiness, and althiugh to it did have the stuff I buy regularly in about the right quantities, it managed to add lots of face cream and posh chocolate (each only bought once - I guess they have high profit margin?)

[FedUpWithOcado]

Mintty, the reserved/suggested shop comes up every time. I actually find this very useful as it is items I buy every shop or regularly.

I then edit it, and checkout.

If you then go into re edit it, it shows the trolley from your last checked out shop.

It did this last week. ie my trolley was £178, as opposed to the £130 reserved shop; and I ckecked out 5.30 am on Friday morning. The checkout button just wasn't on the website, when I went to revise it in the afternoon, so after spending ages looking for it, I just gave up; and never checked out again (because I couldn't). It should have just left my trolley at £178; but due to a glitch; it reverted to £136.

And I'm good at complaining. I'm just ranting here because I can.

[LadySybilLikesSloeGin]

Oh, good point meditrina. They do change the cut off times depending on what time your delivery is so it could have been just over by the time you checked out.

I don't use the 'shopping list'. I look through my favourites instead and add the basics and things I've run out of from there. It probably takes a little longer but at least I'm not unwittingly adding a lot of one item that I've needed to buy in the past in bulk.

[DoubleValiumLattePlease]

It occurs to me that it would have been much cheaper and involved considerably less stress and worry if you'd just gone to the supermarket! That £52 you wasted - not your fault I kniw - on shipping would have bought a fair bit of the weeks shopping. I hate online supermarket shopping - the biggest concern for me is that the people actually doing your shopping are either teenagers or people with vastly different standards. Not knocking teens here but I kniw that before I was responsible for feeding a family I had no idea!
We read so many of these stories of duplicate money taken, wrong items sent, mouldy or OOD food - is it really worth it?

[DoubleValiumLattePlease]

And I can spell KNOW but clearly my phone can't.

[FedUpWithOcado]

My cut off is 5.30pm and I tried to edit at 4.30pm. If I was trying to edit after cut off, it quite rightly wouldn't let me, but at the same time, it would have still sent me the £178 order.
I had the email confirmations last wk and then got a completely different order.

Got my six year Ocado customer flowers/bottle of wine a couple of months ago and have never had this problem before and have at least one, if not two orders a week as I have monthly delivery pass and live in the sticks.

[LadySybilLikesSloeGin]

It's worth it if you can't drive, Double, and taxi's are expensive. Can you imagine how hard it is to get your groceries home on the bus? I'd need to go to the supermarket two or three times a week as I can only carry so much, which I can't do as I work 60/70 hours a week. I'd also be unable to buy things like loo roll or washing powder in bulk as there would be no way to get them home.

[FedUpWithOcado]

Doublevalium; I'm immobile. I have had a knee operation and am not able to drive at the moment.
Having said that, I always have an Ocado delivery on a Saturday, as it means my DH is here and can put away the "big" weekly shop, but we're not having to go and actually shop, and eat into nicer weekend activities.

[PrincessOfChina]

I've never had a major problem and when I have had any kind of small issue I've contacted them via Twitter and they have quickly and politely resolved. I'd recommend that if you're absolutely certain your confirmations don't match what was delivered.

[FedUpWithOcado]

Princess, I have contacted them three times over last wks shop and they have done what they can to resolve it, but I'm very disappointed it's happened again.
I have a friend coming over at 12; so will check back later.
Thank you all for your help/advise so far.

[ElfriqueTheSantaHelpingLizard]

I have a monthly delivery pass too and find it better to break down the shop into two orders rather than a larger one. Agree about the quality of fruit and veg by the way, not great so am often asking for refunds, which have never been an issue.

Recently have experimented with Tesco, whose minimum delivery is £25 rather than £40 and get them to bring fresh very and essential items as you can instruct for any subs.

The delivery cost is worth it to me as petrol costs and time make supermarket shopping a real pain. Home delivery is suiting me for now and as I pay by credit card payments and refunds are dealt with well too.

I'd give customer services another call if I was so dissatisfied.

[raltheraffe]

I am with Mintyy on this one. When complaining just stick to facts. No hurt feelings, no knee operations.

I doubt you had to rearrange an entire DAY as DH had to go shopping. When I go shopping it takes an hour maximum (including driving to and from the shop) and another 15 minutes unloading the car and packing in cupboards/fridge/freezer.

If you have incurred bank charges as a result of their cock-up you are legally entitled to have them compensated.

A good tip I have from running a business (and spending more time in small claims than Judge Rinder). Go to moneyclaimonline, fill out the claim form, but do not press send, so you do not have to pay. Then take a copy of the webpage and either print it out or email them a copy. Normally scares people and gets them to cough up.

[amothersplaceisinthewrong]

Why not just stop using Ocado and use someone else.

[raltheraffe]

I would advise scaring them with the moneyclaimonline page. Tell them if they do not cough you are pressing the send button. I did this earlier in the week with a non-paying customer and within 30 minutes I had my £700 in the bank that they owed me. Works 9 times out of 10.

[LadySybilLikesSloeGin]

I wish that would work with my maintenance avoiding ex, ral

[SistersOfPercy]

When you check out and/or edit your shop you always get an email if it's been successful. What does your email say is it your suggested shop or your actual shop?