to turn supermarket delivery away when they ring on my door bell two hours early?

I was going to say the same, @PyongyangKipperbang - I think a Ring doorbell would be a godsend for @BasilParsley.

That attitude is fine, until you want the delivery company to show you some flexibility. Maybe something comes up and you need a delivery to be pushed back, or have a broken arm and want the driver to help you in with something, or leave your delivery with your son/daughter who is 17 and not able to accept alcohol? These circumstances for OP meant that accepting the delivery earlier than planned messed up her routine that is crucial to her wellbeing, but hopefully people that are awkward for the sake of a momentary minor inconvenience are on receiving end of a lifetime of jobsworth-ery and are held strictly to T&Cs.

Do you not understand my post? I was wondering why just getting out of the bath dripping wet or having a disability stopped her from just not answering the door.
They are good reasons to not answer the door to the delivery driver. So why answer? Or why not ask him to leave and come back when she was ready. I get why having a disability means she wants her shopping delivered at a certain time - that’s not unreasonable at all. I also get why the driver tried to deliver it early - also not unreasonable. But I don’t get why she didn’t either ignore the door or tell him to go away and come back later?!

I think it doesn't matter what the reason is. We should still expect the standard of service and arrangements that the company sets out.

Try living with a disability. Until then you don’t know what hard work is.

Your home, so your choice to answer or not answer the door. Also your choice to accept or decline the delivery in this particular instance. I guess depending on how you are feeling and what suits you, your answer to this dilemma might be different on different days. However, it is all your choice - there should be no feeling of obligation here. You are paying for a specific service and if that is what you want to stick to, then that is absolutely fine.

Completely missing the point that this is a shared doorway and meant that OP would have to deal with the bags before she was physically ready - which is why she booked a later delivery slot.

Possibly we’re a bit more ‘precious’ when we have a severe disability which means we’re not at our best mobility wise earlier in the day, which is why we order for later in the day. Did you miss that bit, or are you just blithely agreeing with a poster who is displaying breathtaking ignorance by comparing herself, chasing escaped sheep around, to someone disabled and clearly with mobility issues.

Exactly. Every simple thing, like climbing stairs to making a cup of tea requires huge effort. It’s draining and it’s constant. Something simple can cause a set back which can last for days.

Yeah. This..

We have just had an Asda driver try to deliver 2 hours early. We were out so he rang my mobile and was cross that I wasn't there.

I disagree that the OP should complain. He asked if he could deliver early as he happened to be outside and she said yes. Nothing unreasonable in that.

OP I do think you should contact them and ask for a note on file that you are unable to accept early deliveries as this is likely to happen again if you have observed that the care home often have a delivery on the same day as you. But please stop worrying about it for now and don't be distressed.

Tell them they need to phone first. I'm also disabled OP so I use a foldable crate. Much easier to get in to the kitchen. Obviously it depends on your hall / front door set up.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rolling-Crate/s?k=Rolling+Crate

and that she was struggling because of her disability

Missed this bit. Ocado do take disability issues seriously (as they should) so do stress that this is a disability-related complaint OP. This was part of ours also.

I wouldn't worry about wearing the dressing robe. I answered the door post EMCS with a PICO machine on me, a tiny baby in my arms and possibly a boob hanging out. They see it all.

They do, it's true, and it's good advice. But it's still up to her what state of undress etc. she wants to personally share with the world, and I don't think she wants to be woken up early by an annoying delivery driver who isn't doing his job properly either. OP you have right on your side, make a formal complaint as well as doing the annotations.

Ocado kept delivering our stuff up to an hour early and it drove me insane.

The annoying fucker would unload all the bags onto the doorstep before he rang the bell so I didn't even really have the option to ask him to come back later.

These are both things we have complained to Ocado about successfully (took a few goes round which it shouldn't have but they were eventually very apologetic). It shouldn't require it but complain complain complain and put NO EARLY DELIVERIES & DO NOT UNLOAD VAN UNTIL WE ANSWER in the delivery instructions too (and if they don't read them...).

They're not supposed to pre-unload either, especially if it's raining. Your driver's gone rogue.

You could also try putting a big sign on the door the night before "Ocado driver, DO NOT deliver early and DO NOT unload van before I answer" if they don't take notice of that, well, it's another complaint - they do seem to take complaints more seriously than another supermarket we've stopped using. Eventually.

He didn't phone because he was across the road so said he'd knock, like people used to. You answered. If you were unable to answer you wouldn't have answered. I have ignored people knocking at my door if I'm not expecting someone and it's not a good time. If you didn't want it then you could have said no to him after you answered.

You can put a note to say early deliveries will not be accepted. But I do think in this case he was trying to save himself time and diesel since he was by your house already.

I've had a few both early and late deliveries - have had a call though, but I live on a farm so if they are at the neighbours they are prob still over a mile away, not as easy to just check and see if I am in

I wouldn't worry about wearing the dressing robe. I answered the door post EMCS with a PICO machine on me, a tiny baby in my arms and possibly a boob hanging out. They see it all.

I'm guessing you don't have the same disabilities as OP though...

Yes we do - declining delivery from someone standing on your door step is more difficult if you are anxious than if they call ahead (which is what they are supposed to do).

He turned up in person precisely because it makes it more difficult to decline than on the phone - it was in fact not ‘sensible’ but a passive aggressive move, especially when her delivery details would have indicated it was a woman he was delivering to, likely alone/single. It was a breach of the rules and distressed a vulnerable woman.

He didn’t do it to make her day easier, he did it to save himself driving to another delivery or two and then driving back again - ie so that his working day would finish sooner. She booked a specific slot, the company accepted it. He was out of order.

Well yes actually, I do.

If I order groceries from Tesco to be delivered between 10-12,I'd be beyond bemused if they turned up at 8am without even a courtesy call in advance to ask if that was ok.

Most people book a slot for a particular reason and putting shopping away usually takes me about 10-15 minutes, so I schedule it for a time with no meetings or dog not due a walk.

Anything up to say 30 minutes early I would view as a minor change, but more than that is a whole different time slot.

I'd also like to point out that if you're paying for each delivery rather than having a monthly saver thing, it costs more to get a specific slot than it would opting for either morning, afternoon or evening, therefore OP is not getting the service she is paying for.

That was my favourite part of this thread ❤️

No, but if he knew OP was disabled he shouldn’t have insisted that she get the bags so he could leave it in the porch as it meant she had to deal with it before she was ready. OP would be well advised to make sure there’s a note on her account that she/s disabled and they need to stick to agreed times.

Generally speaking, I try to be as accommodating as I can be with stuff like this. If a small inconvenience to me means that a delivery driver can sneak in a coffee or finish early then that will give me some satisfaction. We're all cookies in the cookie jar, and if I can make someone's life a bit easier with minimal effort I will, and maybe naively hope karma will return the favour.

But your circumstances OP mean that it isn't just a small inconvenience. Your disability means that you follow a specific routine that you know will get the best out of yourself, so I don't think you'd be unreasonable to refuse this in the future.

You're not being difficult for the sake of it or because you don't want to interrupt your morning coffee, which would still be your right given you've booked a slot, although I don't subscribe to this attitude.

If it happens again, politely decline explaining your reasons. I'm sure it won't be a problem.

I have a note on the delivery instructions saying do not attempt to deliver before 8am, after my 9-10am delivery came at 5:30am once.

If you don’t want to take the shopping, and don’t want to say no to the driver, you could always amend your time slot to an afternoon delivery…