Inappropriate Tesco substitute! WIBU to complain?

you could buy 0% 'alcohol' for lots of reasons.

Indeed - all of them because you want 0% alcohol; and for most people who actively choose 0% alcohol, alcohol would not be in any way acceptable.

Offering fillet steak instead of rump steak is a perfectly reasonable substitution; offering booze to somebody who has specifically ordered a no-booze option is ridiculously incompetent.

I would make them aware, I feel like it’s an inappropriate sub also. And for some products there’s a good reason you choose what you do. If they sub plum toms for toms it’s a tomato. I order dairy free philly for my severely allergic daughter. They send normal when they could sub for violife or own brand vegan cream cheese. Surely that would make more sense!

I don't think it is reasonable to substitute non-alcoholic products for ones containing alcohol, though. There are all kinds of medical and cultural reasons why someone would choose a non-alcoholic version.

They were in the wrong. Congratulations by the way, 2 and a half years is fantastic. Keep choosing life x

They can, but they also have a target to reach .. it’s very strict and often leaves no time for decisions and browsing.

I think it's a fair complaint. Firstly because of the reasons you state, which are serious but also surely some common sense should be applied. As an example, someone doesn't want normal bread instead of gluten free, as you'd assume they're ordering gluten free for a reason. Well done on your sobriety.

You are NOT being unreasonable OP, and well done for resisting - someone else in the same position may have fallen off the wagon, so I think they need to be told.

its not an appropriate substitute at all. I maybe wouldn't "complain" but would certainly point out that replacing something non alcoholic with alcohol isn't appropriate and also that supplying alcohol before 10am is breaking licensing laws.

it's likely someone just hasn't thought through what they are doing, but it does need looked at

well done on your sobriety

When I was a picker we had parameters on the scanner, doesnt seem like it'd be wild to build it in.

Id definitely feed it back to them, most people would presume leaving subs on would mean a sub for another non alcoholic drink surely? Congratulations by the way for sending it back, thats no small feat.

How? The pickers are working to a schedule. Mind, I don't know how they picked an alcoholic drink or why, since usually the 0% are all together. Maybe they need a policy not to substitute non-alcoholic drinks for alcoholic ones but it's a bit itsy because 0% alcohol e.g. gin is not usually a go-to for recovering alcoholics, more likely to be someone on a diet, so the assumption of the picker, who probably just picked the nearest likely bottle being on a schedule, was that the person ordering was ok with alcohol, since they obv. like the taste of alcohol (e.g. 0% Gordon's gin tastes the same).

I think the opposite.

I don't think substituting alcohol when someone has ordered something non-alcoholic is reasonable at all. To me, that's the opposite of using common sense.

Agree. Or worse doesn’t spot that it’s a substitution.

OP congratulations on your milestone!

A delivery man once told me that although a computer will tell the picker what to substitute something with, the picker can over ride it to select a different item. The drivers at his depot have a weekly competition to see what the silliest substitution is!

Tescoes don't know you are a recovering alcoholic - you could buy 0% 'alcohol' for lots of reasons. And the pickers work to a tight schedule and are (afaik) paid by how many orders they fill. If you say an item can be substituted they will pick up the nearest similar item, not hunt the shelves for an exact facsimile. I got fillet steak for rump steak once (kept it) and lemon wipes for lemon juice on another occasion (also kept it - quite useful). Say 'no substitutes' if it's going to be a problem. You've no reason to complain, IMO, because Tescoes did what you asked.

They've not breached licensing laws for two reasons. One, you didn't order alcohol to be ordered early, and two, your refusal of the alcohol means they didn't deliver alcohol early.

'Not breaching licensing laws' is a low baseline for responsible behaviour though. They could impose a 'don't substitute alcohol for alcohol-free' policy.

Can’t believe anyone voted YABU, of course you should complain, it absolutely shouldn’t have happened.
This is something that needs fixing in their systems.

I would let them know. I don't think it's a reasonable substitution - a different alcohol free option would have been appropriate. It's reasonable to assume that had a customer wanted something with alcohol in it, they would have ordered it. While it's up to the customer to accept or refuse a substitution, it's a pain in the arse if it's something completely unreasonable, as this is. I ordered a vegan pie for DD when she was home and they replaced it with a steak pie. Pickers should apply some common sense.

I think it’s the opposite of ‘in principle’. Meat instead of vegan, gluten instead of gluten free, alcohol instead on non-alcohol etc is surely the opposites.

I don't know about the 10am rule thing but it's bloomin obvious that you don't sub a non alcoholic product with an alcoholic one.

Being a recovering alcoholic isn't even relevant, it's common sense

Not unreasonable in any way. You shouldn't even attempt to deliver alcohol to a home unless it has been specifically ordered by an adult.

Alcohol is potentially a contentious product and lots of people don't drink it, or even want it in their homes, for very good reasons - health, ethical, religious, or other personal circumstances.

It was probably a mistake rather than a deliberate sabotage; but it is a very bad and concerning mistake, and one that betrays an urgent need for training and/or lack of care on the part of the picker.

Surely the point of substitutions is that e.g. you order Heinz beans and they offer you Tesco beans; or you order whole milk and they offer you semi-skimmed; or you order sprouts and they offer you a cabbage. Reasonable alternative choices that a lot of people might well make if they were in the shop themselves.

Alcohol-free adult-targeted drinks are a very different category of product from standard alcoholic ones. In principle, they have far more in common with lemonade or Appletise than with normal wine or beer. Just like Glamorgan sausages are very different from pork sausages. If somebody ordered a product from their Free-from range, would they not stop to wonder why that clear choice may have been made and just send regular cake or bread anyway?

Just wanted to say that pickers can override the suggested substitution if it’s something weird that the system throws up. They should be trained on acceptable swaps and to also use their common sense.

It’s not the staff who choose the substitute .. they get a list on their handheld computer device and they have to substitute with an item that is listed. The computer algorithm needs changing, as a pp mentioned.

Yeah, makes sense it's not the pickers who chooses, that would cause more chaos, not less.
However, it just means that instead of staff training, the desirable outcome is the system being configured to not replace non-alcoholic with alcoholic.

I would email and let them know. However I’m not sure what will change, as the ‘picker’ is given a list of substitutions to choose from when an item is out of stock. It’s on their handheld computer system.