Appalling customer service from Sainsburys

[Frankie2008]

New poster and I need to vent...

Placed an online order with Sainsburys due for delivery this morning between 9-10am. Received usual email confirmation re missing items at 7am. Then received at text at 08.12am to say delivery had been cancelled and to all them.

Called them immediately and after usual long hold, I was advised the following:

• My account had been blocked by them.

• No, they WOULD NOT give me the reason why.

• I could appeal the blocking decision.

• They would review my appeal and respond within 72 hours.

• Yes, they had taken my money and would process a refund within 3-5 working days.

I tried getting a response via Facebook, but after providing all details they requested, I was told they could no longer respond to me via social media and to call a different number.

I called and was told exactly the same thing.

So, I have no shopping, they have over £300 of my money and I can't afford to replace the shopping.

Has anyone else experienced this?

I feel so angry that they can do this and I will now have to borrow money to buy shopping.

Here is my response to the CEO's office:
---------------------
Thank you for your response.

Even in a Court of Law, a person is advised of what they have been charged with before trial. Obviously not the case with Sainsbury's.

There was absolutely nothing in my shopping which should give cause for the delivery being cancelled.

The fact that I received a confirmation email listing unavailable items and confirming delivery between 9-10am leads me to believe that my items had already been loaded on the van. The fact that a Sainsburys delivery van was at my house at 09.30am, went to unload and then re-loaded and drove off, confirms this belief. So, the decision to cancel my order was taken sometime between 7am and 08.12am when I received a text. This is unacceptable.

The items were for myself and my friend as we often order for one another. I have previously ordered similar items with no issue.

I have absolutely no wish for my account to be re-opened and have already cancelled it, as has my friend. Having been a customer of Sainsbury's for many years, I am disgusted with this level of 'customer service'.

ABCDay

What list did you find?

I think they suspect you of buying to resell.
Some corner shop owners do it a lot, but personally I can't see the problem, as Sainsbury get the sale at the price they wanted no matter what happens to the goods afterwards.

@Frankie2008

ABCDay

What list did you find?

I was trying to be funny - in the old days there used to be great excitement if someone found a shopping list left in a trolley at the supermarket and they shared it on MN. Showing my MN age!

FWIW I think it's a piece of nonsense that you aren't being told what your 'crime' is, especially as you're not doing anything that you haven't done before

@Frankie2008

This has happened to me twice - first time I ordered a nutribullet - no explanation for the cancellation/account blocking, I complained and they reactivated the account but without any genuine explanation and I was furious so didn't order again (I usually get my groceries via Ocado anyway).

Then just over a year later I ordered some wine and groceries - I'd forgotten what happened before. Order accepted then the same thing happened on the day of delivery. Cancelled and account blocked. Again no explanation so I called customer services and let rip about it happening for the second time. No evidence of fraud, my credit card has a £26k limit and has never otherwise been rejected. Again no explanation but they reactivated my account again.

I won't shop online with them again. It's a shambles.

ABCDay - humble apologies. I think my sensitivity to Sainsburys branding me a criminal is affecting my mind!

Choccyp1g - this rang a bell with me as I had a friend who owned a newsagent and she regularly bought stuff at supermarkets and then resold in her shop. Naughty, but at the time I didn't really think anything about it.

I've always bought cigarettes in bulk at supermarkets, never corner shops. I assumed they would be the same price.. I will test this theory tomorrow and just buy 20 at corner shop.

Even if this is the case, I think their actions are awful. Why not contact me and advise that they are restricting the amount I buy. I understand why they wouldn't want to accuse me outright.

At least then I know why and can make a decision whether to continue to give them my custom.

JW13 - unbelievable! I'm obviously more naughty than you as they WILL NOT reactivate my account!

I wish we had Ocado delivering here.........

I used to be a loyal Sainsburys customer but starting from the attitude I encountered when they went bag free (very rigid, totally couldn't care less about disabled customers) and even more so right from the beginning of lockdown (slots disappeared, basic items unavailable and website and app not properly kept up to date, stopped reading emails, impossible to get through on phone) they've been absolutely shite!

I've been absolutely appalled about their poor attitude to customers this year.

Much quicker to go yourself.

not all of us can! I'm housebound currently (a fact Sainsburys couldn't give a shit about and made very clear in my communications with them - why didn't they? Because it's mainly due to MENTAL illness rather than physical 'so you could go and get shopping if you absolutely had to?' Shitty attitude! and so I'm reliant on deliveries.

Even if I wasn't housebound I also have a physical disability and couldn't manage to get a weeks shop in one go and carry it all home and up to my flat, in theory I could shop more frequently but that's generally more expensive for a number of reasons - the irony is if I did shop in person it wouldn't be with Sainsburys as there isn't one near me!

Bloody cheeky of them to still take the money! I really don't understand why rectifying takes so long! They're quick enough to take your money!?

I'd say it depends what kind of card you've used as there are processes for getting refunds if retailer being tricky but I suspect they would take same amount of time if not longer.

Plus I'm guessing they've pretty much shot themselves in the foot with you op as they did with me as you're unlikely to use them again?

I will never use Sainsburys again

I also tried sm with them and they would ask me to dm with info to look into things....then never got back to me!

Whatever the reason the least they could do is call op to explain/discuss.

Not knowing is definitely the most frustrating element.

Do you know which store it comes from op? Sometimes you'll have more luck contacting the store directly.

To cap it all, I mentioned to my neighbour what had happened and she said that a Sainsbury's van had pulled up outside my house around 9.30am! Delivery guy was taking crates out, then put them back in and drove off!

That's really odd! So they didn’t even inform their own driver properly? Bet he wasn’t happy about that!

Final straw for me was driver getting to mine with delivery then refusing to deliver because I’m in a flat and because he had a shielding relative at home he thought it wasn’t safe re covid! FWIW NOT a busy block of flats and plenty of space in the stairwells plus easy for me to maintain social distancing as I always do. I understand and sympathise with his situation BUT it’s utterly ridiculous to have drivers who won’t deliver to flats! He should have been redirected to another role in the meantime!

Please do update when you finally know what the hell they're playing at!

So what if she resells them?!?! not that I think this is what op planned, but it is illegal to resell tobacco products, there’s LOADS of regulation/legislation on selling tobacco products.

It’s probably because you were badmouthing them on social media what a ridiculous comment!

Firstly I’m sure op wasn’t being negative UNTIL the issue arose, secondly if they barred every customer that did this they’d have very few customers!

@MahMahMahMahCorona your experience doesn’t surprise me at all given my own, their attitude to sick/disabled customers/customers with sick/disabled family is rotten!

Very frustrating but Sainsbury's can't speed this up unfortunately. surely they could have NOT taken ops money in the first place if there’s a problem with the order she’s placed?!

Sainsbury’s replied to your FB complaint in seconds. Apologised and Asking for your details to look on to this. Have you responded? if it’s the post I think then that’s likely an automated response thing they’ve set up, I’m sure op did respond and still hasn’t had an actual response. I have experienced the same with them.

There are posts by other customers saying they’ve had similar issues and are awaiting refunds some time later!

That response is atrocious! Basically “you’re barred and no we’re not giving a reason” that’s shit!!

Even IF it’s because of the items bulk ordered then they could surely simply restrict sales as many supermarkets did before?!

Maybe they suspected you were buying for multiple people? They probably have something against that in their T&Cs.

Doubtful! Many people have been doing this since lockdown caused slots to be difficult to get plus others have always done so for several reasons as pps have already suggested.

I think the reason they were so rude in their response and not give you a reason is because they don't actually have a clue why and rather than say they fucked up and don't have a clue, they dismissed you abruptly so you don't contact them again. I think that’s a real possibility!

There are a few govt agencies you could take the matter up with if you wanted to op.

Absolutely outrageous and disgusting behaviour by and responses from them!

Gosh I'm shocked at the rudeness of that reply from the CEO

I wonder what on earth the problem was? For them to be that rude they must have convinced themselves you've done something they really really don't like, as clearly you'll never shop there again!

@Graphista your experience doesn’t surprise me at all given my own, their attitude to sick/disabled customers/customers with sick/disabled family is rotten!

It's awful isn't it? I remember saying to the person I spoke with on the phone "you say you're feeding the country but essentially you're feeding those with delivery passes and ignoring the most vulnerable". She even suggested I take the DC and leave them in the car whilst I went into the shop. 😐

I wrote this to my MP after he got in touch with Catherine Flood of the Sainsbury's Public Affairs team who sent across some vague response about what other methods I could use to get food, and after she questioned whether my children were actually in the shielded category 🤦🏼‍♂️🤦🏼‍♂️🤦🏼‍♂️:

"What matters, however, is not the medical diagnoses of my children. What matters is the single parents who are shielding medically vulnerable children, who are told - by Sainsbury’s - that the “other” parent can go shopping, and that because the children are not the account holders, they will not be receiving priority delivery slots...

I know this is hard, unprecedented, a huge challenge to all involved. But by simply presuming that there is someone else at home and available to do the shopping, by preventing deliveries to swathes of single parents who are not ill themselves, but home, in isolation, shielding extremely vulnerable children who undoubtedly have more / special / further needs than the norm, is a really naive stance to take by a supermarket. Particularly when they blame you, the government, for making this particular “guideline”. I know there are many many volunteers out there who are risking their health to go shopping for those most in need. It is incredible how our country pulls together in crisis. But sometimes it’s hard to accept the help particularly when it is (necessarily) prolonged. We are proud, independent people too."

I didn't get a response to that email.

No need to apologise, Frankie2008!

MahMahMahMahCorona love your username

Shockingly arrogant and to my mind poor business sense to not only happily lose around £15k a year the op was spending with them but also losses from ops public (and deserved!) discussion and the poor publicity that generates, plus as I said there seem to be others on sm similarly affected/treated

@MahMahMahMahCorona - also on sm a shocking number of customers reporting things like not being able to use disabled entrances, not having invisible disabilities accepted/acknowledged etc their treatment of sick/disabled is utterly disgusting!

I’ve also spoken with my Mp and the EHRC on their attitude, which reminds me I’ve not heard back from them in a while. I got the impression from ehrc that I was hardly the only complainant!

@Frankie2008

I hate the Daily Fail for their lazy journalism and lifting threads of Mumsnet, but I am sorely tempted.

All the papers lift from MN,

I don't think it's the amount of cigarettes that are a problem.

I work in very small local supermarket and regularly have customers who buy 6,7, 8 packs of cigarettes in one go. I have never been told to limit the number bought by one person at one time. So I don't think the really big supermarkets would have a restriction.

Did you find out the reason @Frankie2008?

Shedpaint

No, and I've given up trying. It was fairly obvious from the arrogant email from the CEO's office that they suspect me of something, but will not tell me what. FGS, I'm a lady of mature years and never even had as much as a speeding ticket!

I can speculate why until the cows come home. It's infuriating, but I'm no longer going to waste my time on it.

I have been a customer of Sainsbury's for many years, but no longer after this treatment.

I've also cancelled my Sainsbury's credit card.

Fwiw Frankie2008 you haven't done anything wrong by trying to order what you did. I don't blame you for boycotting them. Theyre lack of explanation says computer glitch to me. There loss.

I wonder if a Subject Access Request might reveal more.?

@Devlesko

I've never done online shopping as I hear so many complaints, I'm so glad now. Much quicker to go yourself.

Much quicker to go yourself? 🤣🤣🤣 On what planet? I can do a full weekly online shop for a family of 4 in under 10 mins online! As if you could do that in a physical store (let alone get there and back).

Sorry this has rumbled on for your OP.

I second a PP who suggested a subject access request, if you’re that interested in finding out more.

I just read the whole thread and was about to suggest a subject access request under GDPR but then see that a couple of other posters have already!

Thanks for the suggestions on the subject access request under GDPR.

I've just had a read-up on it, and, to be honest, I expect Sainsbury's would just provide personal data etc, and not details of how/why their decision to block me was reached. That's after they advise that the process will take longer because of COVID.

It's galling, but I'm letting it go. There are more important things in life and my blood pressure needs to return to normal!

Thanks for all the support and giving me the opportunity to vent.

Hello OP,

Yes I have experienced similar both in August and September this year. Fucked me off no end and took bloody ages to sort.

Are you in SW London by any chance?

It's a shame they won't be held to account properly in this instance but I don't blame you so frustrating for you.

Content yourself as I have with telling others of your experiences and hopefully losing them more custom!

Very shoddy of them.

I have been a customer of Sainsbury's for many years, but no longer after this treatment.

Same, @Frankie2008 - it won't make a blind bit of difference to them in the grand scheme of things but I will never shop at Sainsbury's again.