Ocado Christmas delivery slots - what a waste of time and money!

[redglobox]

Why do they offer Christmas delivery slots if they don't have the stock to fulfil them? I had to pay £8 for a slot (in the late evening). Booked one thinking it would save me from going into the shop. Finalised the order on Friday and they are so low on stock there's little choice in any category and some items are completely out of stock (puff pastry, frozen desserts...). Ended up having to go into our local Sainsbury's anyway and it couldn't have been more different: fully stocked shelves, loads of choice, interesting options.

I called Ocado about it and the guy apologised but said he wasn't allowed to refund the delivery fee or offer vouchers to cover the cost.
Happy Christmas to you too Ocado!

Are they all this crap? I don't think I've ever had it before that there's little choice and you're supposed to cheerily hand over your £8 and be glad that you got anything at all.

You must have been given my pains au chocolat @LizzieSiddal as mine were substituted with a brioche loaf

My order has just arrived without the Christmas day joint of beef and the smoked salmon

My sainsburys order is due later, had the email and only one very sensible sub. As long as the dates are ok on things like cream it’s looking good!

@DurhamDurham

We've friends who work in retail, various supermarket chains, and they said a few years back that they don't reserve items for online orders. When it comes to your order being picked it's what's there available at the time. I don't think it's changed in the last few years.

This. You don't reserve the items when you put them on your order. You are just reserving the delivery slot. They can't reserve each item because they just get them from the store.

The key to a successful Christmas delivery is to order stuff you don't mind being subbed.

OP things like puff pastry and frozen desserts could have been bought a couple of weeks ago. Never leave anything this late that you absolutely want.

I think it’s a bit different with Ocado than with your standard supermarkets. They don’t have shops so they don’t really have an excuse for not managing their stock better. They should know his many turkeys are available, which have already been ordered and so on.

In an ordinary supermarket, you are always going to be subject to what’s available to the pickers at the time they’re picking. Just like if you were shopping yourself. The supermarket can’t know for certain exactly what will be on the shelves at any given time someone might come in and pick up the last one of whatever you ordered just before the picker gets there.

I ordered from Sainsbury’s. There will be substitutions. And usually they will try to make them slightly better rather than worse. It is what it is.

I’d be less understanding if I’d ordered from the Ocado distribution warehouse.

But ocado isn't picked from the shelf, it's from a warehouse and picked by robots. In theory the stock levels should be pretty accurate, the issue is when projecting a fair few weeks ahead is that even though they may assume they'll have x amount as that what they have ordered, it might not arrive for reasons beyond their control. Its frustrating though, but no it's not picked off of the shelves like others are. I was in saindburys earlier and there were tonnes of pickers!

As pp say, Ocado is not the same as other supermarkets. Once it’s in your basket and checked out, it is very very rare to be missing. For example when I edited my Christmas order weeks in advance and tried to increase the quantity of something from 1 to 2, it said “you already have the last item available in your delivery”. So it was out of stock for new orders but had been reserved for me (and yes it did arrive)

I've been with Ocado for > 10 years and every year previously have had to dash to the shops when they let me down on key items despite ordering weeks in advance.

For the first time Ocado have delivered what I wanted ... only missing Lancashire cheese and Nairn's oatcakes. A salad was squashed, but that seems to be part of their weekly service. Everything else arrived in good condition with plenty of time before they go off.

I feel so relieved and lucky.

I don't trust having Christmas delivered, not since I saw that episode of 'The Good Life'

So for years I simply didn't have a slot at all - used freezer a lot, did big order just before the surcharge slots, got mildly annoyed because some Christmas treat foods were only in stock for after 20th (not just perishables, also things with longer life or freezeable)

Had one for the first time last year cos covid, and was pleasantly surprised.

This year's yet to happen, so fingers still crossed. I have been pissed off with Ocado several times this year, and now use Waitrose as well. It's Ocado on Christmas Eve (seriously early in the morning so there's time to go to Waitrose if there's too much missing)

I'm hoping that they did get enough stable early orders to get their stock levels right. It wouid kill their business model of higher prices the nearer to the big day if that meant more missing or subs

Well I was offered free Christmas delivery months ago but have still been charged £10 for delivery today!
Quite a few things out of stock, placed my rough final order about 3 weeks ago, have just added a few random herbs and spices,
Cleaning stuff etc over the last few days (nothing I can’t get in the corner shop but just for ease thought I’d bung it on the delivery).
Loads of stuff is missing in my order coming today, smoked salmon and bagels - these are on my weekly items, quite surprised these are out of stock!
No binbags, no bone marrow, lemonade, pate, cheeses, all sorts not being delivered to me this morning.
I’ve said it before, since they merged with the, frankly substandard to being with, M&S, they’ve gone downhill.
However I will say that they always come on time, I’ve maybe only once in ten years had a delivery that was going to be late and I got a phone call and a £10 voucher for the inconvenience.

I prefer Waitrose food to M&S and heartily wish that Ocado had never parted ways with Waitrose

@AuntieStella

I prefer Waitrose food to M&S and heartily wish that Ocado had never parted ways with Waitrose

I agree We cook from scratch and M&S cater more for the ready meal type customer (or cook chill)

We swapped to Morrison’s and our local farm schop (which we always used)

@FazedNotPhased

I finalised my order about six weeks ago. It turned up today with no Christmas pudding, canapes subbed with some cheap freezer crap, no mince pies, no mulled wine sachets etc etc etc. So irritating. I'll have to go to the shop and pick up all the many bits they left out, so why did I pay a tenner delivery?!

Christmas pudding isn't a perishable item - why are you buying it a few days before Christmas?

I got my Ocado Xmas delivery today, only thing missing was tinned peaches and a sub for stir fry veg. Smoked salmon, Christmas pie, mulled wine, tons of chocolate all here present and correct 👍🏻 Feel quite lucky now!

So my delivery was today not tomorrow

3 subs all sensible, no missing items. All subs are things I added in the last 2 weeks.

My Sainsbury’s substitutions are fairly ridiculous. Apparently we are having raspberry sauce with the turkey. And mince pie brownies with our cheese. 🤣

Tesco delivery last night all present and correct except for red lentils! They are a standard store cupboard item for me, I have enough to tide my veggie tummy over.

I booked my Ocado xmas slot whenever they opened - early October I think (pass holder for a long time, they sent me a voucher for free xmas delivery). It arrived today, on time, two things missing (slightly annoying but they weren't vital) and four substitutions which were all okay. I've had Christmas slots with them for about 20 years and they have always been pretty good.

I’m loyal to Ocado and have been with them for over 15 years. But I cancelled my Christmas delivery when I managed to snag a Waitrose one for tomorrow.

There was so much out of stock. Christmas Day is with 2 vegans and 2 vegetarians so the food we wanted was not easily replaceable. Most of the Plant Kitchen stuff was out of stock yet when I popped into M&S on Monday the shelves were full.

Oh and I had a couple of frozen Christmas Plant Kitchen things in my order last week and all of them were missing.

I booked my Xmas slot early but then decided it wasn't worth a £10 delivery fee. Then they sent me a free delivery voucher so I booked a Xmas eve slot again. Hopefully all will be there. Meats are ordered separately from the butcher so anything I need I can nip out and get

Was pleasantly surprised by the free bottle of light up gin as a happy Christmas as well

Mine is arriving this evening, no subs and no missing items. Hooray!

Mine came yesterday and Ocado weren’t able to offer me any potatoes 🙄. Thankfully Waitrose had tonnes of them - so many in fact that they were on offer at 45p for 2.5kg!

My Tesco shop is similar. I went on to make some last minute amendments to a shop I booked about a month ago and I’d say there was at least 20 items unavailable. Items I know for a fact are in stock in store so we’ll just have to pop to the shop for that stuff plus whatever else they don’t bring when it’s delivered. The delivery was £7, it’s usually £2.

@Mittenmob

Ocado have seriously gone down hill since the m&s changeover. They rode high on their popularity during lockdown and then put up delivery charges and can't actually fulfill most of the orders. We've ordered with them regularly and most deliveries have been 1-2 hours delayed and lots out of stock. I'm cancelling my pass and moving to Tesco.

Having used them for nearly ten years, I’ve sadly noticed this too. Was so much better when partnered with Waitrose.

I did have a Christmas slot booked but cancelled it because I just can’t trust them to deliver what I’ve ordered.

I went to the supermarket instead tonight and it was surprisingly not too busy.

@Yogaandcocoa

I think that’s a bit unfair. The reason you can’t is because you didn’t réserve your slot when they became available

It’s been like that for years

I think mine was booked in October for pre Xmas