Online grocery delivery always early

[Cailiflowercheeeese]

This is the 4th time in a row that my food shopping delivery has arrived almost an hour before my time slot. I purposely pick a set time slot each week to work around my baby’s feed and nap so they have buggered it up and it makes me flustered and stressed yet again. I know they are supposed to wait until your time slot but last week the man was about to leave because I wasn’t home 40 minutes before my time slot, he text me asking where I was but I couldn’t respond as I was driving back from an appointment. it was lucky I arrived home in time to catch him. I emailed the supermarket a complaint who responded with “ ask them to wait “ very helpful. At the moment I can’t shop in store because I’m still recovering from a difficult birth so it’s too painful for me, but I’m getting so peed off with it. Not to mention the fact I pay extra £ for the time slot I book compared to the one they arrive for! Any one else having issues lately?

sainsburys have been fine for me. they sometimes are up to 15 minutes early but usually it's right at the start of the hour slot. I missed them once (my fault) and I rung the helpline and they got the driver to come back! brilliant service.

I wonder if someone on/near you has a regular slot booked? I had a call from the sainsburys driver the other day saying they were doing another delivery on my street, would I like my delivery now or did I want them to come back in an hour for my actual time slot.

I suspect it is their manager's attitude/approach, rather than the supermarket per se.

The drivers log in each delivery as it is done and I have been told by my (Asda) driver that they can't be more than 15 minutes early. I think all of them have similar 'rules' but if their manager doesn't pull them up on it then they are not going to worry about it themselves either.

I’ve had Sainsbury’s ring me an hour before my slot asking if they could come early as they were in the area, I said yes because I was home but it also happened when I was out I just said I’m not home but will be back for the slot time and he came during that time. If you’re not home and they text or ring just ignore it and they’ll have to come during the slot time.

Laughing at asda not being allowed to turn up early! I had a driver turn up 2 hours early then have a go at me for not being in!

I've had it several times with Tesco - but their drivers are always very polite and happy to wait if you can't have it early.

I have it all the time with Asda. They were an hour early once. I use them every week and it’s very rare they turn up in the hour they are meant to. I always mentally prepare for a 2 hour slot with them because they always show up early.

It really is awful, we pay for a time slot for a reason otherwise we’d pick the ‘all day’ option. Asda are generally awful around here with poor customer service but unfortunately we don’t have any other local supermarkets that deliver to our address other than sainsburys. I’ll give them a try and hope for the best. Once I’m back on my feet I intend to do my own shopping, I couldn’t risk it with a Christmas order!

I have a regular Ocado slot- 7-8pm for a reason- it suits me. They do phone and ask if we are OK with an early one sometimes and if I'm at home and free then no problem. We had an issue with them trying to come at 6.30pm for a while just as we sat down to eat.
Once they tried to deliver at 5pm (many moons ago) did not ring me but my 16yo was in the house and they thought it would be fine to offload all but the age restricted products and take back my bottle of gin and wine!! I came round the corner as he was ready to leave and told him to get the crates back out out of his van as yes I did want my wine and not a refund.
Also has the opposite where the poor driver rang at 8.30pm and said he would try and be with us for 11.30pm- 12 as he was stuck in standing traffic- no thanks mate I'll rearrange for another day. To be fair there had been a massive pile up on the motorway but I don't want groceries after midnight I'm up at 6 in the morning.

That's weird. Ocado always phone me if they want to deliver early and check that I'm in and happy for them to drop off early.

Leave a note on your door saying please do not deliver early. Please ring/knock after x time only.
You can usually leave a note on your profile too, so just ask them not to arrive early.
Ocado call you to ask if they can come early if they are nearby but if you say no or don't answer they come in time.

Ocado call you to ask if they can come early if they are nearby but if you say no or don't answer they come in time.

This is my experience with them too.

It must be different areas . I have Asda and they always wait outside if they're early . The only problem I had was when two chicken breasts were substituted with a pack of four yoghurts !!!! Not the driver's fault though !

I had an Ocado delivery this week (1st time).
Booked for 9.30-10.30pm.
I ignored an unknown no. call @ 5.17pm then about 10 mins later the doorbell went and the delivery guy said he was just round the corner and would I like to take the delivery now or he could come back later.
Perfectly pleasant about it.
Totally took me by surprise as it was so early (I was going out 7-9pm so it wasn't even on my radar at that point) and because ds answered the door and then called me I wasn't actually sure who/what delivery he was at first.
I was more than happy to take the delivery at that point, and wasn't given the impression that if I'd said no it wouldn't then be delivered later in the booked timeslot.

I have this with Sainsburys only and they give me attitude when i say they are early.

Tesco come early about a third of the time but always ring first to check if it is ok. One time I said no as I was about to join an important client call and they said no problem at all, and waited in the van until I was ready.

Sainsburys on the other hand once delivered an order for an event to my office 6 hours early! (Left with reception as I was in a meeting and couldn’t answer my phone). We didn’t have a freezer so all the ice melted before we even started. I was furious about that and even their customer services admitted it was a stupid and unacceptable thing to do.

I use Sainsbury's and have only had them turn up early twice and then only by about ten minutes. One guy was a bit arsey but the other was apologetic. Generally I find the serrvice good both in terms of the deliveries themselves and not too many substitutions/not batshit when they do happen.

The drivers must have a job and finished so motivated to finish early or to save petrol or mileage or something. It must be encouraged by supermarkets.

My Asda deliveries are often 20-30 minutes early. What annoys me though, is that they unload my shopping crates and bring them to my door without even knocking first to check that I'm in!
Sainsbury's often ring to check if they're going to be early.

I have heard Sainsburys are getting to be one of the best supermarkets especially with the nectar offers.

I actually work for sainsburys but I don't shop there due to living next to Tesco however I work in Argos and if Sainsburys run their deliveries like they run our Argos delivery service then drivers get penalised for being early just as much as late. It goes against them and our drivers are monitored on their performance and drops so I imagine Sainsburys drivers will be too.
Our drivers are given timed manifests that are already created on the system by postcodes , it tells them how long they have to get to each drops , and they are not even allowed to leave store til a certain time so less chance of early drops . Being early is just as bad as being really late or cancelled. There's no excuses for it really .

I would be asking for a refund every time on the delivery fee especially when it's more than the slot they have arrived in !!

If you're shopping with Sainsburys make sure you pick up a nectar card apparently deals are really good at times. You can get one from argos stores too.

Sainsbury are ALWAYS late.

God this drives me up the wall! I don't mind a delivery coming late, they generally can't help that (traffic problems, earlier customers taking longer than usual to get their shopping into the house, etc). So I would never plan to have to leave the house at the end of the delivery slot, just in case.

But coming early is so completely avoidable - if my delivery slot hasn't started yet then they need to wait! How can it possibly be acceptable to show up early, find the customer (understandably) unable to accept an early delivery, and then take all of their shopping back to the supermarket and leave the customer without their stuff?

I've been quite lucky over the years really but I did have trouble with Ocado when I had a regular 6-7pm slot for several years. The driver would show up at 5.15, bang on the door, ring the doorbell and then start making multiple calls to my mobile to try and get hold of me. I was in the house, but WFH and in an online meeting - which was very hard to concentrate on!

When it got to 6pm and I took the delivery, the driver was always pissed off. But I booked the 6pm slot for a reason, because I wasn't available before 6pm.