Tesco home delivery - is the business in trouble?

[middleeasternpromise]

Anyone know if something serious is going on with Tesco ? I have had a number of deliveries just not turn up in recent weeks. Tesco have removed their complaints email so there is no way to escalate a problem and get an informed response to concerns. There is a whatsapp bot but they use scripts so I am not actually getting information. Last time I got through on the helpline they said they would raise a complaint on my behalf and I hever heard anything back. Very different to how they used to manage problems.

Ocado still do

They only bring in the shopping if you book an assisted delivery and never use carrier bags. I refuse to use Ocado because of the bags.

Ocado spend their money to recycle their bags. Other companies don’t

I’ve recently started Tesco deliveries again and they’ve been great. Such friendly and kind delivery drivers in my area.

One of the items delivered a few days ago was leaking and the delivery man gave me a refund but let me keep the product. He also told me to get in touch with complaints if I had any further issues. I got the refund within two days.

I don’t think so. I don’t really ever have delivery issues. I have at least one delivery a week, sometimes 2.

One problem recently was they couldn’t get to me in the snow a few weeks ago. I rang and reported the non-delivery, that was about 2pm. They sent my delivery back out (store is an hour away) to be delivered at 10pm in the snow. The poor driver. 🙈 I didn’t think she was going to get back up my very steep drive and I was going to have to shove her in the spare room for the night. 😬

I’ve always found the customer service number to be very responsive, easy to get through, and they just put me on hold while they ring to speak to the driver.

You can WhatsApp Tesco to complain

Besides the point I know, but all my courgettes and fruit have been bruised and soft, and only had a couple of days on them (cooking wise, not date wise) for my last few orders.
I don't want to send them back as I can't get to a shop to buy more and I can trim around the veg to save waste but it's getting worse. I had strawberries that were nearly on the side of mouldy last time.
I can't go to the shop/ greengrocers myself, so I normally buy fresh stuff once a week.

We phone them with any issues they are excellent at sorting things

The guy who delivered my Tesco shop the other week said he wasn't even supposed to be doing the delivery - I was half listening to his explanation. Either he was still supposed to be training and because of absences they put him on alone or that due to absences of staff he was quickly trained and sent out alone. He did say that Tesco were penny pinching and only having the exact number of drivers and no one to replace them if they were off ill. I asked what happened to orders and he said they try to deliver the next day and if not, cancel.

I had this almost exactly the same. Updates, then nothing. Eventually the following day something about the driver needing to return to base as he was over his hours. We’d been on holiday and I’d booked a delivery late so that we’d definitely be home in case of any delays . Wasn't delighted to have to go out the following morning. Nor with the 5 days it took to refund my £186.

Not a delivery issue but we recently tried to buy a toy from tesco and they refused to sell it as the barcode wasn’t working. It was handled badly, the staff were very rude and they left the product on the shelf despite knowing the issue so I used the (painful) complaints procedure.

The person I spoke to literally said they weren’t surprised and had been having this issue constantly with toys for several months and hadn’t resolved it. You’d think a company like tesco would have the resources to fix a simple issue like this? I’ve worked at several small businesses that have managed to fix such issues quickly.

I love that ocado still use bags, they charge you for them then reimburse you the next time when you return them and they recycle them. Makes it much easier than trying to empty the plastic baskets as quickly as possible on the doorstep which makes my back hurt. The drivers are always lovely and polite and will put the bags anywhere you want them to.

Absolutely no issues at all here. It's rare to have substitutions or things out of stock. The drivers are great and really helpful, customer service if you need to call or use WhatsApp is good. Been having home delivery from them for 5 years now.

Do ocado deliver in plastic bags? I thought supermarkets had moved away from that

No problems here with tesco delivery.

I’m sure it would be national news if Tesco were in trouble

Yes, I'm surprised Ocado still use single use plastic bags.

I used the free phone number last time I needed to contact them, saved so much time.I know you tried that OP but I would ring back and chase it up

I was doing a survey about Tesco deliveries recently and I think they might be changing or even dropping their price match refunds deal soon. I was very negative about their proposals and I hope others doing the survey were too.

For the second time in two weeks we didn’t recieve our delivery on Friday night (9:00-10:00pm delivery slot). I got in touch again on WhatsApp. One agent told me the van left the store late and the driver ran out of time. Another agent told me that the driver ran out of legal driving hours. Anyway, rearranged for Saturday night (9:00-10:00pm again as that’s the earliest slot they had). I received a message before the delivery slot that there was technical issues at the store and my delivery was running late. It did come bang on 10:00pm but I’ve had to complain about a couple of items due to a use by date being the next day on an item they state has a 3+ day shelf life. And another item with a best before date of the next day when they state the shelf life to be 5+ days. Neither of these items were highlighted as having a short date on the receipt.

Anyway, we got a £10 goodwill voucher due to all of the inconveniences. I didn’t ask for it but I was going to ask for my delivery saver payment to be refunded for this month seeing as we’ve had two cancelled orders. They offered me the £10 before I had chance to ask though.

Does anyone know what happens to shopping in cancelled orders? Would my shopping have been put back on the shelves or stay in the crates for the rescheduled delivery the next day? I had to checkout again for the rescheduled delivery but some items had suddenly become unavailable. Surely if they’re still in the crates I should have been able to have them? And multiples I ordered reset themselves to 1 - I ordered three bananas and five onions but on the rescheduled order there was just one of each.

I’m not sure if it’s just my local store that’s having issues recently or if there really is a bigger problem nationwide. We’ve been getting deliveries for 15-20 years now and apart from minor problems in the past they’ve never been as bad as they have been the last couple of weeks. I’m giving them one more chance before changing to another supermarket.

It's the biggest private employer in the UK so I certainly hope not. And can't see how it could be in trouble as a business?

Sounds super annoying for you though!

I've not had any issues recently and get it weekly. It must be a driver shortage or an equipment/staffing/IT issue relating to your store? They send it from the nearest large shop, rather than a centralised warehouse.

At one point about a year ago I struggled to book timely deliveries. Like the nearest would be two weeks away, but that seemed to rectify itself so I switched back to them.

Also Morrisons does (at least ours does, but it comes from a warehouse, not a store).

A quick google indicates that Tesco have 4 dark stores (delivery only fulfillment centers) in the London area, so presumably your shopping is coming from one of those. Mine definitely comes from my local store which has a big advantage because when they are short of drivers (funny how surges in illness coincide with England football games!) they call me and say they are unable to deliver but give me the option to collect instead. It does not happen often that they can't deliver, but does happen occasionally. I have noticed though that it seems they may have reduced the number of drivers as I am having to book earlier to guarantee that I can get a delivery slot when I want it. Lately they seem to be having issues at that store with their freezers as I can't get the frozen foods I want so if that persists I will have to consider switching, but I've just renewed my annual delivery pass, so I'm hoping its a temporary issue.