To wish people wouldn't keep going on about Ocado?

[EricNorthmansmistress]

How wonderful if you can afford it, but seriously, mysupermarket.com says my typical weekly shop would be £17 more with Ocado! That's £68 a month! That's just not feasible for most people.

also friday afternoon and saturday mornings have pretty much gone, so not much good if you want fresh food for the weekend...

i was thinking about getting the delivery pass (so i didnt feel guilty about the most expensive saturday morning delivery), but im pleased i havent bothered or else i would be FUMING... i really was going to get it to have a saturday morning delivery each week, but clearly not any more

I must be the only person ever to have an ocado problem then, they delivered the wrong washing liquid and wouldn't sort it out.

I mostly use tesco. I meal plan and have a tight budget, and they definately work out cheaper. Had a
wry laugh at the suggestion of 'buy expensive meat but maybe a bit less' - here it's 'buy cheap meat and as little of it as possible' and we are still skint

tesco deliver to kitchen and are cheerful, polite etc.

OP, I'm with you!

Hi. Not only me, then!! I entered into the Delivery Pass 1 yr fixed term over a year ago & have only just renewed, so am indeed fuming. GRRR & double GRRRRRRRR!! Currently, Ocado customer services are trying to sort out but it's not good enough, in my view. After all, even if they sort this time, what's to stop them doing the same thing again? Ironically enough, have a work specialisation in Contract Law, specifically fixed term loyalty contracts, & have pointed out to Ocado that, by making a significant material & deleterious change to the key service level underpinning a fixed term contract such as Delivery Pass, they are arguably in material breach of contract - so best get sorted!!
Likewise ironically, it's peeps like me, living in the middle of nowhere, who really rely on service providers like Ocado, so this is a real let down. Daft, just before flotation & I understand from news that the uptake of offer wasn't that strong.......

PS: for me, Ocado works out pretty cost effectively... I like the control of having running totals & to be able to see really clearly what is in my basket. But I admit that I don't buy a lot of meat, veg or ready meals - those might be less reliable &/or more expensive. I certainly know that cheese is very expensive at Ocado & I make the odd trip to shops or Farmers' Mkts, rather than buy online.

I see their share floatation (IPO) has not gone too well.

The original target IPO price was suggested at £2.00 - £2.75. Then it was reduced to £1.80 - £2.00. The new shares were being quoted at £1.61 in the 'grey market' this morning.

Any retail customers that had subscribed for shares now have been given an extra 2 days to reconsider whether they want to reapply.

nannyl and RuralLass,I also just checked our deliveries, which have also significantly reduced since I did my last shop a week ago.

I tend to like late evening slots (9pm or later), so the dc's are in bed and we don't waste time sitting in during the daytime waiting for them, but virtually all of those slots are now gone for the next 2 weeks at least!

Yes, YABU! People are happy with the service/food, so why can't they recommend it to people!

YANBU - the price match thing is all very well if you habitually buy branded foods but I habitually buy the cheaper generic/ own brand things unless there's a spectacularly good offer on the branded stuff. I can't afford to do all my shopping in one place as it is, therefore do different shops for different stuff - Aldi, Farmfoods (both of which several Ocado/Waitrose snobs I know IRL wouldn't set foot in), Asda, Tesco. I go to Waitrose for their hot chocolate which is the same price as Tesco but much nicer, and special offers/ reduced stuff. Local butcher comes out cheaper for meat than any of the supermarkets and I'm perfectly happy with the quality.

I, too, heart Ocado and use it fairly regularly. But I never get sent any vouchers or free gift offers anymore.
Tell me Ocado fans, do you get emailed Ocado vouchers every week?

Hi, all. An Update from Customer Services. Seems that the Routing Department think it's perfectly reasonable to cut a customer's delivery slots by more than 95% & aren't prepared to reconsider. I feel sorry for Customer Services, who are on the receiving end of complaints. Me, I'll be taking my business elsewhere. Very, very disappointing!!

Wow - I'm really glad I didn't sign up for the delivery pass after all!

Not a good sign from Ocado.

I love Ocado and I have a weekly slot reserved so I never have to worry about missing it. You have to sign up to an 'automatic shop' but then you just delete the stuff you don't want and add the stuff you do at the last minute. I used to use Tesco.com and the service was truly, truly, appalling. Of course not everyone can afford Ocado but if you can it is definitely one little thing that makes life immeasurably easier.

Ocado suggested same thing. But this is no use, if you want / need to vary your delivery slot from week to week - shift work, variable appointments, social commitments or whatever. It's the flexibility that made the service appealing to me. Besides which, I now don't have any useable slots being offered to me, so trying to book one for regular deliveries is a futile exercise. I am finding this whole thing bewildering, as Ocado have been fine for 3 years but suddenly thinks that I live in some bizarre outback....... Smacks of cost cutting to me, just prior to flotation. I suspect we're going to see Ocado's attitude to customer service changing for the worse. Well, I say 'we' but I won't be dealing with them anymore. Don't like being treated with contempt. And they have said they will give me my Delivery Pass membership fee back, so that's worth noting, if any of you find yourselves in same position.

Freezing, no I never get any vouchers anymore, but I think it's because I just order every week. If you didn't order for a while, then perhaps they will send you something.

Hi. Likewise don't get vouchers now but have gotten some nice freebies for the past few weeks (even a wee bottle of jolly good Bourbon). Will miss them, when I've gone.......

i wouldn't worry about the float changing things. The execs are way too arrogant to change their style on behalf of shareholders. maybe if things get really sticky for them down the road, but not at this stage.

Fortunately they do seem to care very much about customer service.

Ocado share price closed down at £155.5 today and is now offically the worst IPO debut in 2 years.

Hopefully no retail customers went ahead and bought them at the offer price of £1.80.

I and many others still do not get how this business makes money in the long term. The management disagree with that point of view. Time will tell.

We use Asda home delivery and it is fantastic. They do organic fruit and veg - as well as organic meat and fish - and it is all great and lasts ages. They certainly dont give you stuff that is going to go out of date quickly. £3.50 for a midweek delivery suits us fine. And the delivery person is delightful. What's not to like?
Especially as they are definitely cheaper on fundamental basic stuff (cleaning goods etc).

Ladydeedy - many thanks for recommendation & will check out Asda today.

Have now left Ocado - they refunded Delivery Pass fee & gave me a voucher, to say sorry - but ain't good enough.... Have ordered next shop from Waitrose Deliver, as they don't charge for delivery, have loads of delivery slots every single day & have broadly same stock as Ocado. Also some appealing elements to online database management - like being able to sort by ascending price. Fingers crossed, they'll be reliable but, pricewise, bit high.

By the by, thinking of databases, has anyone found a way round the problem on Sainsbury's online system, whereby a Search for, say, 'Ariel' brings up other detergents (like it's looking for all products in same category as Ariel) - veyr annoying & time wasting - has put me off.

Why dont the management at Ocado detail when they will expand their delivery areas to WHERE and WHEN??? Simple customer service business sense we would assume!

Hmmmm... I'll be going back to Waitrose simply because of the free delivery. Ocado is very good, but considering that our shop is always over £50, there's no point in paying the £10 a month for Ocado delivery.

I get free delivery from Ocado every time I shop - they have quite a lot of free delivery slots at "less desirable" times, like Saturday evenings for example. It doesn't bother me as I'm usually in on a Saturday anyway - and it saves up to £7 per shop!

I find the Waitrose Essential range to be cost effective and good quality - the kitchen towel, to give just one example, is so much better quality and longer lasting than the stuff I bought from Co-op recently!

I have just started using it and l am keeping on, l like my peaches soft and juicy not so hard they pull your teeth out. The portions are smaller but it doesn't get thrown out so l'm happy.

I physically shop at Waitrose (on way home from work) but I do my online order - every two or three weeks - from Tesco now. It used to be Sainsbury's but I couldn't get deliveries for days on end and Tesco always have slots so I've switched. Most of the stuff I get is branded so doesn't make much odds although Tesco is noticeable cheaper than Sainsburys. I don't order from Waitrose because there are actually quite a lot of things I buy regularly that they don't stock and I'm not sure I could ever look my lovely but frugal MIL in the eye again!

Anyhoo.... I had a leaflet from Waitrose the other day saying they will do a deliver and put-away service while you're out (including setting up a keysafe for you). Seems a bit extreme! Would anyone use this service? What if they put the tomato sauce on the seasoning shelf instead of the sauces shelf? ^^

One Christmas, when doing an online shop with Sainsbury's I ordered two Brussels sprout trees. They delivered two sprouts in a plastic bag priced at 7p. I told the delivery man we would have one on Christmas Day and the other one on Boxing Day.

Their fruit and veg is shit. Always tiny and flavourless.

They don't do my area so I've not had a chance to try them out. I'd like to, in future.