to expect a reasonable service from Tesco online

[Rushyswife]

I know that there are many more important things to worry about in life, and it is my first post in AIBU, so I am little scared but this really annoyed me today!

I ordered my weekly Tesco shop and out of 50 items 10 were not delivered and 3 more swapped! This has annoyed me because now I will have to still go to the shops as some of the items were essentials!

Also, if I had been ordering really obscure items I would be more understanding, but did the seriously expect me to believe that there were no chopped tomatoes in the whole store, and that there were no possible substitutions.

I suppose I am interested to know if I am being AIBU I should accept this, or if other people find online grocery shopping equally annoying!

YANBU tesco online is hideous. Only bought one thing there, a bed. Had all the wrong parts. Rubbish.

Next time try Ocado or shop in person!

I've never had any problem with Tesco online (unlike other online supermarkets) maybe it depends on your location? I shop every week and whilst I often get one or two subs (often of better quality) I don't think I've ever had anything just 'not available'. Have you tried ringing them to complain/ask them to explain?

I have just rung them and after much moaning they refunded the delivery cost. Think maybe it is location as this is not the first time! Oh well serves me right for being lazy!

We use Sainsbury's online and think they are much better than Tesco. We had a really bad experience with Asda's home delivery - they didn't turn up at all. I rang to ask them where they were and they said their van had broken down and would come the next day. They still didn't turn up the next day so I cancelled it and haven't used them since.

My Tesco isn't too bad. I do get substitutions but normally they are okay.... well except for that time I ordered a King Size duvet set of purple flowers and they sent me the same set in a different colour... for a double bed!! Hmm!

Never had items missing though. Only tend to use it when I am doing a huuuuuuuge shop so I don't have to haul the bags around.

We have just dumped Tesco after 5 years of using them

-Like you said there were huge numbers of items missing (meaning a trip to shops anyway- waste of delivery costs)
-They started to bring rotten fruit & vegetables
-They gave us broken glass that DH cut his hand on (gave us £2 refund)
-Also drivers got worse and just dumped shopping on door step despite heavily pregant

Oh and Tesco we are STILL waiting for the manager to call regarding our complaint if you read this.

Disgraceful

Ha, we must live in the same area OP.

Same thing happened to me, no chopped tomatoes! Bizzare!
I ve ordered Cirio ones which was on offer but surely they could sent something else.

Also 2 jars mushroom sauce, he brought one and he said they didn't have more .

I use Asda and have never had a problem, the 1 and only time something was missing the customer service person refunded it without a quibble. Most things are usually in stock, the only items I can recall over the past few months that have been out of stock were an icing set and yoghurt covered raisins!

Never used Tesco so cant comment. And I live in Scotland which Ocado dont cover so cant comment on them.

We used to live on the sight of a business (not ours) and Tesco said they would only deliver if we put our names as the business owners!!!! they still send us e.mails 4 years later telling us of their special offers. I use Asda who are great and alwasy remind me to check the eggs are ok etc they also have carried my bags in since I got pregnant and let me know when they have deals on baby stuff that I might not have seen. Did use Sainsburys and got strange substitutes ie no vegi mince so got a chicken, no loo roll so got J cloths!!!

"no loo roll so got J cloths!!!"

Ha ha! I love hearing about peoples weirdest substitues!

When you order you have to be very specific about your suggested substitute, and you can add a message. E.g.: 'Please substitute with tinned tomatoes from value range or don't bother substituting at all.' That way you don't get something really expensive or just plain mad.

You can save your orders so you don't have to go through the whole palaver again the following month.

It is hard to calculate special offers, though - you can't be sure of savings that that you could be sure of if shopping in person.

They lost all my booze one Christmas. I'm still bitter.

LineRunner with tesco you dont end up paying more because if they substitute it with something more expensive they charge you the price of the cheap one that you have ordered. Thats the good thing. Maybe thats why they didn't sent me any chopped tomatoes....

Strangely all the fresh food arrived. Only tins and jars missing.

I prefer Tesco to Asda (meat always go off before the date from asda) Once all my meat was missing from the tesco order, so rang up cs and got a foreign guy who couldnt understand what i was saying. I was trying to explain i needed a refund but as i had a deal (2 for £6) but i'd received one of them i should get x amount back (in tescos favour) but he cocked up and i ended up with more money back (was on the phone ages) Anyhow after i hung up heres the tesco delivery dude with my meat. Was gonna ring back but just couldnt handle it, so got about £10 worth meat free.

nb had they of rung me and asked i would of told them the truth - didnt want the delivery guy to get in trouble.

Laquitar Really? That explains all the bizarre substitutions people here have described!

Yes. I'm always winning because i m tight arse and what i had ordered was usually the cheapest and sometimes i end up with something posher for the price of the cheap one . No wonder they didn't sent me substitutes this time.

Tonight they expected me to believe that they could find no suitable substitution for a loaf of sliced brown bread yeah right, it was a small one and they didn't want to substitute it for a big one (bloke on the helpline didn't buy that either!). Also sent 2 x ready meal curries, with a use by date of tomorrow - shopping arrived at 7.55 . One of the loaves of bread that did arrive was completely squashed as they had packed a massive box of cornflakes on top of it. Always complain though - I got the delivery fee refunded, the squashed bread refunded and the curries too. Together with the £7.50 e-voucher they sent me because I've been shopping at Aldi over the hols, ended up quite a bargain (curries in the freezer)

We shop with Asda at the moment, as they still do the Price Guarantee.
Haven't shopped online with Tesco since they messed up my Christmas delivery. I had spent weeks of adding things to my shopping list, booked delivery slot weeks in advance.
They cancelled my order the day it should have arrived. When I phoned them up to ask for explanation, they asked me whether I had ordered a turkey. I said no, I didn't as I am vegetarian. The guy at the helpline didn't say it out loud, but yes, all the orders with turkeys in had been delivered, the ones without they had cancelled, because they didn't have enough people to get them all out.
My DH and I were furious! We had to go and do a shop worth over £200 all ourselves. We did get £30 worth of vouchers. So yes we did shop there once after to use them up.

Asda deliveries: cheap delivery slots, always within the delivery slot, friendly delivery people.
And if there is something like bread with use by date on the delivery day that you only spot the next day, just ring them up and they refund straight away.
Haven't had strange substitutions yet, I do untick the substitutions box with products like Ben & Jerries ice cream

i use tesco for the clubcard points (£100 a week double points for online shopping adds up!) not had a problem and only had cheap things subbed for more expensive things

means i dont have to drag my 1+2 year old round the supermarket and a nice chap (same guy every week)delivers it all into my kitchen

We use Sainsburys & they've always been really good. Driver is really friendly & always chats to ds. A couple of times I've had things missing & they've refunded me on the spot no questions asked. Once, when it clicked a bag of frozen was missing they got the driver to come back round with it. Plus we use our nectar card which goes towards Amazon vouchers to pay for mine & DP's massive gaming habit. We converted from Tesco too, fruit & veg was just a bit poor.

I have used a number of different ones and would say that Sainsbury's have been the best by far - really friendly delivery drivers, always do reasonable substitutions and refund over any quibble I have had. Also gave me £10 off next shop if they were late. Would definitely recommend them. Nectar points handy too.

OP, this happened to me once with Tosco. The driver said "mrs saltire there are 4 thing unavailiable today and no substitutes were availiable" he smiled as he said it in a "you're not going to believe this" way
the 4 items were
bread
washing powder
bananas
eggs

I rang them up and said " do you really expect me to believe that at 2pm on a monday there is no bread of any sort in your store, likeswise eggs and washing powder and bananas"

They sent a driver out that day with all the items, and 6 extra loaves. All free.

I've stopped using them again just now though as I always ask "for bags" with ym shopping as it's easier for me with sore hands and bad back and legs to life bags out rather than individual things, but every time, the whole shop is in the green crates - bread squashed becasue juice is on top of it, or eggs broken becasue potatoes thrown on top

I find Tesco delivery ok. The thing with the subs can occasionally get silly, but I specify which things to sub and in some cases what to replace it with.

You have to remember that the packers won't be paid much. So they are not going to be highly trained professionals, but simply people who are not able to get a better job elsewhere.

It's a lot more convenient than getting it myself. I have a delivery today. It's 12-1pm but they always come in the first 5 mins. They can't park very close and then they carry it up stairs to where I live. Rather them than me. I'd have to make several trips.

I've always found Tesco customer service to be very good. I just email if there's a problem and they'll sort it out. We have had some odd substitutions in the past but now they price match, the substitutions are normally pretty good.

I realise that, without small children at home, shopping is easier anyway but I've shopped for groceries online - not least because of the hassle reported by some of my friends. In any case, I'd rather choose the stuff myself in the actual branch of Waitrose that's in the nearby town. The local Tesco is vile anyway and using it always drains the will to live.

However, I do know from the time that ds1 worked in this branch of Tesco to save up for his gap year, that most of the staff delegated to do the online orders were either legendarily incompetent or part of an "amusing" little conspiracy to try and substitute the most bizarre items possible. Mainly because they were also gap year students who were bored beyond belief!