My $0.02c.
EdithWeston - As far as I know, any delay of more than 10 minutes past the end of your delivery slot is entitled to a full refund. Although I've heard some people state that a delay of even one minute also counts, but I've never known exactly.
SaraBellumHertz - As a customer you can do what you like, all I'm saying is that the drivers don't like the system as it affects our pay. Admittedly the money is only docked from our bonus so I suppose anything is better than nothing. But when your bonus is being affected by people you have no control over including customers & warehouse workers, then the system is not fair and should be changed. As for your comment "And do you really think people receive deliveries intact, break items themselves and then request refunds?". No, what I'm saying is that customers who accidently break their own items by dropping bags etc. (I've seen it with my own eyes) would say to me "Don't worry about that, I'll just phone the call centre and tell them it was already damaged, I'll get my money back" to which I'm left thinking "Great, that's even more money I've just lost due to this customers mistake". When you're hoping for a quarterly bonus of up to £400 and you only get £60 through no fault of your own, you're left feeling slightly short changed. Especially when the company hooks you into the job by mentioning the "fantastic bonus to boost earnings". It's all lies.
I'm also glad I'm an ex-employee, I'd never work for them ever again, for many more reasons than just those mentioned here.
Soup Dragon & BsshBossh - Drivers will sometimes 're-bag' the shopping to make less trips to the door (personally I always used the trolley and never carried bags to the door but this meant I was ALWAYS late). Trying to find an address, park the van, get the paperwork + shopping out of the van, deliver all of it into the kitchen, get back to the van & drive off in 7 minutes (avg delivery time) is almost impossible. Drivers will take whatever steps necessary to finished on time & not get home at 2am. Any heavy items placed on top of delicate ones, all that is done in the warehouse. Bizarrely the warehouse staff get their bonus based on how many totes (red plastic boxes) they can fill in an hour. So the warehouse staff work fast and inaccurately to get loads of money (some earn up to £600/week) while the drivers get their bonus slashed because of the upset customers complaining everything is damaged & late, which is automatically assumed to be the drivers fault as the company claims that all goods leaving the warehouse are in perfect condition (to cover their own arse). Can you see a vicious circle here?
In around late 2010 early 2011, the bonus system was changed after a two week test showed that over 40% of reported damages were being caused before the drivers were getting to work. The warehouse staff had their "work harder get more money" bonus stopped, that's when the s**t hit the fan. Warehouse workers couldn't be bothered to put in the effort as their pay was slashed and the vans were dispatched late on an almost daily basis. That's one of the reasons a lot of delivers are now late. The vans are simply not ready on time. On top of that the company has MANY more customers & very few extra staff, the warehouse can't cope with demand and keeps breaking down. One more vicious circle.
How the company will last is beyond me. The share price is down 70% in 6 months. I'm VERY glad I didn't buy any shares as I was pushed to do in June 2010. With an average customer employee ratio of around 500:1 compared to a supermarket with 10,000+:1 I'm not surprised the company can't make a profit.
A £200,000+ profit out of a £640,000,000 turn over after 11 years of trading is horrific business. It's worse when you consider they've more than doubled their number of weekly deliveries since 2008 & they still can't make money.
Once they get properly established with more sites they might turn it into a huge success, but the question is whether they'll be able to get that far before it collapses. They need to get their new depot in Warickshire built ASAP.