About Sainsbury's substitutions?

[nemno]

Just got a delivery. I don't use their service often but do like some own brand things. I knew they don't price match substitutions. Now am I wrong about the following? In which case IABU.

The 2 subs they made were on items in multi buy offers. They did not sub with other things in offer (I think they could have). Of course I could reject the subs, they were in a blue bag to identify them easily. I asked the delivery man what happened to the other offer items. He wanted to be helpful but didn't know. The only way to find out was to go online and compare the offer price on there with my actual receipt. Obviously he had to go so I did this afterwards. Sure enough the other items reverted to their single higher prices. So I ended up paying more than the offer price for items of lesser quality than I ordered (subs were basics range). Have I understood this right? I think that if they do this then all the items from the offers should be in blue bags so that they can all be easily rejected?

I have written to them but don't expect a reply soon.

[Lomaamina]

Update on refunds: I'd keep an eagle eye (and clear notes) on items returned. By the time your bank statement comes through it's up to a month from when items might have been returned. This month for example I had to chase up £7.00 worth of goods that Tesco 'conveniently' forgot to refund. I wonder how much money is lost by customers this way?

[snugglesnook]

YANBU

[IloveJudgeJudy]

Thank you for the update, nemno. That's very interesting and sounds fantastic. No subs and all the expiry dates. Wow!

[nemno]

Because JudgeJudy asked;

I got an email in the small wee hours stating Geoffrey in Lemon van would be delivering and there were no substitutions. The attached receipt showed the expiry dates of all products (soft fruit on Sunday , everything else longer) and spelled out all offers. I got a text at 8am confirming. He arrived halfway through the allotted hour, was very polite and friendly and brought my bags into the kitchen.

All is present and correct, I am happy. I know I will get an email later telling me how my shopping cost compared to Tescos and giving me a discount voucher if Tescos was cheaper (occasionally is).

I don't know whether Ocado has as many products as the big supermarkets but I've never noticed anything missing. I think even though they stock Waitrose own and Ocado own brand things these ranges may not be as extensive as say Tescos. But all branded stuff is there and they stock some high end foreign brands eg Reflet and Natoora (very expensive).

[HaroldLloyd]

I've been using ocado lately, they have a price match on with tesco and if you don't order anything posh its not that bad at all. Plus free delivery from a man who always offers to carry stuff through in an amusingly named van.

[TimeofChange]

I ordered a load of special offer drinks from Asda and noticed that it said that if the goods aren't on offer the day the goods are packed then they would charge full price!

I only bought them because they were on offer.
I didn't want them if they were full price.
Anyway, I did check the receipt and it was ok.

I know it does sound like I'm a hoarder of bargain drinks - but honestly I'm not.

[dottyladybug]

About a month ago I was doing my Tesco delivery online and DH asked can I get some cherries, just a handful as he is the only one in the house who likes them, I added 20 loose cherries to my basket.

The next day when the order arrived the driver said you have a sub for your cherries. They had no loose cherries so were unable to send me the 20 I ordered so had given me 20 small plastic cellophane wrapped containers each containing apron 20-25 cherries (at £1.00) each.

I was a bit , asked the driver if he would get in trouble for that as there was no extra charge and he said no. We had about 400 cherries, that was a month ago and they have never charged for them.

Needless to say Dh hasn't eaten a cherry since!!!!

[MissStrawberry]

I used to have Ocado bring my food because I thought they were part of Waitrose. Not now though especially as Waitrose don't get the money and I prefer W to O.

[nemno]

JudgeJudy, you've been very helpful thanks. Yes Ocado do substitute but really really rarely. I think because they are only online and pack from a warehouse they can allocate you your product at the time you place your online order. If they have allocated all of it the website stops anyone else ordering it ie it shows online as out of stock. But you will still get it.

If they do have to substitute you already get told by text early on the day of delivery. And as I said if something is on offer at say 3 for £10 then whatever they do deliver from that offer is £3.33.

[dimdommilpot]

This happened to me with Sainsburys. The driver refunded me (it was a bogof and what they sent wasnt)

[ouryve]

Sainsburys used to have the notes section, about a decade ago.

Interestingly, I made a new accounts linked to my own Nectar card, instead of DH's, since I do most of the ordering while he's at work, now, and while I had substitution checkboxes on DH's account in June, I didn't have any on mine, 2 weeks ago.

[ouryve]

LayMizz - some of us can't vote with our feet. Here, we have a straight choice between Sainsburys, Tesco and ASDA. I can't stand Tesco or ASDA and find it impossible to do a decent week's shop at either store, so I'm blown if I'm going to use their online service.

Neither Ocado nor Waitrose deliver to these parts.

[ComtesseDeFrouFrou]

Interesting to hear how JudgeJudy does it; in my local Sainsburys I see the pickers going round the shop doing the orders so presumably they would be better placed to judge the substitutions and/or whether you're going to go outside the offers if one item isn't available. Conversely, I wonder if they are worse off in terms of availability of items because they're picking from the same pool of stock as all the shoppers in store.

I think that some areas have warehouse picking and some have in store picking, so it's another one that depends on where you live, a bit like the helpfulness of your delivery driver.

[ouryve]

I refuse to use Sainsburys delivery because of this exact problem. I complained many times and they refuse to budge saying it would give me an unfair advantage over in store shoppers.

What utter tosh! In store, you choose from what's there and don't have to be telepathic and know that something will have sold out at 10am next Wednesday!

[ouryve]

This always bugs me with Sainsburys deliveries and is one of the reasons I only bother about once a month or when we're really busy or someone's too poorly to go out (that, plus the awful website which constantly times out and loses items, plus the fact that I prefer to choose my own food, amongst other things). I've found it helpful, when it was possible to say no subs please, to make sure I allowed subs for multibuy items, so a sensible packer would put two of them in, instead - so I'd choose two different cheeses in a twofer and hopefully, one of them would be in stock, so I'd get my saving.

[IloveJudgeJudy]

Some I work in a huge warehouse type facility. We do 2600 orders per day. If the item is available, the customer will get it. The idea of the substitute bags is so that the customer can reject the subs if they want. Could you imagine calling 2000 people per day if one of their items isn't available?

nemno Please post on this thread how your Ocado shop goes? Thanks. Does Ocado have the same number of items available? Don't they substitute? Just interested.

[nemno]

It's Ocado all the way for me now, this was my first deviation from them in months. Lesson learnt :)

[somewhereaclockisticking]

makes me think it's never worth risking and you might as well go into the shop (if you can) - it sounds a very sneaky idea to not honour offers that actually I suspect probably are still available in the store, but even if they weren't then there should be someone to call each customer and advise that they cannot fulfill all the order and would they like substitutes?

[IloveJudgeJudy]

Don't have shopping delivered, myself, so don't know about the refund question. Probably you can reject anything, but I suppose in reality you wouldn't unless you had changed your mind as you supposedly need the food you've ordered .

You can't put notes for picker? Gosh. Where I am it's all about the notes from the customer. Customer is definitely king.

[nemno]

Forgot to add, But their website says you can reject any item at all for refund . Isn't this an overall legal requirement for online shopping though?

[nemno]

I really appreciate your input JudgeJudy. Sainsbury's doesn't have the facility for notes to picker, they also don't do bagless delivery. Your idea of making a note of what I've bought on offer is an idea, thanks. But having just had the reply from Sainsburys where they ignore all points other than what they are refunding I don't think i'll bother with them again.

[UniqueAndAmazing]

Judge - that's why it would be useful on your computer for offer items to be flagged up.

[IloveJudgeJudy]

Just saw your thing about the offer stuff being put in the bags with the sub stuff. Couldn't do it, the way I pick. Don't have time to look what's on offer. You could put a note, as we discussed previously. Then we would look. Only subs are put in special bags here as only subs can be rejected other than for bad quality reasons, etc, I think.

I hope you manage to sort something out to your satisfaction.

[IloveJudgeJudy]

Only put actual subs in subs bags here. That's the way the system is. You could write and ask if system could be changed. Maybe it can. I do understand your frustration.

Do you buy loads of offer stuff? In the meantime, could you just scribble on a piece of paper the ones that are on offer that you ordered, put that by the front door so that you can look through your stuff as it enters your house. If you order your stuff without bags, you'd have to unload it all from the green containers, anyway, so you could look through the stuff then? If it's cold/freezer stuff, it's gonna be in different bags, anyway.

[nemno]

I totally agree with this, I stated earlier in the thread that they should be put in the blue bags and this is the gist of my email to Sainsbury's. There is no way to see from the receipt which the other offer items are so if you can't remember it would mean going on line and hoping the offer is still ongoing and then rooting through all the shopping to find them.