to think that Ocado's service is appalling

[Chestnutx3]

Yes its a first world problem but if you pay for Ocado delivery pass you expect to have your items delivered. I had the worse ever Ocado order on Saturday which happened to be my young daughter's birthday. Lots of my order was missing that was needed for a lunch and a party. I couldn't make my daughter's favourite lunch as the main meat item was not delivered. They didn't seem to manage to find any sparkling wine in the whole warehouse. I managed to salvage 4 non mouldy strawberries in a whole packet.

What do I get in compensation £15. Sorry that's not enough to compensate for a 40 minute round trip to the nearest biggest supermarket which is packed full as its on the only large supermarket for miles (yes I live rurally). Bastards won't even let me stop my Ocado pass as I signed up for 12 months (can't recollect agreeing to that).

never had any problems in 5 years never had anything missing or substitutes. which IMO is rare as I order a lot of kosher stuff but I know my local wait rose has loads of kosher stuff. I rely on them to bring me challah every Friday morning and they gave never not brought it. I luvs ocado

The thing is with internet shopping, nothing is infallible...if I have an event planned where I completely and utterly need certain items I always without fail have it delivered they day before, or at the crack of dawn so that I have time to go out and source 'missing items'.

This is one of the few times when having had lots of back luck in life serves me well, I always assume that something will go wrong...and plan accordingly.

Ocardo are pretty good imo, my friends tales of her Tesco delivery fiasco's actually make me laugh.

I presume it depends on your local people. I got one delivery from them a few weeks ago, most of it was damaged as they had put heavy items like bottles of squash on top of softer items like fruit and eggs! Will not be ordering from them again. Slightly better than the Asda delivery man who was rude. Trying Sainsbury's, Tesco and Waitrose next (exploiting new customer discounts as I have moved house!)

You do know many of these messages are probably written by Ocado themselves they are notorious for doing this. Didn't this happen before on another Ocado thread?

Going back a bit, sorry been away, yes I totally get that machinery breaks down, and I totally get that suppliers let you down. However, if someone orders a mixed box of veg costing £15, that you can't supply, a bag of potatoes and some carrots would be a start. Similarly if someone orders a £50 quid box of meat including a pork shoulder, just the pork shoulder, loose, would have helped. Nothing at all is really really bad.

I have to say I have shopped with Ocado since the beginning, two or three times a month and can count the problems on one hand. Oh and feel free to PM me if you think I work for Ocado . Not diminishing the OP's experience in the slightest, since that sounds dreadful, but that's not my experience at all. I have tried the other services and they are nowhere near as good, even Waitrose Home Delivery.

Sixlive - do you have a link to that thread?

In theory Ocado will be more reliable than any of the supermarkets as supermarkets have pesky shoppers taking things off the shelves, so they run out of stuff. Ocado know exactly what their stock levels are so if they say something is in stock when you select it, then it should be in stock for your delivery.

Obviously that isn't how it works all the time as things do happen - suppliers let them down or their machinery fails. I think it was a software glitch this weekend.

Breathe slowly, so if you were told it was a soft wear glitch, and I was given two other excuses in one breath, that's three different excuses for failures in delivery last weekend ?? The thing is if has happened three times to me in the last six weeks. Not a one off, so actually a problem.

I will continue to use them, but my patience is wearing thin.

Never had a problem. YABU.

Very few problems, and those have only ever been missing items. Although I did object to paying for a bulb of fennel only to receive a midget one. And yes very lovely when we last minute had to cancel an order due to family illness.

Stopped using Tesco when they substituted quorn mince for beef mince. DH is veggie. How can a vegetarian meat substitute ever be substituted with meat??

To be honest I can't remember if they said software or if I imagined it and it was actually a machinery problem. However the things we were missing - carrots, chicken and milk - couldn't be a supplier problem as they must have had some brand/variety of each in stock. It must have been a problem with picking/substitutions.

The only other problem we have had in the last few years is that we ordered a turkey crown for Xmas last year. It was the largest size they do, but at the very lowest end of the weight range for its size. We had to buy chickens to supplement the meal. We won't be relying on them for our turkey this year.

sixlive- except I recognise about 90% of posters on this thread

I think we've had 1 late delivery in 6 years, they rang to apologise first too. Never had a duff substitution. Rarely get any freebies though

Using them for 5 years. Had a handful of problems after they sold shares, but otherwise much better than Sainsbury's, Tescos or Asda. At least I don't get random unrelated substitutions and if, on rare occasions, they do substitute, I get a text warning me in advance.

I get freebies most weeks too.

We almost never have missing items. Their service IME is good. Dh Is the Ocado King in our house. I have to admit I was highly skeptical at first ( like to see my produce before buying ;) ) but it has been great at helping us budget, and am now a convert. I wanted to love Waitrose Direct but too many subs and missing items :(

I also like knowing that Erroll is arriving in his cabbage van at 9pm

YABU

I use them, they're fantastic. If they even think they might be late they let you know. Never had any 'stupid' subs, only very occasionally a subs, delivery guys are always really nice etc - no complaints At All.

Bit daft of you not to see that the smart pass is for a year - it couldn't be more clear.

Sixlive - yes, I've been here for a billion years - just waiting for this thread

Thing is though they may have been very busy on that day when your shopping was picked. Bit silly to order it for day of the actual party. Things do happen.
Cancel your pass because of one bad experience isn't that just throwing your toys out of the pram? Plus you would have known what you were agreeing to when you signed up unless you didn't read everything in which case your own fault.

I find there packing can be really dodgy ie eggs under tins etc. also had mouldy fruit. Usually get full order with no subs. I hated their Italian pino, yuk.

Also, better to Oder a but in advance if you have a special occasion.

I used them twice a week for a couple of years, stopped about 6 months ago because a branch of Waitrose opened here. Still use them occasionally (they just gave me three months free smart pass to try and lure me back).

In the time I was using them regularly there were vey few substitutions and any I did get were sensible. They cancelled on me once due to a massive computer glitch, but delivered the next day. They were late a few times (notably bank holiday weekends, unfortunately the road between us and the warehouse is a major tourist route) but always rang with an estimated time. They were often early, again always rang to check first. I never had any missing items. Anything damaged was refunded no quibble and again, that was fairly rare and most of it was still usable eg 5 whole eggs 1 broken. I did get one of them leaving me rather shirty messages on my phone and rolling his eyes at me from his cab when I was incomsiderate enough not to be home until 10 mins before my slot, not the end of the world.

However I do have a big Sainsburys 1/2 a mile from home, so would not be inconvienced to such a degree as the OP if it all went wrong. But they really cannot take those circumstances into account when offering compensation, it has to be a standard amount I guess.

I've given up on Ocado, I've been shopping with them for over 6 years but in the last 6 months practically every delivery has had problems.
Eggs smashed and leaking all over the rest of the shopping, deliveries soaking wet with rain (to the point that the foods packaging was soggy and had to be removed and binned), loose fruit packed in with raw meat...

I've given up.

Hell of a lot better than some of the alternatives. Every shop I've had with Waitrose online has been full of substitutions and short-dated food, Ocado much better.

Still smarting from when Waitrose delivered 6 pints of milk with a use-by date of the same day. The delivery was at 6pm. And then their customer services tried to argue the toss about it....

I much prefer riverford. Just excellent service and products.

We love Riverford too, but obviously very limited range compared to the supermarkets.