Waitrose online - substitutions

[Kittymautz]

Let me start by saying that I normally love Waitrose and think their customer service is really good. Well...

This week I saw a saucepan in the Waitrose near my office, where I usually buy my lunch. We are in need of a whole new set of saucepans, and this one looked good. I didn't buy it there and then as a) I wanted to get a whole set and b) I didn't want the hassle of carrying home heavy and bulky saucepans.

I went online and ordered 4 pans, in the 4 different sizes. So they arrived today as arranged, whilst I was at work and my DP was home. At lunch time I called home and my DP said they had arrived but the largest pan had been substituted for a smaller one as not in stock. Now I can understand substituting say semi-skimmed milk for skimmed etc, but surely when someone is buying substantially more expensive products and obviously buying a whole 'set' of pans, then a substitution is not on. If they had called and said that not all were in stock, I would've told them to cancel the whole order.

I have bought the largest pan from the shop near work, carried it back to work and then home. Tomorrow I have to take the smaller one in for a refund. The whole reason I ordered online was so that I didn't have the hassle of carrying saucepans home!

I've written a snotty email to customer services complaining about what happened. Before anyone offers me a , I know that in the great scheme of things this is not a terrible problem, but things like this irritate me.

AIBU to be so cross and have complained?

Anyone else had experience of unreasonable 'substitutions'?

Er. no - YANBU.

I thought substitution applied only to groceries. Good job they don't sell cars. Or organ transplants.

It's possible to 'tell' the website that you don't want substitutions, but I haven't figured it out yet I really, really shouldn't work in IT support

It's a pain when you order a variety of different things (sausage flavours, coffee beans) and none are in stock so they substitute them all - with just one variety. Apparently the system tells them what substitution to pick, the staff don't get a say.

Husband should have refused the substitution

Did you call them? You can always refuse substitutions, or call them after and say you're not happy.

They'll usually work something out, either get you a big pan when it comes in stock or just refund the little one.

If you didn't call them straight away and offer them the chance to put it right, I think yabu to be complaining now...

I can see why you're annoyed, but I still think you've done ok - they sent most of the pans (which, presumably you could have rejected at the point of delivery if you didn't want them at all) and now you only have to carry one pan from the store near your work rather than a whole set, if you still want them.

I think the problem really is that you weren't there to make the decision at the point of delivery, so you could have effectively cancelled the delivery (which you say you would have done had you known) by sending them back, but your husband accepted what was sent, including the smaller pan (which, again, presumably he could have rejected at the point of delivery).

I can't really see what more they could have done.

If I had been home when the delivery arrived I would've refused it and ordered a whole set from elsewhere. I know my DP could have done the same but he didn't because he wasn't sure what to do and wouldn't have wanted to tell me that he had sent my lovely new pans away, and I'm not blaming him at all.

One of the reasons I don't do online grocery shopping is that I would hate to get substitutions, as I like to choose what I buy myself. I never for a moment thought they would 'substitute' something like a saucepan!

I bought some nappies online from waitrose,needed size 4,which they didnt have,so they substituted with size 2!! Even the delivery man had a laugh about it,but took them back with no problems when I said we didnt want them.

If you tick the left hand side box they don't offer substitutions.
You can also write a note in the bottom box.
YABU

Is this waitrose or Ocado?

Ocado send you the receipt before delivery so you know there's a problem.

Must admit I've always found them to be excellent and rarely get subs.

I would have thought (reading your further post) that if you phone them and ask nicely they would refund instore the erroneous little saucepan.

Micah - it only happened today. I was going to call them immediately I found out, but difficult at work, so I emailed them instead. I did speak to the customer service guy in store, who basically said the best thing to do was buy the larger pan there and bring in the smaller one for a refund (which is what I've done).

dojo - see my post above, as I said I realise my DP could've rejected the smaller pan, but he wasn't sure want to do for the best as I was at work and not easily contactable. I'm not cross with him.

I'm not annoyed about what they've done/not done to put it right, more that this happened in the first place. Surely any sensible person could see that this was a daft substitution. If I'd wanted two smaller pans, then that's what I would've ordered! It's not quite the same as getting the wrong sized tomatoes.

It will be interesting to see how they reply to my email.

Was Waitrose, not Ocado.

I didn't tick the no substitutions box as I thought they wouldn't substitute one of a set of saucepans!

Yes, they will I'm sure give me a refund - will take it in tomorrow.

Wrong nappy sizes is riiculous!

Oh and the only email I got from them confirmed my order of 4 different size pans as ordered. There is a standard line about substitutions, but as I said above, I really didn't imagine they would substitute one saucepan from another.

Right I'm off out now to the pictures, should take my mind off it, hopefully I won't be so cross afterwards

I get what you're saying, but I think under the circumstances they have dealt with it in the best way possible - they didn't have exactly what you wanted, so instead of sending nothing they sent what they had. If they sell the pans separately, then it probably doesn't register as a 'set' so as far as the system is concerned so when it comes to substitutions, they just offer a similar item of a different size.
What would you rather they had done? It always helps to identify an alternative solution when you complain to give them something to work with.