Substituted items online shopping

[Nymeria01]

Today Tesco's delivered my weekly online shop, which almost always has some pragmatic substitutions. However today instead of a pack of 8-15 Drynites I got size 6 night time pull ups. AIBU to think that you cannot substitute one type or size of nappies for another?

Ina no not age, size six would be suitable for a 2/3 year old.

Worst sub I ever had, in the early days of online supermarket shopping, I ordered Jif lemon juice, I got Jif lemon oven cleaner!

My shop comes from the local sainsburys which just happens to be the biggest one in the uk. Nevertheless, I got substituted size 1-2 swimming nappies instead of size 4 normal nappies and then next time I got nothing at all as apparently there were no nappies in store whatsoever

I'm just enjoying the current freedom of choosing when I want a delivery within the rules - because I don't see it lasting. The logistics of servicing hour delivery slots for large areas must be a nightmare so I think someone will crack and decree more local timed slots - and then the rest will all follow gratefully.

Checked properly when you ordered them? How does that make sense in relation to your husband not paying attention to the substitutions and declining them?

The pickers won't know all products inside out. It's not a stretch to imagine the person choosing your subs might not be in the know on this kind of product so their idea of logical will be different to yours.

But that's all moot considering it's your husband you should be annoyed at.

Packers do not see your full shopping list, so they don't see the context if your items. They don't choose the subs - the hand held terminal suggests a series of substitutions in order which it deems acceptable.

Don't blame the packer. Blame the system.

I generally never accept subs from tesco as they always seem to down sub - bon mamon strawberry jam for hartleys 'no bits' jam. No thank you.

This is why I only online shop with ocado, in 6 years of weekly deliveries have had substitutions less than 10 times in total and all were acceptable. Don't trust pickers even at waitrose.

I had a packet of 12 pigs in blankets substituted with 40 cocktail sausages. Why?

a friend of mine works at a supermarket and told me some of the pickers logic is abit strange!

One picker substituted beefburgers for frozen chips.... her logic being "kids like chips, kids like beefburgers'

My only bug bear with substitutions was baby formula. I appreciate the machine tells them what to send. But a totally different brand of baby formula was no use to me. Give me the ready made stuff, or a bigger pot of powder, or a smaller one. But not a different brand. Or follow on milk instead of stage one.
The delivery lady said that she get it handed back to here every time and keeps telling the store but it makes no difference. X

I ordered a jar of roasted peppers and got two large bags of roasted salted pumpkin seeds. It may have been suggested on the picker's terminal, but would a degree of common sense be too much to ask?

I've had honey replaced with "free-from" lasagna sheets. Drlivery man was as bemused as me!

Anyway, I don't expect the pickers to understand my meal planning, my family's food intolerances and dislikes etc if I don't put any notes in the box.

What notes? What box?

I shop online with Tesco weekly and have strange subs most weeks.

My favourite was ordering a multipack of meaty Walkers crisps (the meaty bit is important here) and they subbed them with 5 x 6 packs of salt and vinegar! Who on earth thought that 30 bags of s&v crisps was a good idea, when the original order had no bloody s&v in them?!

I've also had 'no appropriate sub' for white wine.

In all fairness to the customer service people though, when I call up they always give me money back and vouchers when they've subbed something which means I didn't qualify for a deal as a result. One particular deal being subbed every week meant I was getting almost 20 refunded every week, plus the original items!

MrsJamin, I agree. I stick with Ocado because there are hardly any substitutions, they almost always deliver when they say they will, the packing is reasonably good (except for bananas which I just don't buy online any more) and the website is so easy to use. I make every effort to use their special offers to keep the price down and I have a midweek pass that means I get free deliveries if I stick to midweek.

On similar threads before, people who've worked as packers have explained that they are expected to keep up a very fast pace of work (disciplinary procedures if they don't) and there just isn't time to stop and think about sensible substitutions. Also, as a PP said, they are often told what to substitute by the computer system. I assume the computer has been programmed to make these suggestions, using some sort of algorithm that just picks out keywords, as that's the only way to make sense of the dried apricots > apricot yoghourt type of substitutions!

It would be much better if real live people with good knowledge of the products sat down and worked through the entire range and specified acceptable substitutions, but that would be so expensive to do that I assume it doesn't happen.

I had a sainsburys Christmas delivery one year, and despite having had to order any christmas related items a week in advance so that everything could be ordered, they substituted a family-sized Christmas pudding for an individual sponge pudding and a big joint of beef just wasn't included at all - no substitutes available. So had to dash out Christmas Eve to find alternatives, which was exactly what I was trying to avoid with booking the chirstmas delivery.

Do you mean they substituted an individual sponge pudding for a family-sized Christmas pudding, Lizzie?

I am a big fan of online food shopping, but I've never ever relied on it for the key ingredients of the Christmas meal. I'd be too paranoid that instead of a large free-range turkey I'd get a bag of chicken tikka flavoured crisps!

Iv said it on here before but in the Early days of online shopping I had a pack of tampax compact substituted for a lovely expensive pack of colouring pencils. Just laughed it off cos DS was so excited about the pencils we kept them. They were about £8!

I stopped using Ocado because of their greed. I had a yearly pass, yet they wanted to charge £9.99 for a delivery of £90 minimum in Christmas week. At a time of year when people would be spending 2/3 times as much money. (Employees still being paid the same) Also, their sell by dates were often very tight. If I had a delivery on a Saturday evening, half of the stuff would run out on Monday. Apparently if it says 3 days life on the website, that starts from the delivery day. I now buy fresh food myself so I can see the quality and get the best sell by dates.

In our Christmas order they substituted pigs in blankets with vegetable spring rolls. Yep they'll go nicely with the turkey and tatos.

I think some of you are being a bit unreasonable here. The picker cant know which alternative you would prefer. For example: you select a travel sized toothpaste for your holiday but they dont have it. One person would say of course they should sub another brand travel size - it is the size that matters, another person would say they should sub a larger tube of the same brand as of course child A will only use that flavour. So the picker cant win.

Anyone who's husband has accepted said unwanted subs has absolutely no leg to stand on against the shop. Train your husband better!

However, still struggling to see how it was logical that my MILs bottle of Champagne was subbed by 4 tins of dog food...

Christmas Eve delivery was 2 hours late and had to be taken in by PIL while I fed baby DD. I came downstairs to find half the order missing. Delivery guy was running so late he just dropped and ran. But ran off with half my shopping.
I had most of Christmas sorted but it was just the last few really important bits. Like milk, bread, stuffing etc. those few random things that are forgotten,

So Christmas Eve evening I was running round Tesco express trying to cobble together essentials for 5 adults and a baby. Grrrr.

Never again will I book a delivery on Christmas Eve.

Honestly - I think it is quite reasonable for them to substitute the biggest available nappy. It could well be a massive headache for you to have no nappies - my local shops stop at size 4 nappies. Donate it to a local toddler group and chalk it up to experience. I think being 'too busy to check' the yellow-bagged substitution is lame, when the alternative is spending several hours getting your own shopping in (presumably DH making his own 'bad substitutions' if he found no Drynites on the shelf).

Enjoras

I have read that it's costing the supermarkets about £10 a delivery at the moment. (Including pickers, 'dead time' for the drivers, van costs etc etc.) I can't see current arrangements lasting because at the moment, they must be losing considerable money in a bid to win market share.

5 children do you really think it's reasonable for the OP to squeeze her aged 8-15 year old child into a nappy suitable for a two to three year old?