to expect Tesco's to have at least one bottle of water?

[cakedup]

My online shop is packed at the Enfield Dotcom branch (so is a warehouse, not a customer facing store).

At least four times in the last couple of months they have not delivered the Volvic 1.5L bottled water I asked for as they are 'out of stock' and have not offered a replacement.

Are they seriously telling me they don't have a single large bottle of water of any brand within their reach?

This is WATER. Not an organic black truffle mushroom. Not Hemp milk sweetened with rare berries. WATER.

I think Tesco, and all other supermarkets, need to get their on-line shopping sorted out. It should be 100% clear when I place and pay for my order what is in stock, if it is not in stock it should be clear. Then they can set up their till system so they do not sell my goods to anyone else. A possible easy way would be if they insisted on a 48 hour lead time from order to delivery so if it was out of stock in my local store it could be supplied from the central depot in time for my delivery.
Other companies mange this, my DH uses Screwfix (Screwfix is not a sex site lol) and Toolstation, both show clearly if an item is in stock when he orders it.

I like the idea of a water wine substitution!

I ordered Ariel washing liquid on offer at £7. It was out of stock, as everything on offer is, the other same size washing liquids were £15 so they didn't send it.

I complained until I got the item delivered.

What is the point of having home deliveries if you then have to go out to buy things that they had thousands of but chose not to send.

Make a complaint.

Morrison's manage this Joanne

This is WATER. Not an organic black truffle mushroom. Not Hemp milk sweetened with rare berries. WATER.

Look up a tap someday if you're so unfussy about water. There's a never ending fountain of the stuff that comes out when you turn them on. Not poncy Organic stuff or poncy things with rare berries. You want poncy water.

IME how you wake a DC can have a great effect on the levels of stress they feel. She obviously perceives you as shouting, though you may not be. Try to use a calm voice and wake her gently.

Can you get up a little earlier, try to calm things down.

syndlexic: I think you meant that for another thread..

Not sure about Tesco, but Sainsbo's have an own brand bottled water, which is bottled tap water.

Have you tried ordering another brand? Maybe they think that you will only be happy with Volvic and if they tried to send another one, you'd complain.

But you can send back substituted products OnIlkley

I have complained sydlexic but they just apologised and said there was nothing they can do if it isn't in stock. Tesco used to offer you a voucher at the drop of a hat, but think they have tightened up these days.

TiggyD I find it really hard to drink any water at all. I am never thirsty, and have always hated drinking water. I can get by on one cup of coffee and a cup of tea a day. So I have to really make an effort to drink the stuff. I don't like tap water and our water is really hard - I even give bottled water to the cats otherwise their bowls get all scummy. So I force myself to drink water and it is made slightly easier by the fact that I find Volvic slightly easier to drink than other brands and definitely tap water.

Even so, it's not the point. I ordered bottled water. If I had no water coming out of my tap that would be an issue to take up with Thames Water not Tesco.

Tesco are delivering at 4pm today. I'm sure you are all on the edge of your seats wondering whether my order for 4 bottles of Volvic will be fulfilled so will update later.

The tap water round here is shit. If your store is Enfield then you must live fairly near to me, and frankly I would not drink the horrible hard water round here.

Good luck with your 4pm shop!

I think I take our lovely soft water for granted. I drink gallons of tap water and it is perfectly nice. I now need to try tapwater in a hard water area for comparison.

Nothing ever gets furred up and we can even get away with not using salt in the dishwasher at all even though I know people who live in hard water areas use more in a month than we do in a year when we are using it.

The cats still prefer to drink rainwater out of puddles - they are struggling at the moment because all the rainwater puddles are frozen. They're not having bottled water though - they are already fussy enough .

If Tesco let you down again OP, you should get your shopping from somewhere else.

They've sold me out of date water before :-/

Out of date water? How long is the shelf life of a bottle of water? It must be bloody ages.

Well Tesco have been.

And no bastard water.

I work for Tesco Dot Com and we have one of the best Dot Com departments within the company. It usually bounces between first and second place. It's infuriating reading threads like these. It's hardly a job you can fuck up so spectacularly and yet so many stores seem to manage it.

SusanIvanova that's...not true. On the Tesco picker devices, if something is not in stock, you click 'not available'. Either a yellow message will appear with a suitable substitution or a yellow message saying XXX has requested no substitutions will show up. Even if a customer has requested no substitutions, you can click 'ignore' and send them one. If you don't feel the substitution is suitable, you can override the computers suggestion and pick your own. A picker in Tesco can give you anything - there are no limits. So cakedup ordered the large 1.5L bottles of Volvic water, but her local Tesco are saying they have none in stock. This is clearly a supplier problem as it's been going on for several weeks now. The next step would be to look for an alternative 1.5L bottle to sub. They claim they have none of these either, which I think we can all say is down to sheer bloody laziness on the employees behalf. But even if they didn't have any, I would automatically substitute multiple single bottles of a smaller size, or a smaller bottle size multipack. And I would be giving the OP the most expensive bottles on the shelf and doubling the amount she ordered to keep her happy and keep her custom, and this would be done at no extra cost to the OP.

Gawjushun the stores themselves are not out of pocket. There is a separate budget set aside for substitutions within the company. A stores only concern should be with keeping customers happy and keeping them coming back. We don't give a rats crap how much the substitution ends up costing in my store. If we don't have what the customer originally wanted in store, that pisses them off. So the rule of thumb goes: send bigger, send better, send more. Someone mentioned chicken a few posts ago. I had a lady order a small Tesco Value chicken at the weekend. The only ones we had in store had terrible use by dates (poor quality) so I couldn't send it. I sent her the biggest Tesco Finest chicken I could possibly find instead. The delivery driver said she was absolutely delighted. And why wouldn't she be? She got a free range, corn fed British £12 chicken for the price of her Tesco Value £3-ish one. Losing that ladies custom would cost the store more long term by pissing her off and screwing up her Sunday dinner than sending her a more expensive chicken in the short term.

OP make a nuisance of yourself. Keep complaining. Tell them you have a medical condition which prevents you from drinking the scummy tap water in your area and you are relying on this paid service to keep your health in check. Tell them you can start shopping elsewhere if they can't get their act together. The company's in trouble atm, they can't afford to lose more customers. If it were my store, we'd have sent a driver to an alternative Tesco to get your water for you, and then had them drop it off to you at a time suitable for you if we weren't able to get it in time for your actual delivery. If we knew this would be on ongoing issue, we would be doing all that we could to ensure we had X amount stored through the back for you specifically. The store needs to pull its finger out its arse and the staff sound like they need more training.

The problem (one of them, there are many) with Tesco's is they can be as shit as they like but people still keep going back, so why bother to improve it?
If they can't be arsed to send you an alternative, then go somewhere else.
The nappy thing is ridiculous, and my SiL once had her biological sensitive washing powder replaced with a box of normal powder she couldn't use due to a skin condition. When she complained she was offered a refund on a gift card, even though she wasn't at fault, forcing her to spend the £4-odd there and buy the powder somewhere else.
Instead of "Every Little Helps", their slogan should be "Fuck it, that'll do."

Wow VinoTime, really appreciate you coming on the thread and I wish all Tesco staff were as conscientious as you.

Really useful to know how the substitution thing works. Thanks for the advice, will do as you suggest.

Yes, I gathered it must be a supplier problem (was even thinking to complain to Volvic themselves) but that doesn't account for not substituting with a different brand. I wonder if i asked for a specific alternative brand in the sub notes I might get better results.

At the expense of sounding like a sad old git, it really is a shame how custom is not generally as valued as it once was. I was brought up in the restaurants my dad owned and later worked in them. The customer, was ALWAYS right. If a customer was unhappy, you would do anything to make them happy, even if it meant you lost your profit. Their continued custom would be more profitable in the long run, what to speak of the power of word of mouth. Yet time and time again, I see companies, big and small (mainly big actually) shrug off customers like they don't matter.

I wonder if it's an issue between Tesco and Volvic. Eg Tesco impose long payment terms so Volvic say they won't sell Tesco any more water until they pay up?

Or that they don't want to deal with water on home delivery because it's heavy and relatively cheap. It takes up too much room in the van that could be used for more profitable items like organic black truffle mushrooms .

The really big brands can hold their own against Tesco in games like this because if you can't get Heinz or Whiskas or Persil at Tesco a lot of people will say 'fuck it, I'm off to Sainsburys/asda/Waitrose instead'. I don't know whether Volvic are big enough to play that game.

Either specify another brand like Evian or Highland Spring or shop elsewhere.

It's right though that Tesco just don't give a fuck. I've complained over a couple of issues and they just give a generic 'sorry' without actually addressing your complaint.

The pickers have a very limited time to pick their orders,it's not sheer bloody laziness.

I had that once with all regular sized (portable) bottles of water, in store. Nowhere to be found! The staff were a bit bewildered too - I got 3 of them running around looking for water.....

Then there was the national shortage of tarragon in all supermarkets two years ago, lasted over two weeks! Had to ditch my planned recipe and use the chicken for something else.

I also managed to time my coat hanger buying poorly a few years ago - who knew there were so few suppliers of wooden coat hangers and tarragon?

That's not what was taught to the temps in our tesco. But I've started to realise our tesco is seen as the... last resort for terrible managers. Still, I'm wrong, sorry , at least I don't work there now (worked on checkouts anyway) so I can't balls up anyone's shopping.

Think it was a 6pk of highland spring sparkling water went out of date 3 months before I bought it from a tesco local.

You usually get well over a year before they go out of date

I think if I were you I'd add another brand of water to my order as well just in case they have that.

Although if I were really you I'd use ocado as we never have any issues with them and as they are warehouses not shops they can predict what's in stock far more accurately.

I've always wanted to try Ocado trashcansinatra, think they have a better range but always presumed it would be a lot more expensive than Tesco.

I always think Tesco is expensive compared to Aldi, Asda and Morrisons so Ocado might not be as expensive as you think, especially if you can manage not to buy too much of their more luxurious items.

Waitrose say they price match Tesco on a lot of branded goods, not sure if this applies to Ocado too. Waitrose Essential is good quality and well priced. They also do lots of good money off discounts for new customers and free midweek delivery on a smart pass (I think). I'm not sure of the exact ins and outs of this.