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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

About online grocery delivery?

39 replies

AnneEtAramis · 04/06/2017 09:13

Absolutely willing to be told I am.

I live in a flat with no lift, 16 stairs in two sections to the first floor. Yesterday my grocery delivery arrived and the driver shouted out that if no lift I would need to come down and help him. His tone was shit so that got my back up, but putting that aside I sort of expect them to deliver to my door because I feel that's why I order so I don't have to do the stairs. Any other delivery is brought to the door. If you live in a flat do you go and collect/help? Maybe I have been doing it wrong all this time. Maybe I wrong though.

OP posts:
ASilhouetteAndNothingMore · 04/06/2017 09:55

My DH is a delivery driver and he gets far more annoyed at having to navigate around piles of crap in hallways and awkwardly parked cars on drives than he does with stairs. The boxes are heavy and in an afternoon shift he often has around 80 kilos to carry throughout the shift.
He takes the shopping to the kitchen and is CRB checked because of this.
He gets pissed off when people expect him to put their shopping away! Unless they are elderly then he does help.

melj1213 · 04/06/2017 12:20

I work for a supermarket and we get occasional complaints from customers when delivery drivers won't bring their shopping up to their flat, however our online shopping T&C does basically say that whilst we will deliver to the main door of your building, if you're in flat our divers are allowed to use their discretion as to whether they'll bring it right to your front door.

Delivery drivers have many different orders to fulfil, they have to lug crates of (often) heavy and/or bulky items up and down stairs on a daily basis and they have to prioritise their health and safety over individual customers' wishes.

A lot of the time they will do their best to go beyond dropping the stuff at the door and leaving, but when you have an order of: a 20L bag of cat litter, crate of 20 tins of cat food, box of 30cans of coke, 6 pack of bottled water and all the other bags of shopping, it's not like they can just tuck it under their arm and hop up the three flights of stairs to your flat.

Then factor in the fact that grocery delivery routes often try to group orders geographically and, in my town at least, certain areas tend to be all flats ... so your delivery driver may have already carried half a dozen orders up 10 flights of stairs today and yours is just the delivery that broke the camels back, and if you have no reason not to help, then you should to make their job easier, especially when they are using their discretion to even deliver to your front door.

One of my colleagues ended up off work for over 6 months because they hurt their back lugging heavy shopping crates up and down stairs to customers. When they came back they were ruled fit for work but doctors put a limit to the weight they could carry at once and the maximum flights of stairs they could carry stuff up before they risked re-damaging their back. They were instructed by managers to stick to our "deliver to the main door of your building" rule, unless there was a lift, no matter what customers said (and of they did use their discretion to ignore that instruction they acknowledged it voided their insurance cover). The store would rather deal with customers being unhappy - as they technically had agreed to the T&Cs re:delivery point and the fact it was driver discretion as to if they brought it further - than all the issues that arise from workplace injuries.

OhtoblazeswithElvira · 04/06/2017 13:37

a 20L bag of cat litter, crate of 20 tins of cat food, box of 30cans of coke, 6 pack of bottled water

Do you mean to say that the crates are packed without considering basic manual handling? That appropriate time for delivery is not factored into the drivers' schedules? How is that the customer's fault who thinks (s)he has paid for home delivery to their, erm, home?

Louiselouie0890 · 04/06/2017 14:01

I thought most places it was at the discretion of the driver

Fiona1984 · 05/06/2017 07:24

I do tend to order heavy stuff or in bulk for home delivery. I don't currently have a car, and even when I manage to borrow one, I struggle to carry the heavy stuff back to the car. Last weeks order included 2 x 10kg bags of cat litter and a 40 pack of whiskas pouches (although that wasn't heavy, just big)

AnnieAnoniMouse · 05/06/2017 07:34

When I lived in a (first floor, external staircase) flat I never had one refuse. I used Ocado, Tesco & Sainsbury.

If they'd refused, I'd have refused the delivery. Having it carried upstairs was why I ordered online.

lizzyj4 · 05/06/2017 07:44

First floor I can see and if there's a lift, no problem. But I do think it's a bit unreasonable to expect delivery drivers to lug boxes and boxes of shopping up many flights of steps. I'm sure the minuscule delivery charge just about covers petrol, if that.

Calphurnia · 05/06/2017 08:03

I'm 40+ weeks pregnant with SPD & the delivery I had over the weekend wouldn't bring it in for me. One step into the house. Can't wait for the "rate our driver" email...

Kokusai · 05/06/2017 08:11

Surely people read the T&Cs about how many stairs the drivers will deliver it to before ordering?

Hardly any have a 'deliver to door at all costs' policy.

When I was flat hunting I was all like "loft not essential" but the block we got a flat in did actually have a lift. I would never get a flat in a block without a lift now! So so so handy for food deliveries, going camping, moving in and out, everything!

He gets pissed off when people expect him to put their shopping away
I can't believe people expect help putting shopping away.

MTBMummy · 05/06/2017 08:24

DP was a online grocery driver for a well known supermarket, and their Terms and Conditions do state that they'll deliver to the front door of the building. If the driver goes beyond, the store accepts no liability if something were to happen to them, for example put their back out, and trust me their sick pay is shit, you don't work, you don't get paid.

That said, I know DP often lugged dozens of bottles of water up stairs, helped people unpack, even helped an elderly lady open some jars.

You may find the driver was having a bad day, was already injured and couldn't risk further injury by lugging thing upstairs.

aurorie11 · 05/06/2017 08:28

It's not just stopping. Argos wouldn't deliver bedroom furniture to the bedroom and there were two delivery guys

Weebittymarchpane · 05/06/2017 08:38

I thought you said 16 flights of stairs and no lift and I was thinking poor guy! But 16 stairs... he should be doing that.

BalthazarImpresario · 05/06/2017 09:01

I think you should put how many stairs no loft etc in the delivery info (tesco have a section for property type) so that they know what the driver is likely to encounter, just out of courtesy but yanbu to have them bring it to your door.

lornathewizzard · 05/06/2017 09:57

We used Tesco a lot and never once had a prob, although I was pregnant or with a small baby mostly when we got deliveries. Used Sainsbury's a few times, and they brought it up the outside stairs (so to the main door) but not up the inside stairs.

However I used to work for a furniture company and we would constantly get complaints about things not being brought in, even tho it was in t+c's that it was drivers discretion etc. Always read the terms and conditions folks!

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