To think pre-ordered Xmas collections won't be substituted

[SouthWestmom]

Genuinely interested - I always knew the delivery services from supermarkets were just slots near Xmas and picked on the day so no guarantee of the products being delivered.

This year though I did two Christmas collect (different stores) ore -order things and both times was made aware on collection of substitutes.

Genuinely thought it was a way to guarantee the stuff you wanted

Errrr I don’t work for Ocado btw

That’s why I use them due to the little/no subs. But sprouts. At Christmas. That’s pretty basic isn’t it?

See a normal grocery shop I understand but the food to order Christmas bookings it's unacceptable not to have it.

They know in advance what stocks (normally ages in advance) they need so it doesn't make sense that they wouldn't have it.

If for example there was an issue at the factory or a lorry breaking down etc fair enough but to just not have it for no apparent reason.

I got the most substitutions this time. I think I've had 1 in 3 months from ASDA. This time I had 7 and 1 thing unavailable!
I declined most substitutions as it was things like GF mince pies replaced with GF apple pies!

I was also surprised as it had been ordered well in advance and it was dried goods they didn't have. But ds and I went to local Tesco that evening at 9pm - it was dead and we got everything!

It's annoying, especially as they make a big song and dance about booking a Christmas slot in plenty of time, and it taking the stress out of shopping; if you book for the 23rd so things don't go off it's too late usually for popular items if they're sold out.

I got my Christmas delivery on the 23rd and half of my stuff what I wanted wasn't available and the rest were substituted so annoyingly my husband had to go back out to town and practically do the whole shop, I've usually had no problem with my Christmas delivery and it to save the stress of getting caught in the middle of a supermarket getting rammed with pensioners trolleys. So I've decided tonight I'm going to a 24 hrs asda a 1am and I'm hoping it will be restocked and quiet 😬

We use Ocado for this very reason. We've had the lowest amount of subs from them - Tesco used to be horrendous. And what I like about Ocado is that nothing has been displayed on a shelf in a supermarket, it's all fresh from the warehouse. Fruit and veg lasts so much longer than other supermarkets.

I'm still pissed off they've dropped Waitrose as that's the bulk of my shopping but I'll still with it until we see if anything changes.

My delivery from Iceland a couple of years back (first and only time I used them) was on Christmas Eve and was missing the turkey stuffing and Brussels and last year my tescos order was missing stuffing and ham. This year I just went to Aldi and bought what I needed

Our Tesco deliveries also come from a warehouse, although we usually only do it for a large heavy shop

I ordered toys from sainsburys and 4 were substituted which was annoying but more annoying was that some of the substitutes were toys already on the order

Tesco delivered my order on Thursday and what a clusterfuck that was. the large chicken with guaranteed 5+ days was the size of a sparrow and went out of date today. the delivery driver didn’t point this out at the beginning else i would have refused it.

distinctly underwhelmed, i managed to bag a slot with Asda so hopefully christmas is saved when they deliver tomorrow night.

so, not really a substitution problem here, just obfuscation and bitter disappointment. which led me to eat all the cheese in a fit of pique, so once again hurray for Asda!

Do you mean M&S Chris food to order? If so then no I would never expect what you ordered not to be available. Going to collect mine in the morning, I hope there's nothing missing!

It doesn't guarantee (unless it's the pre-order items from the Christmas food to order lists, although when I did that with Morrison's that didn't even guarantee it a couple years ago!) but they have to sub it. I tried to edit my Tesco order but if I do and check out they will delete my packaged beef joint as it isn't in stock now, so I haven't edited it because they will have to sub it now and I'm hoping it'll be something better. But they could be out of stock of all beef joints and leave me with nothing but I'm assuming not!

I do assume a couple of things won't be available and a trip to the shops may be necessary, didn't have to at all last year, had to get quite a few things the year before, but either way it's a lot easier than a full Xmas shop right before Xmas!!

Last year my Christmas (and also New Year) M&S food to order was ordered in early November but when I collected on Chrismas eve and New Years eve more than 50% were substitutions and not suitable for the dietary requirements of guests. I thought with M&S food to order the stock would have been pretty much reserved (unlike normal supermarket online deliveries) but it wasn't just me it seemed to be everyone in the queue. I wasn't going to trust them again this year!

Yes m and s Christmas food to order and Waitrose the same.

Yesterday Waitrose said no substitutes and I was like and today marks had a substitute but had gone above and beyond to sort it and were lovely

Just surprised that it wasn't guaranteed that's all - if I'd ordered the Christmas Colin I'd have been super annoyed as they are out of stock on the shelves all the time

I think they stopped paying attention to what anyone pre ordered when someone on here suggested filling the basket with 6 bottles of champagne or other expensive item to reserve the delivery slot and then change it to veg last minute.

Every year I’ve had tonnes of crappy substitutions. This year I got up early I went to a massive Sainsbury’s at 10. Couldn’t get in the car park, couldn’t get everything I needed, spent £180.00 then went and faced the same mad rush at Tesco.

I’ll take the substitutions next year.

It's usually not too bad for Ocado subs around Christmas. I've a Christmas Eve delivery and reckon I'll get around 5 missing items/subs. I had a delivery for the 20th where I get longer life and non-perishables and only had one missing item.

The one year we used Waitrose instead was awful, there were so many missing items and I spent 2 hours walking round various supermarkets to even get the basics.

Tesco guarantee the festive food to order. It's ordered in especially for you and marked up in a box with your name on so no else can have it (my delivery driver said so today as I as relieved I didn't have a sub for it!). He also said Tesco arrange less deliveries in their Christmas slots so if something happened like sickness or breakdown they could definitely find cover for those deliveries. They also subbed me a £3.50 Tesco finest meal for 1 for a £10 meal for 2 so happy days today.

I get it. I logged onto my order which is arriving tomorrow and half has been subbed. I think this close to Christmas they just run out of stuff unfortunately.

Tesco have their festive food to order which you had to have in basket by a certain date and now you can't remove it from your basket as it's been ordered. Ours is due tomorrow so we will see! I suspect we will get some subs for stuff but all the important stuff is their festive food to order stuff.

This happened to me a few years back. I was due our Christmas delivery at 9 pm on 23rd. It had been s owing but roads were fine. ..the cancelled the delivery at about 8pm and we got nothing.

I was dining and had to get my arse down to the supermarket crack of dawn the next day to do the shop. We had plans that day so was a load of stress
Another year I pre ordered a turkey crown from M and S and it was bloody tiny. So I ended up buying extra.

I now just plan to go and plan for it to take a couple of hours but can get what I want and chose my own substitutions.

If my M&S order has missing items tomorrow I will be really cross as I ordered it ages ago. Have never had a problem before though.

Our Tesco, Asda or Morrison’s orders are all picked in our local stores so if the food isn’t on the shelves you won’t be getting it.

The pickers start at 4am in Tesco Christmas week but there is no guarantee the food will be available. You are booking your slot that’s all, it’s subject to availability. I would rather go myself so I can at least pick a substitution I can work with.

I honestly don’t know why people bother booking delivery/click and collect slots.

They won’t get a chunk if their items and will end up scrambling in the supermarket days behind Christmas like everyone else 😂! The pickers take items from the shelves so if it’s sold out in the store then it’s not getting delivered to your house either 👍🏻

Non shelved Christmas order items like fancy desserts and stuffed turkeys...etc ‘should’ be different but sometimes its unavoidable. A batch gets damaged or turkeys don’t weigh as much as they predicted and suddenly they don’t have enough to meet their orders.