Ocado are suspending their reserved order system

[Neednewwellies]

I’ve been using Ocado for 12yrs. We pay extra for a reserved pass. A week or so ago they emailed to say existing customers were priority and especially those with a reserved slot. Made a thing about supporting loyalty etc. Now today I’ve received an email telling me that not only is the delivering expecting tomorrow not coming but they’ve decided to suspend the reserved slots and it’s every (wo)man for themselves. Of course, there’s no slot available for weeks.
I’m angry and worried. Why not continue to prioritise those who have a set slot. Surely adding those thousands into the traffic of people desperately trying to get a slot will just make the situation worse? As soon as this is over I’ll be leaving them. No way will I continue to pay extra when they’ve behaved like this. How can they leave it until the day before to drop this on us? £150 a week plus the monthly fast pass fee to be treated like this. I wouldn’t even mind if they were on twitter holding their hands up but they’ve gone silent.

This shopping thing is the worst part of the situation right now.

I received my priority email at 3.30 this afternoon and got on the site. There were no delivery slots available, but I did my order anyway as I thought some might become available afterwards or on checkout. When I tried to view the trolley at the end it threw me out and I'm unable to get back in.

I'm trying to buy for my husband and I (husband is in vulnerable group) and my daughter, who is a single parent living with 2 small children. She tried to do a shop at the supermarket on Friday, but my husband had to go to watch the children in the car while she queued for an hour to get in.

Sorry for the pity party as I know others are in a far worse position, but I needed to either rant or have a cry. Might do both anyway as the responsibility of making sure we all get feed is weighing on me.

Do you think there's any chance of getting another delivery this week or even next?

@knittingaddict we have a community facebook group and they are brilliant for this kind of thing - loads of local corner shops are delivering, some of the local hotels are doing a box of food. Nextdoor app is great too - someone posted last week about their inability to get food - over 20 people offered to go out and get their shopping. Try finding your local groups - ours is amazing!

I really don't know, @knittingaddict

We are also waiting for our email to tell us it's our turn. Whether it will come and whether we will get a slot I don't know.

At least I was able help my elderly mum with her order when she got her priority slot - that's where I got the screenshot of the email from - so she'll be ok for a while. She has MS and diabetes, amongst other issue, so I was very worried about her going out.

I agree that shopping is becoming all encompassing at the moment. It's crazy, but I can't see any alternative but to keep obsessing over it because people who really should not be leaving their homes are going to end up having to, the way things are going.

I believe you should keep trying, knittingaddict. Things chop and change all the time so persevere with patience. Good luck.

Just hopping on the Ocado website randomly from time to time seems to work well. Sometimes you just get in really quickly.

Local food wholesalers are also doing deliveries near us of fresh fruit and veg plus milk and eggs. It may be worth googling.

@knittingaddict, are you in FB? If so, hopefully there’s a local help group on there. Ours is called, all in this together. Others are called, a friend in need or a helping hand. Try those and explain your situation. Did you get a leaflet through your door from a neighbour? I popped some through and had added some things for a neighbour who contacted me. Good luck

Thank you for the kind words. It really helps and I feel a bit calmer now.

I almost wish they hadn't sent the email at all as it got my hopes up, only to be dashed.

I think we will have to visit a shop later in the week and see if we can do a big shop for all of us and drop my daughters round to her.

I'm assuming priority slots for the vulnerable are for the most vulnerable group rather than the merely vulnerable ones.

We aren't at the food parcel stage yet and I know there are many out there much worse off. I think we would prefer valuable resources to go to the ones who really can't get out or help themselves.

I've had no emails from Ocado about ordering arrangements since Wednesday. I have a delivery due on 1st April and nothing booked thereafter. I have no idea if I will be able to get anything later in April.

I assume what's happening is that everybody who ever created an Ocado account has gone back to them, even if for the past few years they've not used Ocado much. The demand has thus skyrocketed to ten times normal levels. That's tough to handle, we all know that. I just wish they would send out some sort of communication.

I am a regular customer with a Smart Pass. If I knew I would eventually be able to get an order from Ocado in mid-April I could curtail other shopping trips locally (I'm in inner London). I'm not asking for any sort of priority over vulnerable people, just a headsup. Even if the email said 'Frankly we don't know what the position might be in two weeks' time' that would be of some help to me in deciding what to do right now.

It's disappointing because their communications and customer service are normally very good, so the bar is set high.

When I go to the Ocado website at the moment I get the log in screen and then I get this:

We have no new delivery slots today
Updated at 10am, Saturday March 28th

We will have no delivery slots available for general release today as we prioritise some deliveries (including our identified vulnerable customers).

Unfortunately, it is no longer possible to edit orders for Saturday and Sunday. If you have an order for Monday or Tuesday, please come back on Sunday morning.

This might be tailored to people in a specific geographic area. I don't know. But it's no help to me at all in trying to plan what to do about food over the next few weeks. Oh well, could be worse. The local shops do have food and so far my household members are fit.

Sorry not read the full thread but they only emailed me on Thursday to say that as a FastPass customer I was entitled to a priority slot and I'd receive an email. Email came this afternoon so straight away I logged on. Took 25 minutes to get onto the website and then no slots to be had. Pointless and I'm cancelling

Jumping on this thread in case anyone can answer a question: substitutions at the moment. The answer I can find on ocado is 'Until further notice we are not taking back returns after delivery.' Has anyone rejected substitutions recently? I'm not clear whether this means you can't refuse substitutions or you can't ask them to take something back the next time they deliver.

Weirdly I got onto a priority queue (assuming it's because of a tues delivery). No emails though

I think the last few posts just reiterate that it’s so random; both the emails and the slot availability. There is no consistency in terms of access or communication.

I booked 3 slots, one a week a few weeks ago as I figured life would start to get more difficult.

My last slot is this week and I have tried not to bulk buy and just do my usual shop. After this week I am buggered.

I am a transplant patient on immune suppressant medication, also have a genetic condition where 2/3rds of my immune system doesn't work so had the texts and letter saying I am in the extremely vulnerable group.
My son has had bone marrow transplants but is now having complications so his white cells and neutrophils are rock bottom means immune system is struggling.

My partner is working from home for at least 3 months to protect us (he also donated his kidney to me and struggling to get his kidney function up to what was originally expected).
If he leaves the house we have to have separate bedrooms, bathrooms, cutlery, towels etc so figured it would be easier for us all in isolation to avoid any risk ( and I want to hug him). We isolated a week before lockdown on the renal consultants advice.
I have been with ocado for years and years due to ill health.

I have contacted them via email, no response, twitter direct message is painful as every message asking for my details etc takes 3 days for them to reply. The communication with them so far has taken 9 days and no further forward.

After next week we are stuck! My sister is transplant patient and my elderly parents have health issues which puts them in the same position.

I am really disappointed and will probably say goodbye to Ocado after this. A longterm customer who is in a vulnerable position is surely more priority than somebody who has just joined?

I am trying my hardest to not be a burden on the government, they have offered food parcels but I do not know anything more and would prefer them to go to an elderly person on their own.

This is really stressing me out :(

I got the second email saying it was my turn to book a slot- managed to get a delivery for Monday 6th, spent the best part of an hour getting sorted, then as I went to check out it booted me out and I’ve not been able to get back in. So that was pretty annoying and I presume I won’t get chance to have a another go for a good week now?

I'm so sorry @maggie222, that sounds like you are in a very difficult and stressful position because you have no certainty and real health needs.

I've been telling myself that it was kind of ok that Ocado has messed me around, because it's helping vulnerable customers like you, so it's really upsetting to hear that Ocado aren't looking after you properly either!

You're not in London are you? If so I have details of lots of places you can potentially order groceries (the wholesalers who sell to restaurants are all repurposing for home delivery!)

I'm really disappointed in Ocado. I think they should have done something like prioritise customers who have made regular weekly shops over 1+ years (not just Anytime Smart Pass customers!). Also their communications have been really poor -- and now they've stopped having customer services people on the phone, it makes it really inaccessible for elderly people to even get in touch with them.

I sent an email to Ocado with a copy of my
Blue badge and having been a customer using reserve and book since 2018 asking if they’d still be doing guaranteed orders on reserve. I got a generic reply. Won’t be continuing with them either. Now 15 days not leaving the house so totally reliant on our food being delivered.

Yesterday it said on their page that anyone who was expecting a delivery on Monday or Tuesday would be able to edit between 8 and 3 today. Surprise surprise, that message is now gone and I can’t get onto my order at all.

Why are they not allowing you to edit your orders?

I shop with ASDA. Was lucky to get a delivery slot for next week and am able to edit etc. No restrictions.

Why are they not allowing you to edit your orders?

I’m guessing to reduce the numbers on the website. You can only access the website if you have an order coming up in the next couple of days. There is no point otherwise, you can’t book a delivery so you are just clogging it up.

It’s now been replaced by this message:

*If you want to edit an order for later this week, please come back on Monday.

It is likely that we will bring order cut-off times forward, so we ask you to complete your order in one session to avoid disappointment later.*

No mention of people expecting an order tomorrow being able to edit between 8 and 3 now!

Well it looks like I’m the only one but I’m pretty happy with Ocado.
Last Saturday (remember, the website had been down for a while and they said it would be accessible from Sat) I tried to log on every hour or approx 1pm when I was not only able to log on but also to book a slot for this weekend.
Then I received the priority queue email for Anytime Smart Pass holders yesterday, logged on 1h afterwards (3:30pm) and there were slots available for next weekend, so this is now booked.

To the people getting kicked out of the queue or website, are you using a phone/tablet? I find that it works better from a computer, and also you have to monitor it as the wait time is usually less than what they estimate. I hope this helps!

I’ve just been able to access the website to edit my next two orders.

Ocado have gone into meltdown they don’t seem to be fairing well at all but other supermarkets do. The only way they can prioritise the vulnerable is from the government registration service which the government have told them they must check their customer base against but there are only a million or so registered on there and not all of them will be Ocado customers. They’ll be spread out over the other 7 supermarkets who deliver.

I’m just so hacked off with it all we pay for a smart pass and spend a lot of money with them but we’ve been abandoned yet they won’t cancel the smart pass. Also sick of supermarkets basically assuming it’s ok for me to get sick, it’s a bit of a lottery as to how badly you’re affected not just those with underlying health conditions. We have 2 young toddlers who are completely dependent on us, what would happen to them if we both got really sick, I feel like a lot of us a being fed to the wolves.