To want Sainsbury’s / Waitrose to pull their finger out with regard to home delivery booking for ‘vulnerable customers’

[Vole3]

Got the letter on Saturday telling me to go into 12 week exclusion.
Registered immediately on the gov.uk website as being a ‘vulnerable’ person.
Haven’t heard from either of the supermarkets named above who are meant to be ‘working with the government to identify our vulnerable customers and prioritise delivery slots’ and there is no other way to book a home delivery with them.
Nothing available for click and collect with them or any other home delivery / click and collect with other providers in a 20 mile radius.
Luckily picked up enough stuff for this week after I finished my shift as a front-line key health worker, but my main issue is non-food items like cat litter & cat food which my local farm shops don’t do.

What I want is a contact number to ring to confirm I am on the list and be able to book a delivery, even if it’s for after Easter, and then I will be able to plan how to survive until then. I’m a single parent to a hungry almost teenager with no family within 150 miles.
The local help team did phone yesterday, but as I have enough until next week I didn’t feel I was a priority case for a volunteer to be sent out. I’m an independent sort, I’ve had to be, and just want to be able to sort myself out as much as I can and leave the help for those who really need it.

The trouble is there are 1.5 million people who have received that letter (I am one of them)- as much as they might want to it’s not that easy to suddenly process that amount of data and figure out when/how you fit those people into your delivery capacity, they won’t have it systems designed for this scenario so I imagine a lot of manual effort required. I’m also getting quite stressed about food shopping but ultimately if it comes down to it I will have to ask for help from one of the volunteer groups near me- i know from reading posts on local social media that many kind people are desperate to help out but not being given too much to do yet while all the organisation gets sorted.

I will be asking my local volunteer network to help pick up meds etc. If you need help, you shouldn’t worry about asking them. There are lots of volunteers and you won’t be denying anyone else.

There is a contact number for sainsburys vulnerable customers on their homepage I think, have you phoned them? A friend got offered priority slots after registering with them. However you probably won't get one in next week as if they aren't booked by vulnerable customers they get opened up to public.

Why not ask the volunteer to shop for you in this instance? You can say you don't need it for a week and they can fit it in sometime by then. Hopefully you can secure regular slots in future if you don't like using the volunteer.

The phone number is only for those in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

It’s probably also the abrupt change in circumstance - going from donning full PPE and being part of the covid solution to being someone else’s problem in the same day.

The good news is that I managed to book a slot with Morrison’s for 20th April so cat food and litter will be on its way

I hope you get food. And I would take what is offered from volunteers. You don’t have to wait until there is no food. That volunteer could become ill, then there may be no one.

Why are you working if you’re on the 12 week list? Are you not able to get signed off?

Have you tried signing up with Iceland btw? They are supposed to have next day slots. However, having tried for a family member, this deffo isn’t the case...

Cat food can be purchased from amazon or other online retailers. I've always bought dog food from them, very reasonable. Try local butchers and smaller retailers who are all trying to keep their businesses afloat - many will go the extra mile to help you

The message I had from Ocado (I'm a regular customer) is that they're waiting for the government to send them the list of vulnerable people. Until then I know that Ocado are prioritising the vulnerable existing customers that they know about through their delivery drivers trying to identify them. When they have the government list they'll work out how many of them are already Ocado customers and go from there. It might just be that the government are still pulling the list together. I know that civil servants are working round the clock on stuff like this, while also working from home/self-isolating/dealing with sick and elderly relatives/children off school. I think they're doing their best with a situation that wasn't planned for.

I'm wondering how people can ask a volunteer to pick up your shopping if you can't book and pay for things (like a click & collect) online?

I assume they just go round the shop with your list and you transfer the money to them

Don't give up with the online slots, keeping looking all times of day and night. I've managed to get my parents and vulnerable sister a slot each for the next three weeks. Tesco in their area suddenly had some new slots appear with only two days notice, and I've managed to get a Morrison's one towards the end of the month too. My own shop is with Asda and again managing weekly online home delivery....but it is tiring and time consuming having to keep checking and checking and checking all the apps...at all times of the day and night to the point I wonder if I'm getting abit OCD about it!

I was working Saturday early shift and got home to find my letter - no more work for me.

Ocado & Iceland don’t deliver in my area. Have a small co-op local in my village but nearest bigger supermarket is 10 miles away

@Iorderedyouapancake What if they don't have the money in the first place, or the person doesn't have online banking?

Zooplus does cat food and cat litter online, if that helps.

@taddda if the volunteer doesn’t have the money to do that then I expect they could do a different volunteer role. If the person doesn’t have online banking then perhaps they could just put cash on the doorstep as the volunteer arrives. I’m sure there are plenty of solutions people will be able to come up with :)

@Iorderedyouapancake And if they dont have the cash at home, being unable to get to a cash point?

I suppose what I'm a little concerned about (alot of the older gen, like my MIL, doesn't have online banking) is that they'll be asked for their card and pin to do their shopping-

I wouldn't be comfortable with people doing this?

WutheringTights How can the delivery drivers possibly identify the vulnerable? We've been shopping with Ocado for years and never see the same driver twice.

We've got a trolley full of stuff but can't get on to view what's in the trolley and delivery is meant to be tomorrow. I know they're doing their best, but a little bit of communication about whether or not my delivery will arrive would be appreciated. Have no idea if they'll turn up or not.

Despite taking immunosuppressive drugs, my dh did not get one. Local gp confirmed he is very high risk and more suppressive drugs added within the last week. I registered him on website. However, what do they do to compare registers? If he is on the self registration list but missed off the nhs list, do they immediately ignore the online registrations? Still cannot get an online delivery slot or even a C & C slot. Impossible.

@Taddda yes I can understand why that would be a concern- as this is likely to be a short term issue until the supermarkets have sorted out their access to the vulnerable list can a family member not transfer the money for a week or 2 of shopping for her? For those with no one who can do this I’d recommend getting with one of the local charities who are working on the response to discuss options, I’m sure they’ll have some ideas

Getting in touch with, not getting with!

There are way more volunteers than work at the moment so please don’t worry about asking for help. We’re all on standby to come and assist but we need to be asked so please ask .

I also can't get a click and collect, or any slot, anywhere...

Its fair enough the supermarkets are now saying their shelves are fully stocked and they have enough food- but we are supposed to be ordering deliveries??

I suppose I'm just confused by it all- all these 'we are recruiting 1000's more staff, releasing more slots' but no evidence of this as yet and no timeline given...?

I really see a potential problem with people isolating having to give their cards/pins/bank details to volunteers just to get essentials, alot I know of wont do this (and most of the older dont bank online).

Please do bare in mind that all companies have been affected by CV and many are down on staffing by at least a third. Employees of Sainsbury's will also have had the 12 week letter/have staff in the flu jab category and have staff who are self isolating.
Their business has had unprecented demand with fewer staff. Just like DWP have for example and I see them being slated all the time for suddenly not being able to handle an extra 100k calls a day.
Key workers who are not in the NHS get nothing but grief.
I know it's hard, but believe me when I say business are working very hard and staff are putting their own families at risk (often very low paid staff) to meet demand.

It's frustrating but think we need to appreciate these things can't happen overnight.

In terms of money and volunteers I would speak to the council and see what they suggest. Impossibly you could order vouchers online and the volunteer could use those?

@ChipsAreLife good idea!