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.

It’s ridiculous that they’ve relied on delivery driver s to identify Ive tried multiple time’s to contact Ocado even offering to send them my letter and dc dla and pip letters and they keep saying no that their drivers and support centre have already identified who is vulnerable so basically some households are being totally left
Same with Sainsbury’s when I finally got through I was told ‘we’ve identified as many vulnerable customers as we can and we can’t process anymore ‘ oh great we are all cured then ffs

And as for the smart pass priority- it’s worthless as even if you get on there aren’t any delivery slots

I think you'd be better looking at the local volunteer network and neighbours tbh. We managed to get a slot for Sainbury's home delivery, but we are not classed as vulnerable so we included shopping for 3 sets of elderly neighbours in our order.

@Iorderedyouapancake MIL is okay luckily- we are getting everything she needs to her now (although she's really missing shopping herself! Usually very independent!).

Some of her friends are not though, still going shopping themselves (over 70's) and more than once a week as alot dont drive and can't carry many bags at one time- they're used to picking up 'a few bits' daily.

Just hopefully they'll be able to sort all of this out soon (I'd also like to book a click and collect!?)

My granny's small local co-op are delivering to her. It could be worth ringing them to ask.

That's good to know @Bromeliad ! I'll look into seeing whether MILs local is doing the same, alot shop there - thank you

www.zooplus.co.uk

For all of your pet needs OP.

Currently delivery times are longer than normal, approx 10 days.

It takes time!

We got letter on Wednesday, registered with GOV.UK on Thursday and online slots opened to us on Saturday.

I'm volunteering with two local groups, and so far have only had two errands to run for people, and those have only been to pick up medication. Lots of us are sitting on our sofas waiting to be asked to do something. So please, please, contact those groups who want to help.

Really getting paid for shopping you do for others. If anyone has a solution my local group would be very grateful. The way I have arranged it with the person I shop for is that I leave the shopping on the doorstep with the receipt and she will put the money in an envelope to be collected (under the doormat) when I next have to visit her. Luckily I can afford to be out of pocket for that time, but I’m not sure what happens if the volunteer can’t afford To be.

This person usually shops at Waitrose and she rang me sometime later staggered at how low the bill was – because I had shopped at the co-op. I think when all this is back to normal Waitrose have lost a customer!

We got letter on Wednesday, registered with GOV.UK on Thursday and online slots opened to us on Saturday.

Can you explain how that works in more detail?
With who?
Did you have the same email and phone number ?
Did you have to register with the supermarket?

Thanks

Also camping here for explanation on exactly how that happened

I’m at my wits end on how to get this sorted (preferably without having to register for free food parcels, but I’ll do that if it’s the only way)

@crunchymum
Hi, can you explain the process please?
I got the letter and registered too. Who contacted you next and how? Thanks

@ElizabethMainwaring

No-one contacted me. I have been checking everyday since I registered.

On Saturday morning I noted the delivery slots had been opened up. I could chose any slot from Sunday morning onwards!

I picked my slot, filled my basket and then checked out. When I went in to edit, I could only edit the basket (not the delivery slot time and date)

It seems to be working differently depending on where you are based? Some people are getting emails to confirm they are a priority customer? I didn't.

Taddda

I had exactly the same thoughts re cash, cash points, payment.

This whole thing feels a little bit amateurish. It shouldn't be left up to volunteers organised through Facebook groups to set this up. These are possibly vulnerable people and they shouldn't be having to rely on strangers with no DBS etc.

I've also got a problem with the vulnerable list being shared with supermarkets.

The supermarkets who offer delivery have a years worth of demand in 2 weeks
They have the same colleagues who will have been identified as vunerable
Peoples orders are bigger so less drops are possible on the vans
Click and collect takes staff from shop floor, so again impacted by colleague availability

If you're in a town or village I'm sure you've had offers of help, as many seem to have had. If you're in a house on its own, like us, then maybe not, you'd have to look at local Facebook pages etc to see who might be offering help.

The community help group I am running has the following options for shopping payments, to try to minimise the financial and health risks:

• click and collect
• online/phone banking funds transfer
• Paypal transfer
• use contactless debit card to max value of £30
• cash/cheque to max value of £30
• someone else (family? friend?) who could pay.

If none of those are options then we pass the call on to our local foodbank which is organising emergency provision

If anyone is really stuck in this position you could try meal delivery service such as parsley box they are taking orders again

1.5 million letters went out. It’s like Christmas x 100. The shops are down on staff. There are only so many vans available, 7 is a normal number, could be more, could be less. You are not guaranteed a slot. The shops couldn’t possibly offer it to everyone.

They don’t have to offer it up everyone

But perhaps they should not then publish that they are offering it

And they should make it possible for those who have the letter to actually register this, to access the service that they currently say exists

Yes, good idea. They shouldn’t have offered it at all.

Amazon have cat litter and cat food.

I agree it is worrying that the information hasn't been passed on. I registered on the government list last Tuesday. I've contacted the supermarkets myself but they all have said until they are able to access the government list, then there is nothing they can do.

I don't mind asking a volunteer to run an errand and fetch a few things that I've ran out of, but it's a lot to ask a stranger do a weekly shop to feed a family.

DameXanaduBramble

The government can't tell 1.5 million people not to leave their homes but have no way for them to be able to get food. I understand supermarkets don't have the capacity but what do vulnerable do? Just starve?