To think Ocado are on their way out?

[AlternativePerspective]

They treated many of their customers shockingly during the pandemic. Broke the app and haven’t brought it back, and I have been told there is no timeframe as to when it will be brought back, they roll out a boiler template that it’s gradually going to be rolled out to a small selection of customers to ensure it works.

This is the only online only supermarket, and they’re the one who have failed the most spectacularly.

M&S are supposed to be online with them from Monday but with no app for many people shopping with them won’t be an easy thing to do so they won’t bother. Added to which M&S are looking to cut their costs anyway.

I speculated to my DP the other day that I will be surprised if Ocado are still around in a year’s time.

It’s a shame. They used to be a flagship online shop, now they’re the worst online supermarket.

@Clymene

I wouldn't go anywhere near Ocado since they made clear their absolute disdain for women.

Not this rubbish again!! They did nothing of the sort!

They were caught in the crossfire of a trans/anti-trans spat on Twitter.

Posy Parker arranged for her first poster to be displayed in Liverpool. The poster company was pressured into taking it down. Cue TRAs targeting companies that used the poster company, demanding support. Ocado tweeted a generic message of support that promised to look into it. Feminists retaliated by boycotting Ocado.

Ocado rang customers to apologise. That still wasn't good enough for the hard-core boycotters.
I bet no-one can even remember the name of the company that actually removed the poster.

@TheFallenMadonna

We found it great during lockdown. I added my parents' addresses and they got deliveries frequently enough to manage (two separate addresses), and then when they upped the frequency you could have, I restarted deliveries to us too. We are completely back to normal, with deliveries as often as we like, very few missing items or substitutions and plenty of slot availability. I just did my first order with M&S stuff and it looks OK. Fingers crossed it works out.

Yes because you were clearly a long term customer. Please see my previous comment

@Twatalert I strongly suspect Ocado prioritised high spending smart pass customers, gave them a slot every week, and the rest had to battle for slots waiting and refreshing the website for hours.

They did, they said as much as in an email to me (I was shielding). Apparently as I hadn't spent over their threshold within the previous 3 months! I was on the government register. Gobsmacked!

Yep, same experience here @Alwaysinpain

[quote Alwaysinpain]**@Twatalert* I strongly suspect Ocado prioritised high spending smart pass customers, gave them a slot every week, and the rest had to battle for slots waiting and refreshing the website for hours.*

They did, they said as much as in an email to me (I was shielding). Apparently as I hadn't spent over their threshold within the previous 3 months! I was on the government register. Gobsmacked! [/quote]
They didn't.

I don't have a smart pass, had only ordered at Christmas for a year or so and am not any any kind of list. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Ocado have been amazing. I had been planning to leave them when my smart pass expired due to M&S change, higher prices and too much packaging.

But they have been incredible during the pandemic. There was only one week when I couldn't get a delivery, and I luckily managed to get a Waitrose one then instead.

I like ocado as I'm buying from the warehouse so it's more reliable (although my local waitrose is much better than it was).

Big thumbs up to ocado from me. I'm really grateful for the way they fed us when things were difficult and the drivers are great.

I've found the great since the initial pandemic difficulties. No one was prepared for it, yeah they may have been able to handle it differently but feel their service has returned to normal here. Sad that Waitrose will be gone, but their own brand stuff is fine. Perhaps because I use a lot of eco, dairy-free things and vegetarian things I am more loyal, as they were well ahead of the curve with this and have a much better range than a lot of places.

@QueenJulian

The Ocado app has been working for weeks now!

Not for me! Anytime smart pass customer spending roughly £150 per week (Because I shop for two households one of which only has organic). So I don’t think they care how loyal you are or how much you spend. This is the screen I got today....

@ZarkingBell agree about the drivers - really appreciate the lovely ones - just a tiny bit of kindness and friendliness in the day can make a big difference for me after a stressful day of work or toddler wrangling.

Also Waitrose might be better to farmers but they are the ones leaving Ocado to set up their own delivery. If you want their products you can switch quite easily. There's been a lot of backlash against Ocado as tho they've somehow caused the change.

I think Ocado will do fine. They had an awful time when people panicked at the start of lock down and they tried their best. I went from weekly slots to fortnightly, every 10 day then weekly. I survived!!!!

My Ocado shop has doubled since face masks were made mandatory and I have no intention of leaving them even though I never historically shop with M&S food. I will try bits and pieces and I’m sure they will be fine.

I’ve generally found Ocado very good. I didn’t use it over the height of the pandemic as there are elderly and vulnerable people who needed the slots more than we do. I’ve gone back now there doesn’t seem to be a problem with getting slots in my area.

However, I have zero interest in a regular M&S shop - their ranges are more limited and more expensive than Waitrose so I will just shop Waitrose and Sainsbury’s instead.

Yes because you were clearly a long term customer

I was a customer since Ocado started. I’ve been an anytime smartpass holder for at LEAST 10 years, probably a lot more. I’ve shopped every five days or so, all through with ALL my shopping from them so not low value.

They cancelled all my booked slots, couldn’t get me a delivery until I called to cancel my smart pass in April. Even now I’m restricted to one delivery a week!

I'm sure the availability of slots was area specific.

We're on shielded list and could get Ocado all the way through. Couldn't get Sainsbury's, Tesco or any other supermarket at all.

I don't get the big deal re the app? The website is fine to use on a phone. I was initially a bit sad about losing Waitrose products. I like their meat. But happy to substitute for M&S products which are also excellent quality and seem to have brought their prices down at least to start with.

When vulnerable but irregular customers (like me) tried to log in, they couldn't. Or there were ZERO slots available - ever.

@Alwaysinpain Well they have to reward loyalty surely? They don't owe you anything TBH.

I had accounts with Tesco, Ocado and Waitrose long before Covid, going back years.

I was able to get orders with Tesco and Ocado- not always but perhaps once a fortnight - and that was brilliant as I used Tesco for my 93 yr old mother, 400 miles away. She was vulnerable because of age but nothing else.

I could not get slots with Waitrose because I hadn't ordered from them recently online (because they opened a new store near me ) even though pre-lockdown I'd spend around £100 a week in the local store in person.

Yes because you were clearly a long term customer.

Most other supermarkets also prioritised their paid up members first too ime. We looked for slots on a few sites for someone we know who was shielding and, as we/they weren't already users of their sites, it was incredibly difficult to get on there and we didn't actually manage to get a slot using that service with any of the big supermarkets claiming to prioritise shielded people.

So our experience is that pretty much all the big supermarket deliveries prioritised the paid up loyal members first, before opening up to other customers. In our area anyway.

I don't think Ocado were unusual in that they offered more slots to the customers who have paid upfront for several years first.

@BuggerOffAndGoodDayToYou have you actually spoken to them? I am able to get slots every 5 days now and only have a midweek pass.

I miss that you don't see photographs of your shop at the end

I get photographs of my shop at the end on the website.
Have you tried clicking the button options - I think there is a choice of list or photographs on there somewhere.

It was frustrating that they had to cancel the regular rebooked weekly slots, but you can understand why they did really. The way that system was set up was based on a system with far fewer people using it. They couldn't have predicted what would happen this year, and the system had worked perfectly fine previously.

@byvirtue

I think Ocado will do fine. They had an awful time when people panicked at the start of lock down and they tried their best. I went from weekly slots to fortnightly, every 10 day then weekly. I survived!!!!

My Ocado shop has doubled since face masks were made mandatory and I have no intention of leaving them even though I never historically shop with M&S food. I will try bits and pieces and I’m sure they will be fine.

Yes, it is truly awful to have too many customers come to you and make a shitload of extra money It is so awful that you also remove most offers and milk those who manage to get a slot and piss off those long-term but not high value enough customers who could not.

I remember hearing the CEO on R4 and he said yes he would look after loyal customers as online delivery was their business (ie different to Tesco etc)

It was the right way to go. The only thing I would question re also prioritising vulnerable customers is how did they know who was?

I also have memories of posting here at 3am trying to get a slot, fun times (glad that’s over!)

RE M&S - I think they have brought out a lot more food productions and options ready for this launch, so I am looking forward to seeing what they have.

It was trickier to get deliveries at the start of lockdown but where I live they’ve been back to normal for months now. The app has also been back up and running for a while for me, I realise that might not be the case for everyone. Customer numbers and delivery numbers have increased. I expect they’ll continue to expand.

@MarshaBradyo

I remember hearing the CEO on R4 and he said yes he would look after loyal customers as online delivery was their business (ie different to Tesco etc)

It was the right way to go. The only thing I would question re also prioritising vulnerable customers is how did they know who was?

I also have memories of posting here at 3am trying to get a slot, fun times (glad that’s over!)

A government list of people shielding was shared with all supermarkets.

I ended up with Tesco priority, despite never having shopped with them, and Waitrose, who I'd only used once in the last x years.

As I said earlier, Ocado eventually confirmed I was on the govt provided list, but told me I hadn't spent enough with them/used them often enough in the past to be allowed to use them.

Twatalert

Most supermarkets removed their offers, especially their BOGOF and 241 offers - this was supposed to help reduce panic and bulk buying where supplies were lower. Even actual supermarkets had very few, if any, discounted offers at the time, especially on key products.

I was just pleased they didn't have to resort to the only being allowed to buy 80 products at a time tbh though.