Sainsbury’s shopping fury

[Quit4me]

I usually shop at Tesco’s and get a delivery, but obviously at the moment it’s tricky to get a slot so a couple of times I have ordered with Sainsbury’s.
We are a family of 5 (3 kids all older than 7) and get through a fair amount of food esp in lockdown- around £130 a week.
Last night we had a delivery booked at 8-9pm. We live in an area that yesterday, only had a dusting of snow.
Waited until 10pm with no delivery and no email or text to say where the delivery was.
Spoke to customer services via online chat- our delivery had been cancelled due to bad weather. No text or email.
My money should be refunded in 3-5 working days! They advised rebooking a slot of click and collect.
Great. So no fresh food for the kids today. Not enough milk or bread. Too late in the evening to drive and get something.
Am I just supposed to fork out another £130 before the money has come back (possibly not until next Monday?)
I asked why I wasn’t informed earlier and had to find out myself, got no response back.
AIBU to think this is shocking service?
I know we are in a pandemic and there has been some snow- but it’s really not snowed heavily here.
The other think that has annoyed me is previous deliveries I have had from them, things just haven’t been in the shopping at all. When questioned, they give me a credit note against a future order?
Why? If I pay for something that doesn’t turn up, I expect the money back in my bank, not a voucher?
Tesco always refunds. I hadn’t realised Sainsbury’s were so crap?

At various times I've had regular deliveries from Ocado, Tesco, and Asda, and all have great customer service. I was pretty shocked when I had a similar experience to the OP from Sainsbury's. The driver "couldn't find" the house and they refused to send anybody out until the next day. I was staying at a holiday let and had absolutely no food except some ketchup and oil the previous residents had left. Sainsbury's couldn't have given less of a shit.

I’ve never had cancelled orders or sniw problems with Sainsbo’s.

It’s snows a lot round here. 4 loads since Xmas. Our road often blocked. They still get through.

Tesco have been really good with us today, they didn't turn up in our slot and then rang us to say they weren't coming. Obviously not ideal, they said we could go collect it but CEV so we'd rather not. They're going to try again tomorrow and emailed us a voucher.

Sainsburys are utterly shit. I remember once their canteen staff taking the piss out of me in the cafe - teenage girls clearly - as I had a patch over my eye from recent surgery. I told them to pack in but they kept nudging each other and winking at me the whole time I was there.
I put a complaint in and absolutely no apology and nothing was done. They didn't even bother to reply to my letter.
My ex husband worked as a delivery driver for them while he was unemployed from his usual work for 6 months, he said it was a shambles and he never ever got paid the correct amount not even once. He was still waiting for his outstanding pay a year after he left.
I will not shop there.

I had an Iceland delivery cancelled short notice but they advised if I could get in to store I could offset my refund with anything I bought in store and they'd refund the difference (if there was any) so I didn't have to go without groceries while waiting for the refund to process, and was given a £10 goodwill voucher. I was very impressed. I understand things go wrong, but to leave someone short of £130 and no food in the house with not notice (or decency to even inform them) is very poor customer service. Particularly at the minute when more people are in financial hardship than ever. Many people live paycheck to paycheck and wouldn't have enough to cover them five days while waiting on a refund.

A couple of weeks ago DSS turned up to collect his clicke Orr from Sainsbury’s to be told sorry, we didn’t have enough staff to pick it for you. He’s avoiding direct shopping.
We are find Morrison’s very good. They call if the delivery is running late and to ask if they can deliver earlier than arranged. Quality of food and prices very competitive.
We gave up on Tesco’s years ago because of botched orders, etc. Gave numerous chances before we pulled the plug. Sainsbury’s are generally reasonably reliable in our area but occasionally we get very short dated goods that it is difficult to consume within time eg 2 or more lots of meat/fish with a use by date of the date after delivery.

YANBU. I've been a Sainsburys customer for over 15 years, in store, online and using click and collect. I've swapped to other supermarkets now, purely because the customer service has gone so far downhill since the beginning of last year.

I don't know what it is about Sainsburys - all the other supermarkets seem to manage okay despite being in the same boat with covid - but we've constantly (I've tried several times since last year) had mouldy food, lots of silly or no substitutions, can't ever get hold of someone in customer services... total nightmare to deal with. I've since shopped with Morrisons, Waitrose and a few smaller / local companies and not had any of these issues. The one time my Waitrose shop was delayed, they apologised profusely (not their fault - someone was sick) and gave me a bottle of fizz to make up for it. I was just happy to have my shopping!

Gosh seems like a lot of people are having similar problems with Sainsbury’s. It’s such a shame as they used to have excellent customer service years ago

I think it’s an area thing.

Round here, it’s impossible to get a Morrison’s slot. You have to queue to get into the website.

The limit at Tesco is annoying. I hate bagged apples, so 8 seoerate apples at Tesco soon adds up to the limit.

Most supermarkets do priority slots for those who are vulnerable so nobody should be arsey about others getting food delivered. It also helps to keep numbers down in stores, which is better for everyone.

I get my deliveries from Tesco. I haven’t had a substitution for ages and they’ve always delivered on time.

Just to counter this, yesterday our Sainsbury delivery driver carried the crates up our snow-bound track on his shoulder as he didn’t want to risk it in his van. He said he’d helped several colleagues dig their vans out when they’d been stuck in snow at various times through the day, but still managed to get to us on time.

Good God. Ive heard it all now.
Who knew that click and collect or delivery was lazy?
I thought it was what we were supposed to be doing to avoid going into shops and spreading covid?
I had no idea that if I don't order online or click and collect that slot will magically go to someone
more deserving and not just Sandra at Number 12.
My mind is boggled.

occasionally we get very short dated goods that it is difficult to consume within time eg 2 or more lots of meat/fish with a use by date of the date after delivery.

If you receive goods from Sainsbury's with a short use-by date (dated the day of, or the day after delivery) they will refund you.
Obviously this excludes items that always have a short life (bakery for example).

Used sainsburys once a few Christmas's ago, as wasnt organised enough to sort anything else. Ordered dairy free icecream for DD (anaphylaxis to dairy) they sent diabetic icecream as a substitute

Also around a month later had 3 separate amounts taken from my bank account totalling over £500- yep my card was cloned through sainsburys! Never used again!

Been ordering online weekly since new year and not too happy so far, I'm afraid. Fruit & veg not fresh often to the point of being putrid and needing to be thrown out. Apples looked like they had been dropped down the stairs. Ham out of date. Checked a bank statement & recent order worth around £125 was charged over at £170! Even with substitutions that is excessive. About to send a strongly worded email to customer sevices. Not a happy bunny.

The 3-5 days for a refund is unfortunately the standard for any refunds and is mostly to do with the banks' processing times. I work for an online retailer (not Sainsbury's!) and the money leaves our account immediately but won't reach the customer's account until 3-5 business days later.

I agree that getting a voucher instead of a refund for missing items or more expensive substitutions is infuriating. None of the other supermarkets seem to do this. It is basically dishonest of Sainsbury's , they are trying to force you into making a future order with them when you may have no plans to do that, just so you can reclaim what they owe you. And what's to stop them doing the same on the next order, it could go on forever!

Other supermarkets seem to manage without strong-arming customers in this way. Leaves a nasty taste.

Asda failed to deliver my shopping on Sunday, when they rang me 2.5 hours later I was at work, they asked if there was anyone who could collect it for me or could I collect it after work the answer to both questions were no so they cancelled the order. There was a problem with the van, somebody had filled the tank with the wrong fuel.

Yanbu

I get texts from Tesco when they are running late and an ETA. Last time this happened I had a 10-11 slot and got a text at 9:15 to say they were running late and my shopping will arrive between 10:45 and 11:05. It arrived before 11 but I was impressed that the text came early rather than after 11am had come and gone.

Just ordered my very first online shop with SuperValu, here in Ireland and I’m very happy with the service.

Good dates on the fresh produce and the fresh cauliflower looks a good size and excellent quality too.

I have friends who have been using this service for months and no-one has mentioned ever having a delivery cancelled at the last minute, so I’m happy with that.

I should have said in my post about vans that they’ve actually been brilliant for us since March. We get some subs but no missed deliveries so far. I’m just worried when it snows 😂.

My sister has Ocado with their winter tyres evouk

We’re in East .Kent and had a fair bit of snow.
So kudos to our Asda driver who (against my expectations) managed to coax her (yes, HER 😃) van up our very steep and very narrow car lined cul de sac, cheerfully deliver the shopping and then reverse all the way back down because the turning circle was too slippery to manoeuvre.
All items delivered and no substitutions.
I don’t usually have much good to say about Asda but 👍👍👍

@SnowyBranches

I am still waiting on a delivery from Sainsbury’s that was supposed to arrive at 8.30 this morning. They did call to be fair, to say it would be delayed as they have a shortage of drivers, and I can understand that, but I have absolutely no idea what time they are planning on delivering so can’t take the kids out sledging. I have had issues with them in the past where orders haven’t turned up and they said “we did try to contact you”, which intrigued me, because I hadn’t had any missed calls, texts or emails, so quite how they “tried to contact me” I have no idea. Telepathy? They tried to pick up the phone but then just gave up? This happened at least twice, with the same ridiculous response.

This order arrived ten minutes ago - kids unpacked, so I didn’t notice until driver had gone that one of the crates is not ours, and one of our crates is missing. We are now the proud owner of a massive bottle of sherry, tinned soup, huge amounts of crisps and tinned chicken supreme, while someone else has our fruit, veg and frozen potato products.

I signed up with Sainsburys at the beginning of the pandemic. It was shaky at the very beginning but then the service was good. If a substitution is more expensive a voucher is given for a future shop. Sometimes I haven’t realised it is more expensive until the voucher appears. The local Sainsbury is not a store I would want to buy everything in but my orders come from elsewhere where there is more stock. The food is well in date and vegetables and fruit are really good. I have been really grateful and pleased with Sainsburys’ as I have been sheltering. I also buy other items that I use to buy elsewhere such as acqueous cream. Olbas oil,, toilet brushes etc.

I don't order from Sainsbury's any more. what did it for me is, when they have to sub something more expensive for what you've ordered, they charge you the extra

I've always been refunded the difference except with meat - eg if I order a joint costing (say) £10-00, and they've substituted with the same but larger costing (say) £15.00, they charge the higher price. However if I order cheap own brand bread (50p),and they send Hovis (£1-10) they do give the difference back.

However some substitutions are ridiculous (I once ordered desiccated coconut and was substituted coconut hair conditioner) and some are no good - if I order a large chicken, that is because I need a large chicken. If they only have teeny-tiny chickens they should send two, nt one sparrow-sized bird!