AIBU to think Sainsbury's policy is unacceptable?

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I have one supermarket delivery a month. I always order 40 cat food pouches.

Delivery due later today, received email this morning saying they did not have a box of 40 so are sending instead one box of 12.

I would have expected 3 boxes of 12 (= 36 pouches) as a sub (or even 4, making 48). So I phoned them and asked why they had not sent more than one box of 12. Their answer astonished me: they only sub "one for one", regardless of how many individual items the customer ordered.

So if a customer ordered a box of 36 Coca-Colas, they could sub that with one can of Coke.

AIBU to think that they ought to send as many packs as needed to fulfill as closely as possible what the customer ordered?

Well obviously YANBU but since they have to give you the replacement at the same price or cheaper than what you ordered, it’s obvious they’re not going to give you the same quantity.

@Geamhradh

It's daft and illogical. But I expect you're after compensation and some freebs, so try Twitter.

🙄🙄 Bit rude.

Yes, it is annoying! To your point about Coke, I ordered a pack of 24 cans and was replaced with one bottle 😂

Ocado email me the morning of the delivery to tell me what has been substituted, and that if I don't want to accept the subs I should tell the driver who will take them back. I often don't want the subs and after the driver has input them into his machine, Ocado adjust my bill and finally they charge me.

I've been happy with them (happier than with Sainsburys anyway).

Sainsburys really need to update their system to add a notes box for subs. Tesco and Waitrose do it. I ou can write in what you’d like instead.

Supermarkets are commercial companies, not public servants, so you need to understand the T&Cs when you buy.

I'm sure you could get the cat food cheaper on Amazon or a specialist pet food site.

There are shortages of all sorts of things (many thanks to all who voted for Brexit and of course, special thanks to the lying shits who led the Brexit camapign) so we are going to see more of it.

A lot of shortages are due to drivers isolating and agency drivers being paid more than regular drivers. Nice try though..

That's not true, we shop at Sainsbury's all the time and they never sub us one for one. They sub the way you proposed. It's annoying actually, just got my order this morning to have four single pints of milk instead of a 2 litre bottle.

As for Easter this year.... The sub ratio was insane! Ordered eggs of various sizes and they obviously had none except the £1 eggs in stock, so subbed up to the value of the original eggs. Some eggs I had 6 £1 eggs subbed instead. There was about 18 eggs for the 6 I had ordered 🤣

@lazyarse123

There are shortages of all sorts of things (many thanks to all who voted for Brexit and of course, special thanks to the lying shits who led the Brexit camapign) so we are going to see more of it.

A lot of shortages are due to drivers isolating and agency drivers being paid more than regular drivers. Nice try though..

Nice try? What does that even mean? Some people on this thread 🙄🤣

I’vr had this with ASDA! Eg, order 6 loose courgettes. Sub for packed courgettes (fine!). Got 1 packet of 2

It doesn't usually work like that, though? I got three loose leeks instead of a three pack?

@CustardySergeant

"She orders 40 pouches a month. That is 3 pouches a day for less than half a cat."

So the OP has less than half a cat? In that case I want to see a photo, because that's very unusual. Photo please OP!

It was in response to the person saying that 3 pouches a day meant that a box of 12 wouldn't last long as we don't know how many cats the OP has.

@TheVolturi,

A lot of shortages are due to drivers isolating and agency drivers being paid more than regular drivers. Nice try though

I think that second sentence was in response to someone blaming Brexit for everything, when it’s clearly covid that’s the reason for driver shortages.

@KaptainKaveman

It's hard to get worked up about this tbh.

I disagree. I’d find it very easy to get worked up over this. There’s a reason I get my shopping delivered and it isn’t so I can go to do my shopping myself! If I’d ordered enough cat food for a week (or however long), I’d expect them to provide it, not substitute it for enough to last a couple of days. It’s not easy for everyone to get shopping, so it’s not even about having enough time to go in to the shop. I’d struggle to catch the bus with cat food, it’s heavy!

Supermarket subs don't use any common sense. For instance - I ordered 300ml double cream, but they didn't have it. So they sent me one 150ml pot.

Why not send two? I ordered it so I obviously needed 300ml.

I know it's a bit of a first world problem but it was a pain in the arse when it was for a recipe and I had to then get into the car and drive 25 mins to the nearest supermarket. May as well have just done the whole shop.

Their policy for online shopping during lockdown with the item limit was a PITA as well- if you wanted to get a multipack of something - canned tomatoes or yogurts or whatever- but there were no multipacks available, you had to use a hefty chunk of your item allowance buying the same number of individual items as one multipack would have had, and it usually ended up costing quite a bit more as well.

I find Sainsbury’s pretty reasonable with substitutions - I assume it’s luck based depending on the packers.

The only thing that our local store seem to do constantly is substitute sugar free juice for full sugar ie. Fanta zero for Fanta.

That’s not right

I’m a Sainsbury’s online picker and I always sub up to the amount not the time

So I would have given 4 boxes of cat food not just the 1

I know for a fact that Sainsburies will sub no of items as I have a couple of products I order that come in different sizes - e.g. Rice I got two bags totaling the total weight required. Same for jar of olives - 2 little ones for 1 big so me thinks they are talking out of their bottom

@YesItsMeIDontCare

You need to send your cat in to have a word. No-one can argue (or even reason) with a hungry cat.

Tesco seem to do much better with subbing, they let you decide what your subs should be. Also, if you amend your order the evening before it's due they'll let you know if something's not available and give you the chance to pick something you'd be happy with instead. It's not foolproof, but is the best system I've come across.

I agree, I mostly use Tesco now because they allow you to put notes in about subs. I had some dreadful subs from Asda & Sainsburys.

What annoys me about Tesco sub notes, though, is that I have to type them in every week - why can't they save the sub note against each product? I order pretty much the same each week & after a year of it, I could type the sub notes in my sleep.

This post is about cats but there are no pics. YABVVU.

If the cat doesn't get food it can hunt for some and bring you something nice back. Far more reliable than Sainsbury's deliveries.

Their policy for online shopping during lockdown with the item limit was a PITA as well- if you wanted to get a multipack of something - canned tomatoes or yogurts or whatever- but there were no multipacks available, you had to use a hefty chunk of your item allowance buying the same number of individual items as one multipack would have had, and it usually ended up costing quite a bit more as well.

My sister said this happened with TESCO as well. She was ordering for them and our parents and said that at one point she couldn't get bananas in bags and each banana was counted as a separate item.

(So nobody had bananas.)

We were told by our Sainsbury's delivery driver that if you ordered some wine and they didn't have that one in stock they would sub for a higher priced one. Well, when we ordered case of a really good but cheap Rioja they subbed for a much cheaper one which is awful. We knew as we'd bought it before. So instead of taking it back, they gave it to us for free! We struggled through though a lot was used for mulling and cooking.

@BoredZelda

I think it's an acceptable policy I think it doesn't always work for everyone though.

I can’t think when it would be useful to order a multiple of something but only to get 1 instead.

Every time I order with Tesco I have no idea if anything is going to be subbed. How do you find out?

Same here. I’ve had orders from Tesco every fortnight for years, always done the night before, never had an email asking if I want the subs. I think I did from Asda once, but even then there was no option to change it.

I think what was meant was that whenever you revise a Tesco order, it tells you if something is currently out of stock & will be removed from your order. It also suggests an alternative, which you can choose or ignore. If you revise your order at the last possible time, you'll see what's not available & you can sub there & then. To see this, go to 'full basket'.

If it's not this, then I hope someone will let on, because there's something I'm missing, too.