AIBU to be fucked off with bagless deliveries?

[KillinMoon]

I live in a second floor flat, no lift. I can't drive due to epilepsy and can't lift heavy items due to adhesions from major gynae surgery. So I get my shopping delivered.

So far so good.

When the pandemic hit the drivers started leaving the shopping downstairs and waiting for me to collect it and take it upstairs. Ok-ish, when it was in bags, although a bit of a strain. Now that it's in crates it's really hard. I have to crouch/bend over the crates to fill up my own bags which is really painful. I understand they don't want to get the covid, but this is really hard for me to do.

This morning was a particular low point. Half my key stuff was soaked with rain - sugar, flour, tea, biscuits. The driver said to they'd had to load up in the rain. Obviously as they were doing it directly into crates everything got really wet. In the other tray, a bottle of milk had leaked and it had went everywhere. So on the veggies, salad, everything, it is just unusable.

I wiped the things I could (obviously this takes time) but other things I've had to just throw away : I can't do anything with solidified sugar in a disintegrating bag, or with clumped wet tea, or with salad and herbs etc covered in milk.

AIBU to think that this is all unnecessary effort for a service that after all I am paying for and to wish that supermarkets would rethink?

I spoke with Tesco this morning and told them all this and they will refund the damaged items but I still have to go out and buy them. They also said that they would pass my comments on but I doubt anything will change. I just feel a bit fucked off.

I'm disabled and use Ocado as they have been amazing for adjustments. Everything delivered in bags, they will bring it inside and they offer to unpack it. They also make sure there aren't any heavy bags, by splitting stuff up into many bags (I recycle the bags so it evens out). When I was shielding deliveries were free and now I have a £2.99 monthly smart pass.

Even more important, the drivers never make me feel like a nuisance (I'm sure people with disabilities will understand what I mean). There is no pressure to get stuff inside at the speed of light, which other companies do. The drivers are lovely and friendly and they talk to my cats.

I buy the everyday savers range, they price match a lot of things, and I buy the special offers, so you get much better quality food for a good price. If you're flexible about what you will buy each week it keeps the price down (and I try to do an Aldi/Lidl shop monthly or so to stock up on the cheap basics). I am prepared to spend a lot of time doing the online shop and cut down spending on other areas so I can use Ocado as it's just so much easier and the food is good quality. You can also amend your order until late the night before (and they do a one click thing where you can just add stuff without editing it all)

I don't work for them I promise, but as a disabled person they are definitely the best company I have dealt with.

@ArseInTheCoOpWindow

It pisses me off too.

Random apples rolling round in the crate getting bruised.

I agree and I've had so many things break or leak with tesco I don't bother now. I do click and colle t with aldi. They give huge crate bags which are fab as i pick it up and put in car.

@TerfMother that sounds fab and exactly what I'm looking for.

And I know exactly what you mean about being made to feel like a nuisance - I've had big strong looking guys act like they're doing me a favour by carrying my shopping to my door, it's a pita the whole thing really, I have a permanent note on my account saying please carry my shopping to my door but it's like every week I have to ask for it and mostly it doesn't happen or if it does I know they're going out of their way. If it was just a whim I'd be less bothered but actually I get worried about if they're going to do it or not ... and all this crap about no bags.

Right, Ocado it is.

Honestly they are so good, you can put a note on when you're ordering, but if you ring customer services (you get straight through to a human!) they will put a "marker" on your account to say what you need.

I hate it. The stuff just gets flung into the crates and squashed. I carry the crates from my door to my kitchen to unload and it can take a while because I now know to check very carefully for broken stuff. It's going to be fun when I have an abdominal operation in a few weeks time and have to take stuff to the kitchen a couple of items at a time. I feel sorry for the delivery drivers as they are not the ones who pack badly and refuse to provide bags but they are the ones who have to take the flak when customers complain at them.

This sounds wrong - Sainsburys bring it right into my kitchen and I'm not disabled, they returned to this in September (having stopped for the pandemic)

That sounds fab. I'm definitely going to give them a go and feel quite encouraged by what you've said. I'm so bored of explaining myself all the time or pretending I can do things I can't.

@gogohm I think it's a combination of bagless plus apartment building that I'm falling foul of. I'm bored of trying to figure it out though. Sainsbury's are the same.

Plus Sainsbury's have that insane refunding system where they don't actually give you a refund but just give you money off your next shop ie keep your money but charge you less next time you spend with them. So they can fuck off too. Plus they can fuck off with making you buy bags to put your veg in that you have to wash on your own coin, as previous. And their nectar system is a pile of shite now.

Ocado shouldn’t be bagless in your area op.
They do a recycling scheme and give you money back for bags to recycle them.

I’m not sure where you’ve got the idea Ocado are bagless from op but they’re definitely not.

YANBU. They should just put in recyclable bags which you return next week. Otherwise it's a load of loose bashed around stuff and takes ages to unload.

It is a big problem and also against the law surely? Blatant disability discrimination? Any lawyers around?

Can you not put out boxes/crates for the delivery drivers to put the shopping in?

I don't think they are allowed to put it in your own bags (dirty handle risk etc), but they can put it in an open-topped box.

Definitely know they do this for our CEV neighbours - neighbours put out boxes in advance, driver unpacks shopping in boxes and drives off (this is quicker for the driver than waiting around for people to faff around in the hallway) - win/win, everyone happy.

I’ve stopped ordering from other supermarkets and only use Ocado now.
It’s slightly more expensive but it’s great they give you money back for old bags (that is deducted from your shopping total).
You don’t have to talk to someone to request a refund/ it’s all in the app if something is damaged, I’ve never had anything quibbled.

The items are always well dated and well packed (unless the drivers move stuff around).

And you can’t beat the fruit and veg imo.

Sorry OP, I should have added that the boxes solution would be in addition to your existing requirement that the drivers bring the shopping to the 2nd floor. Just put boxes outside your own front door.
I think Tesco are still making special arrangements for CEV people - which presumably you can state that you are.

Yanbu, only tesco deliver to me, no ocado or other options and when they had tray liners over covid it was amazing, so much less pain and struggling just being able to grab the liners and pop them in and then deal with the sorting out in my own time and quicker for the driver too as they always seem put out when you're not fast because of their timings.

YANBU. I'm good with bagless deliveries being the default, but there should be an option for people who need them. And in the old 5p bags, which are actually useful as bin liners. Not a fan of bags for life. Given the amount of packaging supermarkets use the carrier bag thing is starting to smell of green washing. (And yes, I rarely use carriers myself, I'm not just lazily buying carriers every time because I CBA.)

Our sainsburys driver has let me keep crates and collected them the next time, he could see me struggling with the baby and offered immediately. You could ask for that

My tesco delivery arrived this morning and while chatting to the driver he mentioned Tesco was never returning to single use plastic bags again they were looking into reusable bag type options instead.

It's funny when they talk about single use bags, mine used to bring the shopping home, hold my packed lunches, the kids' swimming gear, go to the corner shop with me and eventually end up as a bin liner. Nothing "single" about how I used them!

Exactly!

People now buy more bin bags/ liners instead.

Not sure why you even accepted the items in that state.

I see that you have switched to Ocado now op but just wanted to say two things :

If you go to the door with your own bags, tesco will pack your shopping from the crates to the bags for you.

Also, you can reject any item. If you had rejected the items that were wet with rain or milk, they would have refunded them for you.

I hope Ocado works out for you.

I’m pregnant and I picked up a click and collect in the storm the other day, the rolled three crates to me and I had to bend and pack them into bags in the rain (canopy pick up bit was full) then lift them into the car and then roll the crates back to the door for them, I know being pregnant isn’t a disability but my lower back was straining a lot and it just annoyed me how they basically chucked the crates at me and said bring them back when you’re unpacked. Would have been a million times easier with bags. I thought I was doing a good thing doing click and collect - I had a headache and sniffle despite negative lateral flow so though great one less person in the shop, less chance of covid spread etc but I’m going to just shop normally from now on it would have taken only about 5 minutes longer !